David Daigler Leaving System Presidency in Next Academic Year

Daigler has led the system since 2019, championing college affordability and expanded workforce training

BANGOR, ME -Maine Community College System (MCCS) President David Daigler plans to step down as system president by the end of the 2026-27 academic year, he told employees Thursday.

"It's the right time for the system, the state, and me personally," said Daigler, who has been president since 2019 and joined the system in 2003. Daigler notified the MCCS Board of Trustees on Wednesday at their regular meeting at Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC).

Notifying the board now gives them time for a thorough search and smooth transition, Daigler said in his closing remarks at Dirigo, an annual two-day retreat for MCCS employees held at EMCC.

"We have new state leadership coming in, we have successfully made the Maine Free College scholarship permanent, our workforce programming is incredibly robust, and our leadership team is strong," he said. "Together we have ensured that Maine's community colleges are delivering on their promise to be affordable, accessible, and the single best way for Mainers to get the skills they need for good jobs in today's economy."

As president, Daigler guided the seven-college system through the pandemic without layoffs or permanent program cuts, oversaw multiple years of record high enrollments, signed historic new transfer agreements with public and private colleges and universities in Maine, and successfully collaborated with Governor Janet Mills to ensure her Maine Free College scholarship proposal became permanent, making Maine's community colleges tuition-free for recent high school graduates for the foreseeable future. At the same time, tuition has not increased since fall 2020, MCCS employee wages have increased by 32%, and the system has consistently delivered balanced budgets.

One of Daigler's signature accomplishments was growing a decades-old, modestly state-funded short-term workforce training program (Maine Quality Centers) into a historic $150 million grant-fueled initiative, dubbed the Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine's Workforce, that vastly expanded the colleges' short-term workforce training programs. Today, the Alfond Center is on track to train more than 100,000 Mainers by 2030. Through this effort, Maine remains on the leading edge of a now-ubiquitous nationwide focus on two- and four-year colleges adding or increasing short-term workforce training programs to their offerings to meet the needs of an ever-changing workplace.

"David has been a tremendous leader in a consequential and difficult period, deftly handling the pressures of the pandemic, political turmoil, and dramatic swings in economic factors in Maine resulting from the pandemic," said Peter DelGreco, chairman of the MCCS Board of Trustees. "The board could rely on his outstanding stewardship and his ability to advance a bold vision that expanded and grew the system to better serve students and the state, delivered in an authentic, personable way that invited collaboration and enthusiasm. He will be sorely missed."

The search for a new president will begin immediately.

"It has been my greatest privilege to work alongside the outstanding people at Maine's community colleges to make these colleges, our communities, and the entire state a more prosperous, kind, and supportive place for all," Daigler said. "The power of education to transform the lives of those striving to improve and become more informed and engaged citizens cannot be underestimated."

Maine's community colleges enroll more than 20,000 degree-seeking students a year and ultimately serve more than 33,000 students annually through two-year associate degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term workforce training, early college programs, advanced certificates, and other learning opportunities.