Ivy Tech Community College will use a $12.5 million, three-year grant from the Lilly Endowment to improve the status of part-time faculty and provide programs and services for students, college officials said.

The grant is part of a $100 million Lilly Endowment project called the Initiative to Recruit and Retain Intellectual Capital for Indiana Higher Education Institutes. The initiative, announced in February, provides funding for 37 two-year and four-year Indiana colleges and universities to attract and retain students, faculty and researchers.

Indiana University is eligible for up to $26 million.

Ivy Tech officials said in a news release that the college will use $11.2 million of its $12.5 for programs at its 14 administrative regions, including:

• Providing better pay, resources, office space and professional development opportunities for adjunct faculty, many of whom teach part-time.

• Improving student life by adding gathering places, student facilities, support services and extracurricular activities.

The remaining $1.3 million will go to college-wide initiatives to track students' progress toward degrees, provide intervention to help students who need it and create a "student success" model that links students with faculty.

Gerald I. Lamkin, president of Ivy Tech Community College, called the grant a "giant step for the college, students and Indiana."