Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington just keeps growing.
For the second straight year, it has enrolled more students for the spring semester than it had in the fall, an unusual trend for colleges and universities.
Ivy Tech classes started last week, and the campus enrollment was 3,948 students, up 11.7 percent from last spring semester. Chancellor John Whikehart said there was a 13.5 percent increase in the number of credits students were taking.
"We have more students and they are taking more classes," he said.
Ivy Tech has about 60 more students this semester than in the fall, according to figures from the college. Whikehart attributed the continued growth to:
. The popularity of new programs, especially two-year associate degrees in life and health sciences.
. More students wanting to start at Ivy Tech and transfer to Indiana University Bloomington.
"We continue to see more students from outside our own service area enrolling with us," he said. "We attribute that to, they're looking for an opportunity to transfer."
Spring enrollment for other Ivy Tech campuses hasn't yet been released, but Whikehart said Bloomington has been leading the pack. Last fall, he said, it accounted for 57 percent of the growth on Ivy Tech's 24 campuses around the state.
A share of state funding for colleges and universities is allocated on the basis of enrollment growth.
Ivy Tech received $532,838 in state funding for enrollment growth last fall, Whikehart said, and $301,438 went to Bloomington.
Just a few years ago, Ivy Tech officials were fighting to get IU Bloomington to accept their students as transfers. But that situation has been reversed. Whikehart said the word is getting out, and students from around the state are coming to Ivy Tech-Bloomington, intending to transfer to IU.
"At last count, although we have a six-county service area, we had students here from 64 of Indiana's counties," he said.
A new program called HoosierLink could bolster the trend. Under the program, up to 150 students will take classes at Ivy Tech while living in IU dorms. They will receive advising services from both schools, with the assumption they'll eventually transfer to IU.
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