Local Ivy Tech enrollment jumps 20%

By Steve Hinnefeld
331-4374 | shinnefeld@heraldt.com
August 25, 2006

Enrollment at Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington grew this fall by 20 percent, according to figures released Thursday by the state Ivy Tech office.

It said 4,495 students were enrolled at Ivy Tech-Bloomington on Monday, the first day of classes. That’s up from 3,756 on the first day of 2005-06.

It’s the 13th straight year of enrollment increases for the campus.

Ivy Tech-Bloomington Chancellor John Whikehart said there’s been a big increase in students in health and life sciences programs and also in students who plan to eventually transfer to Indiana University or another four-year college.

The campus has 97 students in Hoosier Link, a new partnership with IU Bloomington, and a total of about 200 students living in IU dorms and taking classes at Ivy Tech.

“They’re basically the 19-year-old students coming right out of high school,” Whikehart said.

While the numbers released Thursday were for students enrolled on the first day of school, Ivy Tech-Bloomington will release its own final totals next week, including hundreds of students who sign up in the first week of classes. Whikehart said 4,526 were enrolled as of Thursday.

Across the state, Ivy Tech had a first-day record 69,803 students at its 23 campuses. The number was up 6.9 percent from last year. Bloomington passed Evansville to become the fourth-largest campus behind Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute.

Whikehart said the growth is straining the capacity of Ivy Tech’s building on Daniels Way, off West Ind. 48. The campus had 2,663 students when the building opened in 2002.

“We’re pushing the physical limits of the building,” he said.

A biotechnology training facility that the Monroe County Redevelopment Commission plans to build next door to Ivy Tech will help ease the crunch for science classrooms and labs, Whikehart said. But it won’t open for 12-18 months.

Also, Ivy Tech’s work force and economic development department will move next week to the Depot building at 301 N. Morton St. in downtown Bloomington, freeing some campus space.

Whikehart said the college is offering more online classes, an approach that uses less classroom space and offers flexibility for student schedules.

“We just have to be extremely creative in how we’re delivering instruction,” he said.