Ivy Tech welcomes record enrollment
with new amenities

by Andy Graham
331-4346 | agraham@heraldt.com
August 22, 2006

Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington faculty and staff trekked cross country from their parking spots Monday morning as fall semester classes began for 2006-07.

All paved parking spots went to students or visitors. School employees either parked across Daniels Way, in the Tree of Life lot, or in a grassy space north of the college.

This not only reflected a desire to put students first, officials said, but marked how much the college continues to grow since it opened the doors of its current facility in 2002.

"It's clear we're beginning to press at the seams here," John Whikehart, Ivy Tech-Bloomington chancellor, said in his office Monday afternoon.

He wasn't complaining.

Whikehart spent the first two hours of his morning personally welcoming students at the school's front doors, with Highland bagpiper Ian Arthur alongside for the third straight year.

Ivy Tech marketing and communications director Penni Sims said officials expected enrollment to exceed 4,000. The campus welcomed 3,885 students last fall.

A record 1,943 students took for-credit courses this summer, up 27 percent from the summer of 2005.

While trying to accommodate exponential growth, Ivy Tech has several initiatives this fall intended to augment student life.

This week will feature free food, giveaways, indoor rock climbing and tours of Bloomington's social scene. Ivy Tech's student commons sports new ping-pong and pool tables, plus a new cafe operated in partnership with Indiana University.

There were long lines of students outside the Ivy Tech bookstore Monday afternoon, and similar throngs around the bursar and enrollment services desks, but students in the commons seemed relaxed and right at home.

Tonya Brown, sharing a commons table with fellow 2006 Bloomington High School South graduates Halli Sloan and Adam Toumey, said she liked how she and fellow students were treated on their first day.

"You get treated like an adult here," she said. "Everybody was real nice. People seemed laid back. No high-pressure stuff."

It was gratifying to see familiar faces from Bloomington, Brown said, including "some people who're planning to go on to IU and are already taking classes at both places."

Ivy Tech will welcome 97 Hoosier Link students this fall who will reside in Indiana University housing.

"They'll have to earn 27 credits, six from IU and 21 from us," Whikehart said. "Over 200 of our students, overall, are living in IU residence halls."

Ivy Tech has continued its partnership with Rural Transit to shuttle those students - and, for the first time, this fall, it's a free service.