Ivy Tech enrollment increases by 21.7 %

Figures released Tuesday show 4,570 students at school

by Steve Hinnefeld
331-4374 | shinnefeld@heraldt.com
August 30, 2006

Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington released final fall-semester enrollment figures Tuesday, and they set another record: 4,570 students, up 21.7 percent from last year.

John Whikehart, the chancellor of Ivy Tech-Bloomington, said new programs and the increased ease of transferring credits to Indiana University have spurred the growth.

"Actually I'm quite amazed," he said. When Ivy Tech moved to a new campus in 2002, he said, "we knew someday we would have close to 4,600 students, but we never dreamed it would be within four years."

Last week, the state office of Ivy Tech Community College released figures showing Bloomington enrollment at 4,495 on Aug. 21, the first day of classes for 2006-07. The final number released Tuesday by Ivy Tech-Bloomington included 75 students who signed up for classes last week.

Whikehart said the campus has added course sections and hired more adjunct faculty. He said the growth is straining the four-year-old campus.

"Parking is going to be an issue even more quickly than classroom space is," he said. Faculty and staff park at the nearby Tree of Life building, but the Ivy Tech parking lot still fills up.

When the campus opened in 2002, it had 2,663 students. Since then it has grown by 72 percent. But with 23 Ivy Tech campuses around the state, Bloomington isn't at the top of the list for an expansion.

"We have the number of students in the building this year that it was projected we would have by 2011," Whikehart said.