The parking lot at Ivy Tech Bloomington has been full this summer thanks to a 67% increase in enrollment at the community college over the past year. Ivy Tech has 23 campuses across the state, and the school is seeing an influx in new applicants and transfer students.
Jennie Vaughan is the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at Ivy Tech Bloomington. She says these increases may be due in part to the current state of the economy. “When the economy is bad a lot of people are either laid off from work and decide that what they need to do is invest in themselves and to go back to school.”
Although the college may have to place an enrollment cap on the upcoming fall semester, it does not expect to turn students away. Instead, the Bloomington campus has made strides to accommodate the increased number of students in its classrooms without hiring more faculty or adding classes to adjunct staff.
“We didn’t cap the number of students coming through the door; instead we’re increasing the number of students in the classrooms. So, instead of twenty five people in a classroom, we’re able to put thirty in a classroom.”
