Colene Smart looked at options during her senior year in high school to continue her education and settled pretty quickly on Ivy Tech Community College Northeast.
“I had gotten some emails from them seeing if I wanted to be there, and Ivy Tech definitely was very affordable,” said Smart, 22, of Roanoke.
A 2015 graduate with an associate of applied science degree in design technology and a technical certificate in visual communications, she can’t say enough good things about her experience at the community college. She talked her brother, Caleb, 20, into enrolling there, too.
With Indiana community colleges and workforce training agencies under fire for lower-than-expected completion rates and dropping enrollments, Smart’s story is one to savor.
Ivy Tech Northeast Chancellor Jerrilee K. Mosier wants to boost enrollment and in early December issued an appeal asking all staff to help. The goal, which Mosier called “a stretch,” is to boost enrollment 2 percent from what was expected to be 11,802 to 12,037 students by March.
Semester classes start Monday, but there are rolling admissions for eight, 12- and 16-week classes through March.
The enrollment goal, which was 50 percent attained by early January, includes retaining continuing students, enrolling first- ;time students, new transfers, guest students and high school dual-credit students.
Statewide enrollment for the Ivy Tech system of 32 campuses has dropped 25 percent since its peak in the fall of 2011 with 110,000 students. The enrollment drop coincided with the improving economy after the 2007-09 Great Recession. IPFW, another public institution, has seen enrollment slip as well.