Ivy Tech's Sellersburg campus sets enrollment record for fifth straight year

By TARA HETTINGER, Evening News
Tara.Hettinger@newsandtribune.com

For the fifth year in a row, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana's Sellersburg campus is breaking enrollment records, this time with its spring enrollment.

The local campus isn't alone.

The Ivy Tech system has reached a new high at 119,773 - the most students in the college's history. The Sellersburg campus has 5,371 enrolled for this semester, a 16.6 percent increase from the previous spring semester.

"We're honored that we offer the kind of quality education that the community values," said Terry Nolot, vice chancellor of enrollment services for the Sellersburg campus. "But, it's also challenging finding classroom and parking space - as well as finding additional faculty - now that we're faced with this unprecedented enrollment cycle."

Work has started on the school's $20 million expansion project, which includes adding a 78,500-square-foot facility in addition to renovating the existing 96,000-square-foot building. When the project is complete, there also will be more parking, he added.

Nolot said five years ago, the campus had an enrollment of around 3,500 students. Each subsequent year has seen a double-digit percentage of increase in enrollment. Nolot said the campus didn't plan for such rapid growth.

"We had a plan and a strategy in place to improve the college attendance rates in the area. Obviously, the downturn of the economy has spurred that growth to levels we did not anticipate," he said. "We anticipate that it will continue to grow next year.

"Will it grow at the same rate? That's difficult to say."

Even though the school has broken records for so long, Nolot said there's no time to sit back and celebrate.

"It's rewarding, but everyone is focused on the job at hand. There's a lot of work to do with the logistics of dealing with this many students," he said. "We feel good about the work we're doing and we feel like we're doing the community a great service, but we're focused on what we are trying to achieve."

Nolot said one of the initiatives on campus is helping students reach their educational goals, whether that be by transferring to a four-year college, getting an associate degree or by completing courses that will help them in a career field.