Ivy Tech: one of the nation's largest community colleges.

• Author: Hromadka, Erik
• Position: Cover story

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INDIANA IS HOME TO many fine institutions of higher education, but few of them are ramping up their reach across the state as quickly as Ivy Tech Community College. The school now has 23 campuses across Indiana and also offers classes in 75 communities, serving a record 120,000 students and making Ivy Tech among the largest singly-accredited statewide community colleges in the nation.

Ivy Tech reports its Spring enrollment is up 14 percent from last year, with students signing up for classes that range from advanced manufacturing and biotechnology to interior design, practical nursing and computer technology. The school's final numbers for the 2007-2008 academic year report that its annual enrollment edges Ivy Tech past Indiana University to become the state's largest college system.

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And with the economic turmoil that is sweeping the country, Ivy Tech sees a great opportunity to provide education and retraining for those who are seeking new employment. The fact that students can enroll in the college for less than $3,000 a year is also a major selling point during a time when budgets are being tightened.

"It is very clear that people are recognizing that further education will best position them to be competitive in today's workforce," says President Thomas J. Snyder.

Although the current economic environment is raising the demand for Ivy Tech's classes, the college's recent success is the result of careful planning that has been in place for a number of years.

Snyder points to the school's 2010 Strategic Plan and says the objectives it outlines have been used not just as a general vision for the organization, but rather a specific action plan and the school's budget is built around those goals. That plan, which has been updated to support the school's 2009 re-accreditation and also launch a plan for the next five years, focuses on three areas: students, employers and communities.

WELL-ROUNDED STUDENTS

Ivy Tech's enrollment is roughly equally split between "traditional" students who start taking classes right after high school and "nontraditional" students who are older than 24 years of age. Although the two groups bring different perspectives to the classrooms and campus life, both typically have job experience and many are employed while they are in school.

"Since our students are mostly employed, they are already developing job skills," Snyder says, noting the college works to help students...