Enrollment at Iowa Central Community College is continuing to increase.
For the fall 2022 semester, Iowa Central President Jesse Ulrich announced that the total increase in enrollment from one year ago is up two percent, trending upward 11.8 percent since the fall 2020 semester.
Vice President of Instruction Stacy Mentzer reported that total enrollment for the fall 2022 semester includes 5058 students taking a combined 51, 257.5 credit hours, up from 5009 students taking 50,511.5 students one year ago.
Instructional programs seeing increased enrollment for the fall semester include a 2.57 percent increase in credit hours and an 8.59 percent increase in students in the arts and sciences, a 13.35 percent increase in credit hours and 18.29 percent student increase in the three career academies, a 5.21 percent increase in credits and a 3.9 percent increase in student headcount in vocational/technical programs.
Distance learning enrollment in the 8-week online programs increased by 10.63 percent from 1129 students in 2021 to 1249 students in 2022 and 11.12 percent from 3336 credit hours to 3707.
Enrollment at Iowa Central includes 3211 students from the Area V service area and students from 97 of Iowa’s 99 counties, 45 states and 105 international students from 40 countries.
Mentzer said the diverse enrollment makes Iowa Central stand out among community colleges.
“There aren’t many community colleges that have as great of a reach as we do,” she said.
Tom Beneke, vice president of student services said it is a campuswide effort to see positive growth.
“When you see numbers like this, it’s a college-wide effort; it’s not just one department or group of staff that makes this happen, it is a unified effort.”
He credits both student life and a positive workplace environment to the college’s success.
“Our faculty and staff make the students a priority,” said Beneke. “When people come to our campus, they see it and feel it and they want to be here. Everyone from our president on down has a responsibility to recruit and retain students at Iowa Central and it really does take everybody to grow our enrollment.”
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