by Peter McAllister

Less than 15 percent of adults in Indiana have attended college or university. Citing a need to increase participation in post-secondary education by the adult population, among other reasons, the governor and the legislature have supported the formation of a statewide community college system.

This community college "partnership" between Vincennes University and Ivy Tech State College will be developed in phases over several years and is actively coordinated by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

Vincennes and Ivy Tech have student enrollments of 13,000 and 68,000 respectively (January, 1999 data). The Commission for Higher Education projects that this partnership, over time, has the potential to place an additional 30,000 adults in this two-year system.

National equivalent estimates place enrollment totals over 100,000. How will Indiana’s community college projected enrollment figures impact Ball State?

One way Ball State will gain will be by enrolling hundreds of community college transfer students each year. These better-prepared student transfers have been greatly facilitated by the Automatic Course Transfer System (ACTS) computer linkup kiosks placed at Vincennes and Ivy Tech sites, the online availability of ACTS, plus the introduction of the "Connect" program.

This "Connect" program enables students initially denied by Ball State to attend any Ivy Tech campus, take 24 credits with a minimum of 2.0 GPA in all classes, resulting in automatic acceptance to Ball State.

In 1998 the trustees voted to support Ball State as a more selective, residential public university. Raising admissions standards (over 40 point increase in SAT scores on average), along with a more aggressive advertising campaign ($1.5 million), has resulted in a dramatic increase in retention (75 percent in 1999 from 68 percent in 1998) and a remarkable increase in applications to Ball State this year (up 23 percent as of February, 2000).

This move to more selective enrollment was not without costs; enrollments dropped for the 1998 freshman class from over 3,900 to 3,400, with 1999 freshman enrollments staying at the 3,400 level. Indications at present suggest Ball State will increase year 2000 freshmen enrollments to approximately 3,600. Remembering that these lower enrollments were of better-prepared freshmen, one is not surprised that a counterbalancing increase in retention also occurred. The resulting undergraduate population should move from the low 18,000s in 1998 to approximately 19,500 by 2001.

Seeing Ball State as both "connected to" and "distinct from" the two-year community college has been an important strategy over the past few years. As we continue to further define and develop our place in the higher education landscape, our relationship to the community college may serve us well—to both define and refine our sense of who we are and where we are going.