College could lose students

RICHMOND, Ind. -- The city's regional IU campus faces the potential loss of many students as its associate degree programs are shifted to the new state community college.\nThe change comes as the Community College of Indiana starts across the state and IU's regional campuses begin to concentrate more on four-year and graduate degree programs.\nThe concern among some at IU East, however, is over how many students the school could lose in the switch.\n"We realize the seven counties we are serving right now are not ready for another full-blown, four-year college," said Wendy Chang, vice chancellor for academic affairs at IU East. "The worry is that the community is not ready. There is not enough demand."\nAbout half of the 2,500 students at IU East are older than traditional college students and 54 percent are attending part time. It is the smallest of IU's eight campuses.\nThe greatest demand in the area, Chang said, is for two-year associate degrees. IU East offers 20 associate's degrees.\nThe community college program is a statewide partnership between Ivy Tech State College and Vincennes University to offer a wider variety of two-year associate degrees.\nJim Messmer, vice president of the community college partnership for Vincennes, said the school would begin offering liberal arts programs at Richmond in 2004.\nAttracting more students to college is the aim of the community college system, said Stan Jones, the state's higher education commissioner.\n"The community college is really not taking students from IU East," Jones said. "It is bringing more students into higher education, and then those students are more likely to transfer to IU East."\nAccording to the Commission on Higher Education, the community college initiative added about 18,500 students to the state's college system between 2000 and 2002.