Back-to-school season has officially arrived, and students are getting back into their normal routines to have a successful start to their school year.

Comparing numbers from the first day of school this year and the first day of school last year, Mark Gryzbowski, associate vice president of Student Services, said, “We are seeing a decrease in enrollment for students and credit hours.”

Although there is a decrease, that does not cause an issue. “There is a budget in place that expects 58,000 credit hours for the school year for IVCC,” said Gryzbowski. “This year, pairing summer and fall classes, we are at 53 percent of what we need for the entire school year.” Staff members are going the extra mile to keep increasing enrollment numbers. Groups like Enrollment Task Force and Strategic Enrollment Management have been created to help increase the numbers.

“Enrollment Task Force meets every two weeks and talks about strategies on how to raise the college’s enrollment rates. They are in charge of recruitment events and developing materials for students,” explained Gryzbowski.

The other group, Strategic Enrollment Management meets monthly and looks at ways to recruit specific populations and make programs better for all students.

Some of these populations include traditional and non-traditional students and dual-credit students.The group also is working with the foundation office to help college be more cost-friendly as well as generate new scholarships for  students. This year, the foundation office gave away almost $300,000 in scholarships for IVCC students.

The financial aspect plays a big part on why more and more students are picking IVCC to start their college education.

First-time college student Marcus Zack says he picked IVCC because “I can go at my own pace and save a lot of money in the process.”

Returning student Katie Cimei said similar words: “It is much cheaper and closer to home and I can still get an education while working.”

And Kenzie Dixon, another returning student, said, “Although the low tuition price is a bonus, that is not why I chose it.”

She continued, “The location is close to home, and the campus is spacious and provides everything a college student of any age could ask for, and then some.”

For IVCC officials, there are many projects going on behind the scenes to help students in the application and enrollment process to make it a better transition for them before transferring to a university, and more and more students are seeing that.