Ivy Tech officials say they welcome a state-ordered review of the school’s programs.
Legislators instructed the Commission for Higher Education to examine which degree programs have the lowest graduation rates, and either restructure or eliminate them.
Ivy Tech president Tom Snyder says the studies which alarmed legislators – including one showing only four-percent of students graduate in four years -- predate changes the school has made over the last seven years to address graduation issues.
"We have a call center where students can check in seven days a week," says Snyder. "We have changed our math program where we now have math that suits the field. No longer would you have to take college Algebra to become a culinary student. Which is the way it was until this year."
Ivy Tech‘s trustees will vote next month on another proposal to improve graduation rates, by freezing tuition for students who make steady progress toward their degrees without skipping a semester.
The school has proposed a one-and-a-half-percent tuition increase for each of the next two years, meaning the freeze could save students 60 dollars a year.
Snyder theorizes many of the students who don‘t graduate are either liberal arts majors who transfer to other schools instead or technology majors who land a new job before completing their degrees.
He says the study will be valuable in pinpointing what‘s affecting graduation rates.
