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Back to class

Iowa Central welcomes students for fall semester

By Kelby Wingert 3 min read

While local K-12 students returned to the classroom last week, Iowa Central Community College welcomed its students back on Monday for the first day of the fall semester.

"We had a really good move-in yesterday," said Iowa Central President Dr. Jesse Ulrich. "We've improved a lot of our processes for the housing side of the unit to really streamline check-in and help students get to where they need to go."

Monday's weather -- with a high of 85 degrees -- was also a welcome change from last week's heat indexes over 100 degrees. This year, Iowa Central is starting classes about a week later than they normally would.

That was very purposeful, Ulrich said.

"We wanted to start about a week later than our K-12 partners to allow all of those students who are in high school classes that are taking college classes as well to get into school, and if there's some college classes that they want to sign up for, they're not starting behind that eight-ball," he said.

The college won't know until the 10th day of classes what the official enrollment is for the semester, but early indicators are looking positive, Ulrich said.

"All of the metrics that we follow -- from student applications, housing applications, FAFSA -- all of that seem to be up," he said. "Until day 10, the official count day, we won't know, but we feel really good where we're at."

Another indicator that enrollment may be up is that campus housing is full, Ulrich said.

"It's been a long time since we've had 1,200 students living on campus," he said. "That's a near record number for us."

Freshmen Abagail Winter, of Dubuque, and BrieAnna Remster, of Melcher-Dallas, are roommates on campus and were looking forward to starting their first semester of college classes.

"It's very intimidating, but I'm definitely excited to start this chapter in my life," Remster said.

"It's very scary, but we'll get through it together," Winter added.

In addition to being roommates, the two students are also teammates on the Triton softball team and are both excited to get closer to their teammates.

"I can't wait to bond with those girls and make a family out of it," Remster said.

Monday also marked the first day of classes in the newly remodeled Arts and Technology Building, formerly known as the Student Services Center. The $6.1 million renovation of the building was one of the final projects financed with money from a $25.5 million bond issue approved by voters in 2018.

"What we've really done is take all of our art, computer science, all of those programs, and they're now all in the same building, rather than being dispersed around campus," Ulrich said. "So we're giving them a state-of-the-art facility and space to be able to learn in, and we're just really excited about what that building has to offer students."

Decker Auditorium and the new $11.9 million Center for the Performing Arts remain under construction on Iowa Central's campus. Ulrich said the college hopes to christen the spaces in December with the music department's Christmas concerts.

On Monday morning, Ulrich -- along with mascot Tri and a few other staff members -- were posted outside the Arts and Technology Building near a table filled with Casey's breakfast pizza and donuts from Community Orchard. "Pizza with the President" is something special college officials like to do for the students on the first day, Ulrich said.

"It's hard not to be happy on days like this," he said.

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