At Tuesday’s Iowa Central board meeting, Vice President of Student Services Tom Beneke told board members that initial fall enrollment numbers show an increase of 41 students and 144 credit hours.

Iowa Central President Jesse Ulrich said that staff are still dissecting the numbers and statistics from the college’s 10-day enrollment count. But he said he considers “this a bumper crop year for enrollment.”

“This is a big celebration,” said Ulrich. “When Mpox occurred at the prison, they closed the classes at the prison too, so literally even without the 1,000 credits and 100 students at the prison, we’re still up 41 students and 144 credits.”

Ulrich said that the prison is beginning to enroll students back into those eight-week classes again, so enrollment numbers should see a sizable increase in the near future.

The Iowa Central board also approved agreements with both Southeast Valley Community School District and Paton-Churdan Community School District. These agreements will allow Iowa Central to bring in the State of Iowa’s College and Career Transition Counselors into the schools to provide career exploration and college transition support.

“With this agreement, Iowa Central now has College and Career Transition Counselors in every school in our nine-county area,” said Ulrich.

The Iowa Central board also updated their policy on animals on campus, specifically service and assistance animals. Beneke noted that the updates to the policy are based on those made under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Iowa Central currently has 11 service dogs among the 1,200 students in dormitories.

Ulrich also noted during the meeting that construction of the Iowa Central Fuel Lab should be completed by the end of the month, and that a ribbon cutting will be held on Sept 26 for the new Iowa Central satellite center in Storm Lake.