MCC credit hours up over 15 percent heading into 2026-2027 school year
T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY From left to right, Marshalltown Community College Associate Dean of Enrollment Allie Osmundson, Iowa Valley Community College District Dean of Enrollment and Student Life Angie Redmond and IVCCD President Anne Howsare Boyens pose for a photo at the district administration building in Marshalltown on Monday morning. Overall credit hours are up over 15 percent at MCC heading into the 2026-2027 school year from last fall and over 10 percent across the entire district.
Students apply classroom knowledge through hands-on learning experiences that reinforce essential healthcare skills and professional practices as shown at Ellsworth Community College.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS Students at Iowa Valley Grinnell study cells under the microscope as part of their Anatomy and Physiology class.
T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY From left to right, Marshalltown Community College Associate Dean of Enrollment Allie Osmundson, Iowa Valley Community College District Dean of Enrollment and Student Life Angie Redmond and IVCCD President Anne Howsare Boyens pose for a photo at the district administration building in Marshalltown on Monday morning. Overall credit hours are up over 15 percent at MCC heading into the 2026-2027 school year from last fall and over 10 percent across the entire district.
Students apply classroom knowledge through hands-on learning experiences that reinforce essential healthcare skills and professional practices as shown at Ellsworth Community College.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS Students at Iowa Valley Grinnell study cells under the microscope as part of their Anatomy and Physiology class.
Trending
As the faculty, administration and support staff of the Iowa Valley Community College District (IVCCD) prepare to welcome students back for the 2026-2027 school year, they've got exciting news to share. Enrolled credit hours are up substantially from last fall, and they are beating back the so-called "enrollment cliff" brought on by a decline in the number of traditional college-aged students due to decreasing birth rates across the country.
According to Marshalltown Community College (MCC) Associate Dean of Enrollment Allie Osmundson, MCC are at 16,866 heading into 2026, a 15.47 percent increase from 14,607 in 2025, and Ellsworth Community College (ECC) credit hours are at 8,467 for 2026, a 2.51 percent increase from 2025. District wide, the number is up to 25,333 from 22,867 a year ago, an increase of 10.7 percent.
IVCCD Dean of Enrollment and Student Life Angie Redmond said the district's Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs are full along with the Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program after adding evening courses.
"We have some holes yet to fill across the district, but I think CTE is huge," Redmond said.
Osmundson noted that in addition to the nursing growth, a second year of construction training is also available.
"I think administration's done a really nice job to see what areas of need are within the community, and so those programs are filling up very quickly," she said.
Even from 2024 to 2025, the enrolled credit hours jumped by about nine percent.
"Really, to have that kind of growth year after year, we're a bit of an anomaly. A lot of our sister community colleges are a little bit flat or down," IVCCD President Anne Howsare Boyens said.
Howsare Boyens went on to explain the enrollment cliff in more detail as approximately 20 years ago, incoming kindergarten class sizes were smaller across the country, meaning that the number of those students now entering college out of high school has decreased substantially.
"A lot of colleges and universities have been, of course, keeping an eye on that and looking at how they can diversify their student body," she said. "For community college, it looks like maybe not the traditional age students that we're really trying to go after. It's really more adult populations as well. So we have yet to have that truly affect our enrollment. It might, but I have to give kudos to our student services team for really making pathways accessible."
Along with more non-traditional students taking classes later in life, high schoolers are taking more dual-credit courses than ever before, which in turn helps to create more of a "clear path" at the college level.
"Talking a little bit about some of those CTE programs that are full, a lot of the students in those programs got their start at the high school and got a few credits out of the way if not a short-term certificate and then have come to us to finish out their diploma or associate's degree," Howsare Boyens said.
Going forward, Osmundson told the T-R that a goal is to continue expanding offerings on high school campuses, and along with nursing and construction, they hope to grow more in the fields of computer networking and cybersecurity while focusing on evening and fully online coursework. Howsare Boyens cited an intro to welding course offered at Ellsworth over the summer, and about half of those students have since decided to move into the full credit welding program.
Classes at IVCCD are set to begin on Aug. 31, and some of the biggest changes include a large semi in the parking lot to advertise the new Commercial Driver's License (CDL) program with more non-credit, short-term training students, and construction students will be building a new townhouse style dormitory on the MCC campus. In addition, men's and women's bowling will launch this year, and the eSports program continues to grow and blossom, lending itself naturally to the expansion of "computer-adjacent programming."
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.