For the third consecutive year, Ivy Tech Community College in Sellersburg saw enrollment growth for the fall semester.

This year, the school increased its numbers by 9.5 percent, going from 3,909 students in the fall of 2007 to 4,281 now.

The school also set a record with the number of new students this year, going from 933 last fall to more than 1,200.

These growing numbers are causing concerns over the size of the school, according to Terry Nolot, vice chancellor for enrollment services, who said the school already is leasing other facilities to add capacity.

“We’re simply running out of space and it’s becoming a serious issue for us,” he said.

He added that the problem will be solved once the $16 million campus expansion project is completed. That will add an 80,000-square-foot classroom building and renovate the existing main campus building at Ind. 311 along Interstate 65.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who visited the campus in June, said then that he would ask his budget committee to approve the expense.

Nolot said he hopes that the project breaks ground this year.

He said he believes the continued growth of Ivy Tech’s enrollment is because the community sees the school as an affordable option to get a degree and go to work or to take some classes to transfer to a four-year university.

Statewide, Ivy Tech Community College saw an increase of 11.8 percent in enrollment for the fall, going from 77,013 students at the school’s 14 regions last year to a record high of 86,130 this year.

Ivy Tech President Thomas Snyder echoed Nolot’s beliefs for the growth.

“It’s clear that students are responding to Ivy Tech’s promise of affordable, quality education that leads to employment in the fields where workers are needed most,” he said.

In the last four years, Ivy Tech’s enrollment throughout the state increased more than 20,800.