IU Southeast enrollment dropped by 5 percent for the fall 2012 semester and has the smallest population out of the eight regional Indiana University campuses. Christopher Crews, associate director of Admissions, said IU Southeast expected a drop due to the demographics. “We expected and knew that the demographics in this area wouldn’t support continued growth at that rate,” Crews said.

For the spring 2012 semester, IU Southeast released its enrollment numbers, which decreased by 3.7 percent. IU Southeast held its first day of spring classes on Jan. 9, and the Official State Census was completed on Jan. 21, which took place at IU Bloomington. While IU Southeast will release the official enrollment numbers early next week, the preliminary numbers have yet to be gathered first.

How has the Sherman Minton Bridge closing affected your commute?

The closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge has had an effect on many commuters in Southern Indiana and Kentucky, including students, faculty and staff at IU Southeast. Of the student body, 30 percent commute from Kentucky. While 24 percent full-time faculty and staff live in Kentucky, 44 percent of part-time and adjunct faculty are also commuting from Kentucky. “We have about 2,200 students that are Kentucky reciprocity,” Chancellor Sandra Patterson-Randles said. “Granted some live in the lodges, it is still a significant number.”

With the closing of the Sherman Minton Bridge due to various fractures in the infrastructure, a gloom has seemed to settle down in the Southern Indiana and Louisville region. However, the divide between Kentucky and Indiana has become an even larger crack, highlighting a lack of support for commuters between the two states. According to Evansville Courier & Press, federal records show that almost “18 percent of Indiana’s highway bridges are in less-than-satisfactory shape.”

With the recent closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge, a typical drive to work and school has become a strategic, daily challenge for me and many other residents of Southern Indiana and Louisville. I...