Ivy Tech breaks ground on new regional campus

By Ed Ernstes (ernstes@wsbt.com)

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Ivy Tech officials broke ground Thursday, July 2, 2009 on a new regional campus to be built on a 17-acre tract of land just southeast of Elkhart. The $15 million project will double the capacity for classes. (WSBT photo)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jul 2, 2009 at 6:28 PM EST

Story Updated: Jul 2, 2009 at 6:28 PM EST

ELKHART — Indiana's new state budget includes funding for higher education. And with rising enrollment, Ivy Tech College needs extra cash to expand campuses around the state. The college broke ground on a new campus in Elkhart Thursday.

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School officials say it couldn't come at a better time, as more displaced workers are going there for retraining.

It's no secret that the current Ivy Tech campus on Industrial Parkway is getting cramped.

Sabine Bennett and her husband, a laid-off RV worker, both take classes there. They've noticed the surge in students taking classes aimed at getting them a new job.

“I have noticed due to the economy, all these new students coming in are ones that have lost their jobs, as so my husband did. We're kind of busting out at the seams here,” she said. “We are running out of space for classes."

“If we were comparing where we were this time last year to this year, we are up 100 percent,” said Vice Chancellor and Dean Teresa Shaffer.

And it is that need for more leg room, brought about by more displaced workers looking to retrain, that has Ivy Tech building a new campus on a 17-acre tract of land just southeast of Elkhart. The $15 million project will double the capacity for classes.

“With the downturn in the economy and the number of displaced workers — not only in Elkhart County but in our entire region — who take classes from the Elkhart campus, we saw a surge in enrollment,” explained Tracie Davis, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications. “So a new campus really, really needed to be built."

“The groundbreaking here couldn't be more appropriate, couldn't be better timed. It’s a regional campus, it’s going to support more than one county,” added President Tom Snyder. “We think what this will do, by being right in between Goshen and Elkhart, it will reach out to communities that have not yet been served."

School officials plan to kick off a $5 million fundraising campaign to pay for equipment, new technology and computers. They hope to start classes there in the spring of 2011.

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