Ivy Tech The First 1\venty-Five lWenty-Five Years ..

Laura S. Gaus .

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INDIANA VOCATIONAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE With Support From The IVY TECH FOUNDATION

All rights reserved. Copyright © 1990 by Indiana Vocational Technical College This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, pan, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, otherwise, without the prior photocopying. recording, recording. or otherwise. written permission pennission of Indiana Vocational Technical College, InformaInform.3tion Services Office, Po. P.O. Box 1763, Indianapolis, Indianapolis. Indiana 46206.

ISBN 0-9626102-0-8 Q.-9626 102·0-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 90-081177

For the hundreds of women and men - named and unnamed who have contributed to the growth growlh and success of Indiana Vocational Technical College in its ilS first firsl twenty-five years and for the hundreds of thousands of students who have benefited from their ivy Ivy Tech experience.

PREFACE

leamed a lot 101 ince I undertook to write a history of Ivy Tech, I have learned about post-secondary technical education and about my native nalive slale of Indiana. I am glad to have had the experience. state

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Indiana Vocational Technical College is an institution which was founded lounded primarily on hope and determination. This book is an attempt to College's. tell the story of what those qualities have accomplished i~ ill the College's first twenty-five years. Because Ivy Tech is now so large and so diversified, it has not been possible to mention the contributions of more than a smattering of the people who have been essential to its growth. I have simply tried to of the flavor of the early years and 10 to convey an idea of capture something oflhe relatively short time. the dramatic progress the College has made in this rel:nively One of the things that has struck me about Ivy Tech is that everybody there seems to be hard at work. Nonetheless, a great malllY many of these people have taken time from their busy schedules to answer my questions and to talk to me about the early years of the College. I am grateful to them all, but I want to give special mention to Judith wanlto McGinnis, Director of Information Services; Charles W. Harris, Vice President/Development; William F. Morris, Executive Assistant to the President; and Gerald Lamkin, President ofIvy of Ivy Tech, who have read this manuscript at every stage and suggested the necessary additions or corrections. I am also greatly indebted to Joan Bey of the Information Services Office for her help in supplying materials and in locating pictures to illustrate the lext. text. historyt My thanks to them and to all who have contributed to this history!

Laura S. Gaus

Table of Contents Dedication Preface

".... iii .,

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v

Chapter]J Chapter A Struggling Infancy

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Chapter 2 Childhood and Youth Youlh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

II

Chapter 3 Coming or of Age

)4 34

Chapter 4 Northwest Region I Nonhwest

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41

Northcentral Region II Northccnlral ([ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

55

Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chaplcr Northeast Northea~1 Region III

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69

Chapter 7 Lafayette Region IV IV

83

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Chapter 8 Kokomo Region V ..

95

Chapter Chapler 9 Eastcentral Easlcenlral Region VI

107

Chapter 10 Wabash Valley Region VII . _. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 119 Chapter Chapler II Central Indiana Region VIII

[31 131

Chapter 12 Whitewater Region lX IX Chapter 13

145

Columbus Region X

Chapter 14 Chapler Southeast Region X] XI

Chapter 15 Southwest Region XII X II Chapter 16 Southcentral Region xm Southcenlral XIII

159

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171 183 197

State and Regional Trustees .,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 209

A A STRUGGLING INFANCY

ndiana's youngest college was born 10 in 1963 into a turbulent political environment. It was given a long name - Indiana Vocational College, a large purpose - to make available 10 to all Technical College. Indiana residents college-level, job oriented training. training, and 11a tiny bit of financial support $50,000, with which it was diTected directed to start the SUppOI1 college, employ a competent and distinguished president and necessary staff, defray expenses of office quarters and conduct a few pilot small staff. to stay alive programs. During its first six years it struggled constantly 10 and was once even pronounced dead.

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At age twenty-five it is widely known by its nickname, Ivy Tech. It [t has centers become Indiana's third largest college with major instructional cenlers in twenty-four communities around the state, an annual enrollment of approximately 52.000 52,000 students and an operating budgct budget of $70,000,000. It offers fifty-one programs of study in such diverse fields as Business, Office and Information Systems; Visual Communications; Human Scrvices Services and Health; and Applied Science and Technologies. Any of these programs may lllay culminate in either an Associate in Applied Certificate (one year) or a shaner shorter Science degree (two years), a Technical Cenificate term Certificate. Cenificale. Selected programs may lead to the Associate ASSOCiate of Science Degree. More importantly, all the programs are geared to manpower needs in the various regions, and they lead directly to employment. Figures show that at least 90 percent of Ivy Tech graduates who want w~lOt jobs get them. The College is still growing.

The Ivy Tech story begins in 1961 with the Post-High School Study 'Inc This Commission chaired by John Hicks of Purdue Purduc University. "Ill is commission gave high marks to Indiana's colleges and universities, universities. but found "a large gap in the area of vocational type technical training, ",. and called for a new educational entity which was to be "coordinated and vigorously administered, administered. yet retain flexibility." the Indiana Farm Bureau, Dr. Hicks wrote Glenn Sample of Ihe Bureau. asking him to work on a preliminary plan for such an institution:

Dear Glenn: IJ should like to ask you to serve as Chairman of a subto our committee to formulate a proposal and present it 10 commission at al the June 6 meeting. I am asking Dallas Sells and Bob Weaver to serve on this committee with you and will rely upon you to get together with something. with them and see if you can come up wilh "something" they came up with was a plan for establishment of a The "somcthing" vocational-technical college as ajoint enterprise of commerce, statewide vocational-tcchnical indust!)" agriculture, labor, education and the public al industry, at large. The resulting legislation, sponsored by Representative Represcntative Eldon Lundseven-man Board of Directors, six to be quist of Elkhart, ElklulI1, called for a seven·man appointed by the governor: one each from commerce, industry, agriculture and labor, two from the public at large, one of whom should be a woman, plus the elected state superintendent of public instruction as an ex officio member. This call was made to the 1963 Indiana General Assembly, a body which was faced with the necessity of reforming the state's outmoded tax structure. Indiana's only tax, gross income, was admittedly regressive and inadequate for funding the state stale government. Something had to be done, but the legislators could not agree on what. Many of them simply laughed at the proposal for a new college, "Sure, it's a good idea. but we don't even have enough money to pay for the public schools."

the members of the Indiana General Assembly had never before Still, Ihe faced vigorous lobbying for lor the same legislation by representatives of the Farm Bureau (Glenn Sample), the Chamber of Commerce (John Barnett) AFL-CIO (Dallas Sells). They joked about it, but they were and the AFlrCIO impressed. Vocational education had widespread support including that this way: of Governor Matthew Welsh, who later assessed it Ihis Indiana's array of fine colleges and universities was criticized because its mission was primarily focused upon serving the 50 percent of high school graduates who went on 10 to college. There were practically no provisions for further educating or ·lhere training the remaining half of the graduates, nor any for the 30 percent of those entering our public school system who did not complete high school. Yet new technology had cre2

ated a silU