Menu
Ivy Tech to remain responsive to needs of local community
When Ivy Tech President Sue Ellspermann announced a new organizational structure for the statewide community college system in June, a lot of what she had to say sounded familiar to those who deal with Ivy Tech’s Greencastle campus.
“Our overarching focus with the organizational structure is to put more ‘community’ into community college,” Ellspermann said at the time, “place more attention on students and reduce friction across our large organization.”
The idea was to have regional campuses be more free-standing or paired with a larger campus if they are still growing, Central Indiana Regional Chancellor Kathleen Lee explained on Tuesday.
Lee and Greencastle Campus President Greg Cook told the Banner Graphic that while the new structure remains a work in progress less than two months in — Ellspermann describes it as “wet cement” — Greencastle found itself ahead of the game.
“It was nice to lean back and say, ‘We’re already on this path,’” Lee said Tuesday morning during a visit to Greencastle.
Already in place are relationships with local partners such as Area 30 Career Center and the City of Greencastle, with Mayor Bill Dory also meeting with the Ivy Tech administrators Tuesday morning.
The Greencastle campus, or “educational site” in Ivy Tech parlance, had also already partnered with the large regional campus in Indianapolis.
“The conversations that they were wanting to have happen around the state were what we were already having here,” Lee said.
Such conversations included how Ivy Tech can serve the existing workforce, what high school students are thinking about for their next steps and how can the community college partner with career-focused education sites such as Area 30.
From her regional base at the downtown Indianapolis campus, Lee helps oversee six other campuses at Greencastle, Avon, Mooresville, Franklin, Shelbyville and Noblesville.
However, while regions may remain in place, Ivy Tech is looking to move past the old divisional structure, and reinstating a “school” model to align closely with Indiana’s key economic sectors. The schools are School of Business, Logistics and Supply Chain; School of Public Affairs and Social Services; School of Information Technology; School of Arts, Sciences and Education; School of Health Sciences; School of Nursing; and School of Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering and Applied Technology.
All of this means that if an Ivy Tech student looking to continue his or her education is best served at the Terre Haute campus, the barriers are no longer there.
“I think one opportunity this brings to us is the regional boundaries going away,” Lee said. “We used to have these walls between our regions.”
Greencastle exists in a unique location in which four of the large, regional campuses are within an hour’s drive — Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Bloomington and West Lafayette. With the reduced focus on divisions, a student can more easily take classes at any of these locations.
“They aren’t so much regions as service areas,” Cook said.
“It eliminates some of the artificial boundaries we had put into place,” Lee added.
What is not changing, in line with Ellspermann’s vision, is the focus on community.
Cook emphasized that this means not only two-year associates degrees, but also technical certifications that Ivy Tech can offer employers and employees looking for a higher level of expertise.
Lee said this also includes keeping an eye on needs in the community itself, not just for the major employers.
“As you work with a community, you want to help the community ‘skill up’ for the jobs they’re trying to attract, but you also have to prepare for retirements in some of these ‘basic skills’ — plumbing, electrical, HVAC,” Lee said. “Not everybody’s meant for a four-year college and there are a lot of jobs that don’t need it.”
It’s about remaining attuned to the community.
“We’re just continuing to do what we were trying to do in terms of meeting community needs,” Cook said.