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Amanda J. Billings
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Phone: 812.330.6222
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email: abillings7@ivytech.edu
This Story is provided by The Herald Times

IU, Ivy Tech cooperative effort continuing to grow

By Steve Hinnefeld 331-4374 | shinnefeld@heraldt.com
May 31, 2007

Ivy Tech tuition increase approved

Tuition at Ivy Tech Community College will increase by 3.9 percent each of the next two years.

With the increase, approved by Ivy Tech state trustees, in-state students will pay $91.30 per credit hour plus a $40-per-semester technology fee in 2007-08. A full-time student taking 15 credit hours would pay $1,409.50 for one semester.

Officials said the increased revenue will pay for more full-time faculty, increased health-care costs, improved information technology, new programs, faculty and staff wages and other costs.

Opportunities keep expanding for Hoosier students to take classes at Ivy Tech Community College and then move on to studying at Indiana University, leaders of the institutions said this week.

Under a new agreement, Ivy Tech students who complete any of six new liberal-arts degrees can apply their credits to four-year degree programs at any IU campus. Also, more than 100 courses taught at Ivy Tech now count for credit at IU Bloomington, the officials said.

“It really is a major development for students in the state of Indiana,” said John Whikehart, chancellor of Ivy Tech-Bloomington.

Just four years ago, Whikehart said, only 13 courses and 39 credit hours transferred from Ivy Tech to IU Bloomington, and state government and business leaders were getting restless over the lack of cooperation. Now there are more than 400 credit hours from Ivy Tech that transfer.

Ivy Tech Bloomington and IU Bloomington have degree agreements in general studies, biotechnology and kinesiology. And students who complete two-year Ivy Tech degrees in nursing and criminal justice can move into four-year programs at any IU campus that offers corresponding four-year degrees.

Officials said transfer agreements will be signed in the near future for programs in business, education and computer information systems.

IU President Adam Herbert said in a news release Wednesday that the agreements recognize it’s a “team endeavor” to create a highly educated Indiana workforce. “We are committed to breaking new ground in this important endeavor,” he said.

Ivy Tech President Gerald Lamkin said the cooperation between the institutions is making higher education possible for students who thought they couldn’t attain a college degree.

“The affordability and personal attention that Ivy Tech offers often makes taking that first step toward a degree possible,” he said. “And now more and more students can continue their education after earning an associate degree at Ivy Tech.”

Both Herbert and Lamkin will retire from their presidential positions July 1.

The partnership brings together Indiana’s two largest institutions of higher education. Indiana University has about 98,000 students on eight campuses, including 38,000 in Bloomington. Ivy Tech, with 23 campuses, has more than 105,000 students, including 4,500 at Bloomington.

Whikehart said Herbert promoted cooperation with Ivy Tech when he took over as IU president in 2003. And so did Ken Gros Louis, who came out of retirement to serve as interim chancellor of IU Bloomington from 2004-06, he said.

“The environment changed, and the new environment encouraged the development of the relationship,” Whikehart said.