50 years of IPFW

ILLUSTRATION BY KEN DUTTON FOR THE NEWS-SENTINEL

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cademics. As Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne marks its 50th year of operation this 2014-15 school year, it is easy – perhaps too much so – to look at the physical changes that the campus has undergone and equate that to growth. But in looking at the university, 2101 Coliseum Blvd. E., it might be better to think of it in these terms:

The physical structures are the body, with having updated or modern facilities akin to being fit and healthy. The mind is made of the students and faculty, collectively, providing the give-and-take necessary for sustained teaching and learning. But the soul of any university is the academics, the drive for rigor and relevance. A university must ensure that the courses offered and the environment that is created match the community it serves and, for those students who enter the workforce, enable those individuals to develop the kinds of skills and knowledge that employers desire. So with that as a backdrop, how do two of the central figures at IPFW feel about its standing, particularly in academics? How do students who are attending feel as they move forward with their post-high school educations? First, the obvious: Chancellor Vicky Carwein and Carl Drummond, vice chancellor of academic affairs, spoke extensively about theirhopes and potential for future endeavors for the university, with Drummond, a 20-year employee, able to provide a degree of insight into the university's past. With more than 300 full-time tenured or on-track to be tenured instructors, another 50-60 limited-term lecturers and 300 part-time instructors, both Carwein and Drummond feel the university is equipped to meet the challenges of educating students in a world where post-high school training is almost mandatory for people looking to enter and advance in the workforce. “We offer over 200 degree and certificate program areas. We are a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate degree granting institution,” Carwein said. Carwein said the university has a “handful” of associate degree programs left but that IPFW had been tasked to transition those types of programs to community colleges, with most of those going to Ivy Tech Northeast. Carwein also said she imagined those two-year programs that are left would likely be transitioned to Ivy Tech or discontinued, as years pass. The only associate's degree programs that are left are programs that other schools do not offer, which is the only reason that IPFW was allowed to retain them. Transforming perception Drummond feels the development of student housing and the transition to Division I athletics were keys to IPFW positioning itself for the next 50 years. But he readily acknowledged that neither of those two things really have anything to do with academics and course work. Michael A. Wartell, the former chancellor of the university for nearly 20 years before giving way to Carwein, told The News-Sentinel in 2012 that having students feel like they are attending a university was crucial to IPFW's growth. Wartell said then that the student housing of the Waterfield Campus, 4110 Crescent Ave., “brought students together to create a unified experience. Our campus was deserted on the weekends. Our campus was deserted for certain times of the day. No longer. We now have 1,200 students living here 24/7. There is activity here.” Full membership in Division I athletics, Wartell said, meant that the overall culture of the university would improve as students and the community could bond on a deeper level through increased levels of competition. Indeed, Drummond termed athletics and housing as “transformative” because of the impact on the university's learning environment by possibly dispelling the last vestiges of perception that IPFW was a commuter campus where some students looked to transfer to other campuses as soon as possible. “The notion that we are a feeder school to other schools – that is false. Actually, it could be argued that it's the other way around, that students choose to come here because there is value in being different. We provide a learning environment that is different than a large, research institution.” Drummond called IPFW “the major access point for higher education in northeast Indiana,” and with about 10,000 undergraduate students, the numbers bear that out. But those numbers are dwarfed by the parent campuses of IPFW. Indiana University's Bloomington campus and Purdue University's West Lafayette campus each have more than 30,000 undergraduate students. Class size and academic mission are where IPFW differentiates itself, Drummond said. Smaller class sizes allow for an interactive learning environment that some students prefer, no different than when youths go to different sizes of schools while growing up. Being a regional campus also allows IPFW, according to Drummond, to find balance between offering professional programs that serve the regional economy – in essence, helping students who want to live and work in the area do just that – while still providing the types of liberal arts pursuits that push students to learn more than how to be employees.Preparing its students At the same time, Drummond said it is important for the university to remain in sync with the needs of the region's employers. That means keeping tabs on employment and industry trends and ensuring that IPFW doesn't fall behind in offering students the proper tools to compete. “What I'm hearing – there's two parts to that,” Drummond said. “We need more engineers, we need more people in the computer sciences, we need more in the technical and professional services in the northeast Indiana region. “The second thing is, really, what the employers want – is people who are learners. People who have a level of maturity and intellectual curiosity. That set of soft skills is really everything a university can deliver. We can't be so focused on giving them the technical skills that we neglect to teach the proper application of those skills in a workplace environment.” To that end, Drummond said, the university feels that its nursing program is “extraordinary, and has been for many, many years,” and that IPFW's engineering programs are strong across numerous disciplines. On the liberal arts side, Drummond said the university's theater programming was also outstanding, and that programs in biology and other sciences, because of the nature of the parent schools, are also vibrant programs. “We really have many strengths, but we would like to make a push and offer more courses, more programs at a higher level in advanced, applied statistics,” Drummond said. He said doing so would allow students to be better equipped to enter fields such as insurance adjusting as actuaries – people who analyze those statistics to assess risk and set premiums. Attempting to maintain and increase relevancy has led colleges and universities to an interesting place: back to high school.

PHOTO BY ELLIE BOGUE OF THE NEWS-SENTINEL

cademics. As Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne heads toward its 50th year of operation as of the 2014-15 school year, it is easy – perhaps too much so – to look at the physical changes that the campus has undergone and equate that to growth. But in looking at the university, 2101 Coliseum Blvd. E., it might be better to think of it in these terms:

The concept of “dual-credit courses” – courses in which high school students can earn credits for high school and college – is something that IPFW has been involved with for about 10 years, Drummond said, starting with a calculus course at Leo Junior-Senior High School. Dual-credit courses can be taken online or be taught at the high school or college campuses themselves. Most important, students must take dual-credit courses to graduate with what is termed a Core 40 degree with academic or technical honors. As a result, what was once one course has evolved into a scenario that IPFW had for last school year, as Drummond describes, two freshman classes: around 3,000 students who actually were enrolled and matriculate to IPFW, and another 3,000 students who are taking dual-credit courses while still in high school. Drummond said the university is closing in on its upper limit to manage the dual-credit program. “We might have seen the last of the rapid growth of the programs, where 20 percent gains were taking place,” Drummond said. “But dual-credit is here to stay.” Also new for this fall was the institution of “reciprocity," which means that IPFW offers the same tuition rates to six counties in Ohio that it would as if those students resided in Indiana. Carwein said it was too soon to project how enrollment might change and grow, but reciprocity would increase the reach of IPFW beyond its 10-county footprint in northeast Indiana. An eye on quality Carwein said one of the focal points of her tenure would be to improve IPFW's academic rigor, standing and method of delivering courses, citing that need in the face of projected flattening or actual declines in enrollment due to expected decreases in the number of high school graduates, particularly in the Midwest. “To think that we are going to grow exponentially – it's not going to be a realistic picture for us, ” Carwein said. Instead, IPFW is going to focus on “really working hard on increasing the quality of our programming,” Carwein said. “To be even more responsive to the needs of the region in terms of what kinds of programs are needed. To really look at being responsive to the changing demographic of the college student and how he or she learns and what we need to put into place, changing our infrastructure in ways that are more responsive.” Drummond echoed those sentiments, saying improved academic standing and the ability to deliver content is how collegiate environments can survive and thrive, long-term, no matter the fiscal state of the economy. “We should never accept where we are, academically. The simple answer is that one, because of the nature of what it is we do. We should always be looking to improve the content. We need to be up to date, state of the art with our techniques and offerings. We should always be looking to find ways of translating and then transmitting material that are better for our students,” Drummond said. “If we're satisfied, then really, we're not doing a good job.” A lasting impression Carwein spoke at length about legacy and the biggest mark she would like to leave upon IPFW: retention and student success. Under her tenure, it's not enough to have high enrollment numbers if students never finish what they began. “As of today, after 50 years, we have 55,000 alumni of IPFW. So, 55,000 people have graduated with a degree from either Indiana University or Purdue University,” Carwein said. “And what's really interesting about – and honestly, great about – that number, is that 80 percent of those alumni still reside and live and work in northeast Indiana.” Why that matters, Carwein said, is simple: It is important for students who begin post-high school education to finish their studies and obtain their degrees and put them to use to enhance their daily lives or improve their standing in their professional careers. “If there is anything I can leave to IPFW when I finish my tenure here is to say that the retention rates have increased significantly and that the success of our students has been demonstrated at a level never seen before at IPFW. That would the one thing that I would like to have said about my time here,” Carwein said. “When students start at IPFW, they finish. They stay here, or they stay here for one or two or three years, transfer to another school, but they are successful, they achieve their higher education goals. That ... to me, is the legacy that I would like to see IPFW have in the decades going forward.”

hat's been interesting over the last decade is that while the (enrollment) numbers have appeared to increase, the actual (number of) degree-seeking students have not,” Carwein said. She explained that while IPFW's enrollment for the 2013-14 school year was around 13,400 students, there were actually about 10,000 undergraduate, degree-seeking students. “Where the increase has really been seen over the last decade, certainly over the last five to six years, has been in the dual-credit students.”

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He had taken the job sight unseen, so he wasn’t sure where he was going. When he stopped at a gas station to ask directions to IU-Purdue’s art school, then located in West Central, the guy he asked said, “Never heard of it.”That’s when he began to think, “What have I gotten myself into?” The job offer had sounded legitimate.Eventually he found his way to the cluster of nine buildings on Berry and Union streets that at that time comprised IPFW's art school. The buildings were several miles away from the main campus, 2101 Coliseum Blvd. E.Formerly the Fort Wayne Art Institute, the buildings and the school were absorbed into Indiana University in 1976.The department stayed there until 1991 when IPFW opened a new, state-of-the-art 43,000-square-foot fine arts building on the north side of the its campus. The building cost $4.87 million. The West Central buildings were sold.“A lot of people liked the colorful quality of Berry Street,” said Hrehov, who stayed and is now chair of the Department of Fine Arts and a professor of drawing and painting. The windows didn’t have screens and the roofs leaked, but the buildings’ idiosyncrasies could sometimes be endearing. Hrehov remembers a warm day when he was teaching figure drawing in the auditorium with the door open. A neighborhoodcat sauntered in and jumped right up on the model stand.When Hrehov began his career at IPFW, plans were already in place for the new fine arts building, so he wasn’t involved in the design. He was, however, responsible for organizing the move, which included relocating printing presses, kilns and an entire library, which got absorbed into the Helmke Library on campus.Hard to believe that “new” building is already 23 years old. Hrehov remembers people saying they thought it looked like a factory.“Most of us appreciated the fact it was new,” he said.It was the first of three arts buildings that eventually would be built on the north side of campus.“We still had some isolation,” Hrehov said, noting that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.The main floor of the Visual Arts Building houses classrooms and studios for fine arts classes including sculpture, ceramics, painting, pottery and metalsmithing. The second floor houses the Department of Visual Communication and Design, which focuses more on applied arts.Now with so many students in the programs, “We've kind of outgrown this building,” Hrehov said.He added, “I hate to say this but we still don’t have a gallery.” That was a disappointment to some when the facility was built and still is an unpopular decision today. The building’s lobby serves as a gallery.Department splitsAside from relocating onto campus, the Department of Visual Arts underwent another big change in 2002 when it was separated into two departments: the Department of Fine Arts, and the Department of Visual Communication and Design.Haig David-West came to IPFW in 2008 as a professor and chair of the Department of Visual Communication and Design. He had lived in New York City and Miami, and was “looking for a college town, a quiet place where I could actually work."The department prepares students to work in graphic design and advertising – designing bilboards, annual reports, creating video and animation. Much of the work is done oncomputers, but David-West said students in the department must work closely with the fine arts department to learn the foundations of art before moving on to computers. For example, photography students learn how to develop film in a darkroom before moving on to digital photography.Once they’ve mastered the basics, students in visual communication and design move on to more sophisticated equipment. David-West described the technology as “quite cutting-edge here. The university invested quite a bit of money.” Today the Rhinehart Music Center and the Ernest E. Williams Theatre are close to the Visual Arts Building. “Now when you look at it we have an art triumvirate,” Hrehov said. He likes having an arts presence on campus, and likes watching the school morph. “It’s nice to feel like you’re part of a campus,” he said.

hen John Hrehov drove into Fort Wayne in 1989 for a job as a visiting assistant professor in Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne’s fine arts department, he was following a map – this was in the days before Mapquest, Garmin and TomTom – and the street he was on ran right into St. Joseph Hospital.

“From a faculty member's perspective there was something a little disheartening about entering the building and always going downstairs,” said Barbara J. Resch, professor of music and chair of the Department of Music. Resch has been a full-time employee at IPFW since 1995. Before the John and Ruth Rhinehart Music Center opened in 2007, the music department didn't have a dedicated performance hall. Music performances were in an auditorium in Neff Hall. “It wasn't the best acoustical space,” Resch said. “There was always a sense we weren't showing off what the department could do best.It was not designed to be a performance hall.” Aside from that, the arrangement posed logistical problems. Whenever there was an instrumental concert in Neff Hall, equipment and instruments – including huge ones such as the timpani – had to be hauled between buildings. In May 2003, after years of rumors, then-Chancellor Michael Wartell announced a music hall would be built. The building was funded with $19 million from the Indiana General Assembly and a $1.5 million gift from Ruth Rhinehart in memory of her husband, John. Other fundraising efforts made up the difference. “It was a real affirmation that the Legislature supported the university,” Resch said. She added, “It was very heartwarming that the larger community was supporting this.” When Wartell announced the music building, he also announced a biomedical research building would be constructed, and the Northeast Indiana Innovation Centerís first building would soon be under construction. The new music building, named after the Rhineharts, was built on the north side of the campus in close proximity to the Ernest E. Williams Theatre and the Visual Arts Building, creating sort of a campus within a campus for the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The Rhinehart Center has performance spaces that are “recognized throughout the Midwest,” Resch said. It has two concert halls: the Auer Performance Hall, which seats 1,600 and is where the Omnibus lectures are held, and the smaller Rhinehart Recital Hall, which seats 250. Resch describes the Rhinehart Recital Hall as “about as close to acoustical perfection as you can get.” It was designed to be perfect for music, she said. Double-glass windows were installed in the Auer Performance Hall to muffle outside noise while allowing in natural light. Research said you can't hear rain, thunder or military jets flying over. Other amenities in the music building include dedicated choral and instrumental rehearsal spaces; classrooms with white boards with music staffs embedded in them and built-in technology; storage lockers for big and small instruments; and a percussion teaching studio and practice room in one corner because those instruments can be loud. The new building also has practice rooms with soundproofing that's so good you can't hear what's going on in the room next to you, Resch said. They're a big improvement over the modular practice rooms in the days before the music building, that had bad ventilation and lacked soundproofing. The new music building enhanced IPFW's music program, Resch said. “There's always been good teaching, good students, great ensembles,” she said. But the new building “was just very good for our self-image and certainly for the image the community has of the department. We had a bit of an enrollment bump a year or two after the building opened.” It also has enabled the department to expand its concert season a bit. She added, “It seems silly but we have this huge parking garage here. It really is very easy to get to our events. I very much like that we're sort of the arts end of campus.”

ou could say that in the days before Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne's $25 million music hall was built, the Department of Music faculty, staff and students sort of felt as if they were playing second fiddle to other departments. As the campus expanded, the music department remained in the basement of what was then called the Classroom Medical Building.

ack in 1964 when Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne produced its first play, Purdue Indiana Theater, better known as PIT, was a most appropriate name for the tiny theater in the basement of Kettler Hall. Craig A. Humphrey, now interim chair, of the Department of Theatre, described it as “that big black hole in the basement of Kettler.”

Although the space was flexible, it could seat only about 135. Steve Sarratore, now associate vice chancellor for academic programs and a theater professor, loved the space but admitted, “There were some challenges.” The restrooms closest to the theater had to be locked during performances because that was where actors changed their clothes. Scenery pieces had to be carried up and down steps. “It was pretty makeshift,” Sarratore said. Yet there was something charmingly grungy about it, Humphrey said. Still, the small space wasn't exactly impressive to prospective students. “Not every new student was as instantly enamored with PIT as I was,” said Sarratore, who came to IPFW in 1986. At that time he heard rumors about a new theater, but nothing had been announced yet. In 1987 the School of Fine and Performing Arts became the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and the theater, music and visual arts departments were all brought together under one administration for the first time, Sarratore said.

As he recalls, then-Chancellor Tom Wallace was “very much committed to the notion of IPFW as an urban campus. As part of that vision, he wanted a strong arts program and he wanted IPFW to have an arts campus. By 1991 those rumors of a new theater had become a reality when construction started on a 26,600-square-foot building with a theater that would seat almost 300. Money for the $4.65 million structure came from several sources: $3 million from the Foellinger Foundation, $1.1 million from the Academic Facility Fee Fund, and gifts from the Knight Foundation and the English-Bonter-Mitchell Trust. Sarratore chaired the group tasked with planning the facility. “It was a once-in-a-career opportunity to be involved in (construction of a theater),” Sarratore said. Plans were designed and redesigned. The group finally settled on a thrust arrangement, which allows the audience to sit on three sides of the stage. Other features included classrooms, offices and meeting spaces, a performance studio, a design studio, a scene shop, costume shop, and actual dressing rooms. No more changing costumes in the restrooms. Humphrey, who came to IPFW in 1991 and was excited about the prospects of a brand-new theater, spent his first two years at IPFW designing costumes and directing shows at PIT while the new theater was being built. When the department moved over to the new facility “we were like kids in a candy store,” he said. The best part, he said, was the new building had a dedicated costume storage area that was climate-controlled. The new building was feted at a gala April 16, 1993, when it was named the Ernest E. Williams Theatre. Williams was editor of The News-Sentinel from 1966 to 1982. He also was coordinator of the IPFW journalism program from 1983 until his death in 1989. He also was vice president and director of the Foellinger Foundation, which was established from the estate of Helene Foellinger, former publisher of The News-Sentinel. The old PIT wasn't abandoned and in fact is still used. Dan Butler, who acted in IPFW shows at the PIT in the '70s, came back to direct “Our Town” in December. It's now called the Studio Theatre, and despite $250,000 in renovations, it still looks like a black box. But that's OK, the Studio Theatre's size allows for a more intimate setting, and chairs can be reconfigured for different productions. With two theaters the department can work on two shows at once. Students get different experiences working in the small Studio Theatre and the larger Williams Theatre, which because of its larger stage allows for more dance productions. The new theater proved to be a good recruiting tool for the department. Sarratore said that when he arrived there were 11 theater majors at IPFW. Today there are four times as many, he said. “It has been, I think, a really exciting run for the theater department.” With the addition of residence halls and other campus buildings, “in many ways this campus bears no resemblance to the campus that hired me in 1986,” Sarratore said. When he started, two-thirds of the IPFW students were part time. Today two-thirds of the students are full time. And former chancellor Wallace's vision of an arts campus has been realized, with the proximity of IPFW's visual arts, music and theater buildings. Sarratore said it is “one of the premier arts campuses in the Midwest.”

Upcoming productions In honor of its 50th anniversary, IPFW's Department of Theatre's 2014-15 season will celebrate by presenting five productions from five previous decades: "The Fantasticks" was presented in September. IPFW previously produced the show in 1965, 1977 and 1996. "The Glass Menagerie" will be presented in October. IPFW previously produced the show in 1973 and 1995. "The Imaginary Invalid" will be presented in November. This was the first show IPFW ever produced in 1964. "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" will be produced in February. IPFW previously produced this show in 1983. "Merrily We Roll Along" will be produced in April and May. IPFW previously produced the play in 2005.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM GABBARD OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY FORT WAYNE

Michael Schaub was a mechanical engineering major when he started college at the brand-new Indiana-Purdue Regional Campus in 1964. After about a month in school he was bored, so he decided to try out for a play that the school was producing. "I had never been in a production before," he said. "I went in and tried out and got the lead, which frightened the crap out of me." Schaub landed the lead role of Argan in 'The Imaginary Invalid,' the first show ever presented by the Purdue Indiana Theater, or PIT. Robert Tolan was director. The theater in the basement of Kettler Hall wasnít even finished yet. "So we did the show on risers at the west end on the first floor," Schaub said. As a child, Schaub had a speech problem, and in college he still had trouble pronouncing some words. Tolan "was very dedicated to the script and to proper diction," Schaub said. So Tolan would spend time with Schaub working on words that were giving him problems. "After the first show he was most complimentary of me," Schaub said. Under the tutelage of Tolan -- and with his encouragement -- Schaub continued to try out for the school's plays. By his third semester, Tolan had persuaded him to change to a theater major. Working in the small PIT, "you're very close to the audience," Schaub said. ìIn the typical production the proscenium arch separates the audience from the actor. "In PIT we broke the proscenium. We had audiences on two sides of us. We had an audience in front and on one side. There's an intimacy, (so) you have to be very genuine to work in a venue that tight." Schaub didn't just act; Tolan also taught him how to build sets. For one show, a chemistry professor taught Schaub how to make a smoke machine. "The maintenance department came running with fire extinguishers," he said. When Schaub graduated in 1969 at age 24, he had intended to work a couple of years and then go to school in Santa Fe, N.M., but he was broke. He got a job as a management trainee at a local bank. "One year turned to two years to five years...," he said. His career ended 40 years later; he had worked his way up to community bank president at the New Haven branch of Wells Fargo. It doesn't sound like a typical career path for a theater major, but Schaub says, "The stuff I learned in theater I used every day at the bank." Those skills included being a good listener, being able to make presentations and finding ways to allow people to do their best. In short, the team effort he learned in theater had a direct impact on how he supervised at the bank. Schaub did perform in some community theater productions but eventually got to the point where ìI had to turn my back on the art world and pay my bills.î As for Tolan, he left the school in 1969, but his impact on Schaub's life remains. "Tolan was like a second father to me," he said.

“In 1999 when I arrived, we didn't have dorms. We didn't have on-campus housing,” Hartley Hutton says. “We made it work." IPFW has been making it work athletically since the late 1970s when the first teams began competing in NAIA and NCAA Division III, then jumping to Division II in 1982 and announcing a move to Division I in 2000. As the Mastodons have jumped into bigger and bigger ponds of competition, the facilities and amenities have grown as well. The 2013 athletics budget was a shade over $7 million. That's low for a comparable university but a vast increase from what it used to be. Hartley Hutton remembers even the basics being hard to come by. “We were doubled up (in offices); people were literally on top of each other and in hallways,” Hartley Hutton said. “True story, we made a closet an office for two staff members . . . we just didn't have the space.” Recent renovations to the Gates Sports Center turned it into a complex with plenty of office facilities and meeting rooms, along with an athlete-only workout room. The transition to Division I in the early 2000s did not go smoothly. Some athletes were declared ineligible because they were recruited under old Division II rules that did not translate. IPFW did not have a league to compete in and was forced to travel across the country for games instead of competing in a conference with regional teams. In the search for validity, the athletic department scratched and clawed through tough times. “It would have been really naive to think you were going to be Division I and not have some lean years and some struggles," Hartley Hutton said. “Even at this time, we are a limited-resource institution in Division I. We are not funded like a lot of the other Division I's.”

PFW Athletic Director Kelley Hartley Hutton sits in her office, looking out the window upon the recently built Athletics Center Fieldhouse, a 65,000-square-foot multipurpose facility adjacent to the Gates Sports Complex. She remembers coming to the university in 1999 as women's volleyball head coach, and since then things have drastically changed in the athletics department.

The big break came in 2007 when IPFW joined the Mid-Continent Conference, which quickly changed its name to the Summit League. Suddenly the Mastodons had regional foes such as Western Illinois and IUPUI, with trips to the Great Plains for road games instead of Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Longwood. It also gave student-athletes the chance to play for league championships and postseason berths. As IPFW passes the half-century mark this year in age, a future of further growth for the athletics department is bright. A new basketballfloor has been laid down in the Gates Sports Complex, replacing the original from when the facility was opened in 1981. The next step is to overhaul the baseball and softball fields, which are incapable of holding games simultaneously because of the closeness of the two facilities. “Clearly, we need resources, and we are working on that,” Hartley Hutton said. But in a short period of time, IPFW athletics has come a long way.

The campus draws more than $100 million a year to Fort Wayne in state funding and student tuition and fees. It employs the equivalent of 1,225 full-time employees, making it the ninth-largest employer in Allen County. But to reduce the universityís economic contribution to a quantity of dollars and cents would overlook much about the school and the role it plays in this region today. The opportunities it provides for personal development, community enhancement and economic advancement are closely interwoven. Its very presence is an important asset to the area that helps retain residents who go to school there and businesses who hire its graduates. It offers quality education, a Big Ten degree and, for many students, an affordable college degree. Personal opportunities At $264.95 per credit hour this academic year, total tuition for a bachelorís degree is less than $32,000; many private colleges and universities charge that much or more per year for tuition. Naturally, there's much more than the sticker price that contributes to the cost of a college education, and many private schools provide significant scholarships or tuition write-downs that make them cost-competitive with public universities. But the cost of tuition at IPFW shows prospective students a figure thatís less intimidating while allowing them to go to school without relocating. “If IPFW were not the institution it is, how much of (the student population) would have been picked up by other institutions here and how much would have had to go to other public universities?” asked John Stafford, who retired last year as director of the Community Research Institute at IPFW. He has played a central role in many economic-development efforts in Fort Wayne and Allen County since the early 1980s. “Price is a significant factor for many students,” Stafford said. That affordability remains a draw even as students (and in some cases, their families) bear a much larger share of the cost of operating IPFW. State support, as a part of the schoolís budget, peaked in the late 1970s, when public funding was about 75 percent of the budget. In the last year, state funding was only 40 percent. For northeast Indiana residents, having a public university nearby also provides a second chance at college for people who didn't graduate on the traditional four-year plan commencing the fall after high school ends. Its graduate programs in education, business and other fields offer more routes to allow people to enhance their credentials, advance their careers or indulge their interests. The school's relatively low cost helps cement its role as a strong foundation for higher education in the region. At the same time, it gives the region as a whole an avenue to “elevate the academic attainment of the region,” Stafford said. Big investment, concentrated return IPFW's reputation as a regional school is borne out by enrollment figures from fall 2013, as provided by the school. More than half of its 13,459 students came from Allen County, where 7,166 students resided. Allen and six other northeast Indiana counties account for 76 percent of the students enrolled last fall. There are students from other states at IPFW, and more than 200 students are from foreign countries. But it is overwhelmingly a regional school, and its alumni stick close to their roots, for the most part. Of the living alumni the school knows about, 38,217, or about 77 percent, still reside in Indiana, according to IPFW. To put it another way, 19 of 20 students who benefit from that public money invested in IPFW are from Indiana; more than 3 of 4 students stay in Indiana after they graduate, building the stateís prosperity with their skills and income. Raising that degree of educational attainment lies at the heart of long-term economic development here, said John Sampson, executive director of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, a 10-county group that promotes development here. “It's underappreciated how much they have to offer to businesses,” Sampson said of IPFW. “The most important thing it offers is a way to build on the talents, the human capital, of workers in the region. “The future of economic development is almost exclusively about talent: developing, attracting and retaining talent,” Sampson said. Millions for construction The physical presence of IPFWís 662-acre – that's more than a square mile – campus on the north side of Coliseum Boulevard is in itself another economic benefit. Construction has seemed to be a nearly constant feature of the campus in the last decade, during which the Rhinehart Music Center, a third parking garage and the Student Service Complex have been added. Since 2004, about $145 million has been spent on construction on campus, including more than $50 million for student housing that offers students another option besides living at home or renting near campus, as well as taking another step toward creating more of a campus culture for students. The vitality of IPFW – and the more than 13,000 students there – help sustain the vigor of the businesses in its vicinity. “It's definitely a very strong commercial anchor,” said Fort Wayne City Councilman Russ Jehl, R-2nd. The university is in his council district, and he's a commercial real estate broker who has handled deals involving many properties in the area. It's been that way almost since IPFW began. An example Jehl offered was Canterbury Green Apartments, which he doesn't think would have come to pass without IPFW being next door. When the first classes met in Kettler Hall half a century ago, IPFW was on the outskirts of Fort Wayne, and postsecondary education wasnít necessary for a young person to make a good living. Since then, Fort Wayne has grown far beyond Coliseum Boulevard, our conception of a basic education has grown far beyond high school, and IPFW is at the heart of both.

ifty years after it began, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne has become an indispensable engine of opportunity in northeast Indiana, experts with long experience in economic development say.