Info about new Logan Ivy Tech Campus

[wishNhopeNdreamN]

I was looking for the date when construction was projected to be complete and came across this article. I figured it might interest others as well. The blue prints are amazing, I am excited that I should still be a student for a few more months after the completion date.

http://www.pharostribune.com/local/local_story_122110445.html

Published: May 01, 2008 11:04 am

Cultivating an education

Officials break ground on new Ivy Tech Logansport campus

by Carla Knapp

Pharos-Tribune associate editor

Seven speakers and thirty minutes into Wednesday’s program, Logansport Mayor Mike Fincher brought a hush over the large crowd.

“If you stop and listen real closely, the sound you hear off in the distance is Logansport and Cass County starting to turn the corner,” said Fincher. “We’re headed in a new direction.”

Fincher was addressing a crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony and road dedication for the new Ivy Tech Community College Logansport Campus. The ceremony, held near the intersection of 18th Street and U.S. 24/35 on land donated for the campus by the Jones family, drew more than 100 local and state officials, community members and college faculty and staff.

Stephen Daily, Ivy Tech Region 5 Director, lauded efforts by Fincher as well as Sen. Tom Weatherwax and Rep. Rich McClain, who also spoke at Wednesday’s ceremony, to make the new campus a reality.

“... This facility is a perfect example of what you can do when you put politics aside and work together to take advantage of opportunities,” said Daily.

This will be the fifth home for the Logansport campus, having previously been housed in the former Cass County Garage on Water Street, the Loner’s Lumber Company office, St. Joseph’s Hospital and currently the Eastgate Plaza facility.

Formal construction efforts on the new 81,000-square-foot facility will begin before the end of the month, said Regional Facility Director Mike Karickhoff.

The $16.6 million project will involve 14 construction contracts, three of which have already been awarded. The remaining contracts will be awarded on May 16.

Karickhoff said Ivy Tech plans to begin holding classes in the new facility by January 2010.

When completed, the building will hold 11 classrooms, three computer labs, several specialty labs, a library, fitness center, bookstore, commons area, community hall and offices for workforce and economic development, business and student affairs.

However, the full scale of the project goes beyond the building and also includes two new access roads, utilities and landscaping, which together with the 60 acres of land total a value of $20 million.

During the ceremony, Fincher delivered a proclamation making Wednesday Ivy Tech day in Logansport and also dedicated the two roads. The road to the building will be called Ivy Tech Drive and the road off of 18th Street will be called Don Heckard Boulevard in recognition of his contributions to the Logansport campus.

In total, the facility will accommodate 2,000 students or more, which Daily and Ivy Tech President Tom Snyder both acknowledged is necessary because the enrollment at the Logansport campus has increased 75 percent in the last five years. In Region 5, which includes Cass, Fulton, Howard, Miami, Tipton and Wabash counties, increased 67 percent from spring 2001 to spring 2006.

“The reason we have a new building in this community is because we need it,” said Daily. “The reason we need it is because enrollment has grown very consistently in the last 15 years.”