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Whether or not there's a deadline depends on who you talk to, but everyone does agree on one fact - Ivy Tech's days at Lakeview Middle School are numbered.
Joann Walgamuth, dean of Ivy Tech's Warsaw campus, believes the college has until its lease is up - in June 2002 - to find a new home. Dr. Lee Harman, superintendent of Warsaw Community Schools, says there's no hurry. Dr. Steve Grill, former Ivy Tech dean, says it was always understood that the Lakeview site was temporary.
Whatever the reason, moving out of Lakeview is an inevitability that Ivy Tech must face. To muster community support for the move, and to help find a suitable facility, Walgamuth and Dr. Virginia Calvin, regional Ivy Tech chancellor, met last week with business and community leaders to discuss the situation.
Adding to the problem, Walgamuth said, is the fact that no financial help will come from the state until at least 2003.
"The Legislature decides how much we get," Walgamuth said. "They meet and work on this budget every two years." For the Legislature to consider Ivy Tech's budget, she said, the budget must be on the agenda, and "it's too late to get it on this year's agenda," though it can be discussed in subcommittee. The next chance for it to come up will be 2003.
"There's time to work it out," Harman said Tuesday. "We're reaching a point in the next few years where we might need more space" at the school for Lakeview students, but there's no rush.
"We're not growing by large numbers, we're really pretty stable, but we do see a need in the next few years," Harman said.
He also said he was under the impression that Ivy Tech is looking for a larger building as well.
"From what they have indicated, they're searching for a facility that will give them more square footage so they can grow their enrollment," he said. "We're going to try to work with them to make that transition easy on them."
Ivy Tech's lease is renewable every two years, and since it was just renewed in June, it will be good until June 2002. The college leases the facility from Warsaw Community Schools for $55,000 per year.
Ivy Tech State College began offering classes at First National Bank in Warsaw in 1978; the campus moved to its current Lakeview facility in 1991. Approximately 500 students, both full- and part-time, now attend the school, which also has approximately 25 staff and adjunct faculty members.
"From the day we entered the building, the discussion was always that this is a temporary situation," said Grill, who was dean at Ivy Tech's Warsaw campus from 1990 to 1998. "We had such a nice situation there it was always, 'Let's pretend it's never going to end.'"
But that end is now in sight, and Walgamuth said she's scrambling for a solution.
The business leaders at last week's meeting assured Walgamuth and Calvin that they support Ivy Tech and its mission in Warsaw. What Walgamuth and Calvin want now is tangible proof of that support.
"Ivy Tech is not a business, it's a not-for-profit," Walgamuth said. "Ideally, some business would come forward and give us a building."
