Carole Carlson and Meredith Colias-Pete, Post-Tribune
Ivy Tech is closing its Gary campus at 1440 E. 35th Ave. and relocating students to a new arts and sciences building on Broadway it shares with Indiana University Northwest, officials said.
It also plans to shift its trades program to the Gary Area Career Center, if an agreement with the Gary Community School Corp. is finalized. The career center is directly east of the Ivy Tech campus at 1440 E. 35th Ave.
The moves will leave the Gary campus vacant when fall classes begin.
Ivy Tech Lake County President Louie Gonzalez said he signed a $17 million long-term lease with IUN for 38 percent of the space in the new $45 million Arts and Sciences building that opened in August at 35th Avenue and Broadway.
"We're still in Gary, alive and well and thriving. We're not closing, selling and moving on. We're anticipating more students, more growth," Gonzalez said. "My job is to put us in the black."
When the new Arts and Sciences building opened in August, Ivy Tech already had about 900 students there taking courses. Originally, officials said the building would be shared by both schools with Ivy Tech using about 30 percent of the new building for classes.
Gonzalez, named Ivy Tech's Lake County president in a June 2017 reorganization, said the decision to close the Gary campus about a mile east of IUN, was his idea.
"I realized if we're going to be a comprehensive community college, we're going to have to do something bold," he said. "We can't continue under the same model."
Gonzalez is facing a $2 million budget deficit that he attributed to the vibrant economy that's kept potential students employed and out of classrooms.
"Our biggest competitor is the job market," he said. He said many Ivy Tech students work one or two jobs and aren't taking as many credit hours as in the past.
The closing wasn't widely known until recently.
Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said she didn't hear about it until the end of December. She said the city doesn't need another vacant building that leads to blight. "I am very hopeful that we can work with the state to find another use for the building," she said Tuesday.
Freeman-Wilson said she told Gonzalez and Ivy President Sue Ellspermann it's important for residents to have access to Ivy Tech in their city. "I am optimistic about their partnership with IUN and the Gary Community School Corp.," she said.
Over the last few years as advanced classes and several programs were shifted elsewhere, students and staff took it as a sign the Gary campus would eventually close.
"You knew it was coming," said student Keyia Alexander, 22, a human services major, attending since 2015.
Most were emailed in January that the campus would close. Alexander said she found out through word-of-mouth.
Since the IUN building opened in August, her classes had already moved there. She plans to eventually transfer to IUN, she said.
"I think it's a bigger chance for all of us to learn and be on the same page," she said. "Some of us do want to transfer to IUN. I think it's kinda good. But, I also think it's not good, because some of us won't have the same resources" like smaller classes and personalized attention from professors.
Gonzalez said the opportunity to house students in a new, modern building was too good to ignore. Ivy Tech's current campus has two buildings. He said its south building is about 50 years old. The north building was built during the 1990s, he said.
"When they see the IUN campus, it changes the dynamics," Gonzalez said of new students. "They see a college campus. We want to attract a different market as well," he said.
The new 126,000-square-foot Arts and Sciences building anchors 35th Avenue and Broadway and faces the main campus to the west. There's a Gary Public Transit Corp. stop off Ivy Tech's front door. When students walk in the door they can ask questions to workers in an express enrollment hub. Gonzalez said waiting in long lines for information was one of the complaints students made in a campus survey.
Ivy Tech also has an articulation agreement with IUN that allows students to move seamlessly into the four-year university.
IUN has had no "involvement or knowledge" on what will happen with Ivy Tech's 35th Avenue campus, but welcomes its partnership in the new Arts & Sciences building, said university spokesman Tom Wyatt.
Gonzalez, who also oversees Ivy Tech campuses in Crown Point and East Chicago, said maintenance issues were beginning to multiply on its Gary campus, especially in its older south building.
Installing newer technology for students became more costly and difficult, according to Gonzalez.
At its new location on Broadway, Ivy Tech students have three high-tech labs for chemistry and biology courses.
"In my book, it's a dream," Gonzalez said of the new Broadway location. He said faculty and staff have been migrating west to the new building and more than 100 classes are now there.
As for the move to the Gary Area Career Center, Gonzalez said he was impressed with the center's size, enabling Ivy Tech to expand its programs like welding, which he cited as its most popular program.
The career center could also provide a feeder system for future Ivy Tech students, said Keisha White, Ivy Tech vice chancellor for student enrollment. "We're hoping to work out dual credit options."
"We were limited in workforce alignment courses at the current facility," said Gonzalez. "People are looking for short-term programs and to get a certification in four to six weeks – to give them a leg up to apply for positions."
Gonzalez said he hopes the Gary campus property can be repurposed by another venture. He said there's already some interest in the property.
"I think she (Freeman-Wilson) had healthy skepticism," said Gonzalez. "We're counting on our investment here. People want easy access and it's aligned with a major partner like Indiana University."
"I believe this is best for the city of Gary and community and also for surrounding communities," he said.