SOUTH BEND — Ivy Tech Community College is refusing to release information about recent departures of top regional administrators and changed its answer about whether the area’s financial director quit, was fired or was pressured to resign.
And the college’s leaders vow in the future to release no information about employee resignations and terminations, a stance that violates state law and an opinion from Indiana’s public access counselor that the state-funded college must make the information available to the public.
Meanwhile, Ivy Tech’s four-county region, which includes the South Bend, Elkhart County and Warsaw campuses, faces a projected $2.67 million budget deficit for this fiscal year that may result in employee layoffs.
Karen Vargo, executive director of finance, facilities and security for the college’s north-central region, left the college on Sept. 30. Her salary was $116,091 per year.
The South Bend Tribune on Oct. 11 filed a public records request with Thomas Coley, chancellor of the north-central region, requesting information about Vargo’s status. If Vargo was suspended, demoted or terminated, the factual basis for that discipline is required to be public under Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.
The records request was forwarded to Jeff Fanter, a senior vice president with the college’s central office in Indianapolis.
In an Oct. 19 email, Fanter provided Vargo’s dates of employment with the college — January 2011 to Sept. 30, 2016 — and disclosed her salary.