By TARA HETTINGER, Evening News
Tara.Hettinger@newsandtribune.com
The possible inclement weather didn't dampen spirits at Ivy Tech Community College in Sellersburg on Tuesday as people celebrated not only a groundbreaking on a major construction project, but also more than $1.5 million in donations to the campus.
Chancellor Rita Hudson Shourds made the announcement about the $1 million donation from the Paul Ogle Foundation and an additional $500,000 from an anonymous source during the ceremony, which was inside the school's heating and air conditioning class area.
That money will go toward furniture, equipment and the renovations, said Hudson Shourds. The school also received $60,000 from Judge Carlton Sanders and his wife, Sue, which will go toward creating a mock courtroom for the school's criminal justice program.
That is in addition to the already planned $20 million renovation and construction project. The project will include a new 78,500-square-foot building along with interior and exterior renovation of the current main campus facility. This includes turning the heating and air conditioning room to a technology area that will look more like a coffee shop.
The school's library also will be expanded by 1,000 square feet and two campus quadrangles will increase park-like green space.
All this comes as the school continues to break enrollment records. For fall semester, the school started with 4,911 students, which is a 14.7 percent increase over last fall.
"We're shoulder to shoulder and at the rate we're growing, this hasn't come soon enough," said Robert Schafer, student body president. "I'm actually excited the people [after me] will have the room they need to do what they need to do."
He said now classes have to schedule times to use lab space, which won't be an issue once the project is completed, because of it having many more classrooms and lab areas.
This renovation will be the first the campus has seen since 1989, a time when George Bush Sr., became president and a gallon of gas cost less than $1, Hudson Shourds said.
"This day has been a long time coming - too long, because our student, faculty, staff and community desperately need and deserve the campus we are about to build," she said at the ceremony. " If it sounds like so much for one expansion project, that's because it is.
"We have 20 years of ideas, dreams and ambitions stuffed into this new campus. We have every intention of maximizing every cent, pursuing every innovation and doing everything in our power to make sure we don't have to wait another 20 years for a new building."
Hudson Shourds thanked those who helped the campus get to where it is, including Ned Pfau, who she called the father of the college. Pfau helped start the college and put up money to help secure the land where the campus is located.
He said the groundbreaking was a big day not only for the college, but for Southern Indiana.
"There's a strong recognition for the need for education and how it partners up with economic development and with jobs," Pfau said. "It's the future of Southern Indiana."
Construction officially began this summer with the creation of a new parking lot. It's slated to be finished by spring 2011.
However, Pfau believes that at the rate the college is growing, construction may need to be expanded again by the time the project is completed.