Ivy Tech pleads its case for no more funding cuts

By Mike Leonard, Herald-Times

mleonard@heraldt.com

Early this month, when Gov. Mitch Daniels called for $150 million in cuts from the existing budgets of the state's seven public higher education institutions, it sent an understandable chill through those colleges and universities.

Most had already taken steps to freeze salaries and cut costs as a result of the ongoing national recession and declining state revenues.

At the Bloomington campus of Ivy Tech Community College, Chancellor John Whikehart talks about the untenable mandate of "goals in conflict" - the charge to assist with workforce development in a time of high unemployment and increase enrollment in academic courses when the campus has already outgrown its physical space and can't afford to hire more full-time faculty.