Vincennes upset with Ivy Tech

INDIANAPOLIS -- A new two-year Ivy Tech State College history degree program has been approved by state officials over the objections of the interim president of Vincennes University.\nIndiana Commission for Higher Education members on Friday unanimously granted the liberal arts degree for Ivy Tech on a two-year trial basis.\nVincennes Interim President John R. Gregg, whose two-year college provides the liberal arts programs under the statewide community college partnership with Ivy Tech, had opposed the move.\n"They're (Ivy Tech) just trying to muscle us out," Gregg said.\nThe commission's action will allow Ivy Tech to offer the degree at its South Bend, Elkhart and Warsaw campuses starting this fall.\nIt also will mean Ivy Tech can benefit from the tuition the new students pay, rather than Vincennes getting part of the revenue. More than 40 students are expected to enroll initially.\nThe action comes as Vincennes' total enrollment on its two-year residential campus and three satellite campuses fell slightly last fall.\nGregg was speaker of the House when the Legislature passed a plan in 1999 to pair Ivy Tech's technical courses with Vincennes' liberal arts courses at Ivy Tech sites starting in 2000.\nSo far, 10 Ivy Tech sites offer Vincennes courses. But plans were delayed last fall to offer Vincennes courses at the remaining 13 Ivy Tech sites -- including the three approved for the new degree -- due to problems with federal financial aid rules.\nStan Jones, Indiana's higher education commissioner, soon hopes to announce the expansion to the other sites next fall.\nWilliam Kramer, Ivy Tech's vice president of planning and education, said that when the community college initiative is expanded, the courses then would be turned over to Vincennes.\nAfter asking the commission to at least delay approving the degree, Gregg said he was disappointed in its action and hopes it will be true that Vincennes actually will offer the history degree.\nKramer said the new degree builds on a pact two years ago with Indiana University at South Bend that first created a two-year degree in general studies. IU South Bend will accept credits from that program and the history program for its degrees.