IPFW asks state budget committee for more funds

FORT WAYNE -- Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne is making a pitch for more state tax dollars to the State Budget Committee.\nThe committee met at the campus and toured it Friday, hearing administrators request more state funding, including $30 million for an expansion of its student union.\n"I think it's important to understand the kind of job we're doing in northeast Indiana," IPFW Chancellor Michael Wartell said. "It's all an education process. Our legislators are very worried about the state budget, and I can't blame them. But we are only asking for what we need."\nAn increase in funding is also necessary to bridge the gap between IPFW and the state's other universities, Wartell said.\nIndiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Purdue University's main campus in West Lafayette receive the most money, at nearly $15,000 and $10,000 a student, respectively.\nThat's understandable, Wartell said, because those campuses have medical and research programs.\nBut IPFW's $3,821 a student is also much lower than Indiana State University ($8,629), Indiana University-Kokomo ($5,327) and every other public university campus.\n"It's hard for me to imagine why it costs $1,500 more to educate an English major in Kokomo than it does at IPFW," Wartell said.\nAt least one committee member agreed.\n"It seems to me, in Indiana, we ought to pay the same amount for educating a teacher," committee member Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, said. "We ought to pay the same amount for educating a plumber," regardless of the location of the student.\nThe committee will consider the issue further during its fall meeting.