Wednesday, October 12, 2016
To: Sue Ellspermann, President Ivy Tech
From: Gail Riecken, State Representative, D 77
Dear President Ellspermann,
Please consider this letter as an introduction to a conversation I hope we might have in the very near future.
Last week I read an article in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette that confirmed my worst fears. The article leads me to believe that the Ivy Tech facility in Evansville as part of the IU medical center is not being recommended by Ivy Tech for funding in the next state biennium budget. There are six projects statewide, five most likely to be funded; Evansville not being one of them.
If true, is there a possibility of reconsidering this position?
When the project was promoted to the legislature, there was an assurance made to me from Ivy Tech (and I assume to other legislators) that Ivy Tech was committed to the medical school project at the new campus.
Even when the legislature did not fund the Ivy Tech facility in the last budget, it had nothing to do with this project.
Ivy Tech needs to keep its commitment to Evansville.
If Ivy Tech is not brought into the collaborative concept of this new training opportunity at the medical center campus, it will be an opportunity missed for our young people.
In fact, 75% or more of the enrollment on the medical center campus was to be Ivy Tech students!
I could mention the millions of dollars going into this project now benefiting, as I am told, less than 200 students, but that is for a later day.
Today my purpose is asking Ivy Tech to stand by their commitment. Unless other legislators learned something different prior to the final vote in the legislature, that commitment should stand.
Yours truly,
Gail Riecken,
State Representative, District 77