Associated Press

New Ivy Tech president visiting campuses across state

The Associated Press
May 29, 2007 12:02 AM

Ivy Tech Community College's incoming president has spent much of his time in recent weeks traveling the state as he prepares to take charge of the school.

Thomas Snyder met with teachers and staff members along with local business and government leaders during a visit last week to the Ivy Tech campus in Sellersburg, one of 23 campuses the school has around the state.

Snyder takes office on July 1 and said the meetings he has been having are part of a "listening tour to find out what people were saying about Ivy Tech." He said he was looking for ways to boost Ivy Tech's job-training programs and to work with other organizations on the problem of high school dropouts.

"There's a real concern and we've really got to aggressively work with the high schools _ both in pre-dropout, dropout and graduation _ to get a stronger focus on getting them post-high school training," Snyder said.

Snyder's selection met with criticism from some Ivy Tech trustees over the process that picked the former president of Anderson-based auto parts supplier Remy International Inc. to succeed Gerald Lamkin, who has spent 25 years as Ivy Tech's president.

Snyder said he believed the controversy might have helped draw attention to the school, which educates more than 100,000 people a year in more than 150 programs.

"It's been public," he said. "And since then people have been coming to me and saying they didn't understand the size and the growth of Ivy Tech."

State Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville, said he was impressed with Snyder after meeting him at the campus in Sellersburg, about 10 miles north of Louisville, Ky.

"He was very approachable and he seems to be a commonsense person," Stemler said.

Finding ways to pay for projects such as a planned $20 million classroom building at the Sellersburg campus will be among the tasks Snyder will face.

"It's a workforce-development issue," he said. "If we want people to meet the needs of these companies we're recruiting, you can't send them to school in a place that has no room."

Pat Kiely, president of the Indiana Manufacturers Association, said his organization had hoped the new Ivy Tech president would be someone with more of a business background than an academic background.
"A true community college has to be really tied to the work world or it's not meeting its purpose," said Kiely, who has known Snyder for decades. "And the growth of Ivy Tech demands a little different business model. They have had some growing pains and they need someone who brings a larger-enterprise view to the organization. Tom has that."