June 17, 2007

Our position: Thomas Snyder, along with state leaders, must work hard to fulfill the community college's educational and economic mission.

Thomas Snyder went through one of the most controversial selection processes for an Indiana college president in recent memory when he was chosen to succeed Gerald Lamkin as head of Ivy Tech Community College over several candidates, including now-departed insider Carol D'Amico.

Now that he's taking over the job, he must deal with arduous challenges facing the school in its role of attacking the state's twin crises of low educational achievement and stagnant economic development.

Snyder must call on his experience running auto parts maker Remy International; and at the same time, he must show some deference to the college's stakeholders, who often hold real political power within -- and outside -- of it. And state officials must help improve the prospects of success by continuing reform of K-12 and higher education across the board.

Those new obstacles result from Ivy Tech's evolution from humble vocational school to community college system, much of it spurred by Lamkin's successful planning and politicking during his 24-year tenure.

A two-fold increase in full-time students between the 1996-97 and 2005-06 school years, along with fast growth in its overall enrollment, means that Ivy Tech is giving more service than ever. But as Snyder points out, continuing that rapid growth -- and fulfilling the job of raising the state's level of educational attainment -- means luring thousands of high school graduates who don't attend college and the 17,000 or so young Hoosiers who drop out of high school every year.

This means taking in students poorly prepared for the rigors of higher education. That resulted in an abysmally low 9 percent of Ivy Tech students receiving their two-year degrees in 2003, the latest year for which statistics were available, according to spokesman Jeffrey Fanter. And of 2006 graduates, 62 percent had taken at least one remedial course. So the school struggles to boost its graduation rate because it's doing the work that should have been done at the K-12 level.

Designated by the General Assembly in 2005 as the primary source for two-year associate's degrees, Ivy Tech is supposed to make college more affordable, especially for those from poor families. This, however, requires getting the state's four-year colleges, which hand out 41 percent of two-year degrees (compared to the nationwide average of 10 percent), to finally give up their own lucrative programs and accept Ivy Tech's transferring students. That's still a challenge.

The college's 23 campuses awarded some 7,500 certifications in 2006, a seven-fold increase over 2001, thus burnishing Ivy Tech's reputation as the state's jobs-training center of choice. And, thanks to its partnerships with such employers as publishing giant Pearson and Federal Express, it is training 22,000 workers this year alone.

This helps the state lure new employers. It also expands the school's longtime role of providing adult education, an even more important mission now that the state -- led by Higher Education Commissioner Stan Jones -- has focused attention on the high school dropout crisis. Yet the state does a poor job of helping Ivy Tech in that effort. By law, the $24 million a year in state and federal adult education subsidies is directed exclusively to 43 public school districts and the Department of Correction. Funding that would be best devoted to Ivy Tech is wasted on poor-performing programs.

Meanwhile, the school's reputation for wheeling and dealing at the Statehouse, earned during Lamkin's tenure as he lured such powerhouses as House Speaker Patrick Bauer into his direct employ, also subjects it to accusations of favoritism from rival schools. This perception, along with such realities as the additional subsidies given Ivy Tech during the recession earlier this decade, complicates its effort to win new political supporters.

Snyder managed to expand Remy after it was spun off from General Motors in 2004. He will need his business skills and will have to add some new ones -- including political savvy -- in order to steer Ivy Tech through its challenges and deal with all of its stakeholders.

The school must also do a better job of collecting data. Right now, it can't even figure out how many students transfer to four-year colleges. While installation of a $30 million computer system will help, Ivy Tech also must come up with metrics to make it useful.

The bottom line is, Snyder can't help Ivy Tech fulfill its roles on his own.

The General Assembly must finally tell four-year universities to get out of the business of offering two-year degrees, which would help steer students not ready to attend four-year schools to Ivy Tech and bring down the costs. One step in that direction was achieved this year when 72 courses offered by all state colleges were harmonized in order to make it easier for students to transfer from one school to another.

Diverting adult education funding from K-12 schools to Ivy Tech -- a move easily achievable by changing state law -- would fortify the one system that actually reaches adults and help bring down Ivy Tech's fees