Ivy Tech Terre Haute is already making plans to re-submit a capital funding request during the 2025 legislative session for a new building and renovation project on the main campus.
The project, now estimated to cost $67 million, would involve a new, two-story building that would house student services and many in-demand educational programs. It would be 78,000 square feet.
The existing two-story building on the north side of the main campus would undergo an extensive renovation to house health sciences and nursing programs.
The School of Nursing is currently housed in the Tech LAB at the south campus in the Vigo County Industrial Park.
The proposal still has to be approved by the Ivy Tech state board of trustees before it can proceed; it will be presented to the state board in August.
Lea Anne Crooks, Ivy Tech Terre Haute chancellor, had some good news to share with the regional board of trustees Friday.
During the 2023 General Assembly, the Terre Haute project was ranked fourth among the community college’s capital requests.
For the 2025 session, an Ivy Tech statewide facility committee has given the Terre Haute project priority status, Crooks said.
The hope is the state Ivy Tech board will approve that recommendation and make it the top priority for Ivy Tech capital funding requests when it meets in August.
“I feel we are in a good spot,” Crooks told the regional board. Typically, Ivy Tech’s top-ranked capital project is funded, she said.
Board member Steve Holman responded, “I think that’s very exciting.”
Ivy Tech is working through internal steps in preparation for the potential legislative ask in the 2025 session, a budget-writing year.
If the legislature were to approve funding for the project, “I think it will be a transformational learning environment for our students,” Crooks said after Friday’s meeting.
While the structural plan is the same as developed in 2022, some aspects of the project could change as to where things are located after discussion with different groups, Crooks said.
If the project is approved, the original 1967 structure (Isaacs building) and the 1985 building (New Technology Center) that faces U.S. 41 would be razed and the new structure would extend into the west parking lot. Nearly everything south of the auditorium would be demolished.
The proposed new building would house student services including admissions, recruitment and advising offices. It would house classrooms for programs including information technology, business and logistics, education and criminal justice.
The renovations of the existing two-story building, which would be used by health sciences and nursing, would create a modern, hospital-type environment.
The project would reduce the local college’s footprint by 16,000 square feet, with more efficient use of space, officials say.
It also would create a clear main entrance and open up expansion opportunities for the south campus in the industrial park.
The project “would increase the public image of the institution with a facility like this,” Crooks said.
Crooks also outlined a preliminary project timeline, if the Legislature approved the project for funding in the first year of the biennium.
Under that “perfect world” scenario, construction could start in 2026 with project completion in 2028.
