Pressure's on for next Ivy Tech president

Ivy Tech Community College President Tom Snyder sees the angry, disaffected blue-collar workers. He sees the discontented college graduates saddled with debt.

He thinks the community college could be the answer to those concerns.

But Ivy Tech was supposed to be the solution to a lot of Hoosier problems. And so far, state officials say, it hasn't really delivered.

They're counting on Ivy Tech's next leader to change that.

Of Ivy Tech's 170,000 students, too many take too long with their studies, experts say, and rack up too much debt — with too few ever obtaining any kind of diploma at all.

Ivy Tech has the potential to improve Indiana's lagging median incomes and sluggish college attainment rate. It could help people searching for a better future, and it could help employers who say too many good-paying, middle-skill jobs go unfilled.

Instead, its lackluster performance has led to a state review of the institution, which has focused on holding the college accountable for student outcomes.

​“The legacy I leave behind,” Snyder said, "is there's a lot of work to be done."

Snyder leaves the college this year, after a nine-year tenure overseeing explosive growth at Ivy Tech amid persistently low graduation rates. Trustees are expected to select the next college president in May from three finalists whom the search committee has selected but declined to name publicly.

Shaping the search: a sense of economic and educational urgency, paired with political intrigue.

Will trustees follow the inclination of Gov. Mike Pence, who appointed them, to select his former lieutenant governor, Sue Ellspermann?

Or will they look to an experienced higher educational professional, such as James King from the Tennessee technical colleges, who Snyder describes as a mentor for Ivy Tech?

Whoever the pick, business leaders, educational experts and the governor himself  all have called for a successor who can do better for Ivy Tech students.

“There’s no doubt that the lift of Ivy Tech has been incredibly heavy, that our expectations have been high, ... that we've made progress," said Teresa Lubbers, commissioner for Indiana higher education. "But we’re clearly not where we need to be in making sure more students who choose Ivy Tech reach their goals.”

Ivy Tech red flags 15% of its programs

Right-sizing the college

The first challenge Ivy Tech's next president will inherit: How do you serve so many students, from so many varying backgrounds, pursuing so many different goals?

Ivy Tech is the nexus of just-graduated high schoolers and working adults returning for degrees. It serves students who need just a certain couple of credits, students who intend to transfer to a four-year college, and students who need industry certificates or associate degrees.

Its students are largely dependent on financial aid and often unprepared for college-level courses.

It goes into high schools to teach college-level courses. It goes into businesses to teach continuing education.

During Snyder's presidency, the college rocketed from about 100,000 students to 170,000 students, thanks in part to the recession.

"Now everyone knows there's a community college, and it's within shouting distance of where they live," Snyder said.

The way people think about college, too, Snyder said, dramatically changed. The expectation of going to college grew amid younger generations, the need for a degree increased in the workforce, and colleges began paying more attention to completion rates and affordability.

But even with getting more students in the door, Ivy Tech's rapid expansion met criticism. In 2013, Ivy Tech said it wasn't sure it could financially support all of its locations, an argument Snyder tried to leverage unsuccessfully for more state funding.

That's another challenge the next president will inherit: Is Ivy Tech right-sized?

State Sen. Luke Kenley led the effort for a state review of Ivy Tech's performance, linked to questions over how much state funding the college deserved. He said he didn’t know there would be such a great demand for education close to where people live and work.

“I was pretty astounded by the growth that we had and demand that was there," said Kenley, a Republican from Noblesville. "I think we’ve been drinking water out of a bucket rather than a glass. That sort of explains or justifies why it happened the way it has.”

But he worries students aren't getting their money's worth, and the state isn't getting the full performance out of students it's supporting.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly declined to give Ivy Tech funding for major building projects — including nearly $23 million to become part of a medical school in Evansville — in the current state budget, citing concerns over the college's low graduation rates. The state worked with Ivy Tech to build a system where the college can review programs with low enrollments or graduation rates to determine if they need to be revised or eliminated.

Lubbers said the review amounts to “making sure that on a regular, more real-time basis we’re providing the kind of workforce that Indiana needs and the kind of job opportunities that individuals deserve to have.”

In its first report, Ivy Tech flagged 19 percent of its programs as either under review or recently restructured.

This legislative session lawmakers also built a greater partnership between Ivy Tech and the state's Department of Workforce Development, so job placement data and labor market outcomes also are intertwined into reviews of the college's programs.

“We have to make Ivy Tech successful, and I believe the way you do that is be able to make certain that their education and training results in economic outcomes or a job,” said Indiana Commissioner for Workforce Development Steve Braun.

'Doubling down' on grad rates

The greatest challenge that Ivy Tech's next president faces has plagued the college for years: dismal graduation rates.

Ivy Tech, stakeholders acknowledge, is a complex enterprise. The college and its students are not like a traditional four-year institution like Indiana University.

But is that an excuse for just 5 percent of Ivy Tech's full-time students completing a degree within two years?

After six years, according to state data, about a quarter of part-time students have graduated.

Snyder said the answer is more funding, arguing the state lags behind in the money it sends to higher learning.

"If you want to have more impact with low-income students, you may have to invest more money," Snyder said. "This is a state that's not investing much in higher education."

"Every dollar we don't invest in this group of Indiana low-income students is going to keep Indiana low-income," he added.

Some of the changes that Ivy Tech initially tried, such as mandatory orientation sessions, didn't work. But more recent strategies — such as eliminating the delay in starting college-level courses because of remedial classes — could yield positive results in the coming years, Snyder said.

Lubbers thinks the solution is nuanced. She said the state needs to make sure more students go to Ivy Tech prepared by identifying high schoolers that aren't college ready and remediating them. Once a student goes to Ivy Tech, they need a clearer plan to obtain their degree and the college needs to offer more counseling services for students to identify those who might leave before they finish their program.

“I think now we need to really double down on finding ways to be more successful for those students," Lubbers said. "I think (Snyder has) been a strong leader with strong passions that has served Ivy Tech with great commitment and now we’re ready to move to the next chapter.”

The frustration with Ivy Tech's struggles is often palpable.

"I'm impatient. I think some of these things they could've adopted earlier and made more of an impact," said Stan Jones, president of Complete College America, who was also formerly an Indiana commissioner of higher education, state lawmaker and senior adviser to then-Gov. Evan Bayh.

Jones calls himself "both a cheerleader and a critic of Ivy Tech."

"I think Ivy Tech — it frustrates me, too, very much so — has a long way to go, but in several areas, they're showing real promise," he said. "With some new leadership that will embrace these changes and others, I think it would dramatically turn Ivy Tech in the right direction."

Call Star reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.

Call Star reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @indystarchelsea.