MUNCIE — Ivy Tech Community College has hired a national design and infrastructure management firm to create a road map for future growth of the college's East Central and Richmond regions.
Woolpert, which has 25 offices nationwide, will create a master site plan for the East Central Region at a cost of $146,724 and another plan for the Richmond region for $79,005.
Woolpert also offered, at an extra cost of $12,500, to identify opportunities for the college's campuses to serve as "life boats" for their communities during disasters. That project would have created "resilience hubs" to function as community gathering places during emergencies and interruptions in services and outfit such facilities with access to key services like water and electricity for charging cell phones. But the college did not select that option.
Ivy Tech already has constructed new campuses in New Castle, Marion and Anderson. Thus, much of the plan is expected to focus on Muncie learning sites — the outdated Cowan Road campus, the downtown campus that includes The Fisher Building, the Patterson Building, the unoccupied former Muncie Star/Muncie Evening Press building at 125 S. High St., and the Howard Street annex, a former bus station at Howard and Liberty streets.
Other learning sites in the region include the John Jay Learning Center in Portland, the Hinds Career Center in Elwood, the Anderson north campus in Alexandria, lab space at Jay County and New Castle Chrysler high schools, and several locations in Anderson, as well as the Connersville Instructional Center and Johnson and McDaniel halls in Richmond.
The East Central and Richmond regions serve students in 12 counties: Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Madison, Grant, Fayette, Rush, Franklin, Union and Wayne.