Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne’s path to realignment is a little more clear with the passage of the state budget April 21. According to university officials, IPFW can tread forward more confidently toward realignment knowing that concerns about initial transition costs have been addressed.
The two-year budget provides increased funding to Purdue University of 0.8 percent in 2018 and 1.9 percent in 2019 for its part of the campus, said Tony Hahn, director of state relations and policy analysis for Purdue.
“Now that there’s some certainty as to the future, there is some relief. We know the path forward,” Hahn said. “With any transition, there’s unknowns as to the detail of the execution, but we can see the path of where we’re going and we’re very excited about it. Once some of those other details start to fall into place through the transition, I think it’s going to be positive for everybody – for Purdue and for the IU component as well.”
Earlier in the legislative session, there were concerns that Purdue would lose funding because it would lose more than 1,000 students to IU in the realignment, said Kim Wagner, spokesperson for IPFW. That ended up not being the case.
“We were very thankful to have our budget maintained and actually increase a little bit both for the fiscal year 2018 and 2019,” she said. “We’re really thankful for that, and we’re just glad we have those funds to help us continue to move forward.”
In addition, $1 million was added to the budget for the Purdue School of Music. Wagner said the university has been working with Chuck Surack, founder of Sweetwater Sound, on a vision for the endeavor, which will be the first school of music in the Purdue system.
“That million dollars will significantly impact the expansion of that program and build upon that already strong foundation,” she said.
The budget also provides $2.85 million to Indiana University for transition costs and $4.85 million in operating funds for its health sciences program in fiscal year 2019.
While the budget addresses short-term concerns about transition costs, there will be long-term costs associated with the realignment that will be met later down the road, said Andrew Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics.
“While the first year of Purdue University Fort Wayne looks good, in terms of state allocation, when the next budget’s drafted, we will need for that level of funding to be maintained in order for Purdue’s strategy for paying for the transition to work out,” he said.
The Purdue University Board of Trustees approved a resolution designating Purdue University Fort Wayne as the new name for its Allen County campus April 21. The change comes as Purdue and Indiana University work to realign IPFW into two separate institutions. The new name will not take effect until the realignment goes into effect July 1, 2018.
Currently at IPFW there are 4,100 Purdue degree seeking students and 7,000 IU degree seeking students. Those numbers will shift when the universities officially split with all IU programs with the exception of dental hygiene and medical imaging being transferred to Purdue and Purdue’s nursing program being transferred to IU.
According to Wagner, so far admissions are 32 percent ahead of where they were last year. IPFW’s admissions goal for Fall 2017 is 5,000, and the university is already about 85 percent there, she said.
While the realignment doesn’t go into effect for more than a year, IPFW is already taking steps to prepare, said Downs.
“In August, we begin admitting students for the following academic year, so students need to understand where they’re going and what their degrees might be,” he said.
“So, although we don’t officially break until July 2018, we have to have a good understanding of what that separate existence looks like.”