Students in the northern counties of Ivy Tech’s Lafayette Region will have more options for taking a class. The community college is opening an instructional center in Morocco.
Andrew Muffett is the site director for it and the downtown Lafayette location. He says they will have four to five classrooms in the Newton County Government Center.
“They are providing the space. Basically, we have a memorandum of understanding of how we use the space,” he says. “Those classrooms are given to us as open space to do the courses at the moment – definitely a low-cost option.”
Ivy Tech is offering up to 16 courses this fall from the schools of Liberal Arts and Science, and Business.
Muffett says there’s a need for Ivy Tech to have a physical presence in the northern part of the region.
“There are 140 people that take courses (in Lafayette) from Newton County. There are also over 200 people who drive from Jasper County to this area.”
He says there are roughly 300 high school graduates each year from Newton and Jasper counties, so he doesn’t think filling seats will be very difficult.
Newton County Commissioner Kyle Conrad says business owners were eager to get the community college back. The Lafayette Region had offered classes there before the college transferred that to the Gary Region, which Conrad says was not as interested in providing services there.
“This will be a great opportunity for county residents to pursue a degree,” he says. “Area businesses want an opportunity to send employees to further their education too.”
Conrad says county government might offer to reimburse employees who take classes that improve their work skills.
In addition to the main campus in Lafayette, the region's instructional sites are in downtown Lafayette, Crawfordsville and Monticello. The Frankfort Instruction Center will open this fall as well.