ANDERSON, In – On Thursday, August 6, Ivy Tech Community College, the country’s largest community college, will host a ceremony to celebrate the opening of its new Anderson campus. The event will take place at the new campus located at 815 E 60th St in Anderson, Indiana. The reception will begin at 2:30pm and will be followed by a ribbon cutting at 3:00pm. Directly following the ceremony, guests may tour the new facility until 5:00pm.
Speakers at the ceremony will include College President Tom Synder, Chancellor Dr. Andrew Bowne and Regional Trustee, Nancy Ricker of Ricker’s.
Ricker’s announced that it will donate a total of $500,000 to Ivy Tech, and its new Anderson campus, as a way to give back to the community in which it found its start. This gift marks Ricker’s largest single philanthropic contribution to date.
The contribution will go to support Ivy Tech’s new 85,000 square-foot, $24,000,000 facility adjacent to Interstate 69 in Anderson, Indiana. The new location, Anderson’s fourth Ivy Tech campus, will house the Schools of Business, Technology, Public Services and Liberal Arts. The space also features the Advanced Automation and Robotics Lab, Simulation Data Control Center and multiple collaborative classrooms; all equipped with the latest wireless technology.
A portion of Ricker’s donation will go to fund Ricker’s Student Commons. The commons feature two floors of open space and three sides of floor to ceiling glass that overlook a three-acre pond. It will be a visual and communal focal point for students, staff and visitors to gather, visit, study, eat and relax.
“It is apparent that the Ricker Family values this community and embraces the role education brings to economic development by empowering individuals with the tools they need to be successful,” said Dr. James Willey, President of the Anderson Campus of Ivy Tech.
The new campus will help ease overcrowding at the other three campuses located on 53rd Street, 38th Street and at the Anderson North Conference Center on Indiana 9. The project broke ground in April of 2014 and will open this month for fall classes.
“Supporting Ivy Tech is a way for us to give back to the community where we started our company,” said Nancy Ricker, the company’s Co-founder. “In addition, we have first hand experience understanding the needs of Ivy Tech because many of our employees are also Ivy Tech students. Most importantly, our state needs more dollars directed to education to create better paying jobs – not only for Ricker’s employees, but for all Hoosier’s.”
The new Anderson campus, with its state-of-the-art facilities, will be a great tool to equip these Hoosier’s with the skill sets they need to advance to better paying jobs in Indiana.
