Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) was a public university in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Founded in 1964, IPFW was a cooperatively managed regional campus of two state university systems: Indiana University and Purdue University. IPFW hit its highest enrollment in 2014, with 13,459 undergraduate and postgraduate students IPFW offered more than 200 graduate and undergraduate degree programs through IU or Purdue universities. The university's 14 men's and women's athletic teams competed in Division I of the NCAA Summit League.
On July 1, 2018, the two universities parted company in Fort Wayne. The health sciences programs on the campus became Indiana University Fort Wayne, and the other programs became Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW). About two weeks before the split took effect, the athletic program, which was inherited solely by PFW, changed its branding from Fort Wayne Mastodons to Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons.
History
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|+ style="font-size: 1.25em;" | History at a glance
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!colspan=4 align="left" style="background:#eFeFeF;"| IPFW began as co-located extension campuses via the move to the joint campus in 1964, encompassing the:
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|valign="top"|•
|width="125pt"| Indiana University – Fort Wayne Extension
| Established
| 1917
|-
|valign="top"|•
|width="125pt"| Purdue University – Fort Wayne Extension
| Established
| 1941
|-
!colspan=4 align="left" style="background:#eFeFeF;"| and expanded through the 1976 merger with:
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|valign="top" rowspan=2|•
|width="125pt"| Fort Wayne Art School
| Established
| 1897
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|valign="top" width="125pt"| Fort Wayne Art Institute
| Renamed
| 1966
|-
|
| Type
| private
|}
In 1917, Indiana University started offering courses in downtown Fort Wayne to 142 students in 12 courses. At a separate downtown location, Purdue University permanently established the Purdue University Center in 1941 to provide a site in Fort Wayne for students to begin their undergraduate studies prior to transferring to the West Lafayette main campus to complete their degree.
Under the direction of Purdue University President Frederick Hovde, Indiana University President Herman Wells, IU trustee John Hastings, and Purdue trustee Alfred Kettler Sr., the Indiana University and Purdue University extension centers began merging in 1958 via the formation of the Indiana–Purdue Foundation. To serve the extension centers' now combined mission in Fort Wayne, the Indiana–Purdue Foundation acquired a 99-year lease on agricultural land owned by Allen County to form a campus totaling at the then-suburban northeast edge of Fort Wayne on the eastern bank of the St. Joseph River. Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne opened on September 17, 1964, following nearly two years of construction that began on October 18, 1962. The first all-inclusive building on campus was known as the Education Building, but it has since been renamed Kettler Hall in honor of the combined university's chief advocate. Kettler's vision and passion during the 1950s made IPFW possible. IPFW awarded its first four-year degree in 1968 after awarding two-year degrees through the IU and Purdue Fort Wayne extension centers prior to the formation of the joint IPFW campus. This marked the second time Indiana University had taken over a Purdue healthcare-related institution (the other being Purdue's school of medicine in 1908). The Philosophy and Geosciences departments were closed on January 1, 2017.
Campus
thumb|The Ron Venderly Family Bridge crosses the [[St. Joseph River (Maumee River)|St. Joseph River, connecting the former McKay Family Farm with the Main Academic Campus.]]
IPFW's campus is , encompassing four main campus areas, including 40 buildings which cover . with the land donated between IPFW and Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana.
The former McKay Family Farm, located on the western bank of the St. Joseph River, is bounded by East Coliseum Boulevard to the south, St. Joseph River to the east, and development to the north and west. The Plex indoor soccer facility, Hefner Soccer Complex, Holiday Inn hotel and Steel Dynamics Keith E. Busse Alumni Center are located on this portion of the campus, connected to the main academic campus via the pedestrian-only Ron Venderly Family Bridge. The Holiday Inn operates on property leased from the Indiana–Purdue Foundation and is affiliated with IPFW's Hospitality Management Program.
For three years a grant through the state of Indiana provided bus service between the student housing and the campus but as of 2015 that program was cancelled. Pedestrian and bicycling traffic are also accommodated through the university's direct connection with the Fort Wayne Rivergreenway, a designated National Recreation Trail. The trail is part of the larger Fort Wayne Trail Network.
Architecture
IPFW buildings generally feature brick in various shades of brown or tan, a nod to the brick façades of Purdue University's West Lafayette campus buildings. This contrasts with IPFW's sibling university, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, where the buildings generally feature Indiana limestone façades. The grounds at IPFW are manicured and landscaped as a multiple-hundred-acre park due in part to the generosity of Virginia Ayers, an avid long-time exerciser on campus who willed her estate to IPFW upon her death in 1986 (IPFW University Archives ).
Satellite facilities
IPFW operated a satellite facility in Warsaw, Indiana (about northwest of the main campus) from 2003 to 2013. IPFW Warsaw Center was closed due to improved distance learning technologies and increasing reliance on e-learning.
Administration
IPFW was governed in various ways via the Purdue University Board of Trustees, the Indiana University Board of Trustees, and the IPFW Faculty Senate. Purdue served as the fiscal agent for IPFW's budget and substantially represented IPFW during budgetary negotiations with the Indiana General Assembly. The Indiana–Purdue Foundation owns most of the land that constitutes IPFW and has entered into a 99-year lease with Allen County for additional land for US$1. The IPFW Faculty Senate represented the faculty in the university's shared governance model. The desire was so strong for an expansion of IPFW during the 1980s, the Faculty Senate and Indiana–Purdue Foundation explored full independence from both Purdue and IU, not entirely unlike the University of Southern Indiana's independence from Indiana State University in 1985. Relations with Purdue later improved, as did the level of funding from the State of Indiana. IPFW was designated Indiana's Multisystem Metropolitan University by the Indiana General Assembly in May 2015.
Academics
IPFW was selective, accepting 82.1 percent of applicants for the fall 2012 semester. The university had a student-to-teacher ratio of 17:1, with 51 percent of classes holding 20 or fewer students (2.9 percent had classes with 50 or more students).
! !! Student body !! U.S. Census
|-
! White (non-Hispanic)
| 82.0% || 72.4%
|-
! African American
| 5.1% || 12.6%
|-
! Asian American
| 2.5% || 4.8%
|-
! Native American or Alaska Native
| 1.0% || 0.9%
|-
! Hispanic American (of any race)
| 5.0% || 16.4%
|-
! Two or more races
| 2.7% || 2.9%
|-
! International students
| 1.7% || (N/A)
|}
As of 2014, IPFW enrolled 13,214 students, consisting of 12,674 undergraduate students and 540 postgraduate students. A slight majority of IPFW students were first-generation college students, at 51 percent.
Library system
The Walter E. Helmke Library, the only public university library in northeast Indiana, was dedicated in 1977 and covers . Ground was broken in 2009 for a new US$42.4 million Student Services Complex, extending the second floor Learning Commons through a glass-enclosed elevated walkway, connecting Helmke Library to Walb Student Union and Hilliard Gates Sports Center. In November 2011, the Student Services Complex and Learning Commons were opened for use. The Learning Commons includes librarian research consulting, the Writing Center, IT services computing, and areas for group and individual study.
Helmke houses nearly 1 million printed materials available to students, faculty, staff, and the general public. IPFW students, faculty and staff have 24/7 access to thousands of electronic books, journals and databases, the IU and WorldCat catalogs, and document delivery service. The mDON: mastodon Digital Object Network is a growing digital library of IPFW and local community resources. Special collections highlight photography, distinguished faculty lectures, athletics, and streaming video of the Omnibus Lecture Series. The open access IPFW repository Opus: Research & Creativity at IPFW offers a portal to faculty, staff and student scholarly accomplishments as well as free downloads of many of the materials.
Weekend supplementary education
The IPFW Japanese Saturday School (JSS; フォートウェイン補習授業校 Fōtowein Hoshū Jugyō Kō), a weekend Japanese educational program designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education, was affiliated with IPFW and held its classes on the university campus. It was established in 2006.
Student life
thumb|Waterfield Campus Student Housing in 2008.
Housing
IPFW was predominately a commuter school, with only six percent of the student body living in university-operated housing and 94 percent living off campus; 99 percent of students had cars on campus.
Media
The Communicator was IPFW's student newspaper. College Access Television was operated by IPFW and was one of five educational-access television channels serving Fort Wayne and Allen County. CATV was available on Frontier Communications and Comcast cable systems and served as the higher education cable access channel and provided opportunities in higher education for area residents. The university leased a portion of its East Campus, at the East Coliseum Boulevard and Crescent Avenue intersection, to northeast Indiana's PBS member station, WFWA-TV.
Athletics
The IPFW athletic program, known from 2016 to 2018 as the Fort Wayne Mastodons, competed as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I school in The Summit League, and in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association for men's volleyball. The university participated in 14 men's and women's sports. Before joining NCAA Division I athletics, IPFW competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in NCAA Division II. Following the division of IPFW into separate Purdue and IU universities, the athletic program was rebranded as the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons. The program is now a member of the Horizon League, having moved from the Summit League in July 2020.
Community health programs
The Northeast Indiana Area Health Education Center is a collaboration among the former IPFW College of Health and Human Services, Indiana Area Health Education Center Program office, Indiana University School of Medicine–Fort Wayne, Allen County Health Disparity Coalition, the Dr. Jeff Towles Health Disparities Initiative, and other community healthcare providers and schools serving 19 counties in northeast and east central Indiana. IPFW's role in this collaboration has been inherited by IU Fort Wayne.
The Lafayette Street Family Health Clinic is a nurse-practitioner clinic that family planning services to low-income women and men. The clinic offers most birth control methods, pap smears for cervical cancer screening, pregnancy tests, clinical breast exams, emergency contraception, testing and treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), HIV counseling and testing, and education on reproductive health. The clinic also serves as a remote site for the IUFW Dental Clinic (formerly IPFW Dental Clinic). The on-campus IUFW Dental Clinic offers cleanings, fluoride treatments, and dental sealants, plus full-mouth, bite-wing, and X-rays for the community.
Events
Omnibus Lecture Series
IPFW's Omnibus Lecture Series presented diverse ideas through speakers to the university community and the residents of northeast Indiana. Featured presenters included Henry Winkler, Marlee Matlin, Cheech Marin, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Betty Friedan, James Earl Jones, Jeb Bush, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ralph Nader, Joyce Carol Oates, Deepak Chopra, Gail Sheehy, Hal Holbrook, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Sean Astin.
Tapestry: A Day for You
Tapestry: A Day for You hosts guest speakers and conducts break-out sessions that are mindful of women's empowerment at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. Tapestry proceeds support the Tapestry Parkview Endowment Fund and the Tapestry gift account and provide scholarships to students studying health sciences at IPFW. Since its beginning in 2002, Tapestry has raised more than $675,000 in scholarship funds and awarded 50 scholarships. Featured keynote speakers have included Dana Reeve, Linda Ellerbee, Patty Duke, Marie Osmond, and Clinton Kelly.
Northeast Indiana Defense Industry Mega Conference
The NorthEast Indiana Defense Industry Mega Conference (NIDIA) is the largest annual defense-industry conference in the U.S. Midwest. Cybersecurity expert Walter O'Brien was its keynote speaker in 2015.
Notable alumni
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IPFW includes 55,000 alumni, 80 percent of which currently live and work in northeast Indiana.
- Bernd Jürgen Fischer, Ph.D., professor of history
- George Kalamaras, Ph.D., Indiana State Poet Laureate (2014)
- Linda Rising, Ph.D., assistant professor (1984–1987)
- Anson D. Shupe, Ph.D., professor emeritus of sociology
- Margaret Mary Vojtko
- Michael A. Wartell, Ph.D., eighth chancellor of IPFW (1994–2012)
See also
- Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
- Indiana University–Purdue University Columbus
- Indiana University Fort Wayne
- Purdue University Fort Wayne