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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

IPFW Senate Finds Data Flaws in Plan to Split Campus

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Earlier this month, the Indiana Legislative Services Agency released a reportrecommending that IPFW be broken into two institutions. However, IPFW’s governing body issued a response that brings the LSA’s findings into question. 

The LSA made its recommendations based on declines in enrollment, research funding, charitable donations, and graduation rates at IPFW.

But when faculty and members of the IPFW Senate started dissecting the report, questions were raised about the accuracy of the analysis.   

 

 Andrew Downs is the director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics and Presiding Officer of the IPFW Senate. He says there are factors in that data that the LSA did not take into account.    

"We think to imply and for that matter openly state that IPFW is underperforming is a bit of a misrepresentation of what’s happening here," Downs says. 

 

For example, the Senate’s report shows that the decline in enrollment at IPFW is similar to trends of other regional campuses, and that the loss of enrollment is getting smaller over time.  It also shows IPFW ranks significantly higher than nearly all other regional campuses in its research and development expenditure.

The Senate sent their analysis to the Purdue and IU presidents and Boards of Trustees on Jan. 19th, but has yet to hear a response.   

You can view the IPFW Senate's report here