Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) Superintendent David Smith and Old National Bank Chief Strategic Business Partnership Officer Roland Shelton are the newest trustees at Ivy Tech Community College Evansville.
The Board of Trustees are essentially the advisory council for the Evansville campus along with the State Board of Trustees.
Ivy Tech Evansville Chancellor Daniella Vidal said their trustees are mandated to come from specific career sectors, such as public schools.
“So when we select and decide on new trustees, we're always looking at making sure that we're representing those sectors such as education, labor, business, and then we have an at-large (trustee),” she said.
“EVSC, being the largest school corporation within the 10 counties that we serve — (this is a) a key connection there to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the over 21,000 students in EVSC.”
Previously, superintendents with Gibson and Perry County Schools have served as trustees, but this is the first for The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation.
According to the Ivy tech new release, Shelton has served previously as the vice chairman of the Board for the Ivy Tech Foundation, and he also serves on the Deaconess Hospital Foundation Board.
He is a member of the Kentucky Wesleyan University Board of Trustees and serves on the State of Indiana Workforce Development Board.
Vidal said the next big task for the trustees will be the capital funding request for their budget, where they’ll decide what programs or facilities need expansion.
“We have areas like automotive and Health Sciences, where we're very constrained in the space that we currently have,” she said. “So they're helping us come up with the vision and the strategy and the proposed expansion so that we can put together a request for the state.”
The Western Kentucky University Board of Regents have suspended a few academic programs while approving several others.
A Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and a Bachelor of Science in Data Science are two of the new programs approved by the Board of Regents on Friday.
In total about eight programs were created or suspended at the meeting, a higher number than usual said spokesperson Jace Lux.
“But that's a good thing,” he said. “That means that the university is opening up more options to students, to better meet demands of the job market.”
Low enrollment meant the end of the Adult Education Graduate Certificate, for example, though related courses are still available.
Enrollment begins for the data science degree fall of 2024. The neuroscience degree begins enrollment fall 2025 and should offer myriad career options.
“...career in pharmaceuticals, there's a behavioral concentration that could lead to graduate work in cognitive neuroscience or, or the field of psychiatry,” Lux said.
Other program changes at WKU
Approved the suspension of the Adult Education Graduate Certificate
Approved the suspension of the Bachelor of Arts in Corporate and Organizational Communication in order to consolidate that degree with the Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies
Approved the Graduate Certificate in Marketing and Sales
Approved the Undergraduate Certificate in Economic Data Analytics
Approved the Graduate Certificate in Trauma and Resilience
Approved the Undergraduate Certificate in Food Service Design
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