Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter to attend

INDIANAPOLIS – Ivy Tech Community College will be one of only four community colleges nationwide to host the U.S. Education Department’s regional community college summit focusing on practices for increasing completion rates.  The selection follows Ivy Tech President Thomas J. Snyder’s visit to the White House to participate in the first ever White House Summit on Community Colleges held in October.

The summit locations were announced by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.  The summit at Ivy Tech will take place on March 23 at the college’s Indianapolis campus.  Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter is scheduled to attend.

Titled “Challenges, Solutions, and Commitments,” the four summits continue the dialogue that began at the White House Summit on Community Colleges. Dr. Jill Biden convened the summit at the request of President Barack Obama to highlight the importance of community colleges.  In addition to President Snyder, Ivy Tech student Michael Rice was one of only six community college students nationwide selected to attend the summit to share his ideas and thoughts on how to improve community colleges nationwide.

“These regional summits are an opportunity to build partnerships that strengthen our community colleges, turn challenges into actions, and produce the best-educated and most-competitive workforce in the world,” Secretary Duncan said in a statement.  “Community colleges must lead the way to meeting President Obama’s goal that the United States once again have the highest college attainment rate in the world by 2020.  All of higher education must contribute to reaching this goal – but community colleges will be the linchpin. The President has called for an additional five million community college graduates by 2020 to ensure the vitality of our nation’s economy.”

The regional summit at Ivy Tech will bring together 150 participants from 13 surrounding states, including Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, Tennessee, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Indiana. The participants represent community colleges, business and industry, philanthropy, labor, state and local government, and students.  They will convene to explore and take to scale strategies that work in helping students succeed.  The focus of the summit hosted at Ivy Tech will be “Partnerships Between Community Colleges and Employers.”

“We are extremely honored to be one of only four community colleges selected to host this prestigious summit,” said Ivy Tech President Thomas J. Snyder.  “The nation is faced with the critical need for more college graduates and community colleges play a critical role in fulfilling that need and strengthening our workforce.  The key is collaboration.  Indiana can’t grow without more Ivy Tech graduates, and Ivy Tech can’t grow without support from Indiana employers.  Only by working together can we build a workforce that’s ready for the challenges we face.” 

About Ivy Tech Community College
Ivy Tech is the state’s largest public postsecondary institution and the nation’s largest singly accredited statewide community college system serving nearly 200,000 students annually. Ivy Tech has campuses throughout Indiana. It serves as the state’s engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its community along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association.