Индиана-Пурдью Университет Форт-Уэйн: История и разделение

Defunct university in Fort Wayne, Indiana, U. S.

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.

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 70 mile (113 km) Fort Wayne Trail Network.

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).

IPFW operated a satellite facility in Warsaw, Indiana (about 40 mile (64 km) 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.

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.

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 265 feet (81 m) 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.