Purdue University Fort Wayne

Fort Wayne; established July 1, 2018, as the principal successor to Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (opened September 17, 1964); 2101 East Coliseum Boulevard

Two extension centers: Two universities came to Fort Wayne separately, a generation apart. Indiana University began offering courses downtown in 1917, teaching one hundred forty-two students in twelve courses from rooms that included the courthouse's third floor and, from 1939, the former Lutheran institute building at 1120 South Barr Street. Purdue University permanently established its own Purdue University Center downtown in 1941, so that northeast students could begin a Purdue degree at home and transfer to West Lafayette to finish. From 1941 the two centers kept separate doors a few blocks apart, each with its own faculty and its own diplomas.

The joining: The joining was the work of the 1950s. Under Purdue president Frederick Hovde and Indiana president Herman Wells, with trustees John Hastings of Indiana and Alfred Kettler Sr. of Purdue, the two universities began in 1958 to combine their centers through the Indiana-Purdue Foundation. For the campus, farmland was taken at the city's northeast edge, on the east bank of the St. Joseph River: Indiana University's own history says the State of Indiana transferred one hundred fourteen acres, the Old Oak Park Farm of the Fort Wayne State School, to the two trustee boards, while the published account of the joint university gives a ninety-nine year lease on Allen County farmland, the two tellings standing unreconciled. The same disagreement touches the groundbreaking: October 18, 1961, by Indiana's history page, the two presidents digging together with a two-handled shovel, and October 18, 1962, by the published account. The Education Building was dedicated on August 27, 1964, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne opened on September 17, 1964, and in 1973 the first building took the name of Alfred W. Kettler, the merger's chief advocate.

The joint university's course: The joint campus grew into the region's university. It awarded its first four-year degree in 1968, after decades of two-year degrees; its administration was formally combined in 1975; and in 1976 the Fort Wayne Art Institute, founded in 1897 as the Fort Wayne Art School, merged into it. Enrollment passed ten thousand five hundred by 2000, and in 2004 campus housing opened. The peak is carried in two figures because the record carries two: the Congressional Record's fiftieth anniversary statement gives a record enrollment of fourteen thousand one hundred ninety-two in the 2010-11 school year, while the published history of the university gives thirteen thousand four hundred fifty-nine, in 2014, as its highest count. In 1988 a coalition led by Lincoln National Corporation bought one hundred fifty-two acres across the river, the former McKay family farm, and the campus stands at six hundred eighty-eight acres with forty buildings. In 2017-18, its last year as one university, the joint campus enrolled ten thousand four hundred fourteen students.

The chancellors: Three chancellors frame the modern campus. Michael A. Wartell, its eighth chancellor, served from 1994 to 2012. Vicky L. Carwein followed, from 2012 to 2017, through the argument over the joint model's future. In September 2017 Purdue named Ronald Elsenbaumer, a Purdue alumnus and former provost of the University of Texas at Arlington, to take the helm on November 1, 2017, charged with completing the realignment as the new institution's first leader. He remains chancellor of Purdue University Fort Wayne, whose leadership page lists his two predecessors as past chancellors.

The division: The division began in print. In 2016 the Indiana General Assembly's staff issued its Report on Role and Governance of IPFW, recommending that the joint campus be split, and that December both universities' trustee boards voted to realign Fort Wayne on the line proposed: the health sciences to Indiana, everything else to Purdue. Before the legal date, the departments of philosophy and geosciences, with the programs in French and German, were closed on January 1, 2017. On July 1, 2018, the joint university ceased to exist and Purdue University Fort Wayne stood in its place as the principal successor, taking the campus, the colleges and the Mastodon athletics program, renamed Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons about two weeks before the split. The health sciences became Indiana University Fort Wayne, whose own entry stands beside this one.

The university today: Purdue University Fort Wayne is the largest public university in northeast Indiana. At the transition Purdue described a campus of more than thirty departments in five colleges, one school and two divisions, and the university teaches across the whole of the six hundred eighty-eight acre campus it shares with Indiana University Fort Wayne. Its present size is printed in the three measures the record offers, because they measure different things: the federal IPEDS count gives seven thousand two hundred six students in the fall of 2024, six thousand four hundred eighty-nine of them undergraduates and seven hundred seventeen graduate students; the Indiana Commission for Higher Education's fall census counts six thousand one hundred seventy-one degree-seeking students, up from six thousand ninety-two, the university's first increase in recent years; and Purdue University's system release for the fall of 2026 counts five thousand seven hundred twenty-four under its own undergraduate, graduate and online measure. The university's teams are the Mastodons, in old gold and black, in NCAA Division I, and its mascot is Don the Mastodon.

Sources:

1. Purdue University news release, September 21, 2017: Ronald Elsenbaumer named chancellor effective November 1, 2017, succeeding Vicky Carwein, to complete the realignment and lead the new institution; the campus described at the transition
2. Purdue University Fort Wayne, Office of the Chancellor and leadership pages: Chancellor Ronald Elsenbaumer from 2017; past chancellors Vicky L. Carwein, 2012 to 2017, and Michael A. Wartell, 1994 to 2012
3. Indiana University Fort Wayne, institutional history page (fortwayne.iu.edu): the extension center of 1917 and its rooms; the transfer of 114 acres; the groundbreaking of October 18, 1961; the Education Building dedicated August 27, 1964 and renamed Kettler Hall in 1973; the report of 2016 and the reorganization of July 1, 2018
4. Wikipedia, "Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne" and "Purdue University Fort Wayne": the Purdue University Center of 1941, the merger from 1958 and the 99 year lease, construction from October 18, 1962, the opening of September 17, 1964, the first four-year degree of 1968, the Art Institute merger of 1976, the 152 acres of 1988, the 688 acre campus, the 2017-18 enrollment of 10,414, the closures of January 1, 2017 and the athletics rebranding
5. Congressional Record, May 5, 2015, Senator Donnelly on the IPFW 50th anniversary: enrollment over 10,500 by 2000, campus housing in 2004, the record enrollment of 14,192 in 2010-11, the administration formally combined in 1975
6. National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, as republished by UnivStats: fall 2024 enrollment of 7,206, with 6,489 undergraduates and 717 graduate students
7. Indiana Commission for Higher Education, fall census, as reported by Purdue Fort Wayne's news center: 6,171 degree-seeking students, up from 6,092
8. Purdue University, system enrollment release, fall 2026: Purdue Fort Wayne counted at 5,724 under the release's undergraduate, graduate and online measure