$20-Million Office Building in Muncie, Ind., Is Donated to Ivy Tech

Indiana’s 23-campus ivy Tech Community College announced Thursday that it is getting the biggest gift in its history—a four-story, 104,700-square-foot building in downtown Muncie that the college says is worth more than $20-million. The college will continue to lease office space in the structure to current tenants, including The Star-Press newspaper, but will also move some classes from its campus, on the south side of the city, into vacant sections of the downtown building, The Star-Press reported.

The building, opened in 1976, is the former home of the Ball Corporation, once known as the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company. It was given to the college by John W. Fisher, a former president of the company, who died in June, and his wife, Janice B. Fisher, the daughter of one of the five brothers who founded the company. The building will be renamed the Ivy Tech Fisher Campus.

Gail Chesterfield, chancellor of the community college’s East Central region, said the Muncie campus’s current facilities “are maxed out” after double-digit enrollment growth in recent years. “The Fisher building will not only help us meet our space needs and expand our course offerings and programs, but will also allow us to create an optimal environment and expand services that focus on student success,” she said.