Partnerships Abound Across
Disciplines, Sectors and Regions

Leicht falls in with a lot of corporate real estate professionals when he praises the state's higher education environment as a big part of the company's success formula -- this despite some degree of alma mater prejudice.
        "This is coming from a Notre Dame graduate, but I think we have two of the finest institutions in the country, if not the world, especially if you look at what it costs for in-state students to go to those institutions," he says. "I'd put Purdue and their technology and engineering programs up against any program in the country, and likewise IU (Indiana University) has its great advantages in business, accounting and other areas."
        Don Gentry, Vice Provost for Engagement, Purdue Research Park, says Purdue has only quickened its business-friendly pace under new president Martin Jischke, but hastens to add that IU has been just as quick to pick up on a new wave of public/private partnership activity.
        "We've had for a number of years, and we're expanding it, a statewide technology program which allows about 16 communities around the state to offer two- and four-year technical education programs," he says, adding that the collaboration goes further. "Many of those locations are on the state border, and through our Commission on Higher Education, we have developed a reciprocal agreement. For instance, down in the Louisville area, students can attend our programs in Indiana, and students from Indiana can attend schools in Louisville with the same fee structure."
        Evansville 2000's Ken Robinson points to statewide institution Ivy Tech as a great example of flexibility and regional punch all in one.
        "What we have are Ivy Tech programs that relate to the needs of Alcoa, Whirlpool, Toyota," he says. "They're on-site or they bring those folks into their facilities, and they work out the curriculum on an as-needed basis."
        "Having schools like Purdue and Rose Hulman, from a technical perspective, for Cummins has been very important, particularly as we are a global company," says Niemzcura. "[Finding] technical talent that has the capabilities to work globally and across cultures will be very important for us."
        "We have had a relationship with Cummins for a long time," says Purdue's Gentry. "Because we have had a training operation in Columbus, we picked up on the fact that they were initiating a new information technology system globally. Our computer technology department now has trained about 40 percent of their people in their global operations in this new way of doing information technology. By being there in the city, we were able to pick up on that need and then accommodate that need all the way back to West Lafayette."
        Besides his own school's incubator program, Gentry calls attention to the state's new 21st Century program, a funded research and technology program that brings together private companies and universities conduct research or product development. In three rounds of funding, more than $49 million in grants have been awarded to 43 academic-private sector partnerships, leveraging $95 million in matching funds, and an additional $30 million will be handed out over the next two years. Leicht points out that the new century also holds a new paradigm for manufacturing.
        "Manufacturing can have a not-very-glamorous side to it in most people's minds, but manufacturing is a very different place today than it was 25 years ago," he says. "Twenty years ago, a high school education might have been very satisfactory for someone coming to work and trying to build a career with a manufacturer. Not today. There's so much process control automation, so much technology in plants, that having a highly-skilled and educated work force, which includes continuing education, is what manufacturing's about."