State Budget Committee tours Trine campus

Members of the Indiana State Budget Committee toured Trine University and were guests at a special dinner and reception on campus Thursday, Oct. 24.

The group was in Angola staying at the Potawatomi Inn at Pokagon State Park in advance of their Oct. 25 meeting at Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne. David Wantz, president and CEO of the Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI), had invited them to visit the Trine campus while they were in the area.

The committee toured Trine innovation 1, which provides technical expertise and services to businesses, organizations and schools, and the Jim and Joan Bock Center for Innovation and Biomedical Engineering before enjoying dinner at Club Z inside the MTI Center. They also were able to bowl in the MTI Center’s bowling alley.

The Indiana State Budget Committee is made up of Zachary Q. Jackson, state budget director, Rep. Tim Brown, (R-41st), Sen. Ryan Mishler (R-9th), Rep. Greg Porter (D-96th) and Sen. Karen Tallian (D-4th). Alternate members Rep. Carey Hamilton (D-87th), Rep. Bob Cherry (R-53rd), Sen. Greg Taylor (D-33rd) and Sen. Liz Brown (R-15th) also were in attendance.

Trine President Earl D. Brooks II, Ph.D. and his wife Melanie hosted the dinner, and were joined by university Board of Trustees members Sen. Dennis Kruse (R-14th), Mitch Rhoads and Keith Turner, trustee spouses Debra Rhoads and Cindy Turner, VP for Administration/Chief of Staff Gretchen Miller, and Jason Blume, Executive Director of Trine innovation 1.

Others attending included Wantz from ICI, Angola Mayor Richard Hickman, Sen. Sue Glick (R-13th) and Tinisha Weigely, deputy director for the Office of U.S. Congressman Jim Banks.

Photo: Jason Blume, right, executive director of Trine innovation 1, shows members and staff of the Indiana State Budget Committee a prototype, designed by Trine University students, of a toboggan that could be used year-round on the toboggan run at Pokagon State Park. (Photo by Dean Orewiler)