Well, I'd start with this...
Why is PU-W. Laf offering classes that WE offer? We're older.
When the state decided to charter a 'State Normal School' - why were ANY other state colleges/universities allowed to offer classes in pedagogy? Why was the ISNS Eastern Division opened?
But to your point? Universities are not trade schools. Should they be? Does the state LACK skilled tradesmen? perhaps - then local businesses should LOOK to trade schools, and HS to produce those people.
Perhaps, ISU and other schools, wouldn't be struggling with enrollment issues IF...
the state of indiana didn't have 16 separate campuses under 6 Univ Presidents PLUS the bloated Ivy Tech system; people complain about ISU have an EEO and a DEIA office(s)... no idea why BUT the bigger, more bloated issue is a state as small as Indiana having 56+ college campuses (16 plus the 40+ IVY Tech)?
Is anyone tracking that IUPUI is "divorcing" itself? In the very near future, it'll become IU_Indy and PU_Indy... just as IPFW did... where's the efficiency in those models?
GOP loves to yammer about gov't waste, bloated expenditures... yet GOPer Mitch Daniels is behind both of them; not sure where GOPer Eric Holcomb stands on the topic