Photo Potpourri: CHAPTER 28Trine University campus

Friday, June 14, 2024

CHAPTER 28
Trine University campus

Like Hanover College is at the extreme southern end of Indiana, Trine University in Angola, Ind., is at the opposite end of the state.

It is on 450 acres on the west side of the Steuben County seat in the northeast corner of Indiana, about eight miles south of Pokagon State Park.

For 120 years of its existence, the university had the term “Tri-State” in its name; it drew the majority of its enrollment from Indiana, Ohio and Michigan because of its proximity to borders of those three states. It began as Tri-State Normal School in 1884, serving its regional community as a teachers and engineering school. The school’s curriculum evolved in ensuing years, leading to the change in name to Tri-State College in 1906, to Tri-State University in 1975 and to Trine University in 2008.

The final name change came about at a point when the university’s board of directors decided it wanted the school to appeal to students beyond the three-state area. The board chose the name Trine for alumnus Ralph Trine, the largest-ever single donor to the school and who, with his wife, Sheri, was owner of Angola-based Vestil Manufacturing Corp.

The school experienced considerable expansion in the 1960s with the addition of seven residence halls, the Perry T. Ford Library and Best and Hershey halls. In 1967, the college changed its sports teams’ nickname from the Tri-State Engineers to the Trojans. In 1990, the teams had another nickname change ... to the Thunder, which is what they are known by today, and five years after that, the school fielded a football team for intercollegiate play for the first time.

And speaking of athletics, Trine replaced its football field’s grass surface with artificial turf in 2008; opened the Athletic and Recreation Center (ARC); then began transformation of Shive Field into the Fred Zollner Athletic Stadium in 2009; and officially dedicated the stadium in 2010.

The stadium improvements added a coaches’ game booth, a broadcasters’ booth, meeting rooms, a president’s hospitality suite and four hotel-equivalent rooms that are donor suites equipped with beds, full bathrooms and seating areas for watching games.

Trine never abandoned its original mission as an engineering school; engineering comprises 40 percent of Trine student majors. In 1997, the university completed a $5 million renovation of Fawick Hall, offering engineering students state-of-the-art classrooms, labs and computer centers. Furthermore, in 2005, it graduated its first class to receive a Master of Science in Engineering Technology degree.

In 2013, Trine completed the Jim and Joan Bock Center for Innovation and Biomedical Engineering, and nine years later, in 2022, moved biomedical engineering into the newly opened 40,000-square-foot Steel Dynamics Inc. Center for Engineering and Computing.

Trine has satellite campuses in Fort Wayne, Ind., as well as Detroit, Mich., and Phoenix, Ariz. The school has an endowment of $45.6 million as of 2024, according to College Raptor. The university has 2,242 students on the Angola campus, and 8,446 students total, including satellite campuses and online learning.

Almost all of the Angola campus, which is adjacent to Zollner Golf Course, is south of Maumee Street (Indiana Highway 20). One structure is situated on the north side of Maumee: the T. Furth Center for Performing Arts and Ryan Concert Hall (where the Oak Ridge Boys would play as featured homecoming entertainment the weekend of my visit in 2015). The school began extensive renovation of Furth in 2009 and dedicated the refurbished facility in 2014.

To view a full gallery of images of my visit to the Trine University campus, follow the link in this sentence.

Above: The view down the north campus access via College Street, with the C.W. Sponsel Administration Center straight ahead.

Above and next several below: The Rick L. and Vicki L. James University Center, which opened in 2007, was the hub of activity for this homecoming weekend. Outdoors, it included games and attractions for children, tricycle fun, face-painting and a petting zoo. Indoors, there were art, gatherings for alumni and merchandise available for purchase at the campus bookstore.

Artwork in a fountain (above) and on a shelf (below) in the Rick L. and Vicki L. James University Center.

Above and below: I arrived a bit late to catch any of the live action in the school’s Tour de Trine tricycle race, but I did manage to snap these shots of the aftermath.

Above and next five below: Student organizations adorned sections of the sidewalk and fencing outside Fred Zollner Athletic Stadium, where the homecoming football game was played.

Above and next seven below: Campus buildings and landscaping ... and a squirrel that found its way into a below-ground drainage basin outside a building in one of the academic plazas.

Above and below: Two views of Charles and Nancy Taylor Hall of Humanities, which was known as the Commerce Building when it was built. It was the first building on campus. Today it houses the Wells Gallery (an art exhibit hall) and Wells Theatre, a modest performance venue for the school's theater productions.

Above and below: Two views of Shambaugh Hall, the third-oldest building on campus and the home of the Franks School of Education.

Above and below: Two views of Forman Hall, which houses the university’s welcome center as well as offices of financial aid, admissions, business and the registrar.

Above and below: Two views of C.W. Sponsel Administrative Center, home of the office of the university president and other administrative offices. It also is the second-oldest building on campus.

Above and below: Front and rear views of T. Furth Center for the Performing Arts.

Sculptures on the side of the Furth building (above) and another appearing at ground level (below).

Above and below: Studies of lines and patterns outside the Depot Mexican Grill along the railroad tracks at the north end of campus.

Trine replaced its football field's grass with artificial turf in 2008. Within two years of that, it had transformed Shive Field into the Fred Zollner Athletic Stadium (above) to include a coaches’ game-day booth, a booth for print and broadcast media, meeting rooms, a president’s hospitality suite and four hotel-equivalent rooms with beds for donors’ overnight stays and seating areas to watch games. The stadium work was part of a major athletics facilities project that also included construction of Metal Technologies Inc. Health and Fitness Center (first photo below), which is connected to the stadium complex.

Above and below: The Keith E. Busse/Steel Dynamics Inc. Athletics and Recreation Center. This multi-purpose sports complex features an indoor 200-meter track, tennis courts, baseball and softball cages, and facilities for indoor soccer, lacrosse and more.

Above: Lewis B. Hershey Hall has a playing court that seats 4,500 people, an indoor walking track, two auxiliary gymnasiums, four volleyball courts, racquetball courts, a free-weight room and a fitness center. It is the former home of Thunder basketball teams. Thunder men and women's basketball squads have played their home games at MTI Center since it opened in 2018. Since then, Hershey Hall has become the full-time home of both men's and women's volleyball as well as wrestling. Attached to Hershey is Ketner Sports Center, which opened in 2004 and provides additional facilities for classes, intramurals, varsity teams, camps and other student use.

Above and below: Shots of some of the outdoor athletics fields, including the baseball diamond (below) and Zollner Golf Course in the background of the photo above.