The closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge has had an effect on many commuters in Southern Indiana and Kentucky, including students, faculty and staff at IU Southeast. Of the student body, 30 percent commute from Kentucky. While 24 percent full-time faculty and staff live in Kentucky, 44 percent of part-time and adjunct faculty are also commuting from Kentucky. “We have about 2,200 students that are Kentucky reciprocity,” Chancellor Sandra Patterson-Randles said. “Granted some live in the lodges, it is still a significant number.”

With the closing of the Sherman Minton Bridge due to various fractures in the infrastructure, a gloom has seemed to settle down in the Southern Indiana and Louisville region. However, the divide between Kentucky and Indiana has become an even larger crack, highlighting a lack of support for commuters between the two states. According to Evansville Courier & Press, federal records show that almost “18 percent of Indiana’s highway bridges are in less-than-satisfactory shape.”