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Chancellor's Office > State of the Campus Address

State of the Campus Address

Indiana University Southeast 2009 Faculty/Staff Annual Meeting

September 3, 2009

State Of The Campus Address

By Chancellor Sandra R. Patterson-Randles

Good afternoon. Welcome to a new school year which promises to be just as outstanding as the last. In addition to the more seasoned members of our campus community, I am delighted to greet the talented new faculty and staff members who have just joined IU Southeast. Also, I wish to recognize a group of exceptional community leaders who have given this campus much of their time and effort to fuel our progress, the members of our Board of Advisors. Please rise to receive our thanks.

This past year was one of beginnings and culminations, a truly phenomenal year for IU Southeast. Together our campus and community constituencies have moved our institution to new heights. This did not just happen overnight or by chance. Our first long-range, comprehensive Strategic Plan for FY2005-09, "Growth to Distinction," has truly guided and driven our efforts. As we prepare for another ten-year accreditation visit by NCA in March 2010, we are also – and this is timely – rolling over our Strategic Plan. I have mentioned before that we have completed or have substantially in progress 95% of that plan. I think we all have good cause to be proud of such success, especially since it takes a true community of committed professionals to achieve such dramatic results. Very briefly I would like to share with you the highlights of our achievements under each goal as we look back over this five-year endeavor.

First, we clearly have demonstrated our commitment to educational excellence and responsiveness to regional community needs. In Fall 2005 we implemented the first campus-wide general education program in the history of the institution. This ensures that all our graduates will have the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to carry them through a whole lifetime of new learning and professional challenges. We have developed new academic programs which are thriving – our Honors Program, the human resources concentration in Business, and the BS in Informatics. Our out-of-classroom enrichment has been strengthened by our successful Common Experience program where each year the campus investigates a major theme impacting our world through common readings, special lectures, and focused events. In support of the IU Southeast emphasis on applied learning, our student research conference, called Celebrating Achievement, has become a real hallmark of the intellectual life thriving on this campus in faculty/student research opportunities. In short, the richness of our academic experience here at IU Southeast has grown steadily.

For Goal 2, we have indeed developed an effective enrollment program. We created a very detailed, three-year enrollment management plan (2007-2010) and the fruits of that hard work were clearly apparent in Fall 2008 when IU Southeast broke nine enrollment records:

  • Highest number of credit hours ever at IU Southeast
  • Highest number of first-time beginners (+21.2%; highest at IU)
  • Highest increase in first-time beginning minority students (+67.2%)
  • Highest non-resident enrollment (+7.3%)
  • Highest number of reciprocity students
  • Highest minority enrollment
  • Highest number of African American students
  • Highest number of American Indian students
  • Highest number of Asian American students

And this Fall, I am so pleased to say that we have again shattered enrollment records, eleven in fact. We have posted the highest enrollment in IU Southeast's history, 6,840 students, a full 124 students more than the campus's previous high of 6,716 in the Fall of 2002 and 358 students greater than last Fall's enrollment of 6,482. Because in the 2003 recession period IU Southeast ultimately lost about 500 students, we planned conservatively for enrollments during this global recession, simply because we could not predict the impact of Indiana,s economy on our population's educational goals. The strong growth IU Southeast has experienced during the past two years undoubtedly is due to a number of factors, including the growing reputation of our campus, the student residence halls, our affordability, high-quality programming, and people's need to re-educate themselves for new jobs in recessionary times.

In response to our core value of providing a nurturing environment, we strengthened academic advising by hiring professional advisors for our three Arts & Sciences schools and moved the Academic Success Center to Academic Affairs to encourage better coordination with school advisors. To make a college education more affordable for our students, we completed major work in Financial Aid and scholarship development resulting in 100% allocation of federal work-study awards to spur additional DOE funding and endowing six new scholarships totaling over $100,000 over a 3-year period. In fact, over the past five years, our financial support of our students has yielded some outstanding results:

  • Aid Recipients have increased 6%
  • Total Aid Received increased 45% to over $27.6 million
  • Gift Aid Received increased 32% to over $10.4 million
  • Our Federal Work Study Allocation increased 12%
  • Student participation in the Federal Work Study program increased 47%
  • Institutional aid increased 40%
  • Institutional minority scholarships increased 50% in a single year (FY07-FY08)

Moreover, 2009-2010 is shaping up to be a banner school year:

  • Disbursed financial aid is up 37%
  • The number of students receiving aid is up 30% (688 students)
  • The number of FAFSAs received is up 22%

We have clearly demonstrated our commitment to nurturing students on multiple levels.

Moreover, we completed one of our major objectives under both Goal 2 and Goal 4 when we succeeded in creating a cutting-edge proposal for student housing, skillfully advocated for its development, raised necessary funding, negotiated approval hurdles, designed strikingly beautiful community-oriented lodges, and then filled them to 96% capacity in the first year and 100% capacity in the second year with a waiting list. This achievement has changed the face of IU Southeast forever and ushered in a whole new era of service to our students.

Under Goal 3 we have succeeded in enhancing diversity significantly on this campus. When I first came to IU Southeast in 2002, minority representation on campus was a major issue. In Fall 2002 diversity for the student body was about 5%. For the past seven years we have had a steady increase to between 9 – 10% for minority students. This year we have 113 students on campus with international backgrounds representing 47 different countries. Also, minorities represent about 14 – 16% of our full-time faculty cohort with female faculty at 47 – 49 % of the total. Our restructuring of diversity leadership to create a "diversity trio" from Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Affirmative Action/management training administrators has been successful in raising the profile of campus diversity and spearheading new programming like membership in the World Affairs Council, the development of unit diversity plans across campus, the establishment of a diversity award, the receipt of IU funding for Diversity Fellows positions, the Diversity newsletter, a 116% increase in the McPheeters Minority Scholarship, and the development of the Diversity Council.

Our strengthening of resources under Goal 4 has truly been phenomenal in the past five years, and I am especially aware of this because of the comments I have heard from numerous alumni who have visited campus after five or more years' absence. They have been quite astonished at our development. In the last five years we have completed the following:

  • IU Southeast Library
  • Hausfeldt Building (leased)
  • Shelter Houses at the Lake
  • Observatory
  • Tennis Courts
  • Softball Field
  • Classroom and technology upgrades in Hillside and Crestview Halls
  • Renovation of University Center with 77% more space dedicated to students
  • Dining & Conference Center addition to University Center North
  • $2M Energy Savings Program with attractive, new campus lighting
  • The five lodges (Meadow, Grove, Forest, Orchard, and Woodland)

And regarding ongoing initiatives, let me add here that we have signaled our intention to pursue Phase II of student housing. I am particularly pleased that even in this time of constrained finances and a global recession, we have received initial legislative approval for our new Education/Purdue Technology Building, and we have just purchased through the IU Foundation the Hausfeldt complex located behind the softball field for our campus's future needs. We also have made major upgrades and expansions for IT on campus, and for three surveys running IU Southeast has received the highest user satisfaction ratings of all the IU campuses.

Financial resources have also been strengthened significantly. In the 2005-07 and 2007-09 biennia IU Southeast received equity adjustments to bring state funding incrementally closer to other higher education institutions. The School of Education, further developing an initiative begun with Commitment to Excellence funds, received the largest grant in IU Southeast history from the U.S. Department of Education. In 2008 IU Southeast raised more funds than any other regional IU campus. Moreover, in FY08 the campus enjoyed a 20% increase in the number of charitable gifts coming to IU Southeast, the largest number in the history of the University. The number of alumni donors also jumped 14% from the previous year and ranked as the largest number of alumni contributors to IU Southeast. We have worked hard to establish a foundation for future development efforts, and I believe the record number of donors clearly indicates how pleased our alumni and community stakeholders are with the tremendous progress we have made.

Another major achievement under Goal 4 was the extension of tuition reciprocity with Kentucky. This agreement was approved for the longest time period yet – six years (2007 – 2013) – and now includes a fourth Kentucky county, Trimble. IU Southeast is a true regional partner in raising educational attainment levels in the Kentuckiana area.

As far as bettering the IU Southeast image goes (Goal 5), we definitely are "on the map." Our reorganization of University Advancement created a new University Communications team that works hand-in-hand with IT in an innovative and dynamic environment. Our striking billboards are everywhere, and people on both sides of the river know who we are and that we offer quality education to our students. For example, consider the 5,000 people at the Kentucky State Fair last year who knew about us and took the time to investigate our university further. This year has likewise been a success. In 2008, 320 potential students filled out interest cards. This year that number rose to 750! In addition, superb marketing has filled our lodges for the first two years, and in the process, our public relations and web teams captured the CASE V Gold Award for the best website (www.LiveOnCampus.ius.edu) and became one of three finalists in the EduStyle competition with over 1,800 submissions. For the opening of our student housing in Fall 2008, our public relations efforts in TV and radio coverage alone equated to nearly $25,000 in publicity and over 900,000 people watched media coverage of the event. Move-in news was broadcast on every local TV channel, and there were 39 TV spots, radio spots, and national AP news coverage. We even made the Chicago Tribune. Following this wonderful success, our graduation coverage totaled over $40,000 in publicity. In the midst of all these remarkable events, our creative and hardworking University Communications team also completed a three-year integrated marketing plan.

The excellence of our work in public relations, marketing, and IT is matched by the outstanding recognitions and achievements of our people and programs across campus. Let me mention just a few of the accomplishments indicative of our quality:

  • 91.3% of chemistry graduates have succeeded in attending professional schools.
  • Biology graduates attend professional/graduate school at a rate 8% higher than the national average.
  • Our Nursing students consistently rank above the national average on the NCLEX.
  • Our Education students consistently rank above the national average on Praxis II.
  • The School of Education passed NCATE accreditation with no areas of improvement cited.
  • Our part-time MBA program was ranked 18th in the nation by BusinessWeek and 3rd in the Midwest (behind Loyola and Chicago but ahead of Washington University and The Ohio State University).
  • Our School of Business was ranked #5 nationally for ,Best Classroom Experience, by the Princeton Review (Harvard - #6, University of Chicago - #8, and University of Virginia - #9).
  • Gavin Camp, a 2007 advertising graduate, won the prestigious international First Boards Award in New York.
  • Dr. James Beeby, Assistant Professor of History, has been made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in Great Britain, the highest award from that country for a historian.
  • Erich Stem, Assistant Professor of Music, received the 2007-08 ASCAPLUS award in the concert music division of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
  • Dr. James Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Education, received a Fulbright to go to Bulgaria.
  • Dr. David Taylor, Professor of Biology, was appointed as Curatorial Affiliate in the Division of Paleobotany at the Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History.
  • IU Southeast cheerleaders captured the national championship in their division at the Cheer Limited Open College Nationals.
  • Our athletic teams won six of seven conference championships.
  • In 2009 IU Southeast had the largest graduating class in the campus's history – 1,086.

Achievements like these have been made all across campus and have fueled a new regional appreciation for the increasingly distinctive quality of the education we offer students.

As our enhanced regional profile suggests, our community relations have been strengthened significantly under Goal 6. By adding Community Engagement to the duties of the Vice Chancellor for IT, we created an effective liaison and oversight structure for our campus's community outreach activities which also has served to publicize our regional work in a well-coordinated manner. Given the needs of our region, this intermeshing of IT and University Communications with economic development outreach has been particularly effective. For instance, the Lilly III Community Partners program has produced the very popular CEO Roundtable. For regional businesses, our Sanders Chair has been providing top-notch economic data and analysis to promote diversified economic development efforts, and our Regional Economic Development Resource Center (REDRC) manages the HelpNet program, which connects faculty with area businesses on specific projects.

Our campus has also committed to a whole array of educational outreach events from College Day Out to the Science Olympiad for middle school students in our service region. Moreover, our cultural outreach efforts have been particularly outstanding. For example, since its inception, the Ogle Center's Chase Children's Series has provided free arts and culture programming to over 77,000 youngsters in our area.

The campus has been particularly successful in increasing applied learning initiatives, as is indicated in our new mission statement. Now IU Southeast typically has about 160 – 180 interns working at over 100 regional businesses. Anywhere from 65% - 72% of these students have received job offers from the businesses where they served as interns. Moreover, volunteerism on campus has become remarkable, ranging anywhere from 6,000 hours of student organization service to 25,000 hours of service campuswide while the popular West Nile Virus project was still in progress. Each year the VC IT & CE produces a detailed annual report of our many outreach efforts for the campus as a whole. IU Southeast's enhanced contributions to our regional community have been recognized to the point that we have been finalists for the Republic Bank WE CARE awards for the past two years.

Finally, our successes under the first six goals of our Strategic Plan clearly have proven the success of Goal 7. We have developed a clear process for rolling over our Strategic Plan and that effort is now in motion in preparation for our Spring NCA reaccreditation review. Likewise, we have in place a solid process for budget proposals and review. The schools have developed their own strategic plans, and we have established many communication mechanisms on campus for those who wish to participate in planning or give our committees new ideas and fresh perspectives. In addition, we have established a series of routine meetings with regional stakeholders like the mayors, school superintendents, community representatives on the Board of Advisors, and a variety of elected officials. Our ongoing quest for better organizational structuring to enhance campus communication, decision-making, and effectiveness has led to some successful reconfigurations like combining the public relations and marketing functions from University Advancement with IT. Finally, an inclusive campuswide effort identified, established, and publicized IU Southeast's core values as a touchstone for decision-making and general operations.

Of the over 200 assessed objectives and initiatives in our Strategic Plan, the campus has completed, has completed and is continuing, or has substantially in progress 95% of the plan with only 11 initiatives intentionally dismissed or not pursued at this time. I think this is a record of which we can all be proud. At a recent event, a professor from a competitor school took me aside and explained how he was so impressed with IU Southeast at the first event he attended that he came back for a second, more in-depth look. He told me how wonderful our progress has been and that "IU Southeast is sparkling."

So, in spite of a global recession and an economic downturn in Indiana and our region, IU Southeast is stable and thriving, especially when one considers the severe measures being taken at universities elsewhere to deal with dwindling resources. However, if the predictions I have heard from other presidents, national educational organizations, and economic forecasters are true, Indiana probably will not regain its pre-recession economic vitality until 2014. This corresponds exactly with the basic time period of our new Strategic Plan. After the dramatic successes and achievements of our past Strategic Plan, the Cabinet, Strategic Planning Committee, and I are focusing on a new plan with a different emphasis. Now is the time to shore up good initiatives already underway, enhance our strengths further, address weaknesses, and across the board reinforce the foundational work which has allowed us to reach this new height in IU Southeast's history. While we strive to ensure a solid underpinning for future efforts, we will carefully evaluate and pursue a very select set of new initiatives which will move the institution forward in significant ways and demonstrate continued responsiveness to our regional community's needs. With this more modest approach to the next five years, we will further strengthen our foundations and position IU Southeast for even greater strides in the future when economic conditions turn more favorable.

In the meantime, continuing our points of emphasis from last year, we have four major goals which will dominate our efforts for the 2009-10 school year. First, we will continue our work of rolling over the successes and ongoing activities of our 2005-09 Strategic Plan plus new initiatives into a new plan for five years. Second, we will complete our self-study and thoroughly prepare the campus for our March NCA reaccreditation visit. Third, we will continue our integration of our new residence life program into the fabric of our campus culture and activities. Fourth, we will continue our work on getting our new Education/Purdue Technology Building up and running as soon as possible. In addition to these principal objectives, we will extend our work on key initiatives like retention and persistence to graduation. I am confident our campus community will pursue these goals with the same quality work and dedication which has allowed us to achieve such resounding success over the past five years.

Finally, we are all aware of the many pressures and problems which our current economy and unresolved issues in higher education are placing on us, even as we strive to move IU Southeast forward in a difficult context. Although the 200+ initiatives of our 2005-09 Strategic Plan seemed somewhat daunting at first, nevertheless the quality, resourcefulness, and dedication of our people combined to achieve dramatic results for our students and institution. Whatever challenges we must face in our current environment, I have no doubt IU Southeast will continue to grow in strength and stature. As we move further into our NCA reaccreditation process, let us celebrate the wonderful progress we have made and let others know about it. Rather than focusing on the negative, I encourage all of us to share our pride in our accomplishments and the remarkable service we extend to our students and our regional community. I extend my deepest appreciation and congratulations to every single person whose efforts have contributed positively to our success. As always, I look forward to working with all of you as we continue on our path to distinction.