Welcome to the latest edition of our Regional Campuses and Online Education Update. As I write this, I know that each of you are working toward the end of the semester, and the much needed break that follows!
As I look back over the semester, I am proud of all that we have accomplished together. In June 2022, the leadership teams of all five regional campuses met and set eight goals for the 2022-23 academic year. Below you will find our progress to date.
From Sue's Desk
Leveraging P-12 Relationships
There has been some exciting work happening with our P-12 partnerships! Each campus has hired two new staff positions supported with external funds. The first position is focused on establishing partnerships with local high schools to offer 30 hours of dual credit so students can earn an IU, Indiana College Core (ICC) certificate. The second position created is a career pathway specialist who works to create dual credit pathway programs in local high schools. Both initiatives are designed to increase our presence in local high schools and impact our enrollment.
Three campuses, IU Kokomo, IU South Bend, and IU Southeast each received funds from the Attract, Prepare, Retain Grant designed to aid Indiana’s schools and community partners in supporting local initiatives to attract and retain educators in school buildings across the state.
Building Online Capacity
As you know, IU Online is scaling up current online degree programs to enhance enrollment. Our goal is to increase online enrollment to twenty-five thousand students and all IU campuses are involved in this initiative. I appreciate the faculty members who are working on revising courses and preparing for additional enrollment. We are in the process of building a robust student services operation and establishing an advisory board to work closely with IU Online. I applaud the efforts of the RFC as they work toward establishing a common calendar so our students who are taking courses from different campuses at the same time are successful.
Promoting Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
We established a staff diversity task force and a faculty diversity task force, and they have chosen to work together. They began their efforts by developing and distributing a survey sent to all faculty and staff from communities of color and marginalized populations so they could understand their concerns. They recently met and established affinity groups. In February they will gather in person in Kokomo. I look forward to learning more about how we can support our faculty and staff.
In addition, we convened the directors of the five multicultural centers from each campus so we can provide support to our students and to ensure that all centers have the resources they need to serve our students. It was exciting to learn about all the activities and initiatives they have launched. We will continue to meet and work through the challenges and opportunities.
Rebuilding Community and Reengaging Students
Each campus sponsored wonderful activities for faculty, staff, and students as they returned to campus in the fall. Vice President Julie Payne-Kirchmeier and I met so many students at the IU Kokomo Welcome Back Week picnic in August. Unfortunately, we did not get to take a hot air balloon ride because of the high winds. President Whitten and I enjoyed our time at the IU East faculty and staff appreciation luncheon in November. At IU Northwest, I was impressed with the student art show in the local mall. I know I could share many more activities on each of the campuses, but I am confident that we are rebuilding community and engaging students on each campus.
Encouraging Academic Collaboration
I want to thank the three faculty members who launched our first pilot on shared courses. These faculty members taught students from several campuses at the same time. The purpose was to allow low enrolled courses to still be offered by combining course enrollments. Please help me thank Yoshiko Green from IU South Bend, James Hollenbeck from IU Southeast, and Karen Koelm from IU Northwest. I look forward to more course collaboration in the future.
Strengthening Recruitment and Retention
Our P-12 initiatives mentioned earlier are one strategy to increase our enrollment. The other strategy is to increase our online enrollment during this time of enrollment decline in our regions. The ICHE data about the significant decline in the college going rate throughout the State is a challenge I know we can address. We will be gathering our leadership teams from each campus in February for a Retention Summit. More to come as the details are worked out.
Supporting Student Success
To support student success all campuses are launching the Bring Change to Mind initiative designed to support enhanced mental health services. This is a student led program that was created to end the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. Each campus has received funding from the President’s office to support a mentor to guide the students as they work with their peers.
In addition, based on the success of the Northwest campus, we will all be launching a GROUPS Scholars program for our students. Created in 1968 to increase college attendance among first-generation, underrepresented students at Indiana University, the Groups Scholars Program provides academic, Financial, and social support to help students attain a bachelor's degree at Indiana University. The program offers an extensive student support system, including academic advising, tutoring, enrollment in specialized courses, and activities designed to foster academic success and degree completion.
Finally, I want to applaud the South Bend campus community who were awarded two million dollars over five years in federal Title III SIP (Strengthening Institutions Program) grant funds. They will be creating a full-time director of student success position, beginning in January, 2023.
As you can see, we have been very busy this semester moving the regional campus mission forward! I am excited to see what 2023 has in store for all of us. Best wishes for a restful break!