VCAA Newletter

Dear Colleagues,

With the advent of the new academic year, I trust that your summer continues to be rewarding to you personally and professionally as you enjoy well-deserved rest and relaxation with family and friends. I, too, found time to be with friends on the Northern California coast and with family in Oregon, Maine, and Massachusetts. But my summer was not total leisure. I was privileged to participate in an exciting professional development opportunity at Harvard=s Institute for Educational Management. As one of ninety-two higher education executives from public and private four-year comprehensive universities and community colleges, I spent an exhaustive and exhilarating two weeks learning about public policy and higher education. Having served for over twenty years as an administrator, the most valuable benefit to me was time for reflection and renewal. In conversations with colleagues, I tested old assumptions, re-thought administrative practices, learned new approaches, re-affirmed core values, and gained new insights into educational theory and practice. Seminar and small group discussions centered on leadership, team-building, financial management, communication, diversity, external relations, stewardship and partnership with legislatures, trustees, alumni among others. I return energized with a renewed commitment to work with you to continue IUSB=s growth in academic excellence.

Planning - In planning for IUSB=s future, the Campus Directions Committee will begin Phase Two of IUSB=s Strategic Planning by hosting a Campus/Community Forum this fall on October 4. Major goals of this event will be to seek broad-based community involvement in the development of the campus strategic plan (to be submitted to NCA in Fall, 2004), and to bring representatives of a broad range of constituents together to discuss IUSB--past, present and future. The second goal of the forum is to develop a plan for the work of the six expanded Strategic Task Planning task forces: Academic Excellence; Student Access and Success; Community Partnership; Enhance Diversity in Classroom, Campus, Curriculum; Reflect a Global Perspective; and Promote the Achievements of IUSB. On July 12, the CDC held a planning retreat which is a precursor of the October 4 event. I encourage you to review the summary of that retreat.

Enrollment - Enrollment for Fall Semester 2002 stands at 5,636 students in 53,950.0 credit hours which is 8.4% and 10.4%, respectively, ahead of the same period last year. These numbers are equivalent to 76.0% of students and 81.9% of credit hours at census last year (Fall Semester 2001).

Thus far, the Automated Course Exchange system has matched 306 of 580 active waitlist requests (52.8%). Course specific waitlist statistics are available on-line.

Graphs showing Fall enrollment period trends for headcount, credit hours, and credits-per-student from 1998 through yesterday are available on-line at http://www.iusb.edu/~regr/daychart.html .

Student Affairs - In early July, Chancellor Reck announced that Senior Associate Vice Chancellor Jacquie Caul would assume administrative oversight of Student Affairs. I am delighted with this appointment which is pivotal to the integration of student affairs that began two years ago. Associate Vice Chancellor Caul is a seasoned administrator; she brings original thinking and energetic leadership to this new assignment. Under her leadership IUSB is poised to continue as a model among regional campuses in the delivery of student academic support services. The partnership that we began with the Lilly Endowment in 1997 affirms the creative approaches undertaken at IUSB to assure student retention and success. I encourage you to read the executive summary of the Lilly Student Success Grant that chronicles IUSB=s successes during the last five years. We have realized an increase in first-to-second year persistence rates from 54.2% in fall 1995 to 60.9% for fall 2000, a greater increase (6.7%) than at any other IU campus.

UCET - I am delighted to report that Professor Jennifer Klein has agreed to assume the leadership of UCET for the academic year. Professor Klein was chosen in consultation with the UCET Advisory Board. Professor Klein is committed to working with the board in support of professional enhancement opportunities for faculty. I look forward to working with her and with the advisory board in continuing the excellence of programming and training that we all have come to expect of UCET.

Contracts & Grants - During the 2001 calendar year, IUSB faculty and staff submitted 66 proposals for external funding through the Office of Research for a total request of $2,645,348. This figure includes funding proposals sent to IU competitions such as the recent Arts & Humanities Initiative. External awards to IUSB faculty and staff during 2001 totaled just over $1 million from 31 successful proposals. This gave us a 46% success rate in terms of the number of proposals funded and a 41% success rate in the dollar amount of funding awarded. More information can be found on-line.

All Campus Meeting - All faculty and staff are invited to an all campus meeting on August 23rd starting at 9:00AM in the Northside Main Auditorium to celebrate the beginning of the new academic year. The meeting will be followed by a continental breakfast. Chancellor Reck envisions this event as a celebration of community. Each each new semester will open with an all-campus gathering.

Chancellor Reck=s Installation - I encourage all faculty to attend Chancellor Reck=s installation on September 27 at 11:00 AM in the Student Activities Center. Academic regalia will be provided by the campus and can be ordered through the bookstore. Faculty will receive information about ordering from the bookstore via massmail. Please come out and welcome our new chancellor. This is an exciting day for IUSB.

Website Updates - Academic Affairs recently updated their website, organizing pages into directories to make maintenance more efficient. If you link to any of the Academic Affairs resources from your own website you should check the links to make sure they work. The current bulletins can now be found at http://www.iusb.edu/~acadaff/bulletin/bull.html and the Handbooks at http://www.iusb.edu/~acadaff/handbooks/handbook.html . Other resources can be found through the main page at http://www.iusb.edu/~acadaff/. If you have trouble locating a link or if you find links that don't work contact Erika at acadaff@iusb.edu.