"One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals."
—(Michael Korda)
2007 has been a year of transition for higher education in Indiana. We have new leadership at the state’s three major public institutions:
IU, Purdue, and
Ivy Tech. Throughout this time, IUPUI has continued to build momentum by meeting the needs of our students, making discoveries that both advance our disciplines and affect people’s lives, and achieving impact by doing what we do best—engaging our minds and hearts in the quest for knowledge.
Meeting the Needs of Students
We continue to adjust to the changing nature of our student body—more full-time students, spending more time on campus. To forge strong links between academics and student life, we are providing an infrastructure that addresses both the changing needs of students and our desire to improve retention by bonding students more closely to the campus. Our efforts to serve students better so that they persist to degree completion have resulted in growing national recognition, especially for first-year programs designed to ease the transition from high school to college. We will continue to evaluate students’ needs and strategically invest in proven retention initiatives.
Making Discoveries That Advance Disciplines and Affect Lives
IUPUI’s destiny has always been closely linked with Central Indiana’s, but IUPUI also has impact statewide, nationally, and internationally. We made this explicit in crafting IUPUI’s new mission statement as part of
IU’s Mission Differentiation Project. IUPUI pledged to advance its mission by advancing Indiana.
To fulfill this pledge, IUPUI is solidifying its preeminence as “Destination Health and Life Sciences” for Indiana. Among other initiatives, this effort includes enhancing the pipeline of students interested in, and academically prepared for, careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as well as for teaching in the STEM disciplines. Interdisciplinary partnerships in health and life sciences, biomedical engineering, and cancer research have also proliferated across campus as the problems with which we grapple become more multifaceted and solutions more complex to implement. The Signature Center
and Translating Research into Practice (TRIP)
initiatives highlight IUPUI’s distinctive history of interdisciplinary, practice-based education and research. Another new program will offer a series of public lectures, symposia, and other events by the hundreds of IUPUI faculty conducting translational research.
Having an Impact
Civic engagement, a hallmark of the campus, permeates everything we do. It will be crucial to IUPUI’s future success as practice-based education, work-study, internships, and academically based service learning opportunities continue to be key factors in student retention and in career placement, particularly in positions in Indiana. What is more, graduates take the ethic of service back to their home communities.
More than a slogan, “IUPUI: Where Impact Is Made” is an attribute that resonates in the halls of the Indiana General Assembly, City County Council chambers, offices of municipal and state agencies, and the board rooms where community leaders and policy makers assemble to try to make the best choices for Indiana and its citizens. IUPUI informs that conversation through the work of its faculty, particularly their essential work of knowledge creation and dissemination. The recently established Commissions on Local Government Reform and Health Care Reform, staffed by IUPUI faculty experts, are examples.
As you review the 2007 IUPUI Performance Report,
you will see that planning and focus, fueled by dedication and commitment, are the factors that keep IUPUI on a trajectory in education, research, and service that will continue to achieve impact in the city, state, nation, and world.
Charles R. Bantz
Chancellor of IUPUI
