Annual Performance Report -- Introduction
Collaboration, Innovation, Impact
A Message from Chancellor Charles R. Bantz
This IUPUI Performance Report highlights two values central to IUPUI's identity: collaboration and innovation. Both are inherent in the name we were given in 1969: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. That name embodies a collaboration between two major state universities, as well as our ongoing commitment to our third partner, Indianapolis. Together, Indiana University and Purdue University?IUPUI?and Indianapolis have created innovative cross-disciplinary and university-community collaborations with broad impact.
The generous support for the IUPUI IMPACT Campaign to date?as of June 30, 2011, more than $1 billion raised toward a goal of $1.25 billion?tells us that our community values our past accomplishments and sees the potential for new opportunities in the future. The campaign's four themes?extraordinary student success, urban research, health and life sciences, and civic engagement?each represent areas where innovation and collaboration combine to produce exceptional impact and uncommon promise.
Extraordinary Student Success
IUPUI has earned frequent national accolades for first-year programs, service learning, undergraduate research, and evidence-based approaches to education. The new RISE initiative?short for research, international, service learning, and experiential learning?takes advantage of these strengths. The program challenges undergraduates to participate in at least two experiences that build on IUPUI's tradition of practice-based education. Evidence shows that these powerful pedagogies enhance undergraduate learning and achievement. As the data in this report will show, our retention and graduation rates have improved steadily in recent years.
Urban Research
Real-world urban problems rarely present themselves in single discipline packages; they are by nature multifaceted, requiring us to forge collaborations across disciplines. IUPUI's urban research mission also depends on community partnerships. Our distinctive focus on collaborative research producing innovative solutions inspired the TRIP (Translating Research into Practice) initiative launched in 2006. TRIP is helping IUPUI to advance urban research that can be applied in Indianapolis and cities around the world.
Health and Life Sciences
IUPUI is Indiana's premier site for training health care professionals, creating a wealth of opportunities for collaboration with life sciences industries. Partnerships like BioCrossroads and the Indiana Genomics Initiative fuel the growth of the local economy. Innovative multidisciplinary programs like Medical Informatics and Forensic Sciences offer our students opportunities to gain expertise in cutting-edge fields, while the Signature Centers initiative strengthens our research infrastructure. The newly funded Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research, for example, provides a home for cross-disciplinary collaboration between basic researchers and clinicians to improve outcomes for this deadly disease, which claimed the lives of Myles Brand, Melvin Simon, and Steve Jobs.
Civic Engagement
Civic engagement is a hallmark of IUPUI, deeply rooted in our early history as a training ground for health and social work professionals and incorporated into our mission as a commitment that permeates our activities. We live out this commitment through pioneering partnerships like the Talent Alliance, a coalition working to improve the cradle-to-career educational pipeline in Central Indiana; through service learning experiences that enable students to test academic knowledge in the real world and promote a life of social responsibility; and through a research enterprise that expands the local economy, addresses community issues and needs, and emphasizes solutions that work. Our strategic approach to community partnerships, whether at home or abroad?academic programs linked to economic development, translational research, technology transfer, and sustained engagement?is a national model.
As we look back at our achievements in each of these thematic areas, we have much to be proud of; as we look forward, we have much to be excited about. Our past accomplishments and potential for the future led U.S. News & World Report to rank IUPUI third on its list of “up-and-coming” national universities, up from fourteenth when the list was initiated three years ago. With your help, we will continue innovating and collaborating to build on those accomplishments.
Charles R. Bantz
Chancellor of IUPUI
