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Indiana University on Tuesday unveiled a seven-year plan for its seven campuses, a strategic roadmap that seeks to reaffirm the university’s status among globally recognized higher education institutions.
The three-pronged plan, called IU 2030, will focus on improving post-secondary attainment and retention rates, increasing the university’s vast research enterprise and aligning its objectives with the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the state’s job-creation agency.
In addition to laying out a vision for IU’s flagship location in Bloomington, the blueprint includes campus-specific plans for the university’s six campuses outside Bloomington, including IUPUI, which is set to be renamed IU Indianapolis under a realignment plan.
The IU Board of Trustees endorsed the plan at its April 7 meeting.
“We are charting an ambitious seven-year vision for IU, with a roadmap to new heights that reaffirms the university’s rightful place within the highest tier of American public higher education,” IU President Pamela Whitten said in written remarks.
The plan, which relied on input from hundreds of faculty, staff and students, looks to address a need for skilled workers in a state that hopes to attract high-wage jobs in advanced manufacturing, life sciences and technology sectors. IU’s goal is to increase career-pathway partnerships with high schools in each campus region and boost the number of graduates hired to Indiana-based industry sectors supported by the IEDC, officials said.
In December, IU revealed plans to create a science and technology corridor within its downtown Indy campus, part of an effort to boost science, technology, engineering and math degrees.
Moving forward, Hoosiers can expect to see new degrees in nanotechnology and microelectronics, as well as focused programs through its upcoming School of Science aimed at addressing a statewide physician shortage, Whitten said.
The university also said it hopes to vault the IU School of Medicine into one of the 10 best funded research institutions in the country. The school currently ranks 14th nationally in total National Institutes of Health-funded research among public universities.
The plan’s rollout comes as Indiana grapples with a declining postsecondary attainment rate, which fell from 65% in 2015 to 53% in 2020, the lowest rate in a generation, according to the Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education.
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“In addition to laying out a vision for IU’s flagship location in Bloomington, the blueprint includes campus-specific plans for the university’s seven satellite branches, including IUPUI, which is set to be renamed IU Indianapolis under a realignment plan.”
IUPUI was never considered a “satellite branch”, but rather one of two “core” campuses. IUPUI has its own satellite campuses, in IUFW and IUPUC.
To add to this:
->Much of IU’s administration is at its Indianapolis campus
->IU’s Indianapolis campus is home to its medical, nursing, and dental schools (which are each the biggest or among the biggest schools of their type in the US)
->Most of IU’s research happens in Indianapolis between IUSM and IUPUI.
Which is why IU has always considered its Indy campus to be a “core” campus rather than a satellite campus.
Did the IBJ writer attend this meting and familiarize himself with this “Plan”? Or just re-write a press release?
For the record: the “public input’ was flimsy at best; there was no public comment or large-scale discussion at this trustees’ meeting.
I did not see any mention of athletics. Does President Whitten have a plan to bring National Championships home to Bloomington? The lack of a laid out plan for the football and basketball teams makes me very nervous for the future because at the end of the day, that is what will define IU. Banners fly forever.
But wealthy alumni (in STEM fields) give money forever.
IUPUI is a co-equal “core campus” with IU-Bloomington as per the IU reorganization of 1974. Any use of the term “flagship” by either Bloomington-based spokesperson or release-reading reporters is uninformed and fifty years behind the times.
Bloomington has been and will continue be “the flagship campus.” All the other campuses exist because of Bloomington. 1820. Herman B. Wells. 200 years. This reality takes nothing away from the importance of IUPUI. But history matters.
I doubt they addressed the high cost of attending school there as a possible reason for the falling number of graduates from state schools.