IU’s Whitten touts Indy enrollment jump, microelectronics investment in annual address

Pamela Whitten (Indiana University photo)

Indiana University President Pamela Whitten commended enrollment numbers for school’s new Indianapolis campus and outlined how the university is increasing its presence in emerging industries during her annual State of the University address on Tuesday.

The new IU Indianapolis campus saw a 9% increase in the size of its freshman class compared with the number of IU freshmen under the joint campus with Purdue University. The class of first-year students totals 2,438 and overall Indianapolis undergraduate enrollment is 20,568.

“By any measure, the launch of IU Indianapolis has been a resounding success,” Whitten said.

This is the first year IU and Purdue are operating separate Indianapolis campuses following the breakup of IUPUI. Unlike IU Indianapolis, the Purdue in Indianapolis campus is an extension of the main university in West Lafayette, not a stand-alone campus.

The seamless enrollment program with Indianapolis Public Schools nearly doubled the number of enrolled students this year from 44 to 81. The program will add 10 high schools next year, while the pilot started with four.

Enrollment also is up at the Bloomington flagship campus as well as IU East, Kokomo and South Bend. Whitten said a record number of students of color are IU Hoosiers, accounting for 30.6% of total system enrollment.

The Indianapolis nursing program increased its undergraduate enrollment from 140 to 247 with support from an IU Health grant to combat the nursing shortage. Across the IU system, 2,737 undergraduate nursing students are enrolled.

Whitten also gave an update on the university’s $111 million investment in microelectronics program development announced in October 2023.

The university is launching a Center for Reliable and Trusted Electronics, or IU CREATE, for short. The center is supported by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement, a targeted collegiate workforce development program.

The university also received $4 million in Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI 2.0, funds. The dollars will go toward purchasing new specialized equipment for IU CREATE and microelectronics faculty.

A handful of degrees in emerging industries are also on their way, she said, including microelectronics and nanotechnology, information science, public policy and design leadership.

The Bloomington campus has hired 24 additional faculty members specializing in microelectronics, applied quantum information science and other STEM fields as part of an IU hiring push. The initiative seeks to employ new faculty members in research priorities and growing academic programs.

Whitten said the university’s research and development expenditures total $980 million in 2024, an amount that continues to significantly increase. IU’s fiscal year 2023 saw $243 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Whitten teased announcements in the coming months for new initiatives regarding basic research, economic development and health science.

“We have made remarkable progress over the past year through the 2030 Strategic Plan in enhancing student success, driving transformative research, and deepening our commitment to service across the state,” she said. “But this is just the beginning.”