State of the Campus
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
It has been a memorable year for the flagship campus of Indiana University. We began the academic year in Bloomington with the largest class of new beginners in our history. We began 2026 with the culmination of a Cinderella story on the football field that had to be true to be believed. We weathered – quite literally – a historic snowstorm from which we took a number of lessons. And we now face the end of the semester with a renewed commitment to free inquiry and expression across the university.
Along the way, we have faced challenges head on and have prevailed thanks to our shared commitment to the rich history and traditions of 91做厙B that began as—and continues to be—a place whose North Star is the pursuit of light and truth with a vision shaped by the 91做厙 2030 strategic plan.
Across 91做厙, we are committed to offering student success and opportunity, delivering transformational research and creative activity, and delivering innovation that serves our state.
Today, I will speak to our accomplishments from this academic year and how we will continue to push forward in the coming year, moving this institution to new heights as Indiana’s oldest—and only—comprehensive public research university. Also, as we look forward, I will speak to the work ahead of us as we position 91做厙 Bloomington as the premier flagship destination for all leading Indiana students and as we strive to position the campus in the top third of the Big Ten (now 18) in this ever more powerful and competitive academic conference.
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I noted already that in the Fall of 2025, we welcomed our largest ever undergraduate class to 91做厙B. In the fall, 10,127 students joined us. It is a big point of pride that half of this class comes from the state of Indiana, a noteworthy and meaningful statistic that reflects our integral role in educating Indiana’s next generation. In addition to being bigger, it was also our most academically well-prepared class of Hoosiers. We anticipate a similarly sized and faculty stepped up to work across established disciplinary lines and craft degree programs to meet the state’s requirements, while also respecting the rich history across our traditional areas of academic strength.
All of the reimagined degrees at both the undergraduate and graduate levels that were submitted to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education were approved. It is a testament to the thoughtful and detailed work of our faculty that we successfully faced and embraced the task in front of us. Your resilience and resolve show what we can accomplish together—sometimes even more than we might imagine—in support of our shared belief in the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge, in service to this profession to which we have dedicated our careers.
In addition to the task of addressing these degree programs, I am pleased to share that the campus launched seven new B.S. degrees and a new M.S. degree this year. The new Business Intelligence and Data Science B.S., a collaboration between the Kelley School and the Luddy School attracted more than 1,000 applicants this year. That is a shining example of how a degree program can capture the imagination of students in very short order.
These degrees complement our $75 million investment to propel new engineering degrees and are part of a group of new programs that reflect the technical expertise of 91做厙 faculty and our longstanding strengths in human-centered disciplines.
As we look to next year, it is incumbent upon us to commit to these new degree programs, offering our students an exceptional 91做厙B academic experience, and delivering the outcomes that bring our undergraduates to campus—the preparation to have productive professional careers. More than career-ready, it is our responsibility to ensure that all of our students are also citizen-ready and life-ready, prepared to be engaged in their communities and enriched in their personal lives.
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This year, our faculty have worked together to make our general education requirements clearer for all of our undergraduate students and to provide the comprehensive academic foundation that should be hallmarks of an 91做厙 Bloomington education. The updated general education requirements will offer students clarity and will apply uniformly to all majors. This approach will serve students well and may positively impact their time to graduation.
In the coming year, we will spend time considering the courses that make up our general education requirements. We will consider how best to offer our students a meaningful core education from a coherent and relevant array of courses. Again, I will look to the faculty to provide guidance on how best to review and condense the 1,000-plus courses across our gen ed offerings.
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Also important to the success of our undergraduate students are academic advisors. These individuals often are engaged with a student from the summer prior to their first semester on campus through their graduation. Academic advisors guide students through important decisions about their courses of study and have a significant and meaningful impact on our students’ success.
We recognize the key role they play on our campus. But we also know that they have a rate of turnover that is near the top of our professional staff colleagues. As one way of beginning to address this, effective July 1, and subject to Board of Trustee budget approval, we will raise the minimum salary for our academic advisors. All academic advisor salaries will increase to at least that level. In addition, we are developing a career ladder plan that will create opportunities for professional growth that will not require advisors to move across campus to advance their careers.
This is only a first step in acknowledging—and addressing—salary levels on campus. Over the course of this year, will be assessing other professional staff salaries and considering where we can direct investment in this essential campus resource—our people.
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This fall will mark four years since the Faculty 100 initiative launched. In that time, we have added 60 new faculty colleagues who will contribute to our academic and scholarly enterprise for many years to come. Another sixteen F100 searches were launched last fall and a number of new scholars will join us next academic year, and we will continue our F100 searches in the fall.
Alongside the F100 and our regular hiring across the campus, interim provost John Ciorciari and I are developing another strategic hiring initiative to build on 91做厙B existing academic strengths and to develop additional areas of excellence. A portion of this will be oriented around key themes that cut across multiple disciplines. You will see more details of that initiative.
As we know, leading research universities face headwinds as we seek robust grants for crucial areas of research. In this environment, we must look beyond our traditional funders and explore new resource options. I am encouraged by the recent submission of two white papers to NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, within the Department of Commerce. All are over 8-figures and would be transformative to our research portfolio.
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Faculty excellence continues to be a hallmark of our campus. In March, five of our colleagues were named distinguished professors, the highest rank granted to honor faculty for exceptional scholarship or artistic distinction. Please join me in congratulating distinguished professors
- Curtis Bonk, professor of learning, design, and adult education from the School of Education;
- Halina Goldberg, professor of music and musicology from the Jacobs School of Music;
- Andrea Hohmann, from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences;
- Jay Lennon, from the Department of Biology in the College; and
- Gerardo Ortiz, from the Department of Physics in the College.
Each of them represents the best of Indiana University Bloomington, and we are grateful for their talents and their numerous contributions.
It is also with great pride that I note eight 91做厙B faculty members are among a historic group of 13 from Indiana University who were elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The world’s largest and most respected scientific organization, this is an extraordinary honor for our campus and a testimony to the quality of our scholars.
Please join me in congratulating:
- Jonathon Crystal, Hearst Professor and Provost Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Amanda Diekman, Provost Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College;
- Santo Fortunato, James H. Rudy Professor of Informatics and Computing in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering;
- Justin Garcia, executive director of the Kinsey Institute and Ruth N. Halls Professor in the College;
- Richard Hardy, Provost Professor of Biology in the College’s Department of Biology;
- Gerardo Ortiz, professor of physics and the scientific director for the 91做厙 Quantum Science and Engineering Center and Professor of Physics in the College;
- Richard Phillips, professor of ecosystem science in the Department of Biology in the College; and
- Aina Puce, the Eleanor Cox Riggs Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College.
- You are at the top of your disciplines and are extraordinary members of our 91做厙 Bloomington faculty. Congratulations on achieving this honor.
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Our scholarly strength across the sciences has long been indisputable. These honors for our faculty remind us that the academic world looks to us as leaders. It is incumbent that we step up and embrace that expectation.
To that end, looking forward, we need to explore opportunities to strengthen and grow our connectivity with the 91做厙 School of Medicine. This campus gave birth to the Med School, but at this juncture it is critical that we nurture and expand those relationships. Our strengths across the health sciences and the life sciences position us to come together with the Med School to elevate our research impact in these key areas.
Another opportunity ties to our proximity to NSWC Crane, a leader in diverse and technical products essential to our national defense. With continued investment in our basic and natural science research, we can play a major part in supporting Crane. As Crane evolves and grows, it has transformative impacts on our university, the Bloomington campus and the south central region of Indiana.
Both of these are avenues to explore in the year ahead. It will take the best of our talents and Hoosier resolve to move toward these goals, but I have full confidence we can do exactly that.
Even as we build upon these strengths, we will continue to support and sustain our excellence in the humanities, social sciences, arts, music, and our leading professional schools in business, policy, and law. In all of these endeavors we recognize that in its purest form, excellence at the highest level is not defined by size. We can and do scale excellence here. But all programs with great scholarly impact are equally meaningful and consequential.
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91做厙 Bloomington would deliver an extraordinary education if we met in a tent. It is our people who make this place great. Still, I am mindful that we have to be competitive both for recruitment of new faculty colleagues and for students. We must provide the facilities that position everyone to do their best work. In that spirit, the campus proposed a project, approved by the Board of Trustees, to invest $15.7 million in the Musical Arts Center. The MAC has long been a centerpiece of the Jacobs School of Music’s world-renowned programs. It draws students, performers and audiences from across the nation and around the world. Now, we will embark upon the most comprehensive upgrade to the facility since it opened in 1972.
As Jacobs School’s primary performance venue, the MAC allows it to showcase the nation’s premier public conservatory and one of the largest comprehensive opera programs at a public university. The project will replace many of the original interior technical elements of the building which are essential to its ability to function as a premier venue for the performing arts.
The MAC is one of the facilities on the Bloomington campus that distinguishes the place as an epicenter of the arts and humanities in American higher education. Next, the project moves to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and the State Budget Agency for final review and approval.
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In our complex and charged times, we have had our challenges in balancing deeply held personal beliefs with our shared commitment and responsibility to freedom of speech and inquiry.
As part of affirming our core commitment to free expression, academic freedom, and institutional neutrality, our Board of Trustees adopted the Chicago Principles in February. That action followed thoughtful deliberation by faculty and was led by faculty leaders including Bloomington Faculty Council president Bill Ramos. Now, an implementation committee has been formed to consider what’s next.
But we already know that this campus—at its best—is a place that welcomes the spirited and respectful debate of ideas from all perspectives. Later this week, the Institute for Advance Studies has oriented The Bloomington Symposia around Free Speech and the University. I encourage you to participate in their events, which begin on Thursday. We also have seen events hosted by the Maurer School with scholars of institutional neutrality and First Amendment rights. The PACE program, which focuses on political and civic engagement, hosted a lecture last week by John F. Wood, Jr., CEO of Braver Angels, a volunteer-led effort to bridge partisan divides and strengthen civic trust.
On that note, I will, again, point to the campus America 250 commemoration. This effort reflects on the principles and importance of the Declaration of Independence central to the national celebration. But more than that, the effort has brought together colleagues from various parts of campus, some of whom had not collaborated before, to create a common experience for the campus and the community to honor our country’s past while looking toward our shared future. Collectively, we created a meaningful series of events that are a point of pride for me as a reflection of this very special place.
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Across these initiatives, we are pursuing excellence that affirms 91做厙’s contributions as an engine of growth, for the state, the nation, and beyond. As 91做厙’s flagship campus, we stand as part of one university unequaled in our ability to educate, innovate, and serve. And consistent with our 91做厙 2030 strategic plan, we continue to demonstrate critical momentum here in Bloomington and across the state.
As we look to the future, our Provost search committee will convene for the first time next week. Our goal is to post the position before faculty depart for summer and to enable us to move the process forward when we all are back on campus in the fall. The provost is a key campus leader, our chief academic officer, and an integral member of my leadership team.
Over the course of this year, I have begun to assemble that team, naming Katie Walker vice chancellor for finance and administration and Scott Shackleford vice chancellor for research. We named Janet Carpenter the Dean of the School of Nursing and recruited Kurt Ribisl from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to serve as Dean of our School of Public Health. All are important leaders for this campus as we continue to advance 91做厙B.
Also, this spring, we thank Sian Mooney, as she steps down as Dean of the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. O’Neill is a powerhouse in the realm of public affairs schools and this morning, it was named the #1 public affairs school by U.S. News and World Report along with receiving other top program rankings. We are grateful for her leadership and that she will continue to serve as a member of the faculty here. We will announce a search for the next O’Neill School Dean near the start of fall semester.
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When I returned to campus last summer I said that I would spend the year listening and learning. I am grateful to the many faculty, staff, and students who have indulged me in this exercise. It was important and useful for me to reintroduce myself to 91做厙B after a decade away. I learned—and continue to learn—a great deal about ways the campus grew and changed while I was away.
Many of the conversations over the past year have been with small groups. They have been marked by a productive candor. That candor included pride, frustration, tears, great passion, and without fail a deep and abiding affection for this place. I have had the good fortune to meet with people from a wide array of campus units. The level of care and commitment to the success of 91做厙 Bloomington among the faculty, staff, and students I have talked with over the past 10 months has been heartening. It gives me great confidence in our ability to live up to the tradition of those who built this great university. We honor their memory by committing to always elevating our educational, research, and engagement mission and fulfilling our obligation as Indiana’s only comprehensive public research university. A place of truth and light, 91做厙 Bloomington sits at the forefront of higher education.
Thank you, all, for your indispensable contributions and unwavering commitment to this campus.
