People are the heart of our progress

When we talk with alumni, friends and other supporters, they often ask, “What’s new? What’s happening at IU Northwest?”

My reply to those questions usually covers the academic achievements of our students, significant faculty and staff accomplishments, new developments in our academic programs, new facility improvements and new partnerships with our constituents, to name a few. I also address our new construction on campus and our enrollment increase.

For the fifth consecutive term, we have seen a significant increase in enrollment. We have 4,930 students enrolled this semester, which represents a 12.5 percent increase, the highest percentage increase over the previous spring term, with an 11.9 percent increase in student credit hours (44,790). It would be presumptuous of me to suggest that we understand all of the reasons why our enrollment is up, but I would like to mention a few factors.

As many know, frequently when the economy is down in a region, the enrollments at the regional public university go up, and certainly that could be a factor. However, we also are quite sure that the student-centered, effective work of our staff in admissions, financial aid, bursar, information technology, student services and many other key offices has played a role along with the positive image that IUN is developing in the external community. We also have seen an increase in the region’s awareness of the benefits of an IU Northwest education and the many fine programs available on our campus due to our improved communication efforts, both internal and external.

Another major initiative, which is exciting for both IUN and the Northwest Center for Medical Education, is the construction of a new Medical/Professional Education building. This building will provide the physical resources which will enable us to pursue the leadership role befitting IUN in both medical education and the health professions, such as nursing, dental hygiene and allied health. The first phase of construction should be completed in 2004, with the second phase completed in 2006. In addition to housing the programs mentioned, the new building will be home to our School of Business and Economics and our School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

IU Northwest also has received more than $250,000 for improvements that have directly affected 20 classrooms. More than 42 percent of our classrooms have received technology improvements, and during the past three years, all computer classrooms, Student Technology Centers, and faculty and staff have benefited from new computers. As well, IUN’s computer network is connected to Internet2 through a 45MBps fiber-optic link providing gigabyte connectivity among buildings, with the capacity to grow to an incredible 10 gigabytes. This allows for more data to be transferred at faster speeds. We also host a portion of the latest IU distributed supercomputer cluster that is used for advanced research.

There is a new spirit and a new attitude at IUN—a renewed excitement among our students and faculty—which extends to our many other constituencies as well. We are building on our academic strengths, pursuing excellence in everything we do and solidifying IUN’s role as a leader in northwest Indiana. We’re entering the fourth year of our “Shared Vision,” a vision that presents a word picture of the kind of institution we are striving to create at IU Northwest, and we have developed two critical areas of focus for our efforts. These areas include developing a unique identity for our institution and enhancing the campus climate in such a way as to provide more support for our students and faculty in the learning process.

IUN’s unique identity will be built around our commitment to sustainable regional vitality, and cultural discovery and learning. Pursuit of sustainable regional vitality will include programmatic initiatives—such as our health-related programs, our environmental initiative and our local government academy. We also are exploring the possibility of developing an urban studies institute. Cultural discovery and learning will draw upon the visual and performing arts, and development of programs and activities that explore our many cultures through diverse perspectives and forms of expression. In the area of campus climate, we are focusing our efforts on student-centered activities and services, implementation of performance management throughout the institution and the Academic Quality Improvement Process (AQIP), a new approach to accreditation.

Our people are the heart of our progress. We are blessed with a talented and distinguished faculty, a bright and hard-working community of students, and a creative and responsive administration and staff. Similarly, our alumni, always dedicated and loyal, have re-energized and refocused their efforts to support specific institutional goals, and we are encouraged by the energy and enthusiasm shown by academic, business and civic leaders with whom we are collaborating.

IU Northwest continues to reaffirm its roles in society—to be an excellent regional public university as well as a major participant and educational resource for the development of northwest Indiana. The degree to which we will be successful in these roles will depend on our academic achievements, the scope and quality of our academic programs, and the contribution we make to the lives of the communities that we serve. Based upon our recent successes, we can state with confidence that we are building the foundation for an enormously bright future.

I invite you to read more about the exciting developments and community partnerships that IUN is pleased to offer to the citizens of northwest Indiana.

See Today's Feature section for an update on the IU Northwest campus.