About Us

Message from Victor Borden

Bob Dylan says, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Similarly, you don’t need an institutional researcher to tell you how things are going at a university. If you are like me, you read and watch weather reports and use the information to prepare for your day but you understand their limits. Please consider the information presented in this Web site and through the products and services of UIRR as a kind of weather report. The statistics and analysis presented herein summarize the way things have been and how they are currently, but they are certainly not the same as direct experience of the teaching, research, and service that occurs throughout the diverse campuses of IU.

For those of you who directly experience IU, we hope this information helps you to put into perspective and get the most from those experiences. To those who view this information without the benefit of direct experience, we hope you will learn a little about this vast, complex university and seek to discover more, firsthand. Regarding how best to use this information, I will close with the words of Arthur C. Clarke: “Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.”