Dear IU Student, Colleague or Friend of the University,

This will be my last monthly President's Update. Tomorrow will be my last day serving as president of Indiana University, which I have had the honor and privilege of leading for more than 14 years. Overall, I have served for 24 years — more than a third of my life — in senior administrative positions at IU, and I am immensely proud of all that has been achieved across the whole university over this period.

As I have said many times, these accomplishments are your accomplishments — the collective product of your hard work, of your willingness to embrace change and make it happen, and of your professionalism and dedication to our core mission of excellence in education, research and engagement in improving the lives of people from Indiana and beyond. I am enormously grateful to all of you.

IU is now undergoing a time of transition.

In addition to my retirement from the presidency and the welcoming of President-elect Pamela Whitten, who will be the first woman to lead this great institution, Lauren Robel is stepping down from her administrative roles of executive vice president and Bloomington provost after nearly a decade of extraordinarily distinguished service in these and previous roles. Two seasoned and highly accomplished vice presidents, John Whelan and John Sejdinaj, will soon be leaving IU. Searches are also underway for deans of a number of major schools.

And, of course, as IU entered its third century, it almost immediately faced the momentous and daunting challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the gravest public health challenge that this country and the world have faced in a century. The pandemic has made this past year among the most challenging that IU has ever faced in its 200 years of existence.

Nevertheless, the firm foundations and new structures that have been put in place over the past 14 years have ensured that progress across the board at IU has continued unabated over this period. And our extensive health sciences enterprise has enabled us to mount one of the most successful efforts of any university in the country to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and to keep the whole university community safe and healthy.

IU achieves a new record of over $1 billion in external funding

I want to start this update with some spectacular news: IU has achieved a new record of over $1 billion in external funding for the fiscal year that is just ending. This represents a 15 percent increase over last year, and is particularly remarkable in light of the great difficulties caused by the pandemic under which IU researchers have had to work during the past 15 months.

This will also mean that in the past 14 years, over $8 billion in funding from external sources has been awarded to IU for research and other activities. The enormous success IU faculty have had in competing for sponsored awards is a testament to the extraordinary range and quality of their work. They, and all the students and staff who work with them, are all to be congratulated on this superb achievement. Their research and scholarship result in the generation of innovative new ideas and new intellectual works and discoveries that cure disease, protect our environment, help secure our nation, grow the economy, and advance art and culture in our communities. This success also points to the substantial impact of the numerous high-quality and productive faculty members recruited to IU in recent years.

Ready to 'return to normal'

The excellence of IU's research and clinical faculty has also been overwhelmingly demonstrated by our tremendously successful COVID-19 mitigation program in which these faculty have been centrally and vitally involved. Because of this success — as well as the strength, courage and resolve you have all demonstrated over the past 15 months — IU is excitedly planning for an in-person fall 2021 semester.

In expectation of this "return to normal," the university recently released its Restart Committee’s health and safety guidance for the upcoming semester. This included details about IU’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for all students, faculty and staff on all IU campuses, which is very similar to IU's seasonal influenza vaccine requirement. This continues the university's comprehensive science- and public-health-driven approach to the pandemic, which has been a fundamental feature of our management and mitigation of it on all IU campuses.

This decision will allow the university to lift most of the public health restrictions necessitated by the pandemic, such as masking and physical distancing. Classrooms, labs, housing, dining, recreational spaces and other campus facilities will return to pre-pandemic capacities, with no physical distancing required. Classes will convene in person in typical classroom settings, and COVID-19 testing requirements will be at much lower levels than during the 2020-21 academic year.

Our goal is to ensure that all members of the IU community are vaccinated or have an exemption by Aug. 15, when students begin arriving at IU in large numbers. We are very optimistic this will be attained based on the high numbers we have already achieved and the steady increases we are seeing each week. Compliance with IU's vaccination requirement is key to our plans for a normal fall semester.

Additionally, I was very pleased to recently announce the appointment of Distinguished Professor Aaron Carroll of the IU School of Medicine as IU's first chief health officer. This position will be responsible for leading and coordinating the university's response to major health issues, including public health emergencies such as the present COVID-19 pandemic, and long-term concerns like mental health and wellness. A particularly important role for the chief health officer will be the identification of emerging health issues where IU can begin to take practical and proactive steps toward prevention or mitigation.

A record freshman class in Bloomington

IU's successful efforts to keep the university community safe and functioning during the pandemic, along with a number of other factors, have had a positive effect on fall enrollment for the IU Bloomington campus.

Last week, we were delighted to announce that, based on present figures, we are projecting record freshman enrollment on the IU Bloomington campus, smashing nearly all the previous enrollment records for the campus.

IU Bloomington has already received 10,700 enrollment deposits and over 9,000 housing deposits from admitted students, and the campus is predicting a class that sets new milestones in academic quality, diversity and affordability. When comparing these deposits with past enrollment trends, we can project a class of about 9,300 new beginners this fall in Bloomington, a 17 percent increase over the previous year's freshman enrollment.

Furthermore, we anticipate a record level of student diversity this fall in Bloomington. The campus expects to welcome about 1,600 underrepresented students in this fall's freshman class — a more than 5 percent increase over fall 2020. 

Overall enrollment at IU Bloomington is projected to be 45,000 students, which would be another record, and 4 percent growth over last year. Undergraduate enrollment is expected to be 35,000, or 6 percent higher than 2020. These are remarkable developments, demonstrating that the campus continues to be a top choice for students — here in Indiana and beyond — who are seeking an affordable and accessible education of the highest quality.

Executive Vice President and Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel, and all of her outstanding and dedicated staff, are to be congratulated on what is expected to be a spectacular achievement this fall.

On other campuses, we are seeing some of the effects of the demographic decline on the university-ready student population in Indiana that I mentioned last month in my State of the University address, as well as, of course, the impact of the pandemic. But though these campuses may see some declines in enrolment, all are on target to meet their budgets. 

Adding to IU's world-class faculty

IU's reputation for excellence rests on the quality of its world-class community of scholars, to which we continue to add some of our nation's most accomplished individuals.

Earlier this month, we were pleased to announce that former U.S. Sen. and Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh and former Director of National Intelligence and U.S. Sen. Daniel R. Coats are joining IU’s Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, respectively.

Sen. Bayh will be appointed to the university as distinguished scholar and executive at large, while Director Coats will serve as distinguished scholar and ambassador at large. They will assume these roles in schools that include some of the country's most respected scholars, educators, researchers, policymakers and professionals.

The former senators are two of Indiana's and our nation's most accomplished and distinguished public servants, and two of IU's most renowned alumni. Both have had lengthy and productive careers in the public sector, and both have served as bipartisan leaders at the highest levels of government, where they have consistently championed the causes of education, civic responsibility, community service and global engagement. Both also remain highly influential voices on the most critical issues facing our nation and our world, and they will further enhance IU's mission to educate the next generation of leaders to confront our most pressing challenges.

Additionally, last week, we announced that former U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks will join the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law at IUPUI. Brooks, an alumna of the school, will be appointed as distinguished scholar and ambassador at large. Among her various roles, she will co-teach a course on law and leadership with former dean and Paul E. Beam Professor of Law Andrew R. Klein.

We are extremely pleased to welcome these three prominent Hoosier leaders to IU, and we look forward to the positive impact they will have on educating our students and further elevating the reputations of the schools they will now call their homes.

Building for future excellence

Vital to a great university are the physical facilities and infrastructure necessary to sustain its education and research mission at the highest level.

Such facilities and others in the near future are essential if IU is going to be able to compete to its full potential for a share of the massive infusion of funds into the national scientific and academic enterprise — the largest ever — that is expected to come from the final version of the $200 billion United States Innovation and Competition Act. Indiana Sen. Todd Young has been a driving force behind USICA, and we are extremely grateful to him for his efforts to make such unprecedented funds available to support national scientific and technological competitiveness.

June has seen a flurry of building dedications, each of which has been historic for its own reasons. Collectively, they contribute to the continuing dramatic transformation of the IU landscape that promises to have a major impact on the quality of student learning and faculty scholarship and research for decades to come.

IU's new buildings dedicated — or rededicated — this month, include:

• The Health Sciences Building, co-located with the nearly completed new IU Health Bloomington Hospital and part of the new IU Regional Academic Health Center, which has brought most of the academic health science programs on the Bloomington campus together into one place. This 115,000-square-foot facility will allow us to considerably increase the number of students in these programs, thus helping address the state's acute shortage of health care workers. The Health Sciences Building and Regional Academic Health Center, more broadly, will also help IU maximize its full capacity for research in the health sciences.
• The new Mies van der Rohe Building, a facility for students and faculty of the IU Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, designed by one of the greatest architects of the modern era. This magnificent building, which realizes a rediscovered 1952 design created by Mies for the IU Bloomington campus, features lecture, workshop, student collaboration, administrative and office spaces that will benefit students, faculty and staff across the Eskenazi School.
• The Lilly Library, which is being renovated to greatly improve its ability to provide scholars, researchers and others with wide access to the library's magnificent collection of rare books, manuscripts and objects that rivals those of any rare books library in the nation. The iconic building's Reading Room has also been renovated and made more beautiful through the addition of a magnificent new cycle of murals that reflect the library's rich resources in world literature, history, the sciences and the arts.
• The Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence, a game-changing development for IU. This visionary new center will be the hub of research at IU in artificial intelligence, and it will put IU and the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at the forefront of research and education in AI and related areas.
• Ball Residence Hall at IUPUI, built in 1928 and recently renovated as part of IU's commitment to providing new or renovated student housing on all of our campuses and to nurturing student success by giving them opportunities for personal growth, social interaction and opportunities to gain leadership experience.

Earlier this month, we introduced one of IU Bloomington's newest gathering spaces, Miller Plaza, while dedicating its centerpiece sculpture. "The Spirit of Indiana" was created by sculptor and IU South Bend associate professor of fine art Dora Natella. This splendid new sculpture, which is more than 10 feet tall and weighs nearly 5,000 pounds, captures and reflects the deeply rooted values for which IU and IU Athletics wish to be known, such as integrity; a commitment to excellence; perseverance in the face of adversity; personal self-development to the highest standards; and an unwavering commitment to playing by the rules.

And tomorrow, capping off the month, we will dedicate the new IU Collections Teaching, Research and Exhibition Center (CTREC) at the historic McCalla School in Bloomington as well as the new and highly innovative IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, both of which will open later this year. These projects will ensure that IU's extraordinary material object collections are properly housed, managed and curated; become better known and utilized in IU's teaching and research missions; and are more readily available to members of the IU community and general public.

A final word

Universities are ancient institutions — among the longest-lived of all human institutions. In their three fundamental missions of the creation of knowledge, the dissemination of knowledge and the preservation of knowledge, they have been — and continue to be — absolutely central to the continuity, progress and culture of all civilizations in which they exist. They are bulwarks against barbarism and the darkness of ignorance.

These three missions are, ultimately, what have driven all we have done over the past 14 years to sustain them. We have had much success in doing this due to the extremely hard work of thousands and thousands of members of the university community. You should all be proud of what you have achieved. I certainly am immensely proud of all of your efforts. And it is through these efforts that IU is now so well-positioned to take the next leap forward in its storied and glittering history.

It has been an enormous honor for Laurie and me to serve this great university for the past 14 years. I have quoted before my close friend the late Myles Brand, IU's 16th president, when he said that leading IU is a hallowed trust that one is privileged to have but for a fleeting moment. He went on to say, though, that what was important was to try to leave it a better place than when you started. I hope that when Laurie and I depart from our roles tomorrow, June 30, that you and others will judge that we left it a better place.

Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts, and goodbye,

Michael A. McRobbie

President
Indiana University