Welcome and introductions
Good afternoon.
I am delighted to welcome all of you to this university tribute to Lauren Robel, who has served as Bloomington Provost and Indiana University Executive Vice President since 2012, and who is stepping down from her administrative roles at the end of this month to return to the Maurer School of Law faculty, where she has been a highly distinguished member of the faculty for over three decades.
The fact we are joined this afternoon by so many members of the IU Bloomington community, including current and former vice presidents, deans, directors, department chairs, faculty members, and members of the broader community is testament to the widespread sense of gratitude for Lauren’s superb leadership. In fact, while we are still socially distanced, this is the largest gathering, by far, in the university’s recent history apart from the recent Commencement ceremonies. As we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is entirely fitting that so many have gathered in person to celebrate Lauren’s accomplishments and to wish her well.
I am very pleased that we are also joined today by two members of the Indiana University Board of Trustees. With us today are:
- Trustee Quinn Buckner, of Bloomington,
and
- Trustee Donna Spears, of Richmond, Indiana.
Please join me in welcoming our trustees.
Honoring Lauren Robel
The typical chief academic officer of a university campus spends the bulk of his or her time engaged in the traditional activities of academic leadership, including designing and building curriculum, shaping budgets, recruiting deans and directors, promoting faculty development, and advising on promotion and tenure.
But for some time as well, chief academic officers have also faced new challenges that their counterparts in previous decades did not face, including increased pressure to raise school and campus rankings; growing dependance on technological resources, platforms, and specialists; increased calls for academic accountability; and the impact of social media on academic life.[1]
Imagine also meeting all of these and other demands on the flagship campus of a public research university that is one of the largest in the nation, with more than 42,000 students, 3,000 faculty, and 6,000 staff, and is one of 66 members of the prestigious Association of American Universities, which is composed of America’s leading research universities.
Indiana University Bloomington is indeed fortunate to have in Lauren Robel a well-prepared, wise, and principled chief academic officer. As I have said elsewhere, Lauren’s career at Indiana University has been a glittering record of sustained achievement and excellence.
I have been proud to call Lauren a friend and colleague for over 20 years. I am immensely grateful for her extraordinary efforts on behalf of the Bloomington campus and of IU, not just in her current positions, but in all the positions she has held at IU since 1985.
In my more than 40 years in academia, Lauren has, quite simply, been one of the finest colleagues I have ever known. Her intelligence, integrity, decency, prodigious work ethic, and creativity put her in a class of totally of her own.
A nationally recognized leader in legal education, Lauren is the Val Nolan Professor of Law in the Maurer School of Law, where she served as dean from 2002 to 2011 and as associate dean from 1991 to 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate of the Maurer School and has been a faculty member at the school since 1985.
Highlights of Provost's Robel's accomplishments
After nearly a decade in the position of Bloomington provost, Lauren’s accomplishments are many.
She has overseen a complete overhaul of nearly every aspect of student administration and student life; an increase of over 50 percent in minority student numbers and programs to support them; the creation of several dozen new degrees and academic programs; and the recruitment of deans and other senior administrators as well as hundreds of new faculty. Many of these efforts were part of a strategic planning process, initiated by Lauren in 2013, to reimagine and invigorate academic programs across the Bloomington campus in anticipation of IU’s Bicentennial in 2020.
The fact that enrollment on the Bloomington campus continues to grow—with record enrollment predicted this fall semester, despite the effects of the demographic decline on the university-ready student population in the state as well as the impact of the pandemic—is a reflection of the work that Provost Robel and her dedicated staff do to help make the campus affordable, accessible, and maintain and to strengthen the quality of its academic programs. In fact, I noted in my recent report to the IU Board of Trustees that we are projecting that the Bloomington campus will see record freshmen enrolment of around 9,300 students and record overall enrollment of around 45,000 students for the upcoming fall semester.
Lauren was intimately involved in the establishment and development of five new schools on the Bloomington campus: the School of Public Health-Bloomington; the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering; the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design; and The Media School. Each of these schools has opened up extensive new opportunities for students and for faculty scholarship and research. And each of these new schools will help profoundly change the face of this campus for years to come.
The built environment of the campus has grown considerably during Lauren’s tenure, with the addition of already-iconic structures such as Hodge Hall of the Kelley School of Business, the East Studio Building of the Jacobs School of Music, the Global and International Studies Building, and the new Mies van der Rohe building of the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, to name only a few.
Lauren has also played a major role in the development of the health sciences at IU Bloomington—working in close conjunction with IU Health and the leadership of IU’s clinical schools—to consolidate most of the academic health science programs on the Bloomington campus in the new Health Sciences Building, which we dedicated earlier this month. This building is co-located with the new IU Health Bloomington Hospital, which will open later this year, and will, in turn, create the largest academic health center outside of Indianapolis. It will allow these programs to grow substantially and produce many more graduates in these in-demand areas.
Lauren has also overseen the establishment of several visionary initiatives designed to focus IU Bloomington's vast expertise and resources on improving the quality of life in communities in southwest Indiana. These include the Center for Rural Engagement, which has quickly become a national model for how universities can support and help address the challenges facing rural residents and communities. IU Corps, a branch of the center, has brought together numerous faculty and staff from across the campus to work with community partners on many of the challenges of these rural communities.
Lauren’s leadership has also fostered many programs that have enhanced and strengthened the arts and humanities on the campus to which she has a deep commitment, including the creation of the Arts and Humanities Council, which, along with a number of other arts and humanities centers, now has a vibrant new home in the Gayle Karch Cook Center for the Public Arts and Humanities in a renovated Maxwell Hall.
She has worked to strengthen IU Bloomington's reputation as one of the nation’s most internationally engaged university campuses—one that is a national leader in terms of the number of students who study abroad and a welcoming academic home to students and scholars from around the globe. During her time as provost, she has traveled around the world to explore new academic partnerships and reaffirm existing partnerships with leading international universities.
At the Bloomington Undergraduate Commencement ceremony last month, where Lauren was the featured speaker, I was very pleased to present her with one of Indiana University’s highest honors, the University Medal, in recognition of all of the enormous contributions she has made to IU and the Bloomington campus.
On behalf of the entire university, I want to express our most grateful thanks to Lauren for her outstanding service to Indiana University and wish her the very best in all of her future endeavors.
Introducing Vice Provost David Johnson
Our next speaker is one of the eight vice provosts who report to Lauren and who oversee initiatives across a broad range of areas on the Bloomington campus, including in diversity and inclusiveness, undergraduate and graduate education, the health sciences, research, student affairs, faculty and academic affairs, and finance and strategy.
David Johnson has served as vice provost for enrollment management of IU Bloomington since 2011. He is responsible for the management and leadership of recruitment, admission, enrollment, and retention of all undergraduate students. He supervises admissions, scholarships, First Year Experience Programs, the Office of the Registrar, financial aid, and the Student Central on Union center, which opened in 2013.
Please join me in welcoming David Johnson to the podium.
Introducing Deputy Mayor Don Griffin
Thank you very much, David. The naming of the Bicentennial Scholarship in Lauren’s honor is indeed a fitting tribute and will be part of her enduring legacy.
The IU Bloomington campus and the City of Bloomington are in so many ways, inseparable, interdependent, and interconnected. Ours is a partnership that has thrived since the university’s inception—and Lauren and her team have worked in partnership with the city’s leaders to strengthen that partnership over the last decade.
And so, I am very pleased to welcome our next speaker, Donald C. Griffin, Jr., Deputy Mayor of the City of Bloomington. The partnership between the campus and the city is further reflected in the fact that Deputy Mayor Griffin serves on the advisory board of IU’s Eskenazi Museum of Art.
Please join me in welcoming Deputy Mayor Griffin.
Announcement of plaza naming, presentation of the Sagamore of the Wabash, and introduction of Lauren Robel
Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor Griffin. And “Happy Lauren Robel Day” to all of you.
Next, we will hear from our guest of honor herself.
But before she delivers her remarks, I want to ask Lauren to join me at the podium for a moment.
We are gathered in this particular location for today’s event not only because it is in the heart of the Bloomington campus, but also because it holds special significance in the future development of the campus.
At the recent dedication of Miller Plaza at Indiana Memorial Stadium, I quoted Dayton Reuter, a renowned professor of landscape architecture, who wrote that “The campus is not just leftover spaces between buildings. It is, in fact, a series of designed places that reflect the values an institution wishes to be known for.”[2]
Indiana University shares this philosophy, as I know you do, Lauren. This spirit has been reflected in the addition, during your tenure, of numerous new landscape gateways and the addition and enhancement of public spaces, courtyards, plazas, and open spaces on the campus.
As part of a major project to renovate the visitor’s parking lot here, adjacent to the Indiana Memorial Union; the Hutton Honors College; and Ernie Pyle Hall, which is home to the IU Admissions Welcome Center and the Walter Center for Career Achievement, a beautiful new plaza will also be created to enhance the arrival and entry experience for visitors, particularly for prospective students and their families.
The new plaza, which will be completed early next year, will feature limestone seating walls as well as shade and ornamental trees to welcome and comfortably accommodate those who are arriving to IU Bloomington and preparing for campus tours or other gatherings. It will also complete the redevelopment of the Woodlawn Avenue corridor in accordance with the Bloomington Campus Master Plan
Lauren, I am very pleased to announce today that this plaza will be named in your honor as “Lauren Robel Plaza.”
Thus, it will be a beautifully designed space that reflects the values for which IU Bloomington wishes to be known—the very values that you have promoted and fostered over your time as provost and executive vice president and during your entire career.
Congratulations.
In addition, Lauren, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb regrets that he was unable to join us today, but he has asked me to present to you, on his behalf, one of the highest honors a governor of Indiana can bestow.
The Sagamore of the Wabash award was created during the term of Indiana Governor Ralph Gates, who served from 1945 to 1949.
Among its recipients are
- ambassadors,
- artists,
- astronauts,
- musicians,
- politicians,
- private citizens,
- higher education leaders,
and
- even U.S. presidents
who have contributed greatly to Hoosier heritage, which you, Lauren, have also certainly done.
And so, on behalf of Governor Eric Holcomb, I am honored to present you with the Sagamore of the Wabash.
Congratulations!
Ladies and gentlemen, Provost Lauren Robel.
Introducing musical performance by Marietta Simpson and Tyron Cooper
Thank you very much, Lauren, for those inspiring and moving remarks.
And now, to honor Provost Robel, we have arranged for a special musical performance by Distinguished Professor Marietta Simpson and Professor Tyron Cooper.
Distinguished Professor Simpson is the Rudy Professor of Voice in IU’s renowned Jacobs School of Music. She is known for her deeply expressive, beautiful mezzo-soprano voice. She has sung with every major orchestra in the United States, with the philharmonic orchestras of London, Prague, Berlin, and Vienna, and under the direction of many of the world’s greatest conductors.
She has an extensive discography and has collaborated on several Grammy-nominated recordings.
In 2019, she was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Her collaborator is Professor Tyron Cooper, Associate Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies and Director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture.
I am very pleased to welcome Distinguished Professor Marietta Simpson and Professor Tyron Cooper to the stage.
Conclusion
Thank you very much, professors Simpson and Cooper, for that wonderful performance.
I would like to thank everyone who worked behind the scenes to plan and organize this event.
And I thank all of you for joining us this afternoon to honor the many accomplishments and the distinguished career of Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel.
Thank you again and good afternoon.
Source notes
[1] Adapted from a list in James Martin and James E. Samuel, The Provost's Handbook: The Role of the Chief Academic Officer, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), 3.
[2] Dayton Reuter, as quoted in David J. Neuman, Building Type Basics for College and University Facilities, (John Wiley and Sons, 2003), 2.