February 7, 2022
Dear Colleagues,
Thanks to all who attended the recent Coffee with the Chancellor on February 9. I appreciated that so many of you attended in person and online. It was our first opportunity to come together to talk about strategies to reach a more stable and sustainable budget that will allow us to grow and prosper as we come out of the pandemic. As usual, you can access the slides . The feedback from the coffee will be presented to Campus Budget Advisory Council at its February 23 meeting, then made available to the campus community. In addition, this feedback will be used by campus leaders as we continue to address our current situation.
Each division is already working on identifying potential savings, efficiencies and structural changes that will help us meet these budget targets. Our Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Jill Pearon and Elaine Roth, President of our Academic Senate, are working on a task force to lead the conversation on our academic affairs organizational structure.
We are also creating additional opportunities for people across campus to ask questions, express concerns, and contribute solutions. I will be meeting regularly with faculty, staff, and students. A website with regularly updated information on our budget activities is in the works. This site will include a place to submit questions, concerns, and ideas online, and will include the feedback from the coffee. Stay tuned to the Daily Titan for announcements about this website as well as workshops, book groups, as other activities that provide opportunities for people to come together to learn, ask questions, and contribute.
IU South Bend has been making a difference in the lives of people in this community for over 100 years and we will weather this challenge as we have previous ones. And, we are not alone. All IU campuses are facing budget reductions, as are many institutions of higher education across the country, especially regional campuses like ourselves. By making difficult decisions now, I know we will be in a better position to achieve our new vision, which is to be recognized as the area’s best-choice comprehensive public university with a strong reputation as a difference-maker in our state, nation, and global community. More specifically, I am hoping we will be in a better position in the coming years to:
- Invest in our faculty and staff and fund opportunities for growth,
- Provide resources to achieve the goals in our new strategic plan,
- Proactively plan budgets, as opposed to reactively cutting,
- And, perhaps most importantly -- create an even more distinctive presence in our community that will bring new students to campus, as well as retain and graduate more students, so we can have an even greater impact.
I look forward to working with all of you and learning more about what you hope we will accomplish together.