It is my very great pleasure to welcome you to the start of another school year at Indiana University Bloomington.
As promised in June, this has been a summer of listening and learning for me, filled with many visits with individuals across the campus and many more visits to come. I’m grateful for the leadership of the Provost and our Deans. My conversations with them have helped bring me up to speed on the work taking place across our campus and in our schools and colleges. It has been very meaningful to reconnect with former colleagues and to meet new ones. Every day, I find more things that fill me with pride at the opportunity to lead this campus.
It was a joy last week to meet our largest and most academically prepared class of students who arrived on the Bloomington campus. We have just completed a successful Welcome Week, coordinated by the Student Life team. Official census numbers will be released after Labor Day, but more than 10,000 new beginners have chosen IUB to pursue their education. Please join me in congratulating the Office of Enrollment Management on both this large class and a record 74,000 applications.
As I am offering congratulations, thank you as well to our partners with the IU Foundation and our campus fundraising staff for an exceptional fundraising year. That group secured more $197M in philanthropic support for our campus, an 18% increase of the prior year’s fundraising totals.
All of that said, it has been a busy summer. I’m happy to announce several key leadership appointments. Scott Shackelford, Provost Professor in the Kelley School, will serve as vice chancellor for research. In my office, Lori Sparger will serve as my senior executive advisor. In the coming weeks, I will name our new vice chancellor for finance, who will join my leadership team. All of these individuals will bring important skills that will help us all advance the IUB campus.
In part through various meetings and conversations throughout the summer, I have identified a number of opportunities and groups that I will convene to support the campus this year.
As many of you saw quite quickly, in early September I will begin a series of weekly lunches with faculty and staff in the Indiana Memorial Union. All of those slots for the Wednesday lunches have been reserved for fall semester, but I anticipate some schedule changes which could open up a few seats. I look forward to the conversations and to meeting many of you who play important roles in the success of our campus.
Along the same line, I am pleased to announce the creation of an IUB Chancellors Faculty Advisory Council. This will provide a venue for me to meet and work with a range of colleagues in which we will identify and advance efforts to strengthen the social fabric of the campus. Professor of Chemistry Caroline Chick Jarrold, associate dean for natural and mathematical sciences and research in the College of Arts and Sciences, will chair this committee.
Of course, another important part of our campus community is our retired faculty, many of whom choose to remain in the Bloomington community. Twice each semester, I will meet with that group at the Emeriti House with a first visit planned for early September.
In addition to the connectivity that I will personally engage in, I also want to create avenues to connect the campus community and unite us around the special strengths of this campus. After Labor Day, you will receive the first in what will be a series of emails from me under the banner For the Glory. These notes will highlight exceptional work that is being done across the IUB campus. In particular, it will shine a light on ways those across our industry recognize the unique and respected talents from our community of scholars.
Working groups to help advance various efforts will be formed this semester as well.
July 4, 2026 will be the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and—importantly—IU Bloomington stewards one of the nation’s original copies of the Declaration. To commemorate this significant date in our history, I have asked Leslie Lenkowsky, professor emeritus of public affairs and philanthropic studies, to chair a committee that will create a series of events to engage the campus and Bloomington communities around this foundational moment. Watch for more to come via IUB Today on what promises to a memorable celebration.
We know that our success on campus is deeply interwoven with that of the larger Bloomington community. To that end, building on the leadership of (and in collaboration with) our University Relations colleagues, a committee representing the campus and the city will foster dialogue and communication with a goal of continuing to improve our economic competitiveness. Amanda Rutherford, associate professor in the O’Neill School, will represent IUB as co-chair, working in lock step with University Relations. Joining her as co-chair will be Angela Van Rooy, program manager in the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Development Department.
All of these various efforts are oriented around ways to build on the university’s momentum and advance the shared and ambitious vision President Whitten has outlined through IU 2030. Together, we can continue to elevate IUB, Indiana’s only comprehensive public AAU research university, as a model across higher education.
To repeat the charge of my June note, in the coming year, we will:
- Reimagine new, forward-looking degrees to attract students and prepare them for life and career success, while orienting our disciplines for 21st century inquiry;
- Improve our research standing progress toward the top third of the academic powerhouse Big Ten institutions. We will do so by applying our particular human-centered approach to invigorate the historic academic strengths of IU Bloomington and develop new approaches to our scholarship that can flourish in our technology-driven times;
- And continue to add value for our Bloomington community and fulfill our obligation to the state that gives us our name as we serve the people of Indiana and our south-central region of the state.
As we begin the academic year, it is important to remember the central belief that unites us. Our commitment to the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and creativity, and especially, our commitment to the continued preeminence of this institution as an exceptional leader in American higher education. As we embrace our duty to this place, I have every confidence that we will come together to elevate IU Bloomington to ever greater heights that pay tribute to the foundation upon which we all stand.
Please accept my thanks for your belief in our university and your continued efforts on its behalf.