Kelly Ryan, interim chancellor of IU Southeast, tells the State of the Campus audience how the campus is changing. Photo by Erik Hackman | News and Tribune
NEW ALBANY — Being more student friendly was the focus of Indiana University Southeast’s State of the Campus address on Friday by Interim Chancellor Kelly Ryan.
“We find ourselves on the other side of a difficult two years. We have some challenges, but we’re making tremendous headway in constructing a new IU Southeast,” Ryan said. “One that is better and different from the one prior to the pandemic. An IU Southeast that is even more student friendly, flexible, and engaging.”
Ryan outlined for the audience some of the ways IUS is changing.
•The campus has 3,672 graduate and undergraduate students and offers more than 180 degrees and certificates in the undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Students who graduate from IUS have $10,000 less debt than the average student in Kentucky and Indiana.
• To make the campus more student friendly, IUS has a new financial aid model that empowers student enrollment by supporting students. The model is for students who need more wraparound funding and students who are gifted.
“The automatic, academic merit award recognizes academic performance based on high school GPA. Of our incoming, first-year students, nearly 53% were awarded the GOLD scholarship,” Ryan said. “This year’s class has an average high school GPA of 3.38, the highest average GPA for an incoming class in more than 13 years.”
Enrollment for IUS is still recover ing from the pandemic, putting enrollment down by 8.2%. Even though enrollment is down, it is on par with other regional and community campuses all around Indiana, Ryan noted.
She declared a war on student attrition, the campus wants to make sure that the students have the right educational, social, cultural and financial support for them to stay in school and earn a degree.
“Our mission as a public comprehensive university is to do best by our students, to provide them with a staging ground for success,” Ryan said. “Our recently revised vision statement states Indiana University Southeast will be recognized as an inclusive student-centered university that inspires lifelong learning.”
The way IUS is going to live up to its mission statement is by building educational materials that will help students grow with their learning and skills.
To help students grow with their learning and career, IUS is going to start career integration, applied and inclusive teaching and learning.
“IU Southeast was never meant to be an ivory tower, it is not our job to weed out students,” Ryan said. “It’s our job to provide a solid educational foundation for lifelong learning and career development.”
At the end of the speech, Ryan said the new permanent chancellor will be announced in July 2023.The name of the new chancellor has yet to be announced.
“We’ve made great strides in having our students realize their dreams,” Ryan said. “Our students have forged through the pandemic and are doing their best to juggle work, family and the dream of attaining an IU Southeast degree.”
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