At a glance
Once the reorganizations are completed, Indiana State University will have six colleges: Arts and Sciences, Education, Engineering and Technology, Business, Health and Human Services and Honors College
Academic affairs administrative reductions at Indiana State University will reduce costs by an estimated $2.3 million, Provost Chris Olsen told trustees Thursday during a workshop.
The number of deans will go from nine to six; associate and assistant deans positions will go from 12 to five and executive directors/directors/associate directors will be reduced by six to eight positions. Those changes are completed or proposed.
Also, the number of associate vice presidents in the provost’s office has gone from five to one over the past few years.
“Those are changes students will not see,” Olsen said.
They do not represent personnel cuts, he said. They involve positions that became vacant through retirements in some cases, or administrators moving to another role on campus.
“This is a result of personnel turnover and changing needs … It’s been a pretty big reduction,” he said.
In November 2022, school president Deborah Curtis announced that the university had to reduce expenses by at least $12 million for the 2023-24 budget. ISU’s enrollment has been declining over the past several years, due to a number of factors and trends, including the pandemic.
Academic affairs will absorb about 75% to 80% of those cuts, or about $9 million, Olsen said in an interview.
This past fall, overall headcount enrollment was 8,658. In fall 2017, ISU headcount was 13,045.
Olsen outlined other changes as part of an academic affairs reorganization, which will eliminate overlapping bureaucracy and reduce costs.
• The central College of Graduate and Professional Studies will be eliminated, replaced by a decentralized Graduate School led by a director to help oversee and coordinate graduate resources and programs. The reorganization, and targeted reduction of unfilled graduation assistant positions, will reduce the base budget by $1.25 million and it will be completed by June 30.
• Extended Learning was eliminated as a separate unit last fall and anyone who wanted to stay at ISU was able to stay. Changes reduced costs by $600,000. Various functions were moved to other offices.
• Linda Maule, University College dean, and Susan Powers, associate vice president, are working on a plan to reorganize and streamline the administration of advising across campus, which will remove the necessity for a separate University College. Maule is resigning as dean and will return to a full-time faculty position and work with the Lilly grant.
The changes are anticipated to reduce the base budget by about $300,000.
The plan is to extend the Project Success advising model to all undergraduate students; students would have the same adviser for four years.
• Cunningham Memorial Library also will be affected by reorganization. Dean Robin Crumrin has announced her retirement from the library within the next year. In anticipation of that change, “We have begun discussing what the administration of library services will look like in the future, Olsen has stated. Reduced administrative costs are expected to save about $300,000, and reduced subscription costs will save about $300,000. That reorganization should be completed by December.
Once the reorganizations are completed, ISU will have six colleges: Arts and Sciences, Education, Engineering and Technology, Business, Health and Human Services and Honors College. (There is some overlap in administrative position savings and other aspects of reorganization).
ISU also is looking at its academic departments and programs; ISU has 32 academic departments, “which is a lot,” Olsen said. Deans are in discussion about “how best to do some reorganization there.”
ISU also has had to look at some program suspensions and eliminations. So far, those have been based on recommendations from faculty; decisions are based on enrollment in programs and ability to staff them. Some programs have closed because they couldn’t be adequately staffed, Olsen said.
Also as part of budget reductions, some non-tenured faculty have been notified of layoffs; less than 10 have been affected, Olsen said.
In an interview, Olsen said that ISU, along with other four-year universities, must become more flexible and adapt to a rapidly changing economy and as well as changing workforce needs.
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