From the Provost

Re-envisioning our budget for long-term sustainability

The ongoing IU and IUB budget redesigns are key initiatives aimed at aligning our financial resources with our mission, values, and strategic goals. By rethinking how we allocate resources, we can ensure that we are using them in the most strategic and effective ways, creating incentives to expand excellence in education, research, and service.  

This spring the campus budget redesign committee, co-chaired by Kelley dean Ash Soni and Vice Provost Aimee Heeter, is sharing the new conceptual budget model with faculty, staff, and leadership for feedback, including at next week’s Bloomington Faculty Council (BFC) meeting. The feedback phase will be followed by a prototype model this summer, which we will run alongside the existing model during the upcoming academic year. We will continue to refine the model before full implementation for fall 2027. 

In broadest terms, the intended redesign prioritizes long-term planning and takes into account more fully the shared services across academic units. It also creates stronger incentives for our focus on student and faculty outcomes, such as academic majors, student graduation, and faculty research and creative activity. The intended model also aims for easier and more robust collaboration across schools, units, and disciplines, while still empowering our academic units to continue their work and strengthen their own unique strategic plans and research missions.  

In the long view, the new budget model will encourage innovation and collaboration, yet allow us to remain nimble, adaptable, and ready for whatever comes next—whether that’s unexpected challenges or opportunities for growth. 

A sustainable future for the College and IUB

Another way we are securing our future is tackling the long-term pressures facing the College of Arts and Sciences, in the context of national enrollment challenges in certain disciplines and growing costs.  

As at many universities, changing student demand has a significant impact and requires us to be creative and nimble to keep providing the highest quality education for our students and advance cutting-edge research and creative activity, while also remaining financially sustainable. 

In addition to College faculty voting for a career-readiness requirement for undergraduates, this spring, the College is taking steps, including setting targets for its incoming graduate cohorts as well as long-term numbers for tenured and tenure-track faculty in each department, strategically aligning new faculty hires, and creating and updating selected degree offerings and curricula, to reposition itself for the future. The College, along with the Jacobs School of Music and the Maurer School of Law, are also participating in a retirement incentive program for eligible tenured and tenure-track faculty, creating additional opportunities to reallocate resources and invest in areas poised for strategic growth. 

I am grateful to the leaders and faculty in these units for their entrepreneurial spirit in taking these new opportunities head on, and I am ever confident the College and our longtime excellence in and across the arts and sciences will continue to thrive. 

Budget planning 

It is also budget planning season. This week, university-wide (UA) service units, along with the campuses and the Med School, are participating in budget conferences. At the campus level, significant enrollment growth in the last few years leaves us in a stronger overall financial position. As we consolidate around that growth and continue to increase academic quality, we will make more strategic investments in areas of greatest opportunity, and ones that continue to propel the university forward. 

Next week, alongside BFC leaders, we will host budget conferences for each of the campus schools and units. These are important chances for stakeholders from across campus to share insights and opportunities, helping us to refine our budgetary strategies. These conversations are one of many ways we are making sure that our plans are forward-thinking and responsive to the needs and dreams of all areas of our university. 

Patience, confidence, and long-term vision 

So today at IUB, we remain full steam ahead, continuously tracking new initiatives for their potential impact on the campus and working closely with our faculty, legislative, government, university, and industry partners. While it is not always satisfying to be patient and take the long view, that is what we need to do now—stay nimble, adapt as needed, and focus on managing the factors within our control in each of our respective areas. 

We have already taken bold steps with our budget redesign and continue to make investments that will secure our future for generations to come. Above all, let’s be confident in the knowledge that, despite the uncertainty we may face, we are well-positioned to not just survive—but thrive—through any challenges ahead.