As I shared this week in my State of the Campus address, while it is a challenging time across higher education, I believe we continue to have major opportunities ahead for Indiana University Bloomington — if we are bold enough and resolved enough to pursue them.
One of the biggest efforts we have underway through our IUB 2030 plan is to ensure the success of every student we admit and the faculty who teach them.
On the undergraduate student side, this includes progress on instructional space renovations, increasing faculty development opportunities, the lowest campuswide D, F and withdrawal rate in at least a decade, high rankings in education abroad, the launch of the Office of Student Life, and improvements to honors education.
For our graduate and professional students, who often have different needs and interests from undergraduates, we are developing an array of new support, career, and community-building efforts responsive to students.
Through our new Graduate School, led by Dean David Daleke, we are continuing to make great progress and enhancements for the quality of graduate and professional student life, including dramatically growing our one-to-one coaching program and improving resources to help graduate and professional students succeed on campus and in their chosen careers. Initiatives like the Preparing Future Faculty Conference, Career Diversity Symposium, and the Big10 Academic Alliance Postdoc Organization allow for greater support and clarity for students in identifying desirable career paths.
The Graduate School has also begun the process of hiring a new ombudsperson who will be charged with assisting students in the resolution of challenges and disputes in their learning and assistantship roles.
For our student academic appointees, we continue to ensure we are providing robust professional and personal support, including effective mentorship, for students to succeed. Since 2021, we have increased minimum stipends for our SAAs by more than 50% — in addition to eliminating mandatory graduate student and course-specific fees. For the upcoming year, the campus-wide minimum stipend will now be $23,000 for a half-time/20-hour-a-week appointment.
