Ford begins as IUS chancellor

Jul. 7—NEW ALBANY — In Deborah Ford's first week as the new chancellor at Indiana University Southeast, she is focused on "getting to know the campus and getting to know the community."

Monday was Ford's first day as the chancellor. She served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside for 14 years before taking the position at IUS.

Ford is an alumna of Indiana University, and she is from the Louisville area.

"Even though I grew up in the region, I have been away for just over 20 years, so a lot has happened in Southern Indiana and this Greater Louisville area in the past 20 years," Ford said. "I'm really looking forward to learning more about the community and learning more about some of these exciting projects that are taking place here."

Kelly Ryan served as interim chancellor at IUS for the past year before becoming president of Eastern Oregon University.

This week, Ford has completed several campus tours, and she has met with students and faculty. She has been excited to see activity on campus, even during the summer months.

"This campus is stunning," she said. "What I have enjoyed as I've walked around campus is seeing all of our learning assets — even though there aren't as many people on campus right now [and] many of our summer courses are online, we do have some campus and conferences."

As she makes her introductions and tours the campus, her first impressions are that the campus is "ready to go" for the fall semester, and "people are excited to be at Indiana University Southeast."

"I think we are very well-positioned," Ford said. "Our early numbers look very promising, and enrollments are tracking where we thought they would be right now."

Ford said IU's mission of student success drew her to the university, and she notes that 99% of IUS graduates are "either employed in their field or pursuing their graduate degrees within a year of graduation."

"So we want to make sure that we continue to have those opportunities for our students, so working on student success — that's something the entire campus is committed to," she said.

Community engagement is another opportunity at IUS, she said.

"This first six months of my tenure, I'm going to be attending as many community events and meeting with community partners, meeting with our advisory board members, meeting with higher ed partners on both sides of the river [and] meeting with school superintendents to learn more about the school districts and building those partnerships between [K-12] and post-secondary education," Ford said.

She is working with the IUS leadership team to review the implementation of the IU 2030 strategic plan, including metrics and targets for 2030.

Declining enrollment is one of the challenges facing IUS.

"One of the things that certainly has gotten our attention here at Indiana University Southeast, and, I would say, across the country, is the decline in students choosing to go on to post-secondary education at all levels — two-year, four-year, public and private," Ford said.

One of her goals is to continue to create "more pathways to and through higher education."

"So one of the things I'm learning about is the partnerships we have with Ivy Tech, the partnership that we have with our high school partners offering dual enrollment so that students can take courses in high school that would count towards their degrees here at Indiana University," Ford said.

She said it is important to offer opportunities for students who opt to go into the workforce straight out of high school, so they can still earn a degree from IUS.

"I am 100% committed to really increasing college-going because I believe in this knowledge economy that we live in that we need folks with credentials and education past high school," Ford said. "It's not for everybody, but we definitely want to make that available."

Ford said while some may be questioning the value of college education, she plans to emphasize the "tremendous value in earning a university degree."

"Coming from me as a first-generation college graduate, I can tell you that having a university education, the experiences that I had both inside and outside of the classroom transformed my life and opened the doors to opportunity," she said.

The "experiential learning" offered at IUS makes the campus stand out, she said.

"So it's not just what you learn in the classroom, but it's how you apply that across the 150 undergraduate majors and concentrations you can choose here," Ford said. "The opportunities are really endless."

Higher education funding is another obstacle facing IUS and other campuses.

"We have raised tuition this year a little bit, and that will help us provide the quality education and services that our students expect," Ford said. "We're going to make sure that we continue to offer very competitive financial aid packages and actually increase private philanthropy so we can create more scholarships for students."

She said IUS must work with employer partners to create a "talent pipeline" through its degree programs and certification programs, and it is important to be a "continuous site for lifelong learning."

"So how do we make sure that here at Indiana University Southeast we're not only a great partner, but we're a leader in supporting those many initiatives for community prosperity, the quality of life across our region, and that we continue to be a destination for new businesses and new industries."

She is dedicated to "building bridges," including establishing relationships on campus, in the Southern Indiana community and in communities across the river in Kentucky.

"When I moved away in 2003 from the Greater Louisville area, the discussion around bridges was happening...and I think a lot about bridges, and I think the opportunity before us as a university — and really before me as a new leader in our learning community — is to build bridges."