Indiana University Southeast announces strategic plan

Apr. 19—NEW ALBANY — Indiana University Southeast is seeking to expand student success, research opportunities and community impact through its new seven-year plan.

The Indiana University Southeast 2030 Strategic Plan was announced last week.

The plan is associated with Indiana University's comprehensive Indiana 2030 plan, which focused on the university as a whole. Each IU campus developed individual plans focused on three pillars, including improvements to "student success & opportunity," "transformative research & creativity," and "service to our state and beyond."

IUS Interim Chancellor Kelly Ryan said in a news release that she appreciates the "widespread involvement in the strategic planning process from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members," including campus leadership.

"Historically, our commitment to student success has meant making the expense of college manageable, providing flexible scheduling and modalities to meet students' needs, and providing student-centered instruction and services," she said. "The IUS Southeast 2030 Strategic Plan will expand our impact to better meet the needs of our region, transform IU Southeast into a 'student ready' university, and become a leader in our region for undergraduate research."

Amanda Stonecipher, vice chancellor for enrollment, marketing and student affairs at IUS, said the campus has always used a strategic plan, and the 2030 plan offers a "laser focus on really important areas where we know we can continue to be transformational for our students and for our community."

Uric Dufrene, the interim vice chancellor of academic affairs and Sanders chair in business at IUS, said the plan "really builds on a strong foundation that we've put in place."

"So this is a chance to really scale up things like student success, which is something that Amanda and I and the campus have worked on extensively, and we're seeing the results right now on the student success side," he said.

STUDENT SUCCESS

The "student success & opportunity" part of the plan calls for "holistic support for every student," and it includes several specific goals, including improving retention/graduation rates. It seeks to increase graduate student enrollment by 25%.

The plan also seeks to increase transfer student enrollment/degree attainment by 25%.

The plan outlines numerous initiatives meant to support students at IUS, including expanded financial aid/scholarship opportunities for students to lower student indebtedness.

The IUS plan looks to address issues of declining enrollment the campus has faced over the past decade. Dufrene said a "key piece of enrollment is retention."

"Moving forward, [retention] will be a key piece — in fact the piece — to overall enrollment growth...," he said.

The plan calls for engagement in "dynamic applied learning experiences" for every student. It seeks to expand the number of students who complete internship or service learning experiences and enhanced applied learning excursions, and the plan calls for the majority of first-year and transfer students to enroll in learning communities.

Meeting workforce needs is a major focus, and the plan includes career readiness, employer partnerships and lifelong learning opportunities.

"We want students to persist from one semester to the next and ultimately graduate from our campus," Stonecipher said. "Also, in addition to that, or coupled with that, is wanting to be a place for the completion of other career outcomes and professional development."

One goal is the creation of "Credit for Prior Learning" programs. This establishes "pathways for workers to return to school, recognizing the experience and knowledge they have and providing credit for that prior learning," Dufrene said.

The plan also calls for IUS to be an "institution of success for a diverse population of students, faculty and staff in our community. This goal includes expanding engagement with the 21st Century Scholars program to improve retention/college-going rates. It aims to increase the diversity of the population of students, faculty and staff.

STUDENT RESEARCH

Dufrene said the plan focuses on "getting more involvement with the students so that every student has an opportunity to engage in research."

"One of the things that our faculty do quite well is engaging, involving students as part of their research," he said. "So that's what this plan does is refining ways to scale up and to simply increase the number of students participating in research or creative activity."

The strategic plan also aims to support faculty research and creative activity.

"The other piece is providing opportunities and recognizing the work of our faculty as it relates to community-based research," Dufrene said. "That's part of the community engagement we've been focused on."

Dufrene notes that "students who are engaged in research tend to graduate."

The campus is planning to create a research/creativity mentorship program and increase opportunities for students to present their scholarly research.

IUS plans to grow the number of publications, grants and creative works by 25% and maintain "excellent stewardship of faculty-reassigned time for research and creative activity."

Stonecipher emphasized the variety of benefits offered by student research activities beyond academics, saying it's "very applicable to any future career."

"They may go on to further their academic career and really go into research, or they may go into their own chosen profession, but elements and the skills they learn through research here will serve them well in the future for whatever job they are in where they have to look at information and vet information against several different sources to find out information for their employer," she said.

SERVICE TO STATE

The "service to our state and beyond" pillar involves expanding college/career pathway programs and establishing a center for business/nonprofit partnerships.

Stonecipher said the expansion of dual credit and career pathway programs at area high schools will be increased across the service region, helping students attend IUS to complete their degrees.

The strategic plan calls for a 20% increase in the number of students graduating with education and nursing degrees, along with a 20% increase in internship/practicum placements.

"This is a way to support economic development through graduates of certain fields such as nursing and education," Dufrene said.

The strategic plan describes the creation of a "center for health promotions" to offer health screenings and public health information at local events.

The campus will also establish a "community council on sustainability" by 2025.

Dufrene said IUS is an "asset to our region, and the value of that asset is enhanced through collaboration."

"This last goal really seeks to enhance collaboration among IU Southeast and the various community partners that we serve with," he said.