Photo by Katherine Sears U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh brought his job fair back home to Indiana last fall. Photo by Katherine Sears IUS biology major August Nelson was on the front lines when the state needed help in testing mosquitoes for West Nile virus last summer. Photo by Katherine Sears Metro Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson (left) conversed with the IUS chancellor during a Greater Louisville Inc. Development Expedition meeting last August. Photo by Patrick Pfister Thanks to the Louisville Ballet and the Bank One Children’s Series, youngsters from area schools were treated to a holiday ballet performance at the Ogle Center. Photo by Patrick Pfister Berba Finley, administrative secretary for the School of Nursing at IUS, served up some snacks while others played games during a community-wide festival on campus in October.

When three Southern Indiana county health departments needed to test for West Nile virus, an IU Southeast biology professor and his students set up a program to trap mosquitoes and test them for the disease.

And when a not-for-profit organization working with the poor and unemployed in a rural Indiana county sought to establish an industrial retraining facility, IU Southeast helped set up the training and workshops.

Those are just three examples of ways in which IU Southeast connects with its local community.

“Community involvement is an important part of any university’s mission, but for a regional campus such as IU Southeast, it’s absolutely vital,” said Chancellor Sandra Patterson-Randles. “We touch many lives in a positive way throughout the community, and we need to tell that story. We need to remind the community how vital we are to its intellectual growth, cultural enhancement and economic prosperity.”

One way IU Southeast reinforces its message is by hosting important regional and community events that bring business and civic leaders onto the campus. Recent examples include:

• A breakfast meeting sponsored by Louisville publication Business First that brought 70 local business executives to campus to network with IU Southeast faculty and staff, as well as with representatives of the weekly publication.

• The Greater Louisville Inc. Development Expedition, a program sponsored by the regional Chamber of Commerce group. More than 125 community leaders attended, representing business, government, higher education, health care and civic involvement. Metro Louisville Mayor (and IU grad) Jerry Abramson spoke about how such events spark ideas for enhancing economic development.

• Three monthly breakfast meetings of Leadership Southern Indiana, which drew nearly 150, including a high school class attending to hear a local television news anchor speak.

“Many of the individuals who attended these events had never before set foot on the campus,” Patterson-Randles said. “A number of them expressed surprise at how big the campus is and how accessible it is to all parts of the metropolitan area.”

IU Southeast also encourages faculty, students and staff to get involved in community projects. For example:

• IU Southeast has the only MBA program in the region that requires 20 hours of community service as a condition of graduation. Graduate students are involved in such activities as providing tax assistance for senior citizens, serving as members of non-profit agency boards and a host of other volunteer projects.

• The campus served as one of only nine newly selected sites nationwide to host the National Writing Project, which helped 20 teachers from throughout Southern Indiana learn new ways to improve their students’ writing.

• The Applied Research and Education Center (AREC) at IU Southeast was started with Strategic Directions funding to link faculty and student expertise to solving problems for organizations in the community with a non-profit focus. AREC uses a service-learning model, wherein the knowledge of the classroom is linked to practice in the community. Ten projects are currently underway.

Last year’s cultural events that connected, enlightened and entertained the campus and community included:

• Bringing thousands of elementary school students to the Paul W. Ogle Cultural and Community Center for performing arts productions, such as the Louisville Ballet’s performance of excerpts from The Nutcracker. Providing children with this early introduction to performance and cultural arts was made possible through a grant from Bank One.

• Sponsoring lectures and special series that focus on themes of regional and national interest. A prime example was hosting three nationally regarded experts on the Lewis & Clark expedition toward commemorating the bicentennial of that historic journey.

• An annual fall festival that coincides with the City of New Albany’s popular Harvest Homecoming. Last October, approximately 2,500 residents attended the festival and took part in family activities, musical performances and a hot air balloon launch.

• A School of Arts and Letters program paying homage to local veterans. Diane Reid, senior communication lecturer, coordinated the multi-media presentation, which saluted the comradeship of combat soldiers. Nearly 200 veterans attended the musical program by the Commonwealth Brass Band and the IU Southeast Concert Choir, and a reader’s interpretation of war writings by Reid’s students.

The campus also works closely with local, state and national governmental leaders. When new mayors took office in Jeffersonville and New Albany, the chancellor set up private luncheon meetings with each to look for ways that the cities and campus could collaborate. Other governmental activities during the past year include: Inviting all local legislators and elected officials to the groundbreaking of the new $15.4 million library last summer; hosting Sen. Evan Bayh’s Job Fair and Small Business Summit last August and the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon’s visit to discuss his Energize Indiana initiative that same month; hosting a meeting of the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee on campus; and coordinating the New Albany mayoral candidates debates.

Chancellor Patterson-Randles said that at IU Southeast community involvement is a two-way street. “It’s not just a matter of the campus reaching out to the community,” she said. “We also get community input on campus issues. One thing that I’ve found during my tenure at IU Southeast is that the local community cares deeply about the campus. They see us as a major community asset, and they want to be involved.”