Trustees elect officers, IU’s new president offers his impressions after two weeks on the job

By Jane Jankowski

IU President Adam Herbert to launch initiatives in six key areas. Strengthening ties and partnerships with Purdue and Ivy Tech are on his agenda.

Eichhorn has served as president since April 2002. His board term expires June 30, 2005. Ferguson has been vice president since August 2002. His current board term ends on June 30, 2004.

IU President Adam W. Herbert offered board members his impressions of the university after his first two weeks. Herbert has had an intensive meeting schedule since joining the university on Aug. 1, including meetings with senior staff members as well as initial meetings with elected officials and business and community leaders.

Herbert noted the university's national leadership in information technology, citing IU's two supercomputers as an example of that leadership. He said he is pleased with the university's participation in the I-Light collaboration, which is establishing one of the country's most advanced optical fiber networks for research and education. He also cited excellent work in life sciences research and teaching as well as the overall quality of the university's faculty.

Herbert said he will launch initiatives in the near term in six areas: organization structure and operations, economic development, funding, salaries (study of faculty and staff salaries as requested by university trustees during the last academic year), diversity and university outreach.

In the area of organization structure and operations, Herbert said he will establish an institutional research and effectiveness unit to facilitate university-wide analysis of critical institutional performance indicators.

Herbert said he will appoint an internal economic development task force to develop strategies and a structure to enhance the university's initiatives and leadership in this critical area, and he will begin implementation of a comprehensive preschool through 16 plan to enhance public education throughout the state.

Herbert also said IU will begin new initiatives to increase student and faculty diversity. In the area of university outreach, new methods will be explored to improve connections with Hoosiers throughout the state and with IU alumni throughout the nation and world. He said he will work diligently to strengthen partnership activities with Purdue University and work more closely with colleagues at Ivy Tech State College. Finally, Herbert said he will focus attention on developing ways to enhance the quality of campus life and academic experiences for students on all IU campuses.

In other action, Cora Smith Breckenridge of Elkart received the oath of office and will begin her third three-year term on the board. She was re-elected by alumni voters in June. Erin Haag, a student at the IU School of Medicine, also joined the board as its student member. Haag is in her third year at the medical school, seeking her medical degree and a doctorate in molecular biology and biochemistry.