Multimedia
“Aiming High and Hitting the Mark”
President Michael A. McRobbie
Indiana University
Recorded November 14, 2008
Bloomington, Indiana
Introduction
As IU’s president, I’ve often found inspiration in the vision of my predecessors—especially Herman Wells. Wells transformed IU from a small, Midwestern college into a major public research university of international stature. He often said: “When you aim, aim high.” In the last year, we have been aiming high and hitting the mark in a number of areas.
Record Research Dollars
In 2008, IU faculty surpassed the half-billion dollar mark in research grant and award totals. They competed with their peers at other institutions to bring $525.3 million to Indiana. These grants will enable new, fundamental research to be done. They will support jobs, cures for disease, and the creation of new art and music.
Record Construction
But to do their best work as teachers, researchers, and scholars, our professors need more and better space. Thus, IU is in the midst of one of the largest building booms in the university’s recent history. Over the past year, we’ve built or begun to build more than 1.2 million square feet of teaching, research, and living space.
Record Investment in the Arts and Humanities
President Wells made IU a Mecca for the arts, and I am committed to extending the glorious traditions he helped to create. With a generous $44 million gift from the Lilly Endowment we are constructing a state-of-the-art studio facility for our world-class Jacobs School of Music. We are renovating Bloomington’s University Theatre to make it one of the finest digital cinema and film studies facilities in the nation. And we have renewed the New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Program. It provides $1 million a year to fund path-breaking research, scholarship, and creative activity on all of our campuses.
Record Student Enrollment
As president after World War II, Herman Wells oversaw an unprecedented increase in enrollment from the GI Bill. Space was so scarce that Wells even put students up in the president’s office! This fall, we again set new enrollment records when we welcomed more than 101,717 students to our campuses across the state. However, I am happy to say that we haven’t yet had to move any bunk beds into the president’s office.
Our record enrollment reflects an increase in both quantity and quality. This year, IU Bloomington’s freshman class is the brightest in its history and includes more high-achieving Hoosier students than ever before. By offering more scholarships, we are doing our part to stop Indiana’s brain drain and keep our best and brightest here at home.
Record International Student Enrollment and Study Abroad
This year’s class of international students is also the largest in history—this fall 6,000 students came to IU from 144 different countries. And a record number of IU students studied abroad. Like President Wells, I am fully committed to strengthening our students’ global literacy and creating opportunities for international collaboration among our faculty.
Record Private Support
Of course, none of the progress I am telling you about would be possible without the generosity of our donors. Here, too, we are setting records. In the last academic year, IU received $408.6 million in private gifts.
Conclusion
Our donors, faculty, students, and alumni have faith in IU’s ability to positively impact Indiana’s future through teaching, research, and engagement. As we do so, we keep in mind another principle of President Wells’, who urged us to “Dream no small dreams for IU.” We will continue to dream big dreams, to aim high, and to hit the mark.
Thank you very much.
