Thank you and Happy New Year to all.
I trust that everyone had a relaxing and restorative winter break and is back and energized for the semester in front of us.
All of Bloomington has been energized this fall by the historic success of our football program. I offer my congratulations to the student athletes, student managers, student trainers, coaches, and athletics staff who have united in their efforts to produce a team and a season the Indiana University community will not forget. It has been a special time for IUB as we have experienced one for the record books complete with an undefeated season, a Rose Bowl victory, a Peach Bowl victory, and a Heisman Trophy for Fernando Mendoza. And it’s not over yet. I know that Hoosier nation will be watching – and cheering – as we take to the gridiron in Miami next week to compete for the national championship.
Even as we celebrated that achievement on Saturday, we mourned the loss of Lois Eskenazi. Along with her husband, Sidney, Lois left an indelible mark on our campus thanks to extraordinary philanthropic support of the 杏吧原创Eskenazi Museum of Art and the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design. Her generosity and commitment to Indiana University Bloomington will resonate through the ages supporting generations of Hoosiers for decades to come. We are grateful for her support and resolved to honor her legacy.
In December, IUB conferred 1,914 degrees as another group of students joined the ranks of IUB alumni, launching their careers or future studies. Congratulations and thank you to all of faculty and staff who supported these students during their academic career with us.
As the new semester begins, I would like to thank the many faculty who came together to help reimagine an array of degree programs on our campus. Your hard work and fresh approaches are greatly appreciated as the campus reviews those new degree proposals. I am confident our current and future students will be inspired by these new degree options.
At midsemester, we will be joined by our new Dean of Public Health, Kurt Ribisl, who begins work here on March 1. Dean Ribisl comes to us from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he is a distinguished professor and department chair of health behavior. We look forward to welcoming him to IUB. Thank you to the chairs and members of the search committee who managed this search process.
During the last BFC meeting, it was shared that President Whitten has asked the UFC and also BFC representatives to weigh in on the possibility of Indiana University adopting the Chicago Principles. I know that Bill Ramos is involved in those discussions, along with faculty and student representatives, to explore the advantages and implications of such a decision. I encourage those with questions or insights to connect with him on this topic.
Late in fall semester, two other items attracted attention and comment.
The first are proposed changes to the university Conflict of Interest policy that became evident during the public comment period. In response, a working group is being assembled to review the draft policy and to address faculty concerns.
The second involves proposed changes to the academic calendar. As some of you may be aware, there is an interest in creating a common academic calendar across all Indiana University campuses. Building upon previous study of this question, a working group is being convened to address opportunities and implications across the academic and administrative functions of the university.
There will be no change to the 2026-27 academic calendar. This group will focus on potential changes for future year academic calendars. IUB representatives on this committee will be Danielle DeSawal from the faculty and Registrar Mike Carroll from the staff. That group is expected to make its recommendation by March 1.
In response to the recommendation of a fall semester working group, I have established the Bloomington Campus Policy Committee (BL-CPC). This committee will be tasked with reviewing and approving campus-level policies and to identify the criteria for procedures that need to be created and maintained at the campus level. This committee aligns with BOT-02: Policy Development, Revision, and Retirement. It will identify when units need to create, revise, or retire policies and procedures in alignment with BOT-02; identify procedures to be created, revised or retired at the campus level, and to outline workflow process for procedures. Once again, thanks to Danielle DeSawal and Bill Ramos for their leadership.
In a related vein, SEA 202 procedures were much discussed during the fall. It is important to note that those procedures are locally managed in the College and Schools. As such, they can be revisited and updated at the discretion of each unit to best reflect and support our core values around freedom of inquiry and disciplinary integrity.
As has been mentioned here and noted as part of the national celebration, in 2026, our nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At IUB we will commemorate the milestone with a series of events across the spring semester and this summer. We will kickoff 杏吧原创Bloomington’s Celebration of America’s 250th in February centered around the display at Lilly Library of our copy of the Declaration, one of only 23 known Dunlap Broadsides in existence and one of only three west of the Alleghenies. Printed the evening of July 4, 1776, this is a rate and special document – a treasure of our campus.
I am grateful to the many units who responded to our call for proposals to create campus programming for the 250th. The response was both significant in number and rich in variety. We will fund as many as we can and will share those details soon. It will be a semester of meaningful dialog and celebration around the civic and community values that unite us.
That concludes my report. As we begin another academic season, thank you for your service here and your great service as members of this campus. Together, we make Indiana University Bloomington one of the most relevant and important public research universities in our country.