June 3, 2022
Dear Colleagues,
I hope this email finds you enjoying summer with barbeques, lake activities, hikes, vacation time and maybe even some pie and ice cream! Below are some updates on campus leadership and our FY23 budget.
Dean of the Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences
On behalf of Executive Vice Chancellor Jill Pearon, I am delighted to announce that Dr. Jesús García-Martínez will be the next Dean of the Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences. Dr. Jesús García-Martínez will begin his role on July 11, 2022. Thank you to the Search Committee for their exceptional work in bringing four qualified candidates to campus and thank you to all who participated in the interview processes. Thank you also to Dean Thom Fisher for his leadership of Dwyer these last five years. We will be celebrating his retirement with the campus community on Tuesday, 6/28 from 3:30-5pm in the Alumni Room and we hope to see you there.
Raclin School of the Arts Leadership Transition
As you may know, Jorge Muñiz will be stepping down as Interim Dean of the Raclin School of the Arts and beginning a sabbatical on July 1, 2022. Thank you to Interim Dean Muñiz for his vision and leadership of Raclin during these years and best wishes for a wonderful sabbatical.
On behalf of Executive Vice Chancellor Jill Pearon, I also wanted to update you on the leadership plan for Raclin in the 2022-23 academic year. Tami Martinez will be transitioning to full-time in her role as Assistant Dean and will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Raclin School. Dean Brenda Phillips will serve as Acting Dean of Raclin, to support Assistant Dean Martinez, while still serving as Dean of CLAS. CLAS and Raclin will continue to operate independently. These assignments will be in place from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023. This leadership plan was developed to provide the Raclin School of the Arts with the greatest possible continuity and support for the next academic year. Thank you to Dean Phillips and Assistant Dean Martinez for their leadership and service on our campus!
Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Search
I am pleased to share that we have two additional finalists for the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance position. All members of the IU South Bend community are invited to meet the candidates during their campus presentations. The dates, times, and locations of the presentations are as follows:
- Monday, June 6 from 1:00pm to 2:00pm in DW 1001
- Tuesday, June 14 from 1:00pm to 2:00pm in DW 1001
Candidate materials and survey links to provide feedback will be made available on the VCAF Search Page the day before each visit. I hope you will join in welcoming the finalists to IU South Bend – your feedback is important to the process.
FY23 Budget Update
Our FY23 budget has officially been submitted and approved by IU. This budget reflects a reduction of $3.5 million from FY22 to meet our expected revenue projections for this coming year. I know how hard this has been for everyone. I appreciate the collaboration and leadership of so many deans, directors, and vice chancellors as we worked collectively to reach our university budget goals. To reach our budget target, we used the variety of budget reduction strategies we have been discussing all semester. To avoid options that have a direct impact on current employees, one approach taken by the campus has been to eliminate certain vacant positions - this resulted in 58% of staff vacancies and 42% of faculty vacancies being permanently reduced. While I wish this had been enough to balance our budget, it was not. Therefore, we are left with the unfortunate decision to eliminate a small percentage (5%) of our currently filled staff positions by way of a Reduction of Force. Though necessary, this was a difficult decision.
Looking forward, much of our success will be measured by our ability to continue making progress in meeting our financial sustainability goals, improving student recruitment and retention, continuing to identify process and organizational efficiencies, and identifying new revenue generating streams. With the steps that we’ve taken and will continue to take, I believe we are on a good path towards a more sustainable financial model.
The FY23 budget also includes a 2% salary increase effective July 1, 2022, for all eligible IU South Bend faculty and staff hired before April 1, 2022. You can visit the IU Salary Policy for more details on eligibility. We have also been working on finalizing use of the 1% compensation pool we have set aside to start addressing inversion & compression salary issues among faculty and staff.
Heating and Cooling
Thank you for your patience this summer as we have worked to get our cooling system up and running. Our cooling and heating systems are very maintenance intensive at start up, needing support from our vendor partners as we bring them online. These partners are working to provide us with the service we need, however there is a shortage of equipment technicians available. We are working, building by building, to get all our systems up and running.
Coffee with the Chancellor
Although it is summer, I will be hosting a Coffee with the Chancellor in July, with iced coffee and ice cream to help ward off the summer heat! This will be an opportunity to formally introduce Dean García-Martínez and Vice Chancellor DeCleene and touch base before we get into the busyness of planning for fall. Please be on the lookout in the Daily Titan for more details on this Coffee.