July 26, 2023
Dear Colleagues,
I hope this message finds you having an enjoyable and restful summer. Thanks to everyone who made it out to the July Coffee with the Chancellor. It was great to see so many of you! As always, you can view the Coffee with the Chancellor slides here.
I am pleased to share that we continue to make progress in meeting our enrollment target for the fall and that campus housing is completely full, with a record-setting waitlist. Thanks to all that have worked tirelessly this spring and summer to help get us to this point. There is still more work ahead to reach our targets, but we should all be proud of where we find ourselves today.
Athletics
After many years of service as Executive Director of Athletics, Steve Bruce has decided to return to coaching our outstanding women’s basketball team full-time. I want to thank Coach Bruce for his contributions in building our athletic program, but also in building a culture of excellence for our teams and for our students in the classroom. Coach Scott Cooper has agreed to serve as Interim Athletics Director, in addition to his role as men’s basketball coach. More to come on the search for a permanent leader soon.
Campus Food Service
I’m pleased to share that Creative Dining Services has been selected as our new campus food service vendor. Many thanks to the team of students, faculty, and staff who reviewed and evaluated proposals for food service this summer. Creative Dining Services will take over the University Grill, SAC, and catering services. Exciting new features are in store, such as a mobile food ordering app. The University Grill will be open for the first day of fall classes, with other options rolling out in the months ahead. Look for more in the Daily Titan about this exciting addition to our campus community.
Health and Wellness Center
As you may have seen in the Daily Titan, the IU South Bend Health and Wellness Center has closed. It is important to know that health and wellness services will still be available on campus through HealthLinc, a Federally Qualified Health Center that operates a clinic on the IU South Bend campus at Dwyer Hall. HealthLinc can provide students, faculty, and staff access to a greater number of services and operating hours, assistance with gaining access to affordable health insurance and low-cost drug programs, and help with getting services not provided by HealthLinc.
Academic Organizational Design Implementation
Planning for our Academic Organizational Design Implementation (AOD-I) has begun. Drs. Hope Smith Davis and Kyoko Takanashi have graciously agreed to co-chair the AOD-Implementation Steering Committee made up of faculty, staff, and student representatives. You can view the full membership of the committee and its charge in the Coffee slides linked above.
In addition to the Steering Committee, we will also be launching a Transitioning Monitoring Team (TMT), a small representative group of people to take the pulse of the campus and help during this transition. The TMT will facilitate communication to the AOD-I committee and the campus administration from campus constituents. While the TMT will not change the charge of AOD-I, its work may influence AOD-I’s process, communication and engagement. Membership of the TMT will be made up of faculty and staff volunteers from the two past cohorts of Chancellor’s Leadership Program, as well as student representation.
My annual welcome back address for faculty and staff will be on Monday, August 14. It will start with a social coffee hour at 9:00 am in the foyer area outside the Campus Auditorium in Northside Hall and my remarks will begin at 10:00 am. Additionally, New Student Convocation will be held on Friday, August 18. Look for more details about Convocation, including welcome shirts and the all campus lunch, in the Daily Titan.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the welcome back and hope you will join us to reconnect with colleagues, celebrate last year’s accomplishments and award winners, and hear exciting updates on what’s ahead for the coming year!