91´«Ã½

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to the start of another school year on our beautiful Indiana University Bloomington campus.

I am energized to start year two in this role and appreciate the patience of all the faculty, staff, and students who indulged my questions during a year of listening and learning. Your passion for our flagship campus and our work here, along with important moments of candor, position us all for a productive year ahead.

This will be a noteworthy year in the history of our campus with leadership searches for our ,  all in swing this fall. Many thanks to all of the faculty and staff who have answered the call to serve on those search committees. Thanks as well to David Audretsch, who agreed to serve as interim dean of the O’Neill School and to Caroline Chick Jarrold, who agreed to serve as interim executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Continued thanks to John Ciorciari for his service as interim provost and to David Bosco, who stepped into the role of interim dean for the Hamilton Lugar School.

This fall, we welcome our most academically prepared class of students to 91´«Ã½B, and our second largest class ever. Our reimagined  is in full swing with a wide array of events intended to help our first-year students acclimate to our community. Thanks to the Student Life team for this effort. Official census numbers will be later, but nearly 10,000 new beginners have chosen to pursue their education at 91´«Ã½B. Please join me in congratulating the Office of Enrollment Management on both this class of scholars and a record 81,234 applications. And as the admissions cycle goes, that group is already hard at work to recruit the class that will join us in fall 2027. 

I also want to celebrate and congratulate our partners with the 91´«Ã½ Foundation and our campus fundraisers for an exceptional fundraising year. That group exceeded its goal by 40 percent securing important philanthropic support for various initiatives. Kudos to our academic leaders who play an integral role in our fundraising success. With the  campaign in full swing, it is exciting to imagine what heights we will attain by this time next year.

With the campus adoption of the , Interim Provost John Ciorciari has stepped in to lead the conversation about how our campus will coalesce around our commitment to freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of inquiry. We are a diverse and wide-ranging community with many viewpoints, many of which are deeply held. But we must always remember that our students are learning from us in every moment of their time here. It is incumbent upon us to set the tone, to listen with open minds, to share our ideas thoughtfully, and always to treat one another with respect, no matter how divergent our opinions may be.

This year, we will continue forward many of the items announced here last year. I will, again, host weekly lunches with faculty and staff in the Tudor Room. Those conversations are consistently thoughtful and provide me with meaningful insights into various parts of campus. Brea Perry has agreed to chair my Faculty Advisory Council, which has been a valuable way for me to understand emerging issues of importance to our faculty.

As we enter the fourth year of , we will refresh our campus focus to unite around a series of goals tied to the plan’s three pillars. The 91´«Ã½B 2030 executive leadership team is leading that effort with details to come early this fall. Thank you to deans Abra Bush and Kurt Ribisl for their work as co-chairs. Together, we will continue to elevate 91´«Ã½B, Indiana’s only comprehensive public AAU research university, as a model across higher education. 

As we establish how we should lead for the 21st century, we will continue our pursuit of excellence and higher education sector leadership. 

Among the opportunities we will consider are:

• Continuing to reimagine new, forward-looking degrees to attract students and prepare them for life and career success;
• Reviewing and reconceptualizing our general education curriculum to create a significant shared academic experience for our students;
• Evolving our core disciplines to exemplify the academic inquiry and leadership needed to address the challenges of this century;
• Strengthening our research standing progress toward the top third of the academic powerhouse Big Ten institutions, creating the culture and support to flourish across all disciplines in our technology-driven times; and
• Deepening our value for our Bloomington community and fulfilling our obligation to the state that gives us our name by serving the people of Indiana and our south-central region.

These are only a few of the topics that will benefit from our collective wisdom over the coming academic year. I encourage all members of our community to engage around these themes and others that will emerge over the course of the year. Together, our commitment to our field, and especially to 91´«Ã½ Bloomington, is the fuel that will propel this institution to continued preeminence as a leader in American higher education.

Please accept my thanks for your belief in our university and your continued efforts on its behalf. Wishing you a productive and invigorating start to the semester.

Sincerely,

David A. Reingold

Chancellor
91´«Ã½ Bloomington