From the Desk

Dear IU Southeast Alumni and Friends,

It’s been a glorious fall as we’ve embraced being back on campus with in-person classes, events and live performances, while also maintaining our high-quality online coursework to suit students’ needs. It’s nice to be back.

I’m happy to report we’re engaged and we’re excited about the future of IU Southeast. My fall has been filled with meetings with local officials, state leaders and business executives. We’re making connections to tell the exciting story of the many offerings of IU Southeast and exploring all the ways we can partner with people and businesses in our community. And believe me, people are excited that we’re reaching out and getting more involved.

A cornerstone of our outreach is our Employer Connect program. Employer Connect allows area businesses to partner with IU Southeast to boost their workforce through tailored educational programs for staff development, cultivate the next generation of employees by participating in mentoring programs and offering internships, hiring their next employees through our job fairs and employment jobsite, and supercharging their hiring efforts by offering tuition reimbursement benefits. Current Employer Connect partners include Amazon, Best One Tire & Service, Competitive Pallet Service, PharmaCord, Rauch Inc., and UPS.

We’re also meeting with development partners; River Ridge, Greater Louisville Inc., One Southern Indiana, Harrison County Development, NovaParke Innovation & Technology Campus, to name a few, on how we can help them attract new employers to the region and train employees for future workforce needs. One exciting example is the partnership with NovaParke, where faculty from the School of Business and School of Natural Sciences will assist entrepreneurs in their efforts to develop and grow. Through one-on-one sessions, training and business seminars, wet and dry laboratory set up and “shark tank-like pitch sessions", NovaParke will incubate new start-ups in a supportive environment to develop into future business powerhouses for the region.

While we’re reaching out to the community, we’re welcoming prospective students with tours, discovery days and “gear up” sessions to prepare high school juniors and seniors for their futures. A residual impact of the pandemic has been a rather steep decline in college-going interest rates among graduating high school students. We want to reverse this issue and get students excited about their futures and the education to attain it. In November alone, more than 500 students will visit the IU Southeast campus where they can learn more about our offerings and picture themselves on our beautiful campus. They are meeting current IU Southeast students to learn about their experiences, faculty in their discipline areas and staff that can help navigate them through the application process and secure financial support for their journey.

And while mentioned last, it is not the least important, we’re welcoming the community back to campus. A few weeks ago, we had an extremely successful IUS Fest on campus. Thousands of families and our campus community came together to celebrate fall, have some fun and make memories. I’m hoping some of you reading this message were here that day. Additionally, we’ve got sports events, concerts, theatre and arts performances and on December 1, through the Sanders Speaker Series, Erin Brockovich, will speak on campus about her work as a modern day “David versus Goliath” in her research which resulted in many legal cases against large corporations, her most famous against Pacific Gas & Electric, which was made into a movie starring Julia Roberts. All these events are free or at most, have minimal cost, just another way we connect and serve our community.

I invite you, as our alumni and supporters, to connect or reconnect with IU Southeast. We welcome you and invite you to become involved with your alma mater. Help us help the communities we serve. Be proud of being a Grenadier by standing with us as we make our campus and community better.

Cordially,

Dr. Kelly Ryan Chancellor, IU Southeast