Skip to main content
<p>IUPUI Chancellor delivers State of Campus address</p>

IUPUI Chancellor examines promises fulfilled in State of Campus address

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Chancellor Charles R. Bantz delivered his State of the Campus address today, examining how the campus has fulfilled its promise over the past decade and is following a strategic plan to continue those accomplishments during the next 10 years.

Bantz first turned to 2002 to review the progress the campus has made in such areas as degrees awarded, the caliber of its students, research, civic engagement and diversity.

A dozen years ago, the campus was breaking ground for Eskenazi Hall to house the Herron School of Art, receiving $202 million in research funding, providing on-campus housing for less than 300 students and granting 2,122 baccalaureate degrees, Bantz said.

As examples of the promises IUPUI has fulfilled in the areas of excellence, doubling certain goals and continuous improvement, Bantz cited the growth in the number of students graduating from the campus, which currently is home to more than 30,000 students.

The number of bachelor’s degrees conferred jumped from 2,122 in 2002 to 3,682 this year, Bantz said. “That kind of change is critical. It changes lives.”

While that increase is significant, the campus must redouble its efforts to award more baccalaureate degrees, Bantz said. “We have to do this to make the state more successful.”

He then showed the audience a slide demonstrating that not only are more students attending and graduating from IUPUI, but the caliber of students has also changed dramatically. “We only had nine valedictorians and salutatorians on this campus in the entering class of 2002, and we have significantly increased that to a record 60 this fall. In 2002, we had still 7 percent of our undergraduate students from the bottom of their high school class, and that has been virtually eliminated.”

Other accomplishments Bantz highlighted include:

  • Research funding associated with the IUPUI campus climbed from $202 million in 2002 to $325 million in 2014.
  • The number of students living on campus grew from 293 in 2002 to more than 2,000 this year.
  • The completion in 2013 of the campus’s $1.4 billion fundraising campaign.
  • A 430 percent increase in civic engagement activities since 2002, including the enrollment of more than 8,700 IUPUI students in service learning courses last year.
  • Improving campus commitment to diversity, targeting programs for minority students and earning national recognition for being among the best campuses for minority students by leading diversity publications.

Going forward, Bantz said IUPUI will continue to fulfill its promises by focusing on the three priorities contained in a strategic plan guiding campus activities: success of students, advances in health and life sciences, and making contributions to the well-being of the residents of Indianapolis and people across the globe.