Through its administrative structures and collaborative processes, the institution’s leadership demonstrates that it is effective and enables the institution to fulfill its mission.
Criterion 5.A.
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5.A.1.
Shared governance at the institution engages its internal constituencies—including its governing board, administration, faculty, staff and students—through planning, policies and procedures.
The administrative structure at IU Southeast ensures collaboration and communication across units. The chief operating officer of IU Southeast is the Chancellor who is responsible for the administration and management of the campus. The Chancellor reports to the Vice President for Regional Campuses and Online Education at Indiana University, who is a member of the Indiana University President’s Cabinet (24-0304). As mentioned in Criterion 2, the Trustees of Indiana University is the university’s governing body. Established by the state legislature in 1820, the board has shaped the growth of the university since its beginning. The board is made up of nine trustees, and its business is overseen by six officers. Three trustees are elected by alumni, and the remainder are appointed by Indiana’s governor. The board meets four times a year on IU campuses around the state. Meetings are open to the public (24-0080).
The Chancellor is supported by the Chancellor’s Cabinet, which includes the Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs (EVCAA); Vice Chancellor for Student Engagement; Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration; Vice Chancellor for University Relations; the Regional Campus Chief Information Officer, and the Director of Marketing (24-0552; 24-0553). The Cabinet crucial information regarding the campus. Support to the Chancellor is also received from the extended cabinet with whom she meets monthly (24-0557). The Associate Vice Chancellor serves as the campus Accreditation Liaison Officer for HLC.
The Chancellor employs several approaches to ensure shared governance. For example, in weekly cabinet meetings, she shares and discusses concerns and new ideas with the Cabinet. On the fourth week of each month, the extended cabinet attends the Chancellor’s Cabinet meeting to discuss campus issues. In addition, the Board of Advisors meets five times per year, allowing the Chancellor and the executive group to receive insights from community leaders. The purpose of the Board of Advisors is to be an active conduit of information to the Southern Indiana community and from the community back to the administration at IU Southeast (24-0012).As representatives of the Southern Indiana community, the Board accomplishes this by actively participating and collaborating with the leadership at IU Southeast to develop strategies that mutually the community and the campus.
The Chancellor updates the state of the campus at each Faculty Senate meeting. During these sessions, all are welcome to ask questions of the chancellor during her report. The Faculty Senate’s executive leadership meets monthly with the Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The Faculty Senate President and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs meet monthly. Additionally, the Faculty Senate President is a member of the Regional Faculty Caucus (RFC), a group of Faculty Senate Presidents from all regional campuses (24-0307). The RFC meets monthly with University Academic Affairs Leadership (24-0308). Executive vice chancellors of the regional campuses sit on the hip Council and meet regularly to discuss university academic policies and collaborative opportunities (24-0309). In addition, Chancellor’s Summits occur with participation of campus chancellors, executive vice chancellors, deans, and faculty senate leadership to collaborate on targeted issues. In 2023, the target was retention and an analysis of a case management strategy for retention. In 2022, the focus was on serving students in our region.
Informally, the Chancellor also provides open office hours open to anyone to chat about issues relevant to the campus (24-0554). Additionally, the Chancellor regularly communicates with campus via email updates (for sample of email updates, see: 24-0301). As needed, town halls are also conducted to allow the campus to give input on various issues. For example, town halls have been for: The new Strategic Plan in October 2022 and February 2023; To discuss research release time in November 2022; And to discuss institutional learning outcomes on November 16, 2022 (for sample of emails convening town halls, see: 24-0311).
There have been many leadership changes across IU since 2019, and shared governance has been actively engaged to make decisions relevant for the campus. In 2021 President Whitten became the new president of Indiana University. In 2022 Susan Sciame-Giesecke was appointed as the new Vice President for Regional Campuses and Online Education. In July 2021, Chancellor Ray Wallace stepped down due to illness. Kathryn Girten, permanent Chancellor at IU East was appointed IU Southeast acting Chancellor August 2021 through June 2022. In July 2022, EVCAA Kelly Ryan was appointed interim Chancellor from July 2022 through June 2023. Uric Dufrene, the prior EVCAA, came back to serve as interim EVCAA. On July 1, 2023, Deborah Ford began her appointment as the new permanent Chancellor of IU Southeast. Throughout these changes, the campus was kept informed, and all worked together to ensure smooth transitions.
In September 2022, the search to hire a new chancellor for IU Southeast began (24-0312). Through this collaborative process, the campus participated in many ways. President Whitten charged Susan Sciame-Giesecke, Vice President for Regional Campuses and Online Education, with the task of hiring a new chancellor for IU Southeast. Sciame-Giesecke chaired the search committee, comprised of 13 IU Southeast faculty and staff, and one student representative. The Storbeck Search firm facilitated the national search. Campus listening sessions occurred during September 2022 to gather input from faculty, staff, and students about characteristics and skills needed for the next chancellor. Throughout the hiring process, each step was clearly communicated with the campus (24-0313). In January 2023, two candidates visited campus (24-0314). The candidates met with faculty, staff, and students during their interview process. Deborah Ford was selected as the finalist to begin on July 1, 2023 (24-0315); her appointment was ratified by the IU Board of Trustees on June 16, 2023 (24-0417, p. 11).
Deans, faculty, and staff have representation in the shared governance at IU Southeast through the Campus Budgetary Affairs Committee (CBAC), formally named Campus Budgetary Affairs Group (CBAG) (24-0316). CBAC is co‐chaired by the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance. Together with approximately 30 staff, faculty, and student members, the participants discussed the best ways to use campus resources. CBAC members are appointed annually by the Chancellor and budgetary recommendations as a part of the annual budget development process (e.g., 24-0418). In addition, CBAC members are encouraged to share campus budget information with various constituencies. The members ensure that the campus community understands the budget and are familiar with the budgetary issues in higher education. The committee meets typically from November to March each year (24-0317).
Another body that contributes to shared governance regarding budgetary decisions is the Faculty Senate Budgetary Affairs Committee (for charge and composition, see: 24-0093, p. 17). The Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance serves as the ex-officio and is a resource to the Faculty Senate committee and ongoing information. Each of the school’s elected faculty senators and the library faculty serve on this committee along with a part-time faculty representative. This body meets regularly with the Chancellor and proposes annual recommendations to the Faculty Senate. Once approved, recommendations are presented to the Chancellor.
The Academic & Quality Council (AQC), composed of all Vice Chancellors, Deans, Directors of non-academic units, and the Faculty Senate president, contributes to the culture of assessment on our campus. This council meets to discuss assessment practices, results, and program reviews. Discussions involving developments on campus, as they relate to strategic plans for the university and how survey results and direct data reflect our priorities, help to ensure all campus voices are as we respond to challenges and reflect on opportunities. Meeting minutes describe programs being reviewed and current issues brought to light from their assessment. In September 2022, Institutional Effectiveness shared survey results from the all-student survey. This led to a discussion on common themes and suggestions for an increased focus on mental health and awareness of needed services. Additionally, in January 2023, Geoscience described how they are adapting to losing a faculty member and received feedback from the AQC to consider creative collaborations or a potential micro-credential related to skills learned in the program (24-0555).
Staff Council (24-0318) provides opportunities for non-academic staff to discuss relevant campus issues as they plan events and in the campus culture. This group also raises funds to provide appreciation events for staff and enhances communication across areas. At times, this council discusses a variety of concerns relevant to staff and provides an avenue for communication between staff, faculty, and administration. For example, the Staff Council provided input about parking on campus and enhancing faculty/staff relations; in staff representation for the Chancellor search committee; and participated in various committees on campus.
Student Government Association (SGA) is the student governance organization on campus, the student body’s voice (for additional details, see SGA Constitution: 24-0319). SGA’s Executive Board meets regularly with the Chancellor. SGA members student representation on standing committees. SGA keeps the campus connected with All University Student Association representing all SGAs across the IU system (24-0320).SGA shares concerns with the administration, holds majority votes on parking appeals, serves on administrative committees, and gives students input on the planning that occurs on campus. In February 2023, the SGA president in the process with campus leaders to help develop the 2030 strategic plan.
5.A.2.
The institution’s administration uses data to reach informed decisions in the best interests of the institution and its constituents.
A wide variety of data informs decisions at IU Southeast. IU Institutional Research and Reporting (UIRR) provides access to self-service report tools that provide official university reports on admissions, enrollment, retention, graduation rates, degree completions, and financial aid for all IU campuses. (For a snapshot of the various categories of data and reports available, please see: 24-0321.) Many constituents on campus interact with reports provided on the Facts & Figures section of the IA site. These reports serve as an information gateway intended to provide users with the data they need for their role in the university. Due to the interactive nature of these tableau reports, one has the capability to drill into the details and to dice, filter and export the data in various ways such as full-time/part-time, university/college/department level, ethnicity, in-state/out of state, class status, gender, academic standing, degree seeking, etc.
The Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) provides the campus with data, summaries, and reports relevant to our campus. OIE oversees data management for reports mandated by federal and state government agencies, accreditation reviews, enrollment management, strategic planning benchmarking, peer analysis, and other internal and external requests. In addition to maintaining official data definitions and the context necessary to ensure accurate comparisons, OIE provides various in-house tableaus. For example, data for retention and graduation rates are submitted biannually, as updated (e.g., 24-0322); IU system-wide updates related to data sources on the Institutional Analytics website (24-0321).
The office prioritizes responses to Chancellor and Cabinet inquiries, including location of data sources, configuring filters on IU data tableaus, and feedback on retention-rate goals by relevant subgroups. OIE provides essential data guidance assisting the entire campus as they examine the reports provided by IA or have a specific data request for a targeted project. Institutional Research Data Guides, provided by IA, explain how data are derived or created (24-0323).
The OIE plays a critical role in the development of effective assessment on the campus. OIE collaborates with faculty and programs to ensure they design metrics which assess the critical learning occurring in their programs. OIE consults with ACQ, the Faculty Senate Assessment Committee (24-0556), and the General Education Committee (24-0093, p. 18) to help faculty and programs to design and implement effective assessment practices on our campus. Working with the Assessment Committee, the OIE plans Assessment Day events and provides assessment expertise assisting each academic program, co-curricular department, and administrative office as we develop a stronger assessment process (24-0558).
Deans also use data to help ensure student success in their schools. For example, the Dean of Social Sciences created a Qualtrics survey that Social Science students completed to identify their course modalities and day/times for synchronous classes. The results were then broken down by the student major and shared with program coordinators so they could create the best schedules for their students. The Dean then made scheduling recommendations to program coordinators in Social Sciences based on a combination of past course enrollment data and data pulled from the course search iGPS about the pattern of past semester courses spread across the day. Using this data, the Dean recommended that some courses be moved to different times of day to increase enrollment by using recommended scheduling patterns across programs in blocks so that less popular classes may pick up students who need elective hours and are taking adjacently scheduled popular classes. A new co-enrollment tool created by OIE made it easier to identify courses across programs that should be scheduled adjacently on the same day because they enroll the same students. This type of scheduling assists students by making their schedule planning easier and reducing the money and time that they need to invest traveling to campus to take a full load of classes. This also creates efficiencies for the institution by reducing student barriers to enrollment in certain courses that may have had suboptimal enrollment in past semesters. Deans are working with program coordinators using these tools effectively to enhance strategic scheduling on campus to ensure students have access to the courses they need in the mode they need (e.g., 24-0559).
The OIE also oversees campus wide surveys that are implemented each year (24-0324). Data from recurring surveys, such as the Alumni Survey, Academic Advising Survey, Graduating Student Survey, and Entering Student Survey are written each year to provide campus with up-to-date information about our students (respectively, 24-0325; 24-0326; 24-0327; 24-0328). Data for each of these reports is shared in relevant meetings. For example, meetings of the AQC often revolve around the results of different reports provided by IA and OIE (24-0329). For example, in October and December 2021, participants examined retention rate data of the campus to help set goals for future persistence rates. In addition, the Alumni Survey was discussed by Deans and others at the AQC to discuss feedback and how it could be used to improve campus initiatives (24-0560).
The National Survey of Student Engagement NSSE is administered every three years (for overview, please see: 24-0330; for examples of NSSE data, please see: 24-0331 and 24-0332). The campus used these data to reflect upon strengths and weaknesses as we crafted the new strategic plan and considered areas to target and strengthen. One illustration of NSSE data being discussed was at the November 2021 A&Q council meeting. The report was examined, and participants were asked to identify one area of strength and opportunity to discuss. The NSSE results were also discussed at the A&Q council meeting with a discussion highlighting areas of strengths and weaknesses (24-0329, pp. 5-6). More recently, the NSSE 2021 Snapshot data were examined as the 2030 strategic plan was being developed to enhance holistic student success (24-0333; 24-0561, pp. 2-3).
As needed, OIE develops surveys to address specific needs (for samples, please see: 24-0334; 24-0335; 24-0336; 24-0337; 24-0338; 24-562). For example, during the pandemic, the Fall 2020 Student Check-In Survey was developed to help learn how the campus could best support students. These results were disseminated, and outreach was planned to better address students' needs. OIE has also partnered with the AVC and persistence coordinator to create a beginning-of-semester and end-of-semester class survey distributed to all sections of the required First Year Seminar course. A component of these surveys is tied to outreach for FYS students. The FYS Omnibus report (24-0339; 24-0624) results are also shared and discussed with campus at various meetings.
5.A.3.
The institution’s administration ensures that faculty and, when appropriate, staff and students are involved in setting academic requirements, policy and processes through effective collaborative structures.
Processes exist for setting and changing academic requirements and policy (24-0340; 24-0341; 24-0342). Academic curricula and policies are determined by the faculty (Faculty Senate meeting minutes demonstrate this fact and provide examples of curricular and policy changes from 2020 to the present: 24-0495. Faculty develop new courses or curriculum by first identifying a need, then presenting a full description to the faculty of their program, which is then shared with their school. Once approved at the school level, the new curriculum goes to the Senate Academic Policies Committee (APC charge: 24-0093, pp. 16-17). New academic requirements or policies from APC are then proposed to Faculty Senate. All academic programs approved by Faculty Senate must then be approved by senior administration before commencement of the off-campus approval process. Selected programs must also receive approval from university-wide bodies that include the Academic Leadership Council and the Board of Trustees (24-0346). Programs must then be approved by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and HLC.
Faculty Senate committees regularly conduct business that support the academic and administrative missions of the campus, and administrative committees provide important input on such matters. student representatives sit on key governance committees, including the Campus Budgetary Advisory Committee, the IU Board of Trustees, and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE). Additionally, the Student Government President serves as a nonvoting member of Faculty Senate (24-0093, pp. 2-3). During March 2022, the SGA president worked with members of the faculty senate on a parking taskforce proposal (24-0563; 24-0564; 24-0565; 24-0566).