Faculty couple from Eastern school get lesson in Indiana higher education funding

One day last year, Kenneth Gros Louis, vice president and chancellor of the IU Bloomington campus, was talking with a couple who teach at a private Eastern university. They were telling him how fortunate he was to be at a state university where, they assumed, the bulk of support came from the state legislature, which they guessed was around 70 percent of IU's total support.

When Gros Louis told them no, it was 50 percent 20 years ago and currently is under 25 percent, "they were amazed," he recalled. "In fact, their private university receives more in total state dollars than IU does"

Despite many obstacles, IU President Myles Brand and IUB Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis believe IU now has an opportunity to move to the front rank of America's research universities. The new campus endowment campaign will clinch it.

It was a striking example of the challenge IU faces in its commitment to remain a public university and not, like some peer institutions, become more private as state funding changes.

State support notwithstanding, Gros Louis and IU President Myles Brand believe the university now has an opportunity to move to the front rank of America's research universities -- all the while not only maintaining but vigorously advancing the direct instructional mission [cases in point: the Lilly-funded student retention plan (See Home Pages archive story) and the Freshmen Learning Project].

But how can IU Bloomington, given a decreased proportion of support from the state, uncertain sources of research and other funding, and the declining ability of many families to afford tuition, achieve the goal of increasing excellence?

The endowment campaign officially launched last Saturday (Oct. 25) is the most effective means.

The new private-gift campaign is designed to dramatically strengthen the university's endowment and to redouble, over the course of the next five to six years, the amount of annual operating support from friends and alumni.

"Our current endowment allows some flexibility," Gros Louis explained. "But we still don't have the power that would enable us to continue to recruit and retain the best scholar/teachers and students, and ensure that they work with state-of-the-art equipment in both teaching and research."

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