Celebrating IU Northwest

With 91,000 students and 19,000 employees, we have a big family at Indiana University. As such, it is a great pleasure to celebrate a significant accomplishment of our students and faculty at Indiana University Northwest. When the campus became the only public comprehensive institution of higher education in Indiana to be designated a Hispanic Serving Institution, a door of possibility opened and they ran through it. 

The campus has received a $5 million grant from the Department of Education to increase the number of students graduating with STEM degrees — science, technology, engineering and math — with a particular focus on expanding opportunities for Hispanic and low-income students.

Our IU Northwest campus has ambitious goals for this funding, including creating a STEM Resource Center, enhancing its collaboration with Ivy Tech Community College and other community partners, offering new coursework and student support services, and increasing its undergraduate research opportunities.

An interdisciplinary team of faculty and administrators in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Northwest will lead the charge to implement this program over the next five years, and they are poised to accomplish their goals. The team includes Kristin Huysken, associate dean for student success in the College of Arts and Sciences and associate professor of geology; Jenny Fisher, assistant professor of biology; and Vesna Kilibarda, professor of mathematics.

I am inspired by IU Northwest's drive to forge new pathways for students to succeed in STEM fields, invest in its faculty and expand regional partnerships. Please join me in congratulating IU Northwest Chancellor Ken Iwama and the entire campus on this achievement.

Pamela Whitten

President
Indiana University