BFC holds first meeting of the year

The Bloomington Faculty Council met Tuesday for the first time this year under new President David Daleke to discuss IU's strategic planning, student recruitment and financial aid.\nAccording to the Web site from IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm's office, the purpose of IU's strategic planning is to "contribute to a significant advance in the Bloomington campus' academic reputation and, therefore, to the esteem in which its faculty and its graduates are held."\nLast year, the Strategic Planning Committee drafted a mission of values as well as a list of academic and general priorities intended to show the committee where to allocate Commitment to Excellence funds. These funds were raised through the $1,000 special tuition assessment undergraduates began paying this semester.\nNow, the committee is in its third phase, working closely with the BFC to create benchmarks and review the entire process.\nSPC Chair Fred Cate said this is the most important part of the planning process.\n"It's only by going back and asking the tough questions that you find out if you're doing the right things," he said. "What's most important is that we put in place a process to make sure we look back every two or three years over the next decade to see what the impact is."\nThrough this long process and ongoing examinations, Cate said advancement is possible.\n"This campus, like many campuses across the country, has many needs," Cate said. "You could just spend every dollar you have plugging the holes, filling the needs, but we're thinking strategically ahead. At the end of this four- or five-year period, we'll still have needs to be met, but we will have advanced the campus, built new programs and started new opportunities for undergraduates."\nBrehm outlined a number of goals for undergraduate education for this year, many that have sprung from the SPC. Brehm said she has always been impressed by IU's undergraduate education, but that coordination is still needed to be effective. She broke the issue into three areas that need to be further developed: recruitment and financial aid, international experiences and internal and external student transfers.\nIn the area of recruitment and financial aid, Brehm said IU has been reactive.\n"There is no way to increase diversity unless we become very proactive," Brehm said.\nThrough the International Experiences program run by the Honors College, Brehm said she hopes to further studies abroad. With money raised through endowments and campus money, Brehm said in four years there should be enough money for 600 students to receive $1,500 each to study abroad. In addition to offering money, Brehm said she wants the Bloomington faculty to become involved in reaching out and recruiting a diverse group to study overseas.\nThe last issue Brehm discussed was transfer students, saying that students often transfer from one school to another to find that their general education credits don't transfer. \n"It may be possible to find commonalities in general education," Brehm said. "We need to work toward more course overlap."\nWhile other universities are encountering budget and program conflicts, Brehm said IU will not develop these problems.\n"We're not scrambling to stay afloat," she said. "We're moving ahead."\n-- Contact staff writer Jackie Walker at jaclwalk@indiana.edu.