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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

IU’s Board of Trustees to elect new member

IU alumni will vote to elect one member to sit on IU’s Board of Trustees this month.

The Board of Trustees is comprised of nine trustees. Indiana’s governor appoints six of the trustees, including one student, and IU alumni elect the remaining three.

All trustees serve three-year terms except the student trustee, who serves a two-year term, and the alumni-elected trustees, who serve rotating terms that require an alumni vote annually.

The Board of Trustees has a range of responsibilities that includes setting tuition and fees, establishing curriculum and appointing and reviewing IU’s president. 

There are two candidates vying for election.  

Pat Shoulders

Incumbent Pat Shoulders is an Evansville native who has served as a trustee since 2002. Shoulders is a first-generation college student who received his bachelor’s degree in English in 1975.

Three years later, Shoulders earned his Juris Doctor from IU’s McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.

Working as a lawyer has assisted Shoulders in preparing to be a trustee, he said.
“My work as a lawyer has taught me dispute resolution, conflict management and a great deal about the regulatory environment within which our educational enterprise must succeed,” Shoulders said.

An IU trustee must be open-minded, willing to listen to diverse points of view and unafraid to provide well-reasoned positions on the variety of issues facing a multi-billion dollar institution, he said.

“A trustee should value what makes IU special — honor its heritage but remain unafraid of change and the challenges of the future,” Shoulders said.

He said he thinks affordability is IU’s primary challenge of the future.

“As state support continues to decline, IU must continue to find alternative revenue sources if it is to remain affordable and accessible to the students,” Shoulders said.  
In addition to maintaining affordability, Shoulders said he believes IU must pay faculty and staff competitive wages.

“They are what makes us the excellent institution that we are,” he said.

Shoulders said he also believes IU must continue its recruitment efforts so that its diversity is reflective of the state of Indiana and the nation.

Whether he’s elected or not, Shoulders said he is dedicated to IU’s success.

“I continue to attempt to repay the debt which I owe to the education and habits of lifelong learning I received while a student at Indiana University,” he said.

His philanthropic efforts, he said, have been to preserve IU for future generations.

“I give my time and money to insure that IU will be available when my granddaughters are ready for college,” Shoulders said.

Shoulders said he tries to live up to the expectations of former IU president, Herman B Wells, who wrote Shoulders a letter of recommendation to attend law school.


Andrew Baldwin

Baldwin graduated from IU in 2007 with a degree in finance. He earned a master’s in 2013 from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

He said his fervor for IU sparked his interest in becoming a trustee.

“I am motivated by a deep passion for IU and a drive to make IU the best public university in the world,” Baldwin said. “I have no secret political agenda. The mission is making IU better.” 

Baldwin is an associate with Western Technology Investment located in California.
He said he believes his professional experiences will allow him to effectively find the right balance between innovation and tradition at IU.

A trustee must have a deep-rooted passion for IU and be a selfless ambassador that contributes to the success of everyone in the IU community, Baldwin said.

“They must uphold the highest standard of excellence and be relentlessly accountable,” Baldwin said. “Perhaps most importantly, they must be available and transparent.”

Baldwin said IU will encounter challenges of balancing equality, accessibility and affordability. And they are challenges that will only increase with time, he noted.

“This will surface through specific issues like incorporating dynamic curriculums, providing regional campuses the best resources, focusing more on at-risk students, continuing to build our own online educational platform versus using others, and initiating outside-the-box ideas to operate the University in a more capital efficient way,” Baldwin said.

If elected, Baldwin said he expects to challenge himself, to challenge and inspire others and to work closely with IU to execute a mission of excellence.

Baldwin said he will forever be indebted to IU.

“I love IU, and IU has given me and my family more than I could ever give back,” he said. “I would be humbled by an opportunity to help IU at the highest levels.”

IU Bloomington’s Dean of University Libraries conducts the annual election with assistance from the IU Alumni Association.

Ballots will be counted beginning 9 a.m. June 30. 

IU alumni from all regional campuses are eligible to vote. Alumni can either vote online or by mail.

This past year, 13,709 alumni, only 7 percent of IU alumni voted in the trustee election, Alumni Trustee Election Coordinator Amy Cope said. 

“It’s a bummer more people don’t vote,” Cope said. “A trustee election is very important.”

Being a trustee is a laborious duty that is done pro bono, Cope said, and trustees are required to sacrifice a lot of time.

A lot of their work requires studying the logistics and operations of IU and all its regional campuses.

“They easily have to read 20 to 25 hours weekly,” Cope said.

For questions or concerns regarding the election process or to cast a vote,
call 812-855-6610 or email
truselec@indiana.edu.

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