Herbert to specialize regional campuses

IU President Adam Herbert has eight visions for IU -- one for each campus in the state.\nHerbert said he plans to specialize the regional campuses to focus on unique strengths within the University system.\nHis interest in multicampus institutions began when he served as chancellor at the State University System of Florida, the second largest system in the country with 10 state campuses. There, Herbert coined the phrase "mission differentiation" to illustrate his idea that campuses within a statewide system should assume an individual mission based on the assets they each contribute to their surrounding region.\nNow that he is at IU, Herbert said he sees the opportunities to do the same. \n"It's essential that we celebrate the differences and do what we can to assist each campus to develop a broader context of the values and traditions of IU," Herbert said.\nFred Eichhorn, president of the IU board of trustees, said the search committee noted Herbert's philosophy of specialized campuses as an interesting concept that could potentially benefit IU. However, Eichhorn said the University must proceed carefully in order to ensure that mission differentiation will be as successful at IU as it was in Florida.\n"The potential to benefit is definitely there," Eichhorn said. "This type of plan might be the key in making some (campuses) go from good to great without trying to be everything to all people."\nHerbert said mission differentiation establishes a more realistic identity for a campus by allowing the administration to focus on more realistic goals for each particular campus. \nFor instance, he said it is doubtful that any other campus besides IU-Bloomington will focus on improving its reputation as a top research institution. Consequently, he said the smaller campuses should not devote portions of their resources and funding to offer multiple doctoral programs. \nAlso, since IUB has the largest enrollment, he said its mission would place a greater focus on traditional students, as opposed to IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, where a large number of the students are enrolled part-time.\nIUPUI Chancellor Charles Bantz echoed Herbert's ideas, saying the IU campuses will never offer the same services or resources, so there is no point in trying to make them identical to one another. \nBantz said focusing on individual strengths has advantages as long as they serve the state.\n"We have to respond to who we are, where we will go and how we can help the state and the economy," Bantz said.\nAt IUPUI, Bantz said the mission should focus on the campus's development as an urban research university by continuing its dual obligation to education in a metropolitan area as well as conducting research in life sciences and engineering. Bantz said the IUPUI must focus its attention on the academic programs that will keep students in Indiana who can stimulate the economy.\nIU-Kokomo Chancellor Ruth Person said, over the past few years, the Kokomo campus has started to see some changes due to a large increase in traditional students. Although Person said education remains the primary focus of its mission, she said she is open to the concept of mission differentiation in order to deal with the changing issues on campus.\nAt this point in his presidency, Herbert said he does not yet have specific missions in mind for each campus. Specializing campuses, he said, requires years of strategic planning before the benefits start to surface. \nAs his first order of business, Herbert said he needs to take a close look at each campus in order to see how each responds to the challenge of serving the state. Ten years down the road, Herbert said some campuses might evolve as comprehensive institutions, while others might develop into campuses that focus exclusively on the liberal arts.\nMission differentiation could also play a significant role in Herbert's determination to receive additional federal and state government funding. He said legislators become more likely to provide additional resources when they can see a strong return in their initial investments in higher education.\n"We have an obligation to share with the public our strengths and contributions in order to make IU a better place to live and work," he said. "Ultimately, I think that we will generate broader public and local support."\nHowever, one of the challenges that comes with specializing campuses is deciding whether or not there should be any distinction in the admissions policy between campuses. Herbert said the University's credit could suffer if standards drop too low. \nDespite the challenge, Herbert said he remains confident that he and the administration can make it work.\n"When you've been around universities as long as I have, you begin to understand the structure of institutions and can better prepare for the problems you'll encounter," he said. "We can make this work."\n-- Contact senior writer Colin Kearns at cmkearns@indiana.edu.