New funding plans to boost IU's reputation

The IU board of trustees recently approved six new proposals for IU's Commitment to Excellence plan. \nThe six proposals include funding that will be allocated to increasing faculty positions on the Bloomington campus, improving pay structures for graduate student instructors and also expanding course offerings in statistics, cyber security and American studies, according to a statement released by IU.\nIU president Adam Herbert and IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis both agreed the new proposals will be highly beneficial for undergraduate students, while boosting the reputation of the Bloomington campus. \nThe money raised for the Commitment to Excellence will have a profound impact on the Bloomington campus and will improve the undergraduate experience, said Trustee Sue Talbot.\n"Part of the role of the trustees is to create opportunities for students," Talbot said. \nStudents who began at IU in the fall of 2003 are charged a $1,000 fee separate from tuition and mandatory fees.\nTalbot acknowledged college does place a financial burden, but the separate $1,000 students pay will make their time at IU even better.\n"We want to give students the best experiences, both educational and academic," she said. "There are scholarship opportunities for students built into the (Commitment to Excellence) plans. It is a difficult decision to make to add to student fees, but we think it is an important trade-off."\nOf the seven proposals being considered for funding by the board, only six were chosen, Gros Louis said.\n"The seventh request was for graduate fellowships, but we felt that it wasn't appropriate to use undergraduate fees for graduate fellowships," he said.\nGros Louis said 15 percent of the Commitment to Excellence funds will go to undergraduate financial aid. But the funding for the proposals will not go into effect for a while.\n"It will probably take about three to four years, because of cash flow," Gros Louis said. "Some money won't be available until 2006-2007. It will take time to get the proposals reviewed by an external committee, internally by the trustees, and by the Commission for Higher Education."\n-- Contact staff writer Eric Tash at etash@indiana.edu