New board adjusts to challenges

IU's trustees might be shuffling their boardroom style to ensure the Bloomington and satellite campuses keep competitive throughout the 21st century.\nFormal hand-raising and silent nods common to the previous board's meetings could be lost in the reorganization. Trustees, including three members newly appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels, are shaking up their communication style, as board members predict meetings will feature more open questions about University policy. The new style will come during a term of decisions about the University's direction affecting the future of the institution and its students, board members and administrators said. \nQuestioning about the organization of IU and its satellite campuses may be a fixture at meetings, as decreasing state funds have made saving pennies a priority at IU. Strategy about the direction of IU may also kindle differences of opinion, trustees and administrators said.\n"I would say there will be a different style, with more direct questioning," said Stephen Ferguson, president of the board of trustees.\nAlready, a debate at the trustee orientation meeting about raising admissions standards at IU-Bloomington raised arguments. Vice President for Institutional Development and Student Affairs Charlie Nelms and Thomas Reilly Jr., one of the newly appointed trustees, exchanged differing opinions about raising academic standards. Nelms did not return repeated phone calls for comment throughout the week. \n"We had some debate at the orientation meeting. The trustees that were there were raising a lot of questions," said Reilly Jr. "I would expect that of a modern board, for it to be very involved, the days of rubber-stamping by boards is going to be gone for quite awhile." \nThis board, unlike the past board that had to focus on internal matters, will decide IU's direction for the next five or 10 years, said Patrick Shoulders, vice president of the board of trustees.\n"We'll be focused strategically on the direction of IU," said Shoulders. "There will be some great exchanges of opinion. All nine want what's best for the University, they just have different views of how to get there."\nTrustee boards flow in cycles, and having a board publicly questioning University policy isn't uncommon, especially after a group that didn't question as much, said IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis. \nIssues possibly being handled by the board include shaping individual campuses' missions to make the educational system more efficient, setting polices on transfer credits and articulation agreements with Ivy Tech and emphasizing the development of "centers of excellence" within each campus, Ferguson said. Centers of excellence are highly ranked schools and programs within each IU campus.\nThe athletics fee will again be a point of contention, as the department is required to submit a plan to the trustees, Gros Louis said. Mission differentiation and deciding what physical buildings can be constructed among budget restraints is another decision potentially changing the face of the University. \nDue to a stretched state budget, Daniels and legislators may demand more accountability from universities about the use of their funds, Gros Louis said. Extra dialogue between trustees and University administrators may help answer these questions, he said.\n"I think they should ask more questions -- it's all part of accountability," Gros Louis said. "The more they know, the more questions from state leaders and legislatures they can answer"