New office intends to hold IU accountable

IU President Adam Herbert hopes to strengthen his ability to maintain oversight of the University with the creation of the Office of University Planning, Institutional Research and Accountability.\nThe office, IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said, is designed to ensure the University carries out its promises.\n"If we tell the tax-paying public that we're going to do a good job of educating students and of research, we need to check to see that we're doing what we say we're doing," MacIntyre said.\nThe new office, which tracks not only financial accountability but also academic progress, is headed by Victor M. H. Borden, the former associate vice chancellor for information management and institutional research at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis. \nThe goals of the office, Borden said, are to collect data to track institutional progress as well as organize the goals of each individual campus into a larger framework. Borden wants to be sure the different campuses aren't unintentionally working against each other in their missions.\n"The different campuses have their different challenges in assessing how their programs are doing," Borden said. "We're trying to create a culture of evidence where people can increase their capacity to use systematic information to better achieve their goals."\nThe new office will gather this information by analyzing how money is spent, surveying students and alumni, tracking the progress of students and measuring success of graduates by indicators such as bar exam scores and job placement. Prior to the establishment of the office, IU had depended on external reviews from sources like U.S. News and World Report, which, MacIntyre said, often don't go into enough detail.\n"All of these things give us indicators as to whether we're accomplishing our mission," MacIntyre said. "(Herbert) wants to know how well each of our schools and each of our departments is doing. He has been raising the bar, setting higher standards and calling for more accountability since the day he arrived."\nHerbert, who is in his third year as president, hopes to maintain superiority in already highly-regarded departments and raise the standards of others with the creation of this new office, MacIntyre said. \nHe said Herbert plans to use the information to present to the board of trustees and state legislators, help persuade private donors, increase the amount of sponsored research conducted by IU and attract top academic talent.\nRather than making new policies, the office simply collects data and provides the schools and departments with the information, allowing them to revise their own policies.\nIn addition to analyzing academic progress, the office will aid in management of financial resources.\n"President Herbert wants to be sure we're using the money the best we possibly can," MacIntyre said. "We need to look a little more closely than we had before."\nAlthough the office will deal with money, Borden said it will only focus on the allocation of money as applied to missions.\n"There's a lot of technical details about money that we won't be getting into," Borden said.\nBorden previously held a similar position at IUPUI. Now, instead of working with the goals of just one campus, he will be working to coordinate the goals of all eight campuses.\n"It's all about improving the overall effectiveness of all the institutions through the use of information, something that corporate America has been doing for a long time," Borden said. "The difference is we're taking a University approach"