University nixes fair’s IU Day

Fans of IU Day at the Indiana State Fair will have to do without this year.

For the first time in three years, the University will not have a sponsored IU Day at the State Fair, said Valerie Pena, executive director and chief of staff for the IU Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations.

Instead, IU is partnering with Clarian Health and offering free health screenings, including glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol screenings. There will also be an informational booth in the Toyota Expo Hall and a sponsored daily shuttle, Pena said.

Last year, the cost to sponsor IU Day was between $42,000 and $45,000, Pena said.

This year, it will only cost IU $15,000 to sponsor the daily shuttle. She said last year, including the sponsorship, IU was in excess of a couple hundred thousand dollars.
But money wasn’t the only reason for nixing IU Day.

“It was a combination of things,” she said. “Part of (the decision) was were we using the money we were spending in the most efficient manner that we could, knowing things were going to be really tight. We really needed to stretch the partnership.”
But Pena said she feels it’s a win-win situation.

“People have mentioned, ‘Oh, you’re not there for IU Day.’ But we’re there for 17 days,” she said. “We’ll be there and probably have better numbers in sense of length of time. It just won’t be the big super-flashy day people had seen in the past.”

Pena said deciding on whether to sponsor IU Day will be done on year-to-year basis. She said the University might look to partner for two or three years, or even look to partner with another university.

Pena said the driving force behind the decision to sponsor IU Day will be where the best use of the University’s resources will be.

“We’re not ever locked into any one idea,” she said.

– By Sara Amato