Trustees comment on approved construction, leaders at IU

IU’s Board of Trustees made several decisions affecting the Bloomington campus at its meetings Dec. 8 and 9 at IU-Southeast in New Albany, Ind., including an addition to the Kelley School of Business and the approval of President Michael McRobbie’s appointment of Lauren Robel as interim provost.

Kelley School of Business
The trustees approved a $32 million expansion to Kelley due to increased enrollment and the ensuing need for additional classroom space, Trustee Pat Shoulders said.
 
“It will modernize the delivery of undergraduate education for Kelley students,” he said. “That building is showing age. It’s overflowing.”

The renovation entails an additional four-story building of about 80,000 square feet that will wrap around in an L shape on the northeast corner of Fee Lane and 10th Street, Trustee Philip Eskew Jr. said.

James Hodge, a Kelley alumnus and president of Permal Asset Management, donated $15 million for the project, which will remain privately funded, Trustee Mary Ellen Bishop said.

Once the new building, to be named Hodge Hall, is complete, renovations to current classroom spaces will begin, she said.

“This was just a response by the Kelley School to expand the classroom area,” Eskew said.

The project now requires state approval.

Baseball and softball fields
Men’s baseball and women’s softball stadiums are to be constructed near the SR 46 bypass at Fee Lane where the intramural fields are currently located, following the trustees’ approval. The stadiums will seat 2,000 people and 500 people, respectively.

The baseball field will have artificial turf while the softball field will have real grass, Eskew said. The facilities will also include locker rooms and indoor practice areas for the offseason.

Shoulders said the construction of these two facilities is in line with a larger plan to renovate and modernize athletic facilities on campus, which include the previously renovated football stadium and field hockey fields.

A gift for the construction of the baseball stadium, along with revenue from the Big Ten, will allow the construction of both stadiums, Eskew said.

“We just felt like we needed to upgrade our facilities, and that will help us with the recruiting of athletes in both baseball and softball,” he said. “It brings us more in line with the rest of the Big Ten.” 

Forest Quad dining facility
The trustees approved the design for a $22 million dining hall expansion in Forest Quad.

“I think the Forest dining hall complex may be the most transformative for the campus that we did approve,” Shoulders said. “It will really be a dramatic improvement for that area of our campus.”

The expansion will include seven restaurants as well as an outdoor dining area, Shoulders said.

Bishop said the expansion will also alter the setup of Forest. The main entrance will be moved from the Third Street to the Jones Avenue side of the building, where the dining services will be located.  

“It just really makes an exciting and gorgeous and really functional dining area on the back of Forest Quad that used to be nothing more than a loading dock,” Eskew said.

Approval of interim provost, interim dean at Maurer School of Law    
After McRobbie appointed Maurer School of Law Dean Lauren Robel as interim provost, the decision was subject to approval by the Board of Trustees.

The trustees said the decision was simple based on her popularity amongst staff and students, her academic credentials and her administrative experience.

“She has an incredible reputation at Indiana University,” Bishop said.

They also said taking action as quickly as possible was necessary since Hanson’s departure is looming.

“It was important to get that interim provost named so that when Hanson leaves at the start of next semester, we will have someone fulfilling those very important duties,” Shoulders said. “We were happy to approve that recommendation.” 

They then appointed Hannah Buxbaum, current executive associate dean for academic affairs, and John Schiller, chair in legal ethics, as interim dean of the Maurer School of Law, effective Feb. 1, according to a press release.

Honoring Karen Hanson
Eskew said the trustees passed a resolution honoring current provost and executive vice president Karen Hanson, as it was her last Board of Trustees meeting as a Hoosier.

They awarded her a certificate and read the resolution in the meeting’s minutes, he said.

Other business
Eskew said the trustees will continue to work on evaluating IU’s curriculum at all regional campuses.

“We’re just making sure that not only are we economically sound, that we’re not spending money where we shouldn’t be and that students are in the right classes,” he said.

Bishop also said the external relations committee is looking for marketing collaborations in all units, departments and campuses.

She said an economic impact study is in the works, which will look at the effect of every dollar IU receives on the Indiana economy. Results of the study are expected in January.