The IU Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to rename the Jordan Avenue extension after the jazz legend and former IU professor David Baker. The extension will be renamed David Baker Avenue.
The decision comes over a week after the city-owned portion and parts of the university-owned portion of Jordan Avenue were officially renamed Eagleson Avenue after a historically prominent Black family in Bloomington. The university-owned extension is located between 17th Street and North Fee Lane.
“We’re not only able to right a wrong but to do so in a way that highlights one of the brightest stars in IU’s firmament,” Interim Provost and Executive Vice President John Applegate said of the proposal.
Baker, a Black man, worked at IU for over 40 years and was a distinguished professor of music and founding chair of the jazz studies program. He died in 2016. Baker was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and Grammy nominee.
“You look at this list of awards,” Applegate said. “And you have to wonder whether Indiana University, the state of Indiana, the jazz music world pretty much ran out of honors to award him, except for the one today.”
It is unclear when the name change will go into effect. Thomas Morrison, vice president for capital planning and facilities, said the change could be immediately implemented.
The board also approved the new Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav, who will enter his new role Feb. 15. The university named Shrivastav to the role in mid-December last year.
The board also approved a new graduate degree, a Master of Science in ballet. Like other degrees previously approved by the Board of Trustees, the degree requires approval from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.
IU-Bloomington housing and dining rates will increase slightly, the largest increase being around 1%. University treasurer Donald Lukes said this room and board increase is the lowest IU-Bloomington has implemented in at least a decade.
Lukes said the room and board increases are forecasted to remain near 1% for the Bloomington campus for the next two fiscal years.
