Committed to Expanded Access to Higher Education
Education is the key component in productivity, economic competitiveness, and workforce development. For the State of Indiana to remain economically competitive, the institutions of higher education and the State must work collaboratively to expand access, increase productivity, find solutions for funding postsecondary education, and to address preparedness for postsecondary education. The University of Southern Indiana enthusiastically accepted the Commission for Higher Education's challenge to the state's postsecondary institutions to serve more Indiana citizens in a cost-effective manner while maintaining and increasing the quality of the system. As evidenced by its enrollment gains, the University is a leader in finding innovative solutions to the critical issue of increasing the state's educational attainment level.
In an effort to keep Indiana's brightest and best students in the State, the University has created scholarship programs which recognize scholastic achievements. The Presidential Scholarship program offers full scholarships, including tuition, room and board, and books, for qualifying valedictorians and salutatorians and is funded with private dollars. The competitive Dean's Scholarships, also privately funded, are full-tuition awards to entering freshmen. With the Indiana University School of Medicine - Evansville Center, USI offers a highly completive B/MD scholarship to as many as six entering freshmen each year. This scholarship covers tuition and grants the student a provisional seat in the IU School of Medicine Evansville Center if grades and test scores meet the school's criteria.
The University intends to accommodate larger numbers of students through recruitment and retention strategies. Past enrollment trends show that the University has been successful in these efforts. The University developed and adopted a comprehensive student retention plan which addresses student success in the areas of instruction, student support, and student services. In partial fulfillment of the plan, faculty members have developed a number of experimental course pairings for the promotion of "learning communities".
Current enrollment trends indicate that larger numbers of students are coming to the University from more distant areas, necessitating the construction of additional campus housing. The number of students living in University housing has increased from 976 in 1988-89 to about 2,900 currently. A $4.1 million expansion of the University Center was completed in 1997. A $15.2 million Liberal Arts Center opened in fall 1999, a $4 million Recreation and Fitness Center opened in spring 2001, and a $23.1 million Science and Education Center opened in summer 2003. In the past decade the total new investment in physical facilities totals over $153 million.
Several programs and working partnerships facilitate the goal of meeting the state's future enrollment needs. These include articulation agreements in a number of program areas with Ivy Tech State College and Vincennes University, endorsement of the statewide agreement on transfer of general education courses, the Indiana-Kentucky reciprocity program, and active participation in the distance education initiative of the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education. Through partnerships with regional school corporations, the University has been actively engaged in the development of Tech Prep initiatives for southwestern Indiana. The University has made excellent progress toward its stated performance objectives of increasing minority enrollment, and expects to be able to make continuing progress by strengthening its work with the state-supported 21st Century Scholars Program.
An Institution Committed to Continual Quality
Improvement.
As enrollment figures have grown, at times dramatically, there has been concern
that the University maintains its quality and commitment to superior instruction.
Nearly 70 percent of USI's classes have enrollments of 25 or less students.
Excellence in teaching continues to be the most important criterion in faculty recruitment. At the same time, the ability to do research, to engage in continuous scholarly and creative work, and to provide service, primarily to the region and the state, will be important additional qualifications. Since full-time faculty are the core of the University, USI will continue its efforts to reduce the present reliance on part?time faculty while maintaining flexibility in staffing.
Measuring what students are learning is fundamental to judging the quality of teaching. To that end, more than 1,800 students participate annually in the Assessment of Academic Achievement testing program. In addition to this assessment method, many of the institution's academic departments administer the Educational Testing Service Academic Major Field Test for students in their senior year. Overwhelmingly, USI students exceed national norms on these tests.
A revised general education program, the University Core Curriculum, was
implemented in fall 1995 following several years of study, development, and
planning.
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