Criterion 5 - 5.B.

The institution’s resource base supports its educational offerings and its plans for maintaining and strengthening their quality in the future.

5.B.1.
The institution has qualified and trained operational staff and infrastructure sufficient to support its operations wherever programs are delivered.

Human Resources

IU Southeast maintains and follows policies for the recruitment of qualified staff in all areas. As outlined by Indiana University Policy HR-03-40 (24-0347), all staff positions have a detailed role descriptor, specifying duties, responsibilities, and required professional/academic qualifications.

In February 2021, IU launched a new job framework for all staff positions. The Job Framework Redesign (JFR) was created in review of the university’s numerous job descriptions. Many of the jobs across all IU campuses were similar but varied in titles, responsibilities, and pay ranges. The task of the JFR project was to streamline these positions university-wide and provide clarity in role responsibilities and qualifications. Benefits include consistency, transparency, and improved decision-making (24-0348).

In 2023, IU launched a new performance management program which is a consistent, collaborative, and ongoing process to help appointed staff achieve their full potential. The process is driven by four simple quarterly conversations: Expectations, Check-In, Development, and Annual Performance. The program was created based on results from Indiana University’s most recent employee engagement survey which revealed that employees need to understand the expectations of their role to be successful and engaged (24-0260).

IU Southeast has established a systematic process to recruit qualified talent. Staff positions are posted in the PeopleSoft TAM system. Qualifications of the position are included in each job posting based on the coordinating role descriptor. Departments may also include additional job specific criteria in the posting. Designated search committees review resumes and credentials to ensure that the applicant meets the necessary requirements to be considered and interviewed for the position. A series of performance-based questions are used in the interview process. Candidates provide examples of previous experience in the areas of taking responsibility, building relationships, integrity, and working in a diverse environment. The director of Staff Diversity and Equity reviews the candidate pool to make certain that consideration is given to diverse applicants who meet the minimum qualifications. The HR Recruiter reviews final candidates to verify all requirements are met prior to making a job offer. Upon hire, employees provide a transcript and necessary credentials for their role as required. New employees participate in an in-person new hire orientation and have access to HR policies, benefits, and other resources through the IU Canvas Course. IU Hiring Policies for employees include Background Checks (24-0567), Employment Accommodations (24-0568), and Non-Discrimination/Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action (EEO/AA) (24-0096). The full list of policies can be found on the IU HR website (24-0569).

IU Southeast has adopted hiring policies to ensure quality faculty are hired and meet expected qualifications. These details are confirmed and documented by the appropriate academic dean and the Academic Affairs Office. The Office of Institutional Equity has created a Faculty and Staff Recruitment & Search Guide (24-0120) to ensure proper policies are followed during recruitment. An EEO/AA statement must be included in every position announcement. In the guide, specific information is provided to ensure bias-free recruitment. Applicants provide a vita, letter of application, diversity statement, evidence of teaching ability, statement of teaching philosophy, statement of research and teaching, list of references, and an official transcript. Once a candidate is hired, the candidate works with Academic Affairs to ensure their appointment process is completed. To advance the hiring of diverse faculty, the EVCAA has also discussed in Dean’s meetings the importance of diversity hiring and diversity statements, and shared a document titled Advancing Diversity of Faculty in Hiring Practices (24-0349). A new faculty orientation is held each August and has been in place for several years (24-0542).

IU values ongoing professional development for its employees, and many offices provide training opportunities throughout the year for all IU Southeast employees. The supporting offices include IU and campus Human Resources (24-0572), Equity and Diversity (e.g., 24-0520), Police and Public Safety (24-0570), Office of the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration units (24-0573), and University Information Technology Services (24-0571). IU Southeast faculty and staff pursue training through both on-campus means and Canvas sites populated by Indiana University. Required training is tested and monitored for participation.

IU Southeast’s Human Resource department has been making changes in the past year to the employee lifecycle process. In addition to a Canvas new hire orientation course, they have instituted an in-person orientation meeting for all new hire staff members (24-0574; 24-0625). An onboarding guide for managers (24-0350) is in development to assist the assimilation of the new employees into their team and campus culture. Human Resources staff have also begun conducting 30-day and 90-day check-ins for new staff employees, as well as exit interviews for all employees leaving the organization. The intention is to reduce employee turnover and boost retention from 2022 to 2023. The staff turnover rate for fiscal year 2022 was 3.07%. The staff turnover rate for fiscal year 2023 was 1.6%, which is a decrease of 1.47%. As our employee lifecycle initiatives began in fall semester 2022, it can be argued that they contributed to the decrease in turnover.

Faculty also receive pedagogical support and professional development from the Institute for Learning & Teaching Excellence (ILTE). The ILTE director is a faculty member who oversees three staff and coordinates a variety of teaching workshops. Training is provided for teaching across the different modalities. ILTE distributes a weekly newsletter that keeps the campus apprised of the opportunity for teaching development available (e.g., 24-0520). IU has adopted Quality Matters (QM) standards and rubrics to guide the development, evaluation, and improvement of Online and Hybrid courses (24-0351; 24-0353). As of Fall 2023, 65 courses have achieved QM certification (24-0352). New faculty are introduced to Quality Matters as they begin teaching at IU Southeast. ILTE also provides funding opportunities for faculty to enhance their skills (24-0354). Instructors can apply for Strategic Excellence Grants to help develop a Quality Matters certified course. In June 2023, 17 applicants submitted and 5 were selected to receive a grant. Innovation in Teaching awards are also given to faculty who use new methods or technologies to enhance student learning.

The Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) is highly active on the IU Southeast campus. This represents a collaborative community of distinguished faculty and contributes to the teaching development of faculty (24-0355). FACET has an annual retreat, during which all IU faculty are welcome to participate and share strategies to enhance pedagogy and practices (24-0575). Currently, there are 38 active members of Facet on the IU Southeast campus. Additionally, the Office of Academic Affairs subsidizes adjunct faculty who attend FACET's Adjunct Faculty and Lecturer's conference (FALCON), an annual gathering devoted to the professional needs of lecturers and adjunct faculty members (24-0576).

Physical Resources

The campus rests on 180 acres of land and consists of 14 buildings and five residential lodges totaling 783,000 square feet, with 100 percent wireless access to the campus network. There are 10 parking lots with 2,750 spaces. The physical space inventory includes five academic buildings with approximately 140 classrooms, labs, and meeting spaces. Since 2017, the university has invested over $1,100,000 to improve classroom and lab spaces. Investments have included updating 21 learning spaces (15 classrooms and 6 labs). The university has dedicated campus funds, repair and rehabilitation funding, and donor funding for improvements and upgrades. Over the next 3-4 years, the campus will be embarking on a classroom improvement plan to further update classroom and lab spaces (24-0356; 24-0357).

The campus also leases space at Watertower Square in Jeffersonville for graduate classes. The physical location of the space is near downtown Louisville. The facility covers 5,600 square feet of space with four state-of-the-art classrooms, study spaces, IT support desk, a faculty office, and a kitchenette.

Technology Resources

Regional IT departments are part of Indiana University Information Technology Services (UITS) department. UITS provides state-of-the-art technology services designed to empower every student, faculty, or staff member to accomplish their goals.

IU Southeast’s IT staff report to a Regional CIO who is a member of the Office of the Vice President for IT (OVPIT) and is a member of the Chancellor’s Cabinet. The Regional CIO directs regional campuses to provide a seamless university-wide IT organization and to deliver consistent and coordinated services. Services include infrastructure that parallels what is provided by UITS on the Bloomington and Indianapolis IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) campuses. IT maintains and provides access to a campus-wide data network, as well as access to the statewide I-Light high-speed fiber network connecting all IU campuses.

At Southeast, all student-focused campus buildings have comfortable technology spaces equipped with computers and Wi-Fi coverage. There are also many lounge spaces where students can connect and charge their own devices and spaces for personal or group study sessions. All IU students and employees have access to a variety of centralized resources which include a university-wide learning management system (Canvas), software downloads (IUWare), software streaming (IUAnyWare), and unlimited cloud storage. Students and employees have 24/7 support through telephone, live chat, email, and support requests. A central knowledge base offers step-by-step solutions on IU systems, and the IT Training website has classes on many technology-related topics.

Several tools are used by students and faculty to facilitate online learning. Digital face-to-face sessions use Microsoft Teams or Zoom with integrations to the Canvas learning management system. Asynchronous online learning utilizes Kaltura MediaSpace to allow faculty to record learning sessions and share with their students. IT also consults on all new campus construction and renovations, ensuring that the technology infrastructure is designed and installed properly, with an eye toward future needs and opportunities.

Additional Resources

The Office of Online Education (OOE) partners with IU campuses to offer quality academic programs to online students (24-0358). OOE supports the development of online academic programs, markets the online programs to potential students, provides services that support online student success, and ensures that IU follows state, federal, and accreditor regulations governing online education. This office also maintains a variety of reports that provide critical information to help guide online program development (24-0359). One report tracks program development progress with clear indications of the status of various online programs. This data is used to ensure progression through phases is not stalled. Another report focuses on term and credit hours point in cycle. This enables one to see the number of applicants in each program on each regional campus, descriptive aspects of students in online programs. These data are used to ensure courses are scheduled to meet the student demand.

The Office of Collaborative Academic Programs (OCAP) coordinates the collaborations between all the regionals as they work together to create and implement online collaborative programs (24-0360; 24-0361). The faculty at IU Southeast collaborates with OCAP to develop online programs with faculty from the other regional campuses. OCAP assists with these complex collaborations. The online program approval tracking report (24-0207) indicates if an online program is collaborative and who the participating campuses are, and what stage of the process a program is in (e.g., planning, awaiting approval, completed). The OCAP Master course list is also maintained by OOE, which keeps track of which campus should be providing instruction for a particular course in a collaborative program (24-0362).

5.B.2.
The goals incorporated into the mission and any related statements are realistic considering the institution’s organization, resources, and opportunities.

The goals of the campus are realistic and consider the campus’s size, structure, resources, and opportunities. The campus finalized a strategic plan in April 2023 that fits into the IU 2030 plan (24-0363), designed to align all campuses of Indiana University under one strategic framework. The main pillars of the plan are Student Success and Opportunity, Transformative Research and Creativity, and Service to the State and Beyond. The plan is designed to be bold yet achievable. One bold goal is to provide holistic wrap-around support to all students. This can be achieved by utilizing, expanding, and assessing services we already have, including mentoring, disability services, academic advising, and personal counseling and ensuring that all students benefit from the services. After the plan was officially adopted, the campus formed an implementation team to develop tactics to achieve the plan goals (24-0577). The campus is already taking steps towards achieving its seven-year goals as indicated on the September 2023 Quick Wins document (24-0578). In addition, the chancellor has developed a visual, interactive planning room to assist with implementation of the plan with a designated “parking lot” for any campus or unit initiatives that don’t directly relate to progress in the strategic plan, further ensuring that our resources (financial, human, and physical) are all working towards achieving goals.

The campus mission continues to focus on the campus’s impact on the region. IU 2030 highlights bold goals of Service to our region including: creating a center for business and non-profit partnerships that will support student development, serve industries, and enhance collaboration and creating a center for health promotion to deliver health screenings and public health information at area events and health fairs.

The campus also has existing programs that support the region. Some examples include: the Applied Research and Education Center (AREC) (24-0024; 24-0025; 24-0026), the Sander’s Chair in Business, who shares economic outlooks and other relevant key notes (24-0579) across the region (24-0364; 24-0365), and IU Southeast collaborates with Novaparke to grow small businesses in Indiana (24-0366).

5.B.3.
The institution has a well-developed process in place for budgeting and for monitoring its finances.

IU Southeast has a rigorous process for budgeting and monitoring its finances. The overall budget process is incorporated into the budget process of IU, which is overseen by the University Budget Office (UBO). The UBO maintains the Budget Construction Guidelines and calendar (24-0580; 24-0581). The guidelines provide assumptions for revenue and expenditures that the campuses must follow, and the calendar holds all campuses to consistent standards.

The campus builds the upcoming budget based on the Fall Enrollment Study and five-year model. The Fall Enrollment Study is coordinated through the Office of Institutional Analytics (OIA) which the campuses use to predict future headcount and credit hour enrollments. Estimates are based on historic numbers, such as retention rates, and regional information, such as high school graduation rates (24-0368; 24-0369). The Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, with input from campus administration, uses these results, assumptions from the budget office, and campus priorities to plan a five-year budget model for the campus general fund, designated fund, restricted fund, and auxiliary fund. The campus meets with IU leadership annually for a spring budget conference to discuss the model, campus strategies and priorities, opportunities, and challenges. Campus leadership submits an end-of-year budget report demonstrating that allocations are consistent with the campus mission and strategic plan (24-0370). The Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance also runs a fiscal analysis which compares budgeted dollars to actual and previous years for the campus general fund and helps to estimate the planned year-end surplus or deficit. This is updated and reviewed several times per fiscal year (e.g., 24-0582).

The budget requires approval by the IU Board of Trustees and is tied to Indiana’s biennial budget. The Trustees approve tuition and mandatory fee rates, and the IU Vice President and Chief Financial Officer approve course-related and administrative fees (24-0371). Rates are approved at the Board of Trustees meeting (e.g., 24-0372). IU restructured its tuition and fees with the goal of ensuring more transparency for students and finding ways to minimize costs of attendance for students (24-0583). The new fee structure began with the Fall 2023 semester (24-0373; 24-0374; 24-0375).

Once established, budgets are monitored throughout the year. It is the responsibility of the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, along with a team of account supervisors, account managers, and account fiscal officers whose roles and authority are defined by IU Policy FIN-ACC-1 (24-0376). The campus also maintains a reserve balance of at least 3% per IU Policy FIN-BUD-4 (24-0377). Use of reserves is requested by the Chancellor each year as part of the budget construction process.

Part of the monitoring process includes ensuring the financial integrity of the statements. One example of campus-level monitoring of accounts includes fiscal review of all requisitions for review of budget availability, object code usage, reasonableness, and other university policy compliance such as branding (24-0379). At the university-level, all contracts must be reviewed and approved by the Treasurer as defined in IU Policy FIN-TRE-100 (24-0380).

In addition, the University Controller’s office (UCO) provides guidance for financial compliance, systems, and services at Indiana University (24-0381). In the Spring 2023, the Office of the University Controller added four new Campus Controller positions. These new controllers function as campus and unit-level liaisons with UCO for all financial, accounting, and controls compliance including financial systems and reporting (24-0382).

IU has two systems available for pulling financial reports. Indiana University’s Information Environment (IUIE) contains a library of financial reports to help account managers monitor revenue and expenses down to the object code level. In addition, there is a suite of reports available through the Controller’s Office Reporting Tools on OneIU. This includes audit reports for negative balances, material transactions reports, stale balance, and financial statements.

Beginning with Fiscal Year 2021 year-end close, IU Southeast began participating as a pilot campus in a more thorough year-end close and interim close process proposed by the Controller’s Office. This process follows a checklist of items that must be completed with each closing period and reviews the campus financials from an all-funds approach. Checklist items require review of balance sheet variance analysis, balance sheet back-up, income statement variance analysis, multi-year stale balances, negative balances, and material transaction substantiation (24-0383). The campus financial statements roll into the overall university financial statements which are audited by an external auditor Plante Moran. The most recent completed audit is the 21-22 fiscal year. The audit of the 22-23 fiscal year statements is currently under review (e.g., 24-0108; 24-0384).

5.B.4.
The institution’s fiscal allocations ensure that its educational purposes are achieved.

Fiscal Allocations

IU utilizes Responsibility Centered Management (“RCM”) as a resource allocation process. IU Southeast is a separate RCM unit within the IU system. Accordingly, all revenues attributable to IU Southeast are credited to the campus chart of accounts. Similarly, all expenses attributable to the campus must be funded by the campus chart of accounts (see discussion of IU support below). Campus leadership ensures that total operating expenses remain in alignment with revenues (24-0584).

The campus is charged an assessment to cover its share of funding for selected IU system services. The assessment charged to all IU campuses provides full or partial funding for twenty university units, such as the Office of the President, University Academic Affairs, Alumni Relations, Office of Affirmative Action, Capital Planning and Facilities, General Counsel, Public Affairs and Government Relations, and International Affairs. At the time of this report, IU is reviewing the process for how it charges an assessment to each campus with a new model planned for FY25.

Within the campus chart of accounts, revenue and expenses are attributed to each of the six main revenue-generating schools. Each year, the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance monitors the financial performance of each school and provides reporting and data to the Deans and EVCAA for planning purposes.

In fiscal year 2024, the vice chancellor for administration and finance introduced a quarterly financial planning meeting for the fiscal officers and deans to review budgets, talk about budgeting strategies, focus on long-term planning, all-funds budgeting, linking unit budget initiatives to the strategic plan, and utilization of gift funds at the IU Foundation (24-0595). While it is too early to see the impact of those meetings at the time of this report, the goal of those meetings is for education and transparency of the budget and budgeting process, to demonstrate better utilization of IU Foundation funds, to incorporate an all-funds approach to planning and budget, and to help understand underlying financial needs within the schools. For example) one area discussed during the October 2023 meetings was life cycle needs for specialized technology labs and the need for long-term financial planning for repair and replacements (R&R) of those labs. Each school impacted is developing an R&R schedule for replacement.

At the end of each fiscal year, the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance reviews the financial performance of each school for a five-year period to help identify underlying drivers for campus-level changes in financial performance from year-to-year (24-0585).

As a result of decreased revenues in each school, Faculty FTE in each school has been strategically reduced over the past 10 years with an overall change in faculty FTE of 37 positions within our schools representing a 17% decrease in FTE over the 10-year period (24-0674). In addition, there has been less reliance on adjunct faculty due to academic programming changes including curriculum modification and course sharing both on campus and within IU. For example, several southeast programs altered their curriculum to meet our most recent faculty numbers and areas of expertise, partnering with other academic programs, including Biology, International Studies, and English. The changes have helped to reduce adjunct expenses overall by $604K from FY14 to FY23, representing a 26% decrease in adjunct costs over the period (24-0675).

Over that same time, credit hours decreased 35% from 64,483 in Fall 2014 to 41,787 in Fall 2023. Despite the reductions in faculty FTE and adjunct pay, credit hour changes have outpaced the reduction to these areas, so work will continue to align our instructional FTE and our credit hour demand (24-0676).

The campus resource allocations support both academic programs and student success. Campus allocations follow a rigorous budget construction process detailed in section 5.B.3., with input by the Faculty Senate Budgetary Affairs Committee (BAC) and annual recommendations by CBAC. An annual budget conference with IU leadership, along with oversight of the budget construction process by the University CFO and University Budget Office, ensure that resource allocations are consistent with campus and University missions and strategic plans. Detailed budget planning efforts are outlined in the annual budget planning memo submitted each January in preparation for the spring budget conference (24-0586). The Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance submits documentation to the University Budget Office and Controller’s Office for the purpose of reporting year-end variances, budget planning and strategy, and financial results. The year-end submission includes a budget summary document each May which highlights strategic initiatives, budget challenges, reallocations, and adjustments (24-0587; 24-0626; 24-0627). Additional transparency and appropriate resource allocation are supported by annual presentations to the campus community by the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance (e.g., 24-0588) and through a campus-wide message from the Chancellor each spring which provides overarching themes and direction for the upcoming budget cycle.