Last modified: Tuesday, January 11, 2005
IU President Adam W. Herbert presents budget request to House Ways and Means Committee
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University President Adam Herbert told members of the Indiana General Assembly today (Jan. 11) that his top priorities in the next budget are full funding of the state's formula for supporting university research and resumption of full funding for campus repair and rehabilitation projects.
Herbert presented his budget request to the 25-member House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Jeff Espich (R-Uniondale). The committee is preparing a two-year state budget bill for presentation to the full House. IU is requesting $80.3 million in additional operating spending to cover the costs of increased enrollment, maintenance and its growing research activities.
Herbert said state funding is essential to the university's research mission because it provides some of the critical staff and infrastructure that is necessary to attract research grants to IU.
Last year, IU attracted $413 million in externally funded research grants, including $214 million to the School of Medicine at IUPUI. The university-wide total represents a three-fold increase since 1990.
Herbert said the rapidly growing research mission at both the Bloomington campus and IUPUI is benefiting Hoosiers in several important ways. Not only is it a driver of economic development for the state, but it is attracting dozens of the nation's most distinguished scientists to Indiana.
"We are developing national and international preeminence in a number of areas," he said.
Herbert introduced committee members to Dr. Linda Malkas of the IU School of Medicine, a nationally known researcher in early detection methods for breast cancer, and Professor David Clemmer of the IU Bloomington Department of Chemistry, whose research in proteins and the development of advanced instrumentation earned him recognition as one of the nation's top 10 most brilliant scientists by Popular Science magazine.
Herbert pointed to the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis as an example of how research programs strengthen the academic program. The School of Medicine is now the second-largest medical school in the nation. Its affiliated hospitals offer the best and most sophisticated treatments for cancer as well as one of the top organ transplant facilities in the nation.
"My vision for IU is to become one of the nation's top five centers for cancer research, diagnosis and treatment," Herbert said. "We are developing a critical mass of facilities and talent to reach this goal, including a new Clarian cancer center hospital that is scheduled to open in 2007."
Herbert said the bulk of his budget request involves continuation of existing formulas for the state's share of the IU budget. The state provides about 25 percent of IU's annual $2.1 billion budget.
"IU is producing the educated workforce that will draw businesses to Indiana and support the new knowledge-based economy," Herbert said.
Herbert noted that with more than 200,000 graduates living and working in Indiana, IU is the state's leading producer of intellectual capital. He said IU educated 35 percent of the state's teachers, 50 percent of its physicians, 75 percent of its lawyers and 90 percent of its dentists.
Herbert said one of the statistics he is most proud of is that the IU Bloomington campus has an actual graduation rate that is 14 points higher than expected. The predicted graduation rate for incoming freshmen in 1997 at IU Bloomington was 58 percent. The actual graduation rate for that class was 72 percent. That puts IU Bloomington second in the nation among the top 50 public universities.
