Last modified: Wednesday, May 18, 2011
IU to close School of Continuing Studies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie announced today (May 18) that the university will close its School of Continuing Studies as part of a series of ongoing cuts in its budget.
Mounting budgetary restrictions, especially at the IU Bloomington campus, along with pressure to limit tuition increases necessitated the school's closing, McRobbie said. By ceasing operations at the school, the university expects to save as much as $4 million, principally at IU Bloomington, where the school, which has activities on all IU campuses, is based.
The school currently serves about 4,000 undergraduate students across Indiana.
McRobbie said the school, founded in 1975, has provided non-traditional and other students with a variety of valuable opportunities for degree completion through evening and on-line course offerings. It also has offered non-degree and continuing education programs for adults.
He added that IU will find ways to continue delivering these opportunities, even as it disbands the school, as recommended by the recently released New Academic Directions Report (https://www.indiana.edu/~newacad/index.shtml) that analyzed the university's academic structures for quality, effectiveness and efficiency.
Degrees and diplomas currently offered at the school, including the popular bachelor of general studies, will be transitioned to other schools on IU campuses. Students currently enrolled in these degree programs will also be transitioned so their academic progress is not interrupted.
Existing transfer and articulation and other agreements with partner institutions, including those with Ivy Tech Community College, will continue to be honored through and after the reorganization.
McRobbie appointed a seven-person committee, headed by Executive Vice President and IU Bloomington Provost Karen Hanson, to develop a plan for the closure of the school by June 30, 2012. The plan will identify which of the school's present activities will be transitioned to schools or other units on IU campuses and how transfers will be managed.
Other members of the committee are Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Neil Theobald, Executive Vice President John Applegate, Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences David Zaret, Executive Vice Chancellor Uday Sukhatme, Dean of the School of Continuing Studies Daniel Callison and Associate Vice President for Human Resources Dan Rives.
Closing the school will take a year to ensure degrees, diplomas and currently enrolled students are appropriately transitioned to other IU schools. The School of Continuing Studies has few faculty of its own, but the committee will work with the appropriate faculty organizations on faculty and academic issues that arise from the discontinuance of the school.
McRobbie praised Callison, who has served as dean of the School of Continuing Studies since September 2006, for his energetic and dedicated leadership.
McRobbie said Callison developed and expanded distance learning programs to serve non-traditional students, accomplished a transition from correspondence courses to online learning and enhanced the quality and accessibility of the school's offerings. Through his efforts the school has attracted and served students at all the IU campuses and in a number of other regions throughout the state.
