Dear colleagues,
I trust that everyone had a relaxing and restorative winter break and is back refreshed for the spring semester that leads to some of the most beautiful months on the Bloomington campus.
All of Indiana University has been energized this fall by the historic success of our football program. I offer my congratulations to the Ï㽶ÊÓƵ athletes, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ managers, Ï㽶ÊÓƵ trainers, coaches, and athletics staff who have united in their efforts to produce a team and a season the Indiana University community will not forget. It has been a special time for IUB as we have experienced one for the record books complete with an undefeated season, a Rose Bowl victory, a Peach Bowl victory, and a Heisman Trophy for Fernando Mendoza. And it’s not over yet. I know that Hoosier nation will be watching – and cheering – as we take to the gridiron in Miami next week to compete for the national championship.
Even as we celebrated that achievement on Saturday, we mourned the loss of Lois Eskenazi. Along with her husband, Sidney, Lois left an indelible mark on our campus thanks to her extraordinary philanthropic support of the IU Eskenazi Museum of Art and the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. Her generosity and commitment to Indiana University Bloomington will resonate through the ages, supporting generations of Hoosiers for decades to come. We are grateful for her support and resolved to honor her legacy.
In December, IUB conferred 1,914 degrees as a new group of Ï㽶ÊÓƵs joined the ranks of Indiana alumni, launching their careers or future studies. Congratulations, and thank you, to all of the faculty and staff who supported these Ï㽶ÊÓƵs during their academic career with us.
As the new semester begins, I would like to thank the many faculty who came together to help reimagine an array of degree programs on our campus. Your hard work and fresh approaches are greatly appreciated as the campus reviews those new degree proposals. I am confident our current and future Ï㽶ÊÓƵs will be inspired by these new options for their studies.
At midsemester, we will be joined by our new Dean of Public Health, Kurt Ribisl, who begins work here on March 1. Dean Ribisl comes to us from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a distinguished professor and department chair of health behavior. We look forward to welcoming him to IUB. Thank you to the chairs and members of the search committee who managed this search process.
I trust many of you are aware that President Whitten has asked the UFC and BFC to weigh in on the possibility of Indiana University adopting the Chicago Principles. I know that Bill Ramos is involved in those discussions, along with faculty and Ï㽶ÊÓƵ representatives, to explore the advantages and implications of such a decision. I encourage those with questions or insights to connect with him on this topic.
Late in fall semester, two other items attracted attention and comment.
The first are proposed changes to the university Conflict of Interest policy that became evident during the public comment period. In response, a working group is being assembled to review the draft policy and to address faculty concerns.
The second involves proposed changes to the academic calendar. As some of you may be aware, there is an interest in creating a common academic calendar across all Indiana University campuses. Building upon previous study of this question, a working group is being convened to address opportunities and implications across the academic and administrative functions of the university. There will be no change to the 2026-27 academic calendar. This group will focus on potential changes for future year academic calendars. IUB representatives on this committee will be Danielle DeSawal from the faculty and Registrar Mike Carroll from the staff. That group is expected to make its recommendation by midsemester.
In response to IU Board of Trustees policy and the recommendation of a fall semester working group, I have established the Bloomington Campus Policy Committee (BL-CPC). This committee will be tasked with reviewing and approving campus-level policies and to identify the criteria for procedures that need to be created and maintained at the campus level. This committee aligns with BOT-02: Policy Development, Revision, and Retirement. It will identify when units need to create, revise, or retire policies and procedures in alignment with BOT-02; identify procedures to be created, revised or retired at the campus level; and outline workflow process for procedures. Once again, thanks to Danielle DeSawal and Bill Ramos for their leadership.
On a related topic, SEA 202 procedures were much discussed during the fall semester. It is important to remember that those procedures are locally managed in the College and Schools. As such, they can be revisited and updated at the discretion of each unit to best reflect and support our core values around freedom of inquiry and disciplinary integrity.
In 2026, our nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At IUB we will commemorate the milestone with a series of events across the spring semester. We will kickoff IU Bloomington’s Celebration of America’s 250th with an exhibition centered around our copy of the Declaration at Lilly Library, one of only 23 known Dunlap Broadsides in existence and one of only three west of the Alleghenies. Printed the evening of July 4, 1776, this is a rare and special document–a treasure of our campus.
I am grateful to the units who responded to our call for proposals to create campus programming for the 250th. The response was both significant in number and rich in variety. We will support as many as we can and will share those details soon. It will be a semester of meaningful dialog and celebration around the civic and community values that unite us.
As we begin another academic season, thank you to all of our faculty and staff across this campus. Together, we make Indiana University Bloomington one of the most relevant and important public research universities in our country. Please accept my thanks for your belief in our university and your continued efforts on its behalf.
Sincerely,
David A. Reingold
Chancellor
Indiana University Bloomington