Rahul Shrivastav delivered the State of the Campus speech during the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting on April 8.
(Devan Ridgway, WTIU)
Indiana University Provost Rahul Shrivastav highlighted growing campus progress amid uncertainty in higher education during his State of the Campus address Tuesday.
Shrivastav said the core of Bloomington’s future is the “relentless pursuit of academic excellence,” and IU will keep the strengths of current programs while evolving them to meet the demands of a changing world.
The speech comes as IU and other universities deal with political pressure, significant threats to research funding and federal investigations.
“I truly believe IU Bloomington is on track for a tomorrow that few other universities in the country can match through change and uncertainty,” Shrivastav said. “If there's something we've always excelled at, it's discovery. It’s carved in limestone right outside: question critically, think logically and act creatively.”
The state of IU Bloomington, according to Shrivastav
He said IU’s curriculum focuses on real-world experiences, including field work, internships, study abroad and research.
IU introduced three new undergraduate degrees and eight graduate degrees in 2024. Shrivastav highlighted new programs, such as new Kelley School of Business courses on artificial intelligence and integrated realities.
“We are also piloting a new early start program this summer for incoming freshmen and transfer students with improvements in student success,” Shrivastav said.
The university announced a $75 million investment in engineering programs and faculty for the Bloomington campus.
“This is a crucial step in the future of technology and innovation at IU, ushering in the future of human-centered engineering as only IU can,” Shrivastav said.
New research proposals and expenditures increased. Shrivastav said IU’s research is crucial for the state and world futures, and research remains core to IU’s mission.
“As challenging as it may seem, this is not the time for us to slow down on research,” Shrivastav said. “We are actively engaging with federal and state stakeholders to advocate for research and the necessary resources to sustain our work. At the same time, we must actively pursue new funding sources and creative ways of ensuring we can continue to pursue discovery and innovation.”
The university is redesigning its budget, using a prototype model this summer, he said. The prototype will run alongside the current budget during the next academic year, and it will launch fall 2026.
The university is on-pace to surpass fundraising goals, he said.
Rates for dropping, failing and withdrawing from classes decreased to about 3 percent in targeted courses, the lowest in about a decade, Shrivastav said. The university invested $3 million in new academic advisors and student support.
”We have also focused on affordability,” Shrivastav said. “I'm proud of our efforts to ease the financial burden on students through open education initiatives, which have saved IU students over $1.3 million in textbook costs, as well as over $600,000 in e-books in the past two years alone.”
IU received about 73,000 applications, an all-time record and an increase of 36 percent in two years, he said. IU will hire about 60 new faculty members by the end of the semester.
“Our overall retention rates continue to rise as well, reaching over 91 percent fall-to-fall, a near high over the last decade,” he said, “despite the fact that we have many more students in our classrooms and campus than we've ever had before.”
IU raised minimum stipends for graduate student workers starting this summer. Student academic appointees, or SAAs, will earn a minimum of $24,000 a year. It’s lower than what the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, a union representing SAAs, has sought.
IU also added an ombudspersonfor graduate students for conflict resolution.
Shrivastav thanked the IU community for sharing their talents “in the most special of places.” He acknowledged upfront it’s an unprecedented time in higher education. There’s uncertainty, he said, and many on campus feel under attack.
“How we move forward may need to be very different in some ways, from how we have done in the past,” Shrivastav said. “I know also that we've had challenges and differences here over the last three years, which have also not been easy. But as Hoosiers, we have proven our resilience, and we will again.”
Aubrey is our higher education reporter and a Report For America corps member. Contact her at aubmwrig@iu.edu or follow her on X @aubreymwright.
