IU President Pamela Whitten presented the proposal to the Board of Trustees as a way to increase faculty participation in decision making. The chancellor would also oversee the Office of the Provost in Bloomington.
(Ethan Sandweiss / WFIU-WTIU)
The IU Bloomington community was surprised Friday by a Board of Trustees vote to put the campus under the authority of a chancellor.
The chancellor will serve in the President’s Cabinet and oversee the Office of the Provost, the current leader in Bloomington.
Trustees did not announce the proposal, which Whitten presented, before their Friday business session.
A release from the University said the role fits the “combination of challenges facing higher education and the size and complexity of the Bloomington campus.”
Chair of the IU Board of Trustees W. Quinn Buckner said the board has asked Whitten to focus on all of the University statewide. He believes a chancellor would help manage the complexities of the Bloomington campus. (Ethan Sandweiss)
Chair of the Board of Trustees Quinn Buckner said the new role would allow Whitten to take a step back from Bloomington.
“We have asked President to focus on all of Indiana University,” he said. “It's become apparent that the Bloomington campus is so large and complex that a full-time chancellor would be beneficial in partnering with the President to advance the university's needs.”
According to the release, the search for the new role will begin in partnership with the Bloomington Faculty Council. Trustee Vivian Winston, a former lecturer at the Kelley School of Business, said she would vote in favor of the role “only if the person has strong Bloomington ties.” A line emphasizing that was included in the press release.
The release also said the chancellor will increase faculty participation in decisions affecting campus as a whole and challenges facing the College of Arts and Sciences in particular. Faculty in the College have complained that top-down decision making and secrecy surrounding budgets have left them unable to plan or hire effectively.
The position would also oversee community relations and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Whitten suggested that the new proposal was the result of her listening sessions with faculty and their no confidence vote in April.
“We have listened even more intently to faculty in the days that followed, even when their sentiments have been expressed in anger, and we realized that we need to do some things differently,” she said.
She and Buckner both pointed out during the meeting that Bloomington was led by a chancellor until 2007.
“The change entails a return to the traditional structure of having a chancellor Bloomington campus,” Buckner said.
The Board of Trustees eliminated that position in 2006 and replaced it with a provost.
“As the position is currently constituted and defined, we believe it is flawed. It does not have the control or the authority to function as other successful chancellorships do,” they wrote at the time.
“There are questions about who runs the campus, president or chancellor, and to whom campus constituencies should look for leadership. We wonder whether top candidates would aspire to either position until the roles are more clearly defined.”
Provost Rahul Shrivastav is the current head of the Bloomington campus, but his position will now report to the chancellor. Shrivastav is pictured here delivering campus updates on Thursday, but he was not present when the chancellor position was announced on Friday. (Ethan Sandweiss)
How a new Bloomington chancellor might affect the existing role of provost Rahul Shrivastav remains unclear from the release and statements at the meeting. Currently he oversees both academic affairs and day-to-day management of campus.
Since the chancellor will have a position in Whitten’s cabinet and the provost reports to the chancellor, it’s unclear whether the provost will remain in the cabinet as well.
Shrivastav was not present at the June 14 meeting.
The University has not announced the new position’s salary range, but the provost earned $540,750 in the 2024 financial year.
Whitten also said she’ll add a “faculty fellow” to her office to improve relationships with professors statewide.
