President's Report, 2022: Shaping Tomorrow

Shaping Tomorrow

It’s about our future.

Presidential reports, traditionally, are filled with statistics and charts to show progress from one year to the next. You’ll find some of that inside, but the best way to talk about 2022 is to talk about the horizon ahead of us.

Everything we did in 2022 was to ensure that our future is a place where IUP thrives. It starts with our students, and always will, but it also extends to our expert faculty members, our skilled staff members, our proud alumni, our active community, and anyone who has set foot in the Oak Grove and thought, This is the place.

While nostalgia is a great tool for promoting the past, we want to use the traditions and history we have accumulated for almost 150 years as fuel that will confidently launch us into our future. IUP has always been a great place that offers an affordable and quality education, but we are working to make what’s great at IUP even better.

IUP, like most universities across the country, is facing some difficult challenges right now. But we know that we are on the right path, one that will take us to a future we all can take pride in.

In 2022, we celebrated a lot of successes, as we do every year. But the biggest success of all was how we worked together, eyes on the horizon, and looked ahead to a prosperous future for the university and the IUP family.

In this report, you’ll see what IUP is about. It’s about discovery, equality, flexibility, and success. Simply put, it’s about our future.

They say you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been. In this report, you’ll see some of both. At IUP, we are proud of what we have accomplished and excited for what’s yet to come.

While we face challenges every day, we do not let them deter us from reaching higher, achieving more, and building toward the future. Look inside to see what the excitement is all about.

Launching to the Future

When construction is finished and everything is in place, Kopchick Hall will stand as more than the newest building at IUP. It will be a launching pad. Not just for discovery and knowledge, but for the future of IUP.

We spend a lot of time talking, planning, and building for our future. Why? Because although we have a proud tradition as a truly great university, we know we are so much more than what we have been. Our potential is limitless, and we are excited about the horizon we’re headed for. Kopchick Hall represents that future.

It will be a place where students and faculty members work side by side every day, sharing and creating knowledge and expertise. It will be where members of the regional science community come to join in the work and share their results. Some amazing things will happen there, and they’ll happen for all IUP students. All of our students are required to take at least one science class, so they will inevitably come to Kopchick Hall and have their eyes opened to amazing worlds in chemistry, biology, physics, geoscience, engineering, and many other disciplines. But it goes beyond science. The IUP of the future is a student-centered university in which no one feels left behind or lost.

KOPCHICK HALL: Where Discoveries Happen

Thanks to the largest gift in the history of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, from alumni John and Char Kopchick, in 2024 we will be opening Kopchick Hall, a 142,000-square-foot launching pad for discovery. Outfitted with a planetarium, labs, a greenhouse, tutoring rooms, and many other places for exploration, Kopchick Hall will be the home of the Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the hub of IUP’s STEM work for generations to come. It replaces Weyandt Hall, which opened in the 1960s and grew obsolete over time as technology rapidly changed.

SHARING AND CREATING KNOWLEDGE: The Center of Experiential Learning

A well-rounded education happens in many places, not just in a classroom. From internships to studying abroad, job shadowing to research projects, IUP students gain valuable skills from experiential learning, in which they learn by doing. That’s a tradition at IUP that will only grow, reaching every part of our university––and beyond. We’re forming partnerships that will increase these opportunities while also making a difference in our communities. It’s the “doing” on top of the “knowing” that leads to expertise, and that’s what will continue to happen daily in the IUP of the future.

Making a Bold

In 2025, IUP will celebrate its 150th anniversary, allowing us to look back at our legacy as a destination for students who seek a life-changing educational journey. The sesquicentennial will also allow us to look ahead at the IUP of the future.

Planning and looking ahead have given us the foresight to focus on three key areas in the coming years: strengthening IUP excellence, student success, and rural health. In simple terms, we’re going to focus on the impacts we make on our students, and the impact we can make on the communities around us.

IUP serves more than its students. We know we are a valuable part of our county and state communities, and the people who surround and support us also rely on us. In Pennsylvania, particularly in Indiana County, health in our rural areas is a growing challenge that we can help address.

With more than 30 percent of our undergraduate students majoring in STEM or health fields, we are well-positioned to take a bold step in the next few years as we explore the possible creation of a school of osteopathic medicine, which would be the first of its kind at a public university in Pennsylvania.

Inflation was in the headlines throughout 2022, and at IUP we are proud that we have continued to offer affordable excellence by reducing undergraduate tuition by nearly 20 percent. We also kept the cost of on-campus housing the same for the sixth year in a row, and our basic fees and meal costs have stayed the same since 2018. This shows how IUP is committed to students everywhere who seek an education that will set them up for a rewarding future.

AFFORDABLE EXCELLENCE: Reducing Tuition for All Undergraduate Students

20%

We know that the cost of attendance is the top reason students give for not pursuing a college education, so we continue to address this issue. In March 2022, we lowered tuition by nearly 20 percent for in-state, undergraduate students taking at least 15 credits per semester. Later in the year, we made a commitment to full-time, domestic, out-of-state undergraduates as well by reducing their tuition by nearly 20 percent.

Promise

A BOLD STEP: Exploring the Creation of a Medical School

At the December 8, 2022, IUP Council of Trustees meeting, a resolution was endorsed for the university “to explore the possible creation of a school of osteopathic medicine.” This is a huge undertaking, but one we are confident we are equipped to handle. At a time when rural healthcare is a concern in Pennsylvania, more than 30 percent of our students are enrolled in STEM or healthcare programs, giving us a solid foundation to help the communities around us as well as to infuse the healthcare job market with trained and skilled nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers.

RAINBOW SIDEWALK: A Journey of Inclusion

Completed in the summer of 2022, IUP’s rainbow sidewalk is a visible symbol of our commitment to making everyone feel welcome on campus. It was suggested by students from the LGBTQIA+ community who said the campus needed more artwork to represent all genders and identities and to provide a sense of belonging and home. It’s the design of Tedd Cogar, senior assessment coordinator and LGBTQIA Support, based on the Philadelphia Pride flag and the Progressive Pride flag, along with components of others. He said the colors “represent the diversity of our IUP family, where everyone has a place.”

Meeting the Needs of Our Students

Students are our lifeblood. They come to us from all over the state, country, and world, and they need support in different ways, whether it be in the classroom or in their daily lives. That’s why at IUP, we use student centeredness as our North Star: it guides us in everything we do, because their success is our success.

But we aren’t student centered if we don’t create an environment in which everyone feels welcomed, safe, and cared for. When we look at our future, we see a place where all potential students––regardless of sex, race, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, pronoun choice, military status, or any other identifying trait––know their needs will be met and they will be supported throughout their academic journey.

We’ve been working on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives for a while now, and we will continue to do so in the future. This is a journey toward equality, not a destination at which we will arrive. Through programming and support services, as well as inclusive initiatives such as the rainbow sidewalk, we will continue to make IUP a place where our differences are not what separate us, but instead what bring us together.

In the IUP of the future, our students will know that in some areas, help will find them before they seek it. To be truly student centered, we must find ways to be proactive so our students can succeed without falling behind. While most universities have some form of student help office, we’re working to redesign our infrastructure to support student success as a unique part of the IUP experience that every student has access to. It’s another way in which IUP puts its students and their needs center stage.

INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT STUDENT SUCCESS: A Proactive Approach

Rather than wait until a student asks for help to flourish, we envision a student success infrastructure that will proactively support every student. We picture a system in which faculty members, who know the students best, can connect them with helpful resources at the first sign of struggles, whether it be in the classroom or with any stressors they may have during their IUP journey. Trained and qualified staff members will help the students at the first cause for concern so they don’t fall behind and risk losing progress toward graduation.

A Year of Achievements

We had many successes recently that will show us the way as we work toward the future. Our reputation for research––emphasized by our designation as a High Research Activity (R2) institution by the Center for Postsecondary Research––helped us be awarded the largest single grant for research in IUP history, a $4.98 million grant from the Department of Defense for the first three years of a project to enhance cybersecurity and STEM education in Pennsylvania.

In 2022, our student-athletes continued to shine in the classroom, on the playing fields and courts, and in our communities by winning numerous team and individual championships and by growing through academic progress and acts of service.

The IUP Alumni Association gained 2,658 new members, many of whom entered the workforce in Pennsylvania, infusing our communities with talented and skilled citizens who are going confidently in the direction of their dreams and making positive impacts while doing so.

Looking ahead, the fall 2022 class of first-year students was 4.1 percent larger than 2021’s, and applications for fall 2023 have steadily stayed ahead of the fall 2022 pace. In fact, applications are ahead of pace for each of the past five years, showing that the work we are doing points to a brighter future.

STUDENT-ATHLETES CONTINUE TO SHINE: A Year of Champions

During 2022, our women’s tennis, men’s basketball, men’s golf, and football teams won Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships, and several individuals also claimed titles. Many of our coaches won honors from their peers, in the classroom we had a school-record 274 student-athletes earn PSAC scholar-athlete awards, and our Athletics alumni continued to show their support by staying involved with the Crimson Hawks. All in all, our student-athletes are part of a winning family that supports every member in many ways, and their victories are celebrated.

THE LARGEST SINGLE GRANT: Millions for Cybersecurity

IUP received $4.98 million from the Department of Defense for a project to enhance cybersecurity and STEM education in Pennsylvania. Part of a larger $11 million grant, it is the largest single grant that has ever been awarded to IUP. Waleed Farag, a professor of computer science and director of IUP’s Institute for Cyber Security, authored the grant application and will lead the team working on the project, which will establish a dynamic, collaborative consortium of community colleges, with IUP as the lead organization.

Investing in the Next Generation

Student centeredness is not a finish line we will cross. It’s a road we are traveling.

While working toward our future, in 2022 we accomplished a lot of things that show how putting students first is––and always will be––a priority at IUP. From things like establishing the Learning Commons inside the library to offering the Crimson Scholars Circle to help students with educational barriers get prepared for college to awarding more than $15 million in scholarships and financial aid and reducing undergraduate tuition, we put students first. We approached all of our work by asking one question: Will this benefit students? If the answer was yes, we tried to do it. If the answer was no, we looked for another solution.

Our alumni and friends showed their support of what we’re doing by continuing to donate their time and resources to help the next generations of students have opportunities for the same life-changing experience they had.

There’s no doubt the work we are doing today for our students will benefit generations of students to come, and they are the ones who will go on to impact the world in some truly amazing ways.

LEARNING COMMONS: The Hub of Student Centeredness

In September, the IUP Libraries unveiled the redesigned Learning Commons, which is a one-stop location for students to find many resources, including the Career and Professional Development Center, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Kathleen Jones White Writing Center, and the University College.

At IUP, our future is in our hands, and we are excited about what we are shaping.

IUP by the Numbers

7,870

6,732

559 students from 47 states

403 students from 64 countries

30% of IUP students are enrolled in STEM-H programs as of fall 2022.

Financial Support

$15M+ in scholarships awarded to IUP students in 2021-22

$15,800+ average student aid award, including scholarships, grants, and loans, in 2021-22

$5M+ awarded in graduate assistantships in 2021-22

Academic Experiences

2,600+ out-of-classroom learning experiences completed in 2021-22

$16M+ expended in research and innovation in 2021-22

1 of 93 public universities in the US with a High Research Activity (R2) designation from the Center for Postsecondary Research’s Carnegie Classification

IUP Alumni and Friends Giving Back to Make an Impact

150,000 alumni in 76 countries

87,173 alumni in Pennsylvania

4,548 total donors in 2021-22

$6,622,375 in total gifts in 2021-22

2,302 scholarships given from alumni donations in 2021-22

4,119 alumni volunteers, from networking to admissions event hosts

Council of Trustees

Samuel Smith, chair

Mark Holman ’79, vice chair

Laurie Kuzneski ’93, treasurer

Joyce Fairman ’76, M’84, secretary

Jennifer Baker ’05

Timothy Cejka ’73

Susan Delaney ’64

Maura King, student trustee

David Osikowicz

Nathan Spade ’01

Anne White

President’s Cabinet

Lara Luetkehans, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs

Debra Fitzsimons, vice president for Administration and Finance

Thomas Segar, vice president for Student Affairs

Patricia McCarthy ’89, D’15, vice president for Enrollment Management

Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna, vice president for University Advancement

Chris Noah, chief marketing officer

Hilliary Creely, dean, School of Graduate Studies and Research

Elise Glenn, chief diversity and inclusion officer and Title IX coordinator

Chris Kitas, executive director, Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment

Ruffina Winters, executive assistant to the president

Academic Deans

Curtis Scheib ’77, M’78, Arts and Humanities

Prashanth Bharadwaj, Eberly College of Business (interim)

Sue Rieg ’81, M’82, Education and Communications (interim)

Sylvia Gaiko, Health and Human Services

Steve Hovan, Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Hilliary Creely, Graduate Studies and Research

Amber Racchini M’03, D’10, acting assistant vice provost, University College

Kelly Heider D’06, acting assistant vice provost, University Libraries

Richard Muth M’96, director, Regional Campuses