HLC Self-Study - Indiana University South Bend

INTRODUCTION
the liberal arts and sciences and complemented by professional schools including business,
education, health care and the arts, they were designed to engage the minds and serve the
economic and cultural needs of the community and region. The campus awarded its first
baccalaureate degrees in 1967 (an event celebrated in 2007 by representatives from the first
thirty business and education alumni who stood on the pedestrian bridge.) New professors
of science, social science, and humanities joined colleagues in economics, business, education,
theater, and music. By 1969, the music faculty included its first pianist in residence
(forerunner of the internationally renowned Toradze Piano Studio, in campus residence
since 1992). Five years later, the campus engaged the first of the resident string quartets
that have also enlivened IU South Bend’s public concert programs. After serving as its
second Director through this period of transition from extension to comprehensive regional
university, Lester M. Wolfson was named the first IU South Bend Chancellor in 1969.
That same year, IU South Bend received its first independent accreditation by the North
Central Association. In 1974, the Board of Trustees abolished IU’s Regional Campus Administration,
thus providing the six regional IU campuses new opportunities to set their
own directions, responsive to regional needs while retaining multi-campus connections
(including curricular, library, budgetary, purchasing, and eventually computer, telephone,
and interactive video linkages). By the end of the seventies, more than 5,000 students
had received college degrees from IU South Bend. In the next decades, program offerings
expanded, and enrollments stabilized and began a steady rise after a slight decrease in the
early eighties.
When Chancellor, Lester M. Wolfson retired in 1987, the community and university guests
at his recognition dinner characterized his tenure as a time when the campus had come into
its own. If IU South Bend’s expansion during his decades of leadership had far outstripped
its facilities, its faculty, staff, and programs were recognized for their excellence by residents
who attended campus lectures and arts programs and sent their college-age children to its
classrooms. Indeed, many adults in that audience were or had been IU South Bend students
themselves, seeking degree completion, career advancement, or life-long learning. From
the vantage point of future students and faculty scholars, they welcomed the prospect of
a free-standing library, already on the list of university priorities for its new fund-raising
“Campaign for Indiana.” (There had even been a symbolic onstage ground-breaking by IU
President John Ryan during an IU South Bend Academic Senate meeting.)
In many ways, by 1987 IU South Bend had bridged the collegiate gap between a university
satellite and comprehensive regional campus. Responsive to a diverse mix of students who
were homebound because of family and work responsibilities, it offered affordable tuition,
and a schedule that included both daytime and evening courses, and, beginning in 1977,
classes in Elkhart. Unlike a large research university, IU South Bend offered small classes
and the attention of full-time faculty distinguished for both their teaching and scholarship.
Clearly, as the Wolfson era came to an end, IU South Bend was ready to assume its role as a
public regional comprehensive university, assuming a larger community role and confronting
and plan, its long-range future.
Indiana University South Bend Self-Study Report 2007 1:5