Being a valued regional partner by enhancing relationships with community members and alumni
Action Items:
1. IU Kokomo will provide support for economic development strategies throughout the region and community service
Priority 4
Advisory Boards in key counties: We have established advisory boards in nine key counties in our service area. They are Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fulton, Grant, Hamilton, Miami, Tipton and Wabash. Each board is comprised of community leaders such as mayors, school superintendents, Chamber directors, hospital CEOs, key business leaders, and IU Kokomo alumni. Each advisory board meets twice a year (once a semester) to get updated on what is happening at IU Kokomo and to discuss how the campus can be of assistance and be a good partner with the communities in our service area.
Facilitated creation of NCIRPC: IU Kokomo was instrumental in the creation of the North Central Indiana Regional Planning Council (NCIRPC). As an impartial third party, the campus was able to bring together community leaders, mayors, and city and county council members, as well as LEDOs, and facilitated frank and open discussions about coming together as a six-county region. In total, IU Kokomo’s Chancellor and staff facilitated 16 meetings to bring participants together around creating a regional mindset and forming a regional organization tasked with securing grant funds for regional and economic development projects. Additionally, we assisted with the formation of the NCIRPC’s governing documents, board structure, and selection of an Executive Director.
IU Kokomo continues to support the NCIRPC by providing meeting space for Board meetings, and the Chancellor serves on the Board of Directors. According to the NCIRPC 2016 Annual Report, the organization has brought $1,021,248 in direct impact across the six-county region and $1,999,099 in direct and indirect impact.
Center for Community Engagement: To support community engagement efforts on the IU Kokomo campus the Chancellor and Cabinet approved the creation of the Center for Community Engagement to serve as the “front door” to the campus for community members wanting to partner with IU Kokomo. The Center is housed within the Office for External Relations and Public Affairs and is staffed by the Director of External Affairs and Public Relations. The Center has an advisory council comprising individuals both internal and external to the university. The advisory council is co-chaired by the Director as well as a faculty member who is active in community engagement research. The council meets at a minimum of once a semester to report on current community engagement activities and discuss assessment tools and feedback. Additionally the campus has begun to use the Collaboratory software program to track community engagement efforts and partnerships across campus. We are in the process of training both academic units and co-curricular departments on entering data into the Collaboratory so that we can begin to run reports at the close of each semester to assist with assessment of our engagement and service learning efforts. The Collaboratory is administrated by the Center’s Director as well as a senior faculty member as part of the Center’s coordination of community engagement efforts.
Business consulting projects in the region: Through the MBA Capstone Course (C599) and the undergraduate capstone course (J401), we expand the campus’s reach into the business community by assisting companies through offering free consulting services that may involve the development of marketing plans, strategic planning, economic impact studies, etc.
Design Center: Students in IU Kokomo's Design Center have successfully partnered with several local non-profit organizations in providing professional print and digital design solutions to meet their challenges. Clients include Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance, Brady's Hope, United Way of Howard County, Kokomo Arts Association, Kokomo Symphony, SHAK Makerspace, Hoosierdance International Film Festival, Tipton Community School Corporation, Family Services Association, Jackson St. Commons, Gamer Giving, Enough is Enough, Hog Runners Charity Riders, Purdue Extension Nutrition Program/CHANGE Group, and Gilead House.
School/program advisory boards – Most programs and schools have created advisory boards to support their mission and seek input from professionals in the region.
Service Projects: Each year the campus sponsors a walk against domestic violence in collaboration with the Family Services Association. Students, faculty and community members partner to bring awareness and funding to such an important issue. IU Kokomo athletic teams and department contribute to a wide range of community service projects and outreach in the community (Habitat, Kokomo Rescue Mission, Bona Vista etc.). Staff have been speakers at a variety of community functions, and the community members attend home athletic competitions.
Action Items:
2. IU Kokomo will establish partnerships to advance P-12 initiatives
Increased outreach to schools: As a result of discussions at county advisory board meetings, the campus has significantly increased our outreach to K-12 schools throughout our service region. We have created new partnerships to increase the number of K-12 students who are introduced to the idea of going to college. Examples include having K-12 students visit campus for a half-day where they tour, experience a hands-on activity facilitated by one of our academic units, and have lunch; we had nearly 7000 K-12 students visit campus during the 2016-2017 academic year. Additionally, Wabash School System now buses seniors to the IU Kokomo campus to take classes for ACP credit. Because of the success of that program our admissions office has expanded this program to include Taylor High School, Western High School and Maconaquah High School. We have reached out to elementary schools and are participating in the No Excuses University program where a classroom adopts us and we provide IU Kokomo “swag” and an opportunity to visit campus. We reached out to Peru Schools and supported a new college-readiness program whereby students who complete the program successfully will receive a $1000 scholarship to IU Kokomo should they choose to matriculate here. During the 2018-19 academic year we recruited 10 additional school to pilot the initiative, re-named Passport to College. IU Kokomo’s Career and Accessibility Center has developed a program called K-12 Career Readiness Program. This initiative included readiness units for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 that target appropriate Indiana School Counseling Competencies and American School Counselor Association national standards. Our School of Science faculty routinely open the IU Kokomo Observatory for K-12 class visits as well as hosting the 2010 Rover League Championships. Finally, we began a new program, “Tomorrow’s Teachers,” where juniors and seniors in high school earn dual-credit education courses as they prepare to become teachers. During the past academic year a total of 24 students participated in the pilot program from four school corporations: Kokomo, Western, Logansport and Caston. The School of Education plans on administrating the program again, with the same districts participating, in the 2019-20 academic year.
Center for Educational Partnership: The Center for Educational Partnership (CEP) is a collaborative project of the School of Education (SOE) and public school districts in the IU Kokomo service region. The CEP has grown to include 37 partner districts representing approximately 162 school buildings. The CEP provides an essential mechanism for district superintendents, principals, and teachers to provide input and feedback to the SOE faculty regarding teacher preparation practices and priorities as well as employment needs. As a result, the SOE programs are designed to meet the needs of the local schools and communities. The CEP districts and schools exclusively provide the educational settings and cooperating P-12 teachers for IUK SOE students’ field-based experiential learning that begins in the first semester of their freshman year and continues to their capstone student-teaching experience.
Programming for students, parents and teachers in the region: Because of the increased outreach to K-12 schools, we have increased programming for students, parents, and teachers in our region. One example is the “Walk Into My Future” event that is a part of the Howard County Promise initiative. The Promise program is geared toward getting kindergarten students enrolled in a 529 College Savings Plan. As a part of the overall program, all kindergarten students in Howard County visit the IU Kokomo campus on one day to experience a college campus. Academic units set up stations with age-appropriate activities in an attempt to introduce the idea of going to college at an early age. We have hosted this event for the past three years, adding Clinton and Carroll counties in 2018. We are on board to host all three counties again in 2019. We also partnered with Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion to co-sponsor “Parent University” in 2016. The program was designed to provide parents with information about how to make sure their middle- and high-school age students are college-ready when they graduate. The campus is also working with the university to address the need to help high school teachers in our service region get properly credentialed to teach ACP courses once the new HLC requirements take effect. Additional examples of programming activities are outlined above (Increased outreach to schools section).
Summer Camps: IU Kokomo has expanded its camp offerings to include a humanities camp, a health camp, and a sustainability camp for students of different ages. The Department of New Media, Art, and Technology has begun offering art activities to regional schoolchildren on Saturdays.
Action Items:
3. IU Kokomo will seek philanthropic support to enhance student scholarship and campus priorities and increase involvement of IU Kokomo alumni
Progress on Bicentennial goal: Indiana University Kokomo has met and exceeded the Bicentennial Campaign goal of $6 million. The goal was raised to $13.7 million, and the campus is closing in on that target. The office for University Advancement’s development officers continue to aggressively raise funds supporting IU Kokomo academic programs, scholarships, international travel, capital expenditures and other campus initiatives.
Creation of Giving Circles: In 2016 the Women of the Well House philanthropic circle was created with 15 women, and in two years has grown to over 38 women. The women make grants to IU Kokomo faculty, staff and students for one year programs or projects, which has created networking opportunities for the members, and strengthened IUK’s relationship with diverse members of the community.
Campus Campaign participation: Since 2014, the Development Office has tracked campus participation (by percentage) of the campus Faculty and Staff Campaign. Since tracking began in 2014 participation has grown 10%, from 59% to 69% in 2016, when the 68% Campus Campaign Goal was met and exceeded. This was accomplished despite generous growth in faculty and staff employment at IU Kokomo. The Development Office has a publicly stated goal of 70% participation moving forward.
Bicentennial Campaign Network Committee: The Development Office has developed strategic relationships among business, political, and social leaders who live and work in the 14-county region IU Kokomo serves. These relationships provide philanthropic support as well as making in-roads with others who might be interested in helping IU Kokomo achieve its mission.
Alumni survey: The IR office worked cross-functionally with the Office of Advancement, Office of Academic Affairs, Career and Accessibility Center, and IU Alumni Association to develop and administer an alumni survey to gather feedback on students’ college experiences, post-graduation outcomes, and perceptions of our institution.
Alumni recognition events: Alumni Relations began recognizing distinctive alumni for their contributions to the industry in which they work. They began with the alumni hall of fame where alumni from across the campus have been recognized for several years. The first school recognition ceremony for IU Kokomo alumni was held March 2017 for the School of Education, which recognized five alumnae. The School of Nursing alumni recognition ceremony took place during its 50th anniversary celebration as a school in March 2018, and the school inducted a new group of alumni into the IU Kokomo Alumni Hall of Fame in June 2018. In 2019, alumni relations staged a School of Business distinguished alumni event, in addition to another for the School of Education. The recognition ceremonies will occur every other year. Alumni relations is focusing on those three schools for the time being, but may include the other schools to recognize their alumni in the future.
Reinstated Alumni magazine: The alumni magazine was reinstated as a multi-page four-color full size magazine during the 2015 academic year. The magazine is done on a bi-annual basis, producing six issues since 2015, and sent to more than 12,500 alumni and friends of the university. Due to the merger of the IU Kokomo Alumni Association and the Howard/Tipton IUAA Chapter in 2017, the number of issues printed increased to 15,000. Some themes that have been featured in the IU Kokomo Alumni magazine have been community of care, 70th anniversary, resilience, autism champions, and international travel.