June 1999

Each year, in our ongoing strategic planning, through procedures managed by Vice Chancellor Trudy W. Banta and our Office of Planning and Institutional Improvement, we generate information about areas we have identified as key indicators of performance. This information-rich environment has helped us to stay focused and use resources wisely and with maximum effectiveness. We have enclosed the IUPUI Performance Report for calendar year 1998 for your information and hope you will give us the benefit of your comments on it.

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Commencement ceremonies occurred across Indiana last month. Among more than 4,000 IU and Purdue degree recipients at IUPUI were 259 physicians, 174 nurses and 129 teachers. About 360 students earned undergraduate and advanced degrees in engineering, technology and science, and 272 received professional degrees in dentistry and law.

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Beverly L. Malone, president of the American Nurses Association, and Sam Jones, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Urban League, were awarded honorary doctorates during IUPUI’s commencement ceremony. Malone, a member of the IU School of Nursing’s Board of Advisors, was cited as a “leader in the quest for top quality health care in the United States.” Jones, a member of the IUPUI Board of Advisors, was recognized for his “ability to bring diverse elements of the community together to work for constructive change.

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Richard T. Gaston and Cory R. Elson, Indiana State Police troopers killed in the line of duty last spring, were also honored in May by the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Gaston posthumously received his Bachelor of Science degree, which he was 6 credit hours from completing when he was struck by a semitrailer in March. Elson, who in 1997 received his bachelor’s degree in criminal science from SPEA, was on patrol in Adams County April 3 when he was shot after pulling over a pickup truck. He was named the school’s Alumnus of the Year.

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The annual report of the Xerox Corporation cited IUPUI’s University Library for innovative use of the company’s digital documenting software, which helps students access and submit course work using the Internet. The report highlighted that IUPUI students convert more than 15,000 pages of text and other material into digital files each semester.

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The National Cancer Institute has named Rivienne Sheed-Steele as Indiana community outreach coordinator for its Cancer Information Service, which for 20 years has linked patients, families, health organizations and the public to current cancer education and treatment programs.

Ms. Sheed-Steele is based at the Indiana Cancer Pavilion on the IUPUI campus and works with officials from the IU Medical School and the IU Cancer Center to provide cancer treatment and prevention information to medically underserved areas. She was previously director of the Little Red Door Cancer Agency’s Minority Cancer Awareness Coalition.

To find out more about the Indiana’s Cancer Information Service, call (317) 278-0073. For information about the National Cancer Institute’s public and patient information programs, go to http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/occdocs/cis/cisoutre.html.

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Stephanie Bao, a 16-year-old freshman at Carmel High School, won the $500 first place prize in the IUPUI/Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Indiana 1999 High School Mathematics Contest. Faculty within IUPUI’s Department of Mathematical Sciences designed the contest to reward creative thinking and persistence rather than rote memorization and rapid problem solving. Students were given up to six weeks to solve four problems and write an essay on the relationship between mathematics and the arts.

Student teams from Zionsville High School and Tri-West Hendricks High School won the first Indiana Econ Challenge. The contest, which tests student knowledge of basic economic principles and their relevance to current events, was cosponsored by the Center for Economic Education at IUPUI’s School of Liberal Arts. Other sponsors were the Indiana Council for Economic Education and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

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Add “inventor” to Evansville dentist Steve Ballard’s resume. The 1984 graduate of the IU School of Dentistry has received a patent for a dental mirror that can be worn on the thumb or index finger. Besides providing a better look inside the mouth, Ballard says the dental ring mirror means the fingers your dentist uses to hold the current, probe-like mirror can now be put to better use, resulting in quicker and more effective dental procedures.

Dental school faculty Steve Dixon, George Stookey and George Willis worked with Ballard to develop the ring mirror. Jude Wilkinson, the school’s technology transfer specialist, matched him with an Indiana manufacturer, Midwest Orthodontic of Columbus, to mass produce the ring. The dental school’s reward for aiding Ballard will be a portion of the licensing fees.

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Notre Dame President Rev. Edward A. Malloy, Robert Bringle, director of IUPUI’s Center for Public Service and Leadership and Richard Games, director of the Indiana Campus Compact, are co-editors of a new book called Colleges and Universities as Citizens.

The book offers 10 articles on how institutions of higher education can, through curricula, students, faculty and administrators, change or improve their structure, mission and culture to better engage and serve their communities. Malloy, Bringle and Games provide historical context, case studies and conceptual frameworks through which such planning and work can be shaped and evaluated. Among other IUPUI contributors are Executive Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Faculties William M. Plater and Professor of English Barbara L. Cambridge.

The book is published by Allyn and Bacon, (800) 278-3525.

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The recent White House Conference on Mental Health directed national attention to the fact that 85 percent of the 3 million Americans with serious mental disabilities are unemployed.

Gary Bond, a professor of psychology in IUPUI’s Purdue School of Science, may have an answer. He will use a $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study new ways of helping people with severe mental illness get and keep jobs in the mainstream workforce.

Traditional interventions emphasize a gradual approach to meaningful employment that includes work in agency-run businesses or sub-minimum-wage jobs. Bond will compare those with a newer model that stresses client work preferences, rapid job search, and long-term support.

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This month, the IU School of Nursing at IUPUI hosted the 10^th International Congress on Women’s Health Issues, the first held in the United States since 1988. It brought to campus more than 100 delegates from Africa, Egypt, Europe, Canada, Southeast Asia and the United States to set an international agenda for women’s health through research, advocacy and education.

Indiana First Lady Judy O’Bannon addressed the congress on the health needs of Hoosier women. Ann DeLaney, director of the Julian Center in Indianapolis, discussed the continuing need to protect women in violent situations. Other presentations included new ways to test for breast cancer and identify victims of abuse. Phyllis N. Stern, IU professor of nursing, helped found the International Congress on Women’s Health Issues and now serves as its counsel general.

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The IU School of Medicine has earned the Bronze Achievement Award from the American Academy of Family Physicians for the high number of its graduates who enter family practice. From 1995 to 1998, an average of 22.2 percent of the medical school’s graduates chose to enter a family practice residency. According to the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians, to which about 85 percent of Indiana’s family doctors belong, 801 of its 1407 active members are graduates of the IU School of Medicine.

Of special importance has been the Indiana Primary Care Scholarship Program initiated by the Indiana General Assembly in 1993. Currently, 49 medical students have received the scholarship in exchange for a commitment to practice primary care in a medically underserved area of the state, and 47 School of Medicine graduates are in primary care residencies.

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My thanks to Jerry Semler, CEO of American United Life, for serving as this year’s honorary chair of the IUPUI Chancellor’s Circle. Gifts to the Chancellor’s Circle allow us to fund special initiatives as opportunities arise. Membership in the Chancellor’s Circle is an important expression of community confidence in IUPUI, and I am grateful to all those who have directed their gifts to this special fund through the years.

Gerald L. Bepko

Chancellor