The Indiana University Council for Regional Engagement and Economic Development, or CREED, hosted its third quarterly meeting of 2018 on Oct. 3 on the IUPUI campus.
Bill Stephan, vice president for engagement and CREED chair, shared new developments at the university: President McRobbie has announced naming the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; the Board of Trustees will meet at IUPUI; President McRobbie will make his State of the University address Oct. 16; and a November groundbreaking will be held at the 16Tech Technology District in Indianapolis for its first new facility to be constructed on the site, of which the IU School of Medicine will lease one floor.
Mike Beam, director of pre-college programs, spoke about the Advance College Project’s Dual-Credit Pipeline Project. It was founded in 1982 to increase the overlap of high school degrees and dual-credit opportunities. More than 23,000 students and 800 instructors are involved with the project this year. Most course offerings take place near IU campuses; 38 percent of the students attend IU, 40 percent attend another Indiana college and the rest are out of state.
Kirsten Adams, executive assistant to the vice president at Innovate Indiana, provided an overview of the Sustaining Talent – Engaging Partners, or STEP, Grants. She summarized projects at IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Northwest, IU South Bend and IU Southeast.
“It has been wonderful to see the creative solutions in the various campus proposals for connecting educators and employers,” Adams said. “Amazingly, each project has an alternate focus for serving students and a different avenue for sustaining talent and engaging partners that is suited specifically for the regional community. As we share best practices and positive outcomes, we are hoping to see how replicable each idea is for integration at other campuses.”
Megan Barr and Ashleigh Newbold of the Indiana Sports Corp. summarized how IU campuses can engage with their organization through the numerous student volunteer opportunities it offers. The Indiana Sports Corp. was formed in 1979 as the first civic organization of its kind to focus specifically on sports as an economic development strategy. Over nearly 40 years, the Indiana Sports Corp. has hosted more than 450 national and international sporting events, generating over $4 billion in economic impact in the state through direct spending.
Sean Ryan provided a regional campus spotlight on IU Fort Wayne and the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership.
“The partnership is an 11-county regional economic development organization whose mission is to build, market and sell the Northeast Indiana region to increase business investment. The expected goals are to build a globally competitive region, receive international recognition and establish an international network of business prospects,” Ryan said. “The 2030 goal is to increase per capita personal income annually against the national average, increase the population of Northeast Indiana to 1 million residents, and increase postsecondary attainment from just over 53 percent to more than 60 percent.”
CREED members approved two $2,500 Regional Economic Development, or RED, grants. One grant was awarded to IUPUC, which is creating community forums called “Columbus Conversations” with its partners. Speakers will share their areas of expertise that are of interest to the community. Goals of the forums are providing a community forum to explore stimulating issues, offering lifelong learning for adults, providing co-curricular learning experiences for students, and sharing IUPUC faculty and staff expertise.
The second grant was awarded to IU Southeast, which has launched the “Together We’ll Grow” project to prepare high school students for college and a future career in education. Goals of the project are developing and honing skills that will lead to college success for high school students, developing strategies to engage high school students around teaching as a career, and enhancing connections between school districts and IU Southeast to encourage students to enroll in college.
David Gard, assistant vice president for economic engagement and CREED vice chair, reported that with the approval of these two new awards, the RED Fund has now achieved new record levels in 2018 for both number grants awarded (8) and funds provided ($16,500) in a calendar year. With another quarter left in 2018, ample opportunity exists to push these new standards even higher.
Subir Bandyopadhyay of IU Northwest shared that a previously awarded RED grant has been used to successfully create the Business Confidence Index, a tool that measures the degree of confidence of Northwest Indiana business owners and executives on their companies’ prospects.
The next CREED meeting will be held Nov. 28.
Leave a Reply