Prior to Thursday’s building dedication, Indiana University President Michael McRobbie and IU Kokomo Chancellor Sue Sciame-Giesecke granted a joint interview with the Tribune, discussing IU’s innovative approach to student debt and the school’s record graduation figures.
Seated at the head of a table in IUK’s Kelley Student Center, McRobbie, serving as IU’s president since 2007, discussed at length his approach to such issues, even explaining how those decisions last year influenced the Indiana legislature.
In addition, McRobbie and Sciame-Giesecke, fresh off a meeting the night before with a group representative of IUK’s student body, addressed the role played by IU’s regional campuses.
Each year, six regional campuses enroll about one-third of all IU students, according the school’s website, enabling “non-traditional” students to earn degrees at their own pace.
Therefore, as part of “McRobbie on the Move,” IU’s 18th president and Sciame-Giesecke together described the educational philosophies behind the university’s operations.
Below is the interview with McRobbie and Sciame-Giesecke. Some comments have been edited for length.
Q: “In 2014, 72 percent of 21st Century Scholars didn’t need remediation. At IU Kokomo, 100 percent of students receiving free tuition through the scholarship program were determined to be college ready and required no remediation. But in 2013, 33 percent of Hoosiers that graduated with the college preparatory diploma known as Core 40 had to take at least one remedial class.
“The Commission for Higher Education supports strengthening the Core 40 to 44 required credits, but the State Board of Education last month tabled the recommendation. In your opinion, are graduation standards high enough?”
A: Sciame-Giesecke – “We want all students to be prepared for college, the 21st Century Scholars and all students. Probably what Indiana University Kokomo is doing most about that is, and I’ll leave to the state to determine whether they should move to 40 or 44, what we are really trying to do is make sure we have great relationships with all of the school systems in our particular region, and that we are working with those school systems to try to help them in any way we possibly can so that they know how to prepare their students.
“We did a program at Kokomo High School where we took our placement test and gave it to all of the seniors at Kokomo High School in the fall of their senior year, so that they could see if they’re ready for college math. We then sent a letter to all of their parents saying, ‘You are or you’re not ready. You’ve got your senior year, get to work.’ Then the school provided them with tutors, which we provided the students and they paid them; our senior math students provided tutoring.
“What I can tell you is that Indiana University is working very proactively with the schools to be sure we are doing all we can to help their students be successful.”
McRobbie – “As a general statement, the better prepared students are when they come to college or universities, the better. Obviously, we are in favor of well-prepared students…I’d say most freshmen on our campuses are well-prepared.”
Q: “Last year, IU set a record with more than 20,000 graduates. What IU initiatives do you believe most contributed to that graduation success?”
A: McRobbie – “I think [graduation success] was a natural product in some ways of the increased numbers at IU. If you include dual credit students, we have been steady overall across all campuses, including the students on the Ft. Wayne campus who enrolled for IU degrees.
“We have been steady at between about 110,000 and 115,000 students, and we got up to that point in recent years, so you’re starting to see that … work its way through. So 20,000 was reflecting that.
“As to the question of why our numbers have been so high, 115,000 is a record number for us. It is higher than Ivy Tech and obviously higher than Purdue.
“I think it’s a combination of the perception of the value of an IU degree, maybe more generally the value of a degree, but certainly the value of an IU degree, and the fact that I believe the perception of IU has just been very positive in recent years in terms of all the achievements at the university, the achievements on the campuses. I think the effort that’s being put into recruiting students and educating them as to the importance of a degree.
“The effort that’s been put into improving graduation rates and improving retention between the years, this was one of my early priorities, putting in place a number of different programs to try to improve their graduation rates. They have been improving; they’re still not what I’d like them to be, but improvement is very welcome.”
Sciame-Giesecke – “The president is right on target that we have implemented all kinds of programming on the regional campuses to help students move toward graduation, and one of those is that the state has mandated that every student receive a four-year plan of study. I think on the regional campuses we are pushing that message, that graduating in four years is what our expectation is.
“Now many of our students have complicated lives … and four years is not possible, but we are seeing the four-year graduation rate go up, because we are emphasizing it, and then we are also seeing our six-year graduation rate go up, which is really more what the regional campus student is aiming for when they have that complicated life and they’re working.
“We met some students [Wednesday], the president did, a single mom with two small children. For her to get through in four years is probably challenging. Five or six years is more workable.”
Q: “Why do you think an IU degree right now is perceived to be so valuable?”
A: McRobbie – “We have been working to progressively strengthen the offerings from professional programs, health sciences across the board, business, public affairs and other areas. These areas are where you can get professionally qualified, with professional degrees and so on. [These degrees] will almost inevitably get you a job, so I think that is part of it.
“I think another part of it is that we are endeavoring to mix and match with a lot of degrees, so a student can do a classic liberal arts degree on some of the campuses, but he or she can also do a certificate in business, a certificate in some part of informatics, big data or something like that, so combine a classic liberal arts education that really is the hallmark of the best American universities, with additional qualification that provides a practical skill.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that, in general, employers really value students trained with a liberal arts background. They will endorse the fact that they come out flexible, adaptable, creative, good critical reasoning skills, etc. But increasingly, I think they’re looking for that additional element, and I think we’ve been working to provide that additional element in greater amounts on our various campuses.”
Q: “You recently said the university’s “MoneySmarts” initiative has helped IU students reduce college debt by 16 percent, saving about $82.5 million over three years. Can you explain what’s shared with each student and the initiative’s acceptance by students, office holders and other universities?”
A: McRobbie – “Some of it is actually very simple. One of the key things we did is to actually, and believe it or not this wasn’t done before given the nature of some of these programs, but to systematically and uniformly inform all of our students of how much debt they had and then what their repayment levels would be on certain assumptions, 10 years, 15 years and so on.
“That alone, seeing it in black and white, ‘So this is it, oh my god, I’m going to be paying 600 bucks a month or something like that.’ The effect of that alone, we credit for a significant amount of that reduction in debt. All of a sudden, the cold, hard reality sets in.
“I certainly would never want to be seen in favor of completely eliminating student debt, because I think it sometimes is the key way in which a qualified student without the financial means is able to get an education. At the end of the day, if that means a debt of $20,000 or $30,000, that is the equivalent of what you would borrow to get a reasonable car.
“But at the same time, you want to minimize that as much as you possibly can, and where possible, eliminate it.”
Q: Does [debt knowledge] contribute to more people graduating in four years?
A: McRobbie – “I think [debt knowledge] has been a contributing factor to the graduation rates. I should say by the way that our student loan debt let-up, we were able to show that it had a significant impact, and the state legislature and politicians so liked that and the effect of it ... that they mandated it for all public universities in the state.
“Given how much of the reduction we’ve seen is attributable to the [debt] letter as opposed to other projects - it’s hard to say [the total] but we believe it is a significant amount of it – so imagine that multiplied across the state. In fact, I like to say whenever I speak about this publicly, imagine that multiplied across the nation, if you did something like that in a much more systematic and methodical way.”
Sciame-Giesecke – “Students also take a course prior to coming into the campus; they take an online instructional piece that helps them work through the financial piece of what they’re doing. That is mandatory of all students.”
In 2015, the Indiana General Assembly passed House Bill 1042, which requires colleges and universities “that enroll students who receive state financial aid to annually provide each student with certain information concerning the student's education loans.” Included is an estimate of the total loan amount taken out by the respective student, and estimates of payoff and monthly repayment amounts.
Q: “Are there any initiatives that haven’t yet been highly publicized that you’re excited about?
A: McRobbie – “We are in the middle of trying to systematically deal with our repair and renovation problems across the university. I’m just about to start my 10th year as president. When I took over, the trustees asked us to identify the size of the deferred maintenance bill for the whole university.
“And frankly, at that stage we didn’t know; we knew it was big. And it wasn’t easy to get a final figure, but we did the work. We eventually identified a deferred maintenance bill of $1 billion … that’s across all campuses in the university.
“We’ve put in place a plan, and have systematically been working through that, and our goal is, and some of this is subject to state appropriations for large building renovations like [the IUK main building]. This is a classic example.
“Our goal is to clear all of that by the bicentennial of the university in 2019-20. And so far, subject to the state helping us on a number of the larger projects, we are on schedule to do that. So that particular program reaches all the regional campuses, and there’s been a lot of other work done on this campus too of the kind you probably wouldn’t notice.”