Times are good at Indiana State University with growing enrollment, improved student retention and national recognition in a number of areas, including its No. 1 ranking by Washington Monthly for community service by students.
But challenges exist, including lack of progress in on-time graduation rates, in which students complete bachelor degrees in four years. That's a key measure for state performance-based funding, and that lack of progress could have a significant impact on ISU funding levels.
In a worst-case scenario, the lack of progress could cost ISU a $3.9 million reduction in state funding over the next two years, ISU President Dan Bradley said in his annual fall address at Tilson Auditorium.
Nothing will be certain until next spring when the 2015 General Assembly concludes.
"We need everyone's help" to improve graduation rates, said Bob Baesler, president of the ISU board of trustees, who also made remarks, along with faculty, student and staff leaders.
The theme of Bradley's address was, "Getting Happy, Celebrating Progress and Collaborating for a Stronger Future," which used text and illustrations from a children's book titled, "Get Happy."
ISU has much to celebrate this year. Enrollment, at 13,183 students, is ISU's highest since 1971, and it has grown by 26 percent since fall 2008. Graduate enrollment is the largest in history.
Retention of first-year students has increased 6.4 percent in the last four years; retention of first-year African-American students has increased by 12.5 percent in four years; and retention of 21st Century Scholars has risen 7.5 percent in two years.
Bradley outlined many accomplishments by students, faculty and staff, including accomplishments by athletic teams. "We brought the (Victory) bell home," he said, referring to the ISU football team's recent defeat of Ball State.
He also talked about facilities, including the recent opening of Reeve Hall, ISU's first new residence hall in more than 40 years. The new Gibson Track and Field, located on First Street, will be completed this fall.
In terms of legislative priorities, ISU will seek $64 million to renovate and add to the College of Nursing, Health and Human Performance. The university has studied ways to phase the project "but it just doesn't work," he said. It will be a two-year project.
He also talked about the state's performance-based funding formula, which heavily emphasizes on-time degree completion, an area in which ISU is falling behind. ISU is making good progress on several other performance measures, he noted.
In 2014, ISU's four-year graduation rate was 19.3 percent, down from 21.3 percent in 2013; its six-year graduation rate was 39.5 percent in 2014, down from 41.8 percent the year before.
Under the worst case scenario, if there was no new state funding for higher education in the next biennial budget, ISU could lose $3.9 million per year under the performance-based funding formula. Such a reduction "would significantly reduce our ability to provide services to our students," he said. The Commission for Higher Education has not yet made a final recommendation
"Hopefully, the recommendation coming out of the Commission will be somewhat better than this, and the Legislature will put new money into higher ed," Bradley said after his address. "I think that's really the key ... to get new money into higher ed."
ISU must do better in helping students graduate in four years, he said. That measure represents about 25 percent of the dollars in the performance-based state formula.
Bradley noted that for the first time last year at ISU, the student-parent contribution to higher education exceeded that of the state (when looking at the state appropriation per Hoosier full-time student). Tuition is increasing, not because of runaway costs, which have been flat to slightly down, but because of decreasing state appropriations on a per student basis.
"It's absolutely critical in the long term if we're going to maintain a flat tuition profile, that this decline in state appropriations is slowed if not stopped," he said. Otherwise, it won't be possible long term to keep tuition at a reasonable level, he said.