Indiana University’s top two administrators are both stepping down at the end of June, leaving the university in a vulnerable situation amid a pandemic.
Michael McRobbie announced his plan to retire after 13 years as university president in August. Seven months later, Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel announced her plan to step down and return to the faculty at the IU Maurer School of Law.
“I don’t believe anyone should look at it in a negative light,” IU Board of Trustees vice chair Patrick Shoulders said. “I think if my colleagues on the board have chosen wisely, our new president will be smart enough to determine what’s good to keep and what might be a prime area for change.”
Pamela Whitten will become Indiana University’s 19th president, and the first woman to hold the office, on July 1st. She is expected to name a new Bloomington provost shortly after.
This will not be the first time IU welcomes a new president and provost in tandem, however. Michael McRobbie appointed Karen Hanson as the first provost and executive vice president only days into his presidency in July 2007.
While they might look similar on the surface, Shoulders said this year’s transition is different than 2007.
“The major change of course was the lack of confidence in President Herbert,” Shoulders said. “When Michael McRobbie took over the office, and as an insider he was intimately familiar with the issues and challenges the Bloomington campus had.”
Prior to a provost, IU Bloomington had a chancellor. However, in 2005 former President Adam Herbert refused to pick one of the finalists selected by the chancellor search committee. The faculty eventually revolted against him, and the board of trustees reorganized the university’s administration.
Shoulders said the board decided the president would take over the chancellor’s former administrative responsibilities and the new provost would serve as the chief academic officer over the Bloomington campus.
He said McRobbie grasped the administrative role well, and Hanson was well respected among faculty.
“The jobs sort of began to invent themselves,” Shoulders said.
Hanson left IU in 2012, and Lauren Robel was named IUB’s second provost the same year.
Under Robel, IUB constructed and renovated buildings like Luddy Hall and the Indiana Memorial Union, as well as the Learning Commons and Scholar Commons in Wells Library. She helped create an engineering program, school of global and international studies, and media school.
“She’s just performed extraordinarily,” Shoulders said.
Just as she helped create The Media School in 2015, Robel is transitioning it into a new phase of leadership. Last week, she announced members of the search committee looking for Dean James Shanahan’s successor. Among them, is one IU junior.
“The media school has made so much progress in the last five, ten years and it’s really become a powerhouse on Indiana University’s campus,” Griffin Gonzalez said. “I think the next big question is how can we continue that and build it even more than it’s already been built.”
Since founding The Media School in 2015, Shanahan oversaw the establishment of the Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism, the naming gifts of the Ken and Audrey Beckley Studio and Ed Spray control room, and 25 new scholarship funds.
An interim dean is expected to be named soon, with a permanent successor announced later.
