From the Desk of the Chancellor, June 1, 2010

Chancellor Charles R. Bantz View print-quality image

Congratulations to Dario Franchitti on winning the Indy 500! This year’s race was especially exciting for students in our new motorsports engineering program because they were directly involved or knew others who were. Only in its second year, IUPUI’s Bachelor of Science degree in motorsports engineering already has an enrollment of some 60 students from 16 states.

As the first U.S. university to offer a four-year program, IUPUI benefits directly from relationships with big-name motorsports crews. This not only provides incredible student internship opportunities but also the advantage of a curriculum developed in partnership with an advisory board of professional industry leaders. It also helped us to attract top-notch faculty like Motorsports Director Pete Hylton, whose background includes a 25-year career in aerospace engineering and nearly 30 years of amateur sports car racing, and Andrew Borme, engineer for driver Helio Castroneves during his first two Indy 500 wins.

The creation of an innovative degree program is not unusual for IUPUI. Over the years, our schools and faculty launched many programs that fulfill IUPUI’s mission of creating fields of study that simultaneously are attractive to students looking for promising careers, build on academic strengths, forge interdisciplinary partnerships, and meet workforce needs in high-potential areas of economic development such as arts, culture, and tourism; health and life sciences; philanthropy and nonprofits; information technology; and sports. I label these “21st century degrees”—for they represent the innovation, academic strength, interdisciplinary partnerships, and commitment to economic development that characterizes IUPUI.

Just in the past two years, the following new 21st century degree programs have been established:

• BA in Africana Studies
• BS in Health Sciences
• BS in Music Technology
• BA in Philanthropic Studies
• MA in Applied Anthropology
• MA in Art Therapy
• Master of Criminal Justice and Public Safety
• MA in Sports Journalism
• Ph.D. Biostatistics
• PhD in Economics
• PhD in Epidemiology
• PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Science
• Doctor of Nursing Practice

Many other certificate and degree programs are under development, including these awaiting various stages of approval:

• MS in Event Tourism
• MS in Physician Assistant Studies
• PhD in Applied Earth Sciences
• PhD in Urban Education

As graduates of these and programs yet to be developed fan out into our community and communities around the world, IUPUI can take great pride in the creativity of the faculty of this 21st-century urban research university.

Comments? Write chancllr@iupui.edu .