##VIDEO ID:EV3bKQR1qzU## to do a smashing job today I have gam good morning all U before we get started our off business and determination of Mr R pres mram Mr Mr Fisher here m l here hereon Hannah Miss Jordan Miss Kel here Mr framer here and Larry is here as well here okay well thank you all for being here day good morning Happy New Year um and for those online we really want to welcome and thank you for joining as well and you might have noticed that I don't look and sound like our normal chair Mr D Peterson he had an unavoidable work trip he needed to take but he send his regards and he provided us with a few comments here and there that we sprinkle in so you won't know before we get started though so I would like to just take a quick moment if any of you have paid attention to the news and the tragic air accident that happened in Washington DC I think it's appropriate to just take a quick minute of silence for all who were thank you all so we have a full agenda today both looking back at 2024 mil St and looking forward to the work we are undertaking in 2025 um part of that work is a committee that a lot of people may not know about is the performance and compensation committee and we met recently and I just want to pop it over to Jud our past chair who chairs that committee and just give him a quick moment to share some things with you all some information sure so the the performance and compensation committee met um as we were uh asked to and we're supposed to bring a recommendation for performance and compensation uh to the members here um during this meeting uh we recently met and talked about the incentive program and all the things that commissioner Lowry has uh done over the past year so we had a couple meetings we came up with a a recommendation um based on the excellent performance unan of the commissioner we unanimously agreed that commissioner Lowry had me exceed Inc of initiatives uh on many levels and won't go into detail uh here today but I just wanted to recognize that that uh everything that um commissioner Lowry uh was trying to accomplish last year was accomplished uh done very well um with that I will say that we're going to um defer to uh we have a new governor we have uh new structures in place for uh the the education vertical So today we're going to I'm going to ask that we pause and um bring this recommendation back once we see how things shake out with the budget and again to our new governor um so this will be uh presented again at the later meeting that's okay with everyone so again commissioner Lowry um did an excellent job and we really just wanted to commend them for the things that were accomplished last year but we will bring this back up at later and Dan had asked me to make a comment of thank you Chris for your fantastic leadership so we absolutely want to thank our host from Ben s University here today and particularly this very special place that is um a partnership amongst numerous institutions that led by V SS and it means so much to us commission members when we can actually be able to meet on side where really the magic of learning is taking place right here I spent a little bit of time on the madeen planfield website and I noted on your homepage that you summed up in one sentence I think a really important aspect of why we're all here today and that is by connecting the community to Education and Training opportunities we facilitate the connection of local employers with highly skilled and trained individuals for high demand High wage jobs and you do it well so thank you and so that we can learn more I'm going to conclude my remarks from now invite Tony Han vice president of government and legal Affairs at vinon to address the group today well thank you very much Madam chairperson and thank you for the compliments welcome to made at planfield and for those who have not been here before this doesn't look like a traditional University campus where we where we host here and that's because this is a very unique collaboration between the city universities where we are one of the tenant Partners uh we're here on the first floor and uh you can see through the glass the kind of training that we do here you'll also hear more from our vice president Dave Tucker about some of the additional business and industry training we do both here and around the state so made at planfield came about several years ago uh and we this is the third meeting we've hosted here in fact I believe commissioner Lowry was named uh commissioner at this facility so he's also made at he has been a and we and I'm not exaggerating we get calls regularly from communities that say we toured made at planfield how do we do that in our community and uh the first thing I say is you need you need the the gumption to to push through and figure it out because this had stops and starts along the way and I think commissioner Lowry in previous life was part of that and it takes a lot of work but once it's built it's effective it's beautiful it works so I want to introduce you to Brandy wton who oversees the maor planfield facility and she can tell you a little bit about how it works some of the other partners and why this such a unique collaboration and then after some official business you'll hear from Dave Tucker from the V team about the work we do here so thank you have a great day here we'll have lunch across the hall bathrooms are out in the lobby see me if you need anything Brandy Hello friends Hello friends I want to welcome you all to maid um he gave you a little background there but I can expand on that just a little bit bit but I'll keep it brief um I hear where on the street is Happ you probably haven't even been here before but that also means half of you have so welcome back to those who have it's nice to see you again and those who haven't I would love to show you around if you'd like that opportunity today we'll be here during and after so come and find me or one of my colleagues and we'll show you what everybody's been up to so I just want to say thank you to all of you who were there to help make this happen and continue to help us make it happen this is truly a collaborative it couldn't have happened without so many people in this room that were part of growing this and building this idea and now here we are in our fourth year of operation and really doing some amazing things because of the Partnerships and the collaborative that we formed so some of the people that take up space here which we love are um the Department of Homeland Security did you know they were here their fire and Public Safety school is happening um this weekend they're having tons of people coming from all over the state and they're going to practice some of the drills that make them great firefighters and Public Safety officials we're excited for that so it will be a busy weekend here but it's been a busy week as well we've had some of our friends from Vincent parti ipating as you know they're here we have iD Tech upstairs we're we're thrilled to have the number of students that they bring through the doors which is increased by 30% over the past year even as we see college going rates going down it's not happening here at May because we provide accessible education to our community all around us I don't know if it's a popular thing to say but over 80 to 90% of the students that come through our doors here are not even from hendrickx County so we're not here just being made at planfield we're made of our entire country and even Canada too um Toyota with our friends at Vincent is bringing people from Canada and Mexico here to train we've got people from all over the world that are coming to train in for a day for a week or even for month at a time here at M our second year doubled over our first year numbers which was 10,000 the first year 20,000 the second year and we're just now totaling our third year numbers but I think we're going to see something similar maybe not a doubling but it's continuing to increase and so we've got a lot of demand for the things that we're doing here and so many possibilities for the future too we also have Indiana State University Butler was knocking literally on the door on Monday saying hey you want to be part of this too so we'll see where that goes we also have work one yesterday we had a great big event that I want to tell you about but before I tell you about that when I walked in the door we had about 50 people in the lobby waiting to get in the door of work one and they were looking for opportunities it's a job fair that they thought was just going to be a small little gathering and they just were overflowing that they had 120 people come through just in the first two hours of the morning so there's a lot of amazing things happening here on all levels but they're all kind of integrated we're all looking for that next step in our career and how we can enhance Our lives our quality of lives and the career steps that we have available to us so with all of our partners here um Hendrick's College network likes to uh encourage everyone and kind of create that Community but it's not a hard thing to do because everyone's excited about the opportunities that we have something that I want to tell you guys about that I thought might be of interest yesterday in this room at about this time we had gathered 80 of our closest friends from the community we had Educators administrators but mostly we had employers and they were coming to talk to us about the possibilities of what we can do from some of the things that were put in place from House Bill 102 and the things that continue from there you guys have been kind enough to fund Hendrick's College network and therefore we've been able to WR here at me put some of those things into place and that was one of those events yesterday we got a capacity building Grant from you guys we're part of the career coaching grants and what we were talking about yesterday was all of that how do we come together as employers as Educators and administrators and as intermediaries to say hey we are here to help you make this an easy process there are things that are in place are going to be successful in the future but in the meantime let's start taking those steps together so to have feedback from all of those people that were excited enough to take their time away from their jobs and their bottom line to come in I was quite humble that they wanted to spend that time with us I think we're going to see some great progress from that they give us some feedback we'll be sending out some thank yous to further connect with them today and we'll let you know on our progress on that in the future too again there's so many incredible things happening I don't want to tell you about all of them right now but I want to tell you about time connect with me and hear more about that or you have some ideas for us one of the things I'm always asking for is give me your crazy ideas we've got 35 acres here we've got 100,000 square feet we've almost outgrown it but we've got potential for more and we've got motivated people behind us this is a great time to be in Workforce Development education and we're excited about it so let's keep that momentum going and I think people like you and all of you are the right ones to help us keep that going so thank you again for having us here today if there's any thing through the day that I can help with I'll be around and if I can answer any questions right now I'm happy too well let me turn it over to one of our friends that's been around from the beginning too I think David Tucker you're at neck he's a good friend in pal we have a lot in common both personally and professionally so I'm excited for him to share something for you well it's getting set up we can get a little bit of business taken care of which is um approving our minutes so you all received the agenda book The minutes are in there starting on page one may I have a motion to the end of the minutes reflecting uh the business item I assume the resolution is on the AR 8.7 actually part the AC program but reflect V [Music] yeah we'll take that as an amendment and amend the minute to reflect the vote that has taken second all in favor so then do we move to approve the minutes with the amendment that we just I have motion second all in favor hi thank you minutes are passed and now we are excited to have B vice president of work force development and Community Services thank you hi thank you very much for uh having us today welcome back uh to the commission to May commissioner you were announced here in 2022 and we're glad to have you back here in 2025 uh commission commission staff colleagues steamed guests we're all very glad to be here today um when given the opportunity to present uh to the commission uh V president T Johnson who's here um uh suggested that it would be a good idea for us to uh visit with C or C jur Center and schol for the death some of our other locations um but my presentation today uh is uh a Workforce impact Beyond credit hours and decrees really want to visit with you a little bit about what V is doing uh for Indiana's Workforce that isn't focused exclusively on students who come to us to get certificate or an associates degree or bachelor degree so uh thinking about Statewide impacts uh first thing I want to do is show you a map of uh of where are uh in the state of Indiana there's a m off that screen we're gonna work on this BR so uh so there's so there's the map um and as you geography of Indiana Knox County there in Southwestern Indiana where you see both a star and a circle that's where our main our main campus is uh and you can see pretty much the entire Southwest Western quadrant of Indiana uh Phil uh that V does Workforce Development uh work I think one of the things that we really want to point out to you is the fact that we are there in virtually every County uh in many of the counties were in multiple locations um and the other important part about that map uh is that we've got 95 sites where we do Workforce development work only five of those sites are V named and branded sites this is one of them made at planfield which is a flagship uh facility uh but 90 of those 90 of those sites are Community Partners uh whether that's an employer partner where we're onsite with them whether that's a work one whether that's a k through2 high school or a career center or whether it's a a a public library or other Comm site uh we're in the community doing this Workforce Development work uh and we saturate that Southwestern uh quadrant of Indiana we do a lot of work in other parts of the states as you know from the work that we do in the Career Centers uh k312 and dual credit um but that's really where the heart of our of our Workforce uh work is done moving to the next slide do want to want to commission to to be reminded of the fact uh that one very important program that we run around Workforce is the non-credit next level jobs programming um we have uh worked with with the commission over the last several years that funding uh had been in the Department of Workforce Development uh it moved over to the commission for higher education um and every year we work very closely with commission staff on what we think our needs might be uh for for the coming year in noncredit training that we might do uh we make the budget uh we spell out what our expectations are for what we'll use that money for and every year that this money has been housed uh with the commission and we've spent it all exactly the way that that we've agreed that we're going to do uh a couple of things about uh just the last couple of programming years uh 20 in 2023 24 you funded us about $800,000 we trained 228 students uh the two main program areas that we worked in were Allied Health uh when you think of Allied Health you're thinking about supportive people uh in the healthc care industry uh uh uh certified nursing assistants or CNAs certified clinical medical assistants or ccmas uh some of those types of spots um as well as truck drivers so uh commercial drivers licensed drivers uh in 23 24 we spent all that money in those two areas Trad and certified 228 people uh with that money this year we're in the midst of 2425 we're on budget to spend the 1 Milli $35,000 that you've allocated to us uh We've added one additional program area because industrial maintenance Automation and Robotics in Indiana is a very huge and important an training area uh that's what if if you get a chance to tour this ma building if you get to tour many of our sites you'll see that we train lots of technicians in the manufacturing uh and the distribution areas so we've added that this year you added some money for us thank you uh we'll train 22 more people all focused on industrial maintenance uh so we'll do 250 certified completed students um in both Allied Health CD industrial maintenance that when when we hit when we hit July one uh on our fiscal budget and we know how much money the commission is and we've got employers Dr jobs for these people there there's not a single person who goes through this training who doesn't have a job a full-time job that's typically better than the job that they had when they came waiting for them at the end of that so thanks commission and of Indiana want to talk about the Vu locations the flagship spots where you can see our V if Dave could keep talking in the microphone he cutting out cutting out if Dave could keep talking in the microphone it would be great programs uh that we have there it's a partnership with Amazon uh where we do the we've been doing that program with them since 2020 uh in four full years of operation with them we've trained over a thousand metronics uh apprentices from 42 States uh across the country they come to campus they have a full experience they're there for for 12 weeks um and they train all day every day they return to their fulfillment centers as Tech 1es so thaton um and it's just a wonderful program we're building on that a lot of other programming U at indana Center for apply Technologies really wanted to point that out as as one of the best programs that we have Indiana has 11,000 I mean Amazon has 11,000 employes in Indiana to qualify program called Choice um all of these these people work inment centers in allers of of the state of Indiana America but we have had many many uh people who taken advantage of this program upgraded their skills and are doing that in facilities in Indiana uh we have a center for advanced manufacturing Logistics in Branch Indiana that's Gibson County those of you are familiar with Toyota we're located miles from the Toyota plant uh there we do saf uh we do M uh we do firefight candidate physical ability tests and then we have a dedicated lab to train Toyota uh Toyota maintenance technicians uh there we have Center for Technology Innovation manufacturing Jord that's on our Jord campus uh it's a great supplement to what we do in our twoyear programming primarily degree programing programming there in Jasper uh again focused on Advan manufacturing you know all those strong manufacturers there uh in in Jasper you know Master brand uh Kimble uh J for Eng Le uh a great town with a bunch of great employe who rely on us for work train to industrial maintenance I I help with a great relationship with Mor more and Hospital there construction TR leadership two other sites want to mention uh that are V branding sites this was so where you are you've heard a lot about it uh I hope you get a chance to look around today during the race or during lunch uh see all of the great equipment uh that that we brought here uh particularly focused on Logistics uh and advanced manufacturing and industrial maintenance this is the place where we start the Amazon program but Amazon wanted to scale it to a size uh that make more sense for us to bring to canas uh but this is where we started it we also have TR training school which many of the students are funded by next old jobs uh come through here our driving range is over at the waiting Township uh Fire Department headquarters and Emergency Management facilate you can see on for fores by and around the west side and then we also have a training center in leue uh the cheat house uh training education center we partnered with P automation one of the largest CNC uh machine manufacturers in North America uh we do uh Machining there uh we doership training for uh for Caterpillar uh we do training for the Department of Corrections um which is a lot of a program uh for uh offenders who are nearing the end of their time uh in prison and have an opportunity to train so that when they transition out uh they're employable uh and we've got employers who want to uh uh to give second chance to those folks uh talking about Community Partners yes oh sure yes which that they're they're coming out with certifications in Machining yes so we uh uh we we do we do industry recognized certifications uh in CNC machine um and so those those offenders come to to uh 11 in the evenings after we've uh shut down the day operations uh for 12 weeks they come out with I believe six uh cert six industry recognized certifications in mil and L uh for CNC thank and also uh feel free to shot with video questions along the way uh very interactive as um yeah sure a little bit on the economics you're doing a lot of these things for the Amazon and and TR compies what kind of how how did the economics of that work how much are they paying versus State programs and reimbursements and things like that sure sure so so talk specifically Amon program um the Amazon program is one funded completely by the company um so so Amazon uh pays the tuition to Vincent they were students out of their fulfillment centers and they pay those students while they're in training at Vu so so those so those students uh when they come to work at 7:30 in the morning released at 6:30 at night they're getting paid as if they were on a shift um and then uh and then they also pay their they also pay their room and board while they're while they're training for us um we find right now that Workforce training is really focused on income of workers um when you have a when you have a a situation in the state of Indiana where unemployment hovers around 4% that means that most everybody who wants a job who's employable has a job um and so our real Focus mostly time is working with employers or employees who want to somehow upskill up upskill those uh th those people so uh so funding for that training comes in a variety of ways there's next level jobs funding so so for some of that truck driver training that we do uh those are folks that may be installing um fiber optic fiber optic cable you know on a on a crew like hey I can make more money if I'm driving the truck uh so I pick up a CDL so we fund that uh so that that that's an example of how of of how that next level job's money will be paid uh let's say uh as cion St Vincent in Evansville um they've got a lot of employees who work in Food Service they work in housekeeping uh And when they see an opportunity to become a certified clinical medical assistance um and they can and they can use next level jobs uh to do that what a great opportunity so there's so there's a combination of of employer funds uh of state and federal funds that go that that all go into that uh and we're constantly trying to to you you negotiate you know and and line up how how is it that we can how is it that we can f take somebody who says yes I'm interested in this kind of training whether that if if they're employee or an employer says hey I'd like to upskill this number of employees into to particular positions we're constantly going okay how can we use commission money how can we use Department of Workforce Development money how can we get employers to uh to to buy in uh to this kind of training okay okay thank you dve sure sure uh yes I have I have a comment or question uh this the uh we train people for Amazon uh what fees are we charging them and I'm not I don't want to get into a discussion but I would think that they would pay uh uh our state subsidizes uh makes contribution to Vincent's uh budget and I would think that we would not want to subsidize Amazon and so that whatever fees we charge Amazon I think ought to be the gross fees rather than the net fees subsidized by the state I'm just making this comment uh that you could look into yes good point Larry it's good to hear you too uh hear your voice you and I worked uh uh together on some projects up South Bend uh way back when and glad that you're on the commission now and thanks for everything you do uh for Education uh up there in in up in Northern Indiana um that uh uh that work that we do is uh we we charge uh tuition and fees in a as as a one it's kind of a onetime charge that includes all of the training and education uh but those students do earn 18 credit hours and a certificate of program completion um that is stackable to a degree and so to your point what we built into that number is a $250 tuition per credit hour which represents outof state tuition for those uh for for those for those so so yes that's they're they're considered out of state employees they pay an out ofate what's equivalent to an out ofate rate Dave Dave good this catch up with you again and thank you sure thanks um you may not have this now so later it be good to hear the percentage of the students that are going to the Amazon program how many are in Indiana because it's not scaling of Amazon across the US I I'd be interested to hear the percentage of how many of those students that participate are Indiana students yeah and if you don't have it now that's fine I I I think it's it's somewhere in the area of like 200 students have come through the program from Indiana out of a th000 uh total now that that number was it it's skewed a little bit on the front end because we because because a facility called ind9 which is in Greenwood came on and we trained all of their technicians up front but it's it's it's a it's a little less than 20% okay thank you sure well just a point of clarification we're not funding we're not using State dollars to fund the Delta 800 out of state we're only using State dollars to fund the instate kind of a Fallout to cais right and we really aren't we really aren't even using State funds to be to be honest with you I mean we don't we we we don't enroll them in kind of the typical you know uh per you know semester with the the state students aren't aren't enrolled as as State versus out of state so uh and and it's important it's important to know that what we do and work for development Community Services of V is a separate it's a separate budget um so we don't use we don't use State funds to do to to to do what we do directly from especially from the standpoint of tuition yes okay yeah sure and we're very and we're very conscious of that uh you know we're we we we the the work that we do uh for the workforce is focused on what Indiana needs so Advanced manufacturing Transportation distribution Logistics healthc care it you know those those same pillars that you're that you're focused on are the same pillars that we're focused on but we're fortunate to have certain Partners you know like Amazon like John Deer like cumins you know who have a huge presence here in Indiana and we benefit from the fact that they want to train their Indiana employees but they also have employees outside of the state who they recognize vincon as the place that they ought to send them okay yeah thank you sure um moving now to Community Partners you know as we talked uh we've got these five facilities that are branded V we got 90 facilities uh that are in some way a community partner of one kind uh or another I just wanted to touch on some of these programs uh that we run um you're familiar with the work one system we're partnered here with the work one system here uh at planfield this is Region 5 which geographically is kind of referred to as the donut counties um uh what Vu does is we're the service provider which means we staff the work ones in region 7 which is the Terra hope region Vio and the Count's kind of surrounding that and and out to the east out to putam or Green Castle uh and then we're uh we're we we do everything uh in relation to the work one in Region 8 where the uh where the regional operator we the One-Stop operator or the service provider since we do everything work one in in Region 8 that's the Bloomington region so basically Monroe all the way down to Pei or or or Orange County um and uh and we touch 20,000 people a year uh through um through that programming um we also in the in in the fiscal year 23 24 uh the work one system paid for 246 customers to go through certification or education um and if you're thinking about the ter hope region or you're think about the Bloomington region even though V runs that programming the higher ed that those students go to is primarily doled out to Indiana State and Ivy Tech in terot uh and iy Tech in Bloomington so we've got great sister uh uh colleges and universities in Indiana We're very comfortable when we have a person who comes to us who has a need for higher ad uh to get them into the right um and we have 14 14 part partner locations in our work one operations that we run in region 7 and Region 8 one of the subgroupings of what goes on in the work ones right now is the jobs for America's graduates program or the Jag program that's a program that has has grown substantially just in the last year um and that's why I wanted to capture this year's this year's numbers for that um the Jag program is a high school program for high school students who are in Jeopardy of dropping out so it's really a drop out prevention program but at the at the end of the programming these students graduate at a higher rate than their peers and they're better prepared to go to college uh than their peers are um and so in that program for this year we've got 896 students enrolled uh at 38 different high schools uh and middle schools uh across region 7 uh and Region 8 these These are great Workforce programs uh the Jag program is designed for when a high school graduates uh they're on one of three tracks they're going to go to higher ed which is great for us great for this group they're going to go to the workforce uh which we're working on a plan to train them to be ready to go to a job or they're going to go into a military service um so it's a wonderful program that V is very very glad to support um and when those students come to VU like I said they're very well prepared to to succeed want to touch on adult basic education uh we're an an adult ed provider uh in in Southern Indiana we did about 1,700 students last year 152 of those got their high school equivalency from a math standpoint that doesn't sound real good except for the fact that it's really only about 55% of those adult dead students are in high school equivalency programming the other 45% are in uh English as a second language um it is a very very growing program uh where we serve um but uh we had 100 25 students earn Workforce certificates at nine locations we do have nine employer training Partners that's a very important component of of of adult ed uh that we aren't just focused on people picking up high school equivalencies and people don't come to us for just to pick up the the certification they come to us because they need a high school certification to get a job um and so for example just this January we started full-time programming at Toyota is in English as a second language um and we're at a number we're eight other employer partner sites we do Statewide Li Health Training as I mentioned before that focuses on CNAs ccmas qas uh and uh photomy um we're partnering with the associated builders and contractors those are the non-union construction uh contractors around the state of Indiana uh you saw our two sites up in Northeastern Indiana North Central Indiana those are those are ABC sites where we train uh construction apprentices It's a Wonderful it's a wonderful program uh most of our apprentices are focused on their trade and focused on working with us to get their Journey uh person certificate but that's coupled with a Vu degree and so many many of those students are taking uh college credits with us many of them uh complete their four-year uh construction apprenticeship and earn both a journeyman's card and a Vu degree Subaru of Indiana We're partnered with them Lafayette we do industrial maintenance training with them we have a full-time faculty member that's embedded at the Subaru plant uh we have continuous training of technicians similar what I describ with Amazon only in the automotive uh world where we recruit uh people off the line who've been working in production for years uh they come off the line to learn industrial maintenance in one of the five main production areas there at Subaru they train half a day uh with us uh they work half a day uh this programming goes on for about a half a year when they graduate they go into uh the technician ranks there our first class that we conducted back in 2014 so 11 years ago uh in our first cohort of those students the assistant manager of production at Subaru was amongst those people he was a guy who had worked in production for three years he went into this program he became a technician and now and now he's assistant uh production manager great story uh and these are great things that we get to work on every day um a couple of programs that are fairly new Jackson County Learning Center and Seymour we partnered with a number of employers there to uh to do industrial maintenance training a Great program that's that the equipment there was funded by ready uh who many of you are probably familiar with regional uh funding that funded the equip um and now we've trained over 100 people there in Jackson County in partnership with cumins and I and valo and then we're partnered at stonate uh in Lawrence County or bford uh where there's a work one similar situation to this only on a smaller scale uh there in Bedford so just wanted to give you a sense of what the scale of of what we do now to the real stuff the outcomes that we produce uh just want to talk up a little bit about our major training areas in uh the previous fiscal year industrial maintenance Advanced manufacturing Machining we've talked about some of those programs Amazon Toyota Subaru um the Department of Corrections uh 848 uh completions in that area Allied Health the CMAs the ccmas the qas 465 cert certified people with jobs waiting for them when they complete compl Logistics and commercial driver's license talk about truck driving here you'll see some of the logistics training that we do here in you know Indianapolis Crossroads of America 524 uh completions in training uh in that area in the fiscal year construction trades great programming in partnership with associate builders and contractors uh 1,645 uh apprentices in that program uh and then many of you uh may not even know that there's mining uh in Indiana underground mining surface mining uh 10,000 coal miners in Southwestern Indiana so we're uh we're the federal mine safety administration training uh provider for that and so uh 3,000 uh miners trained whether that's new minor training uh whether that's refresher training that's required of miners around safety uh every three years so when you add up we what we do We Touch thousands of people uh every year in a positive way um I hope uh that I've also given you a sense of uh how gratifying it is for me uh to be able to work in this area uh to be able to make positive impacts on literally thousands of people's lives every day here in Indiana uh changing their lives uh thanks in many parts to what the commission does thanks to our other our other state funders are federal funders uh but it's just a pleasure for me to be able to work in this area uh every day uh and be able to work with such a good partners um and then thought we had a closing slide I think that was the one with the names on it yeah well it has the names on it it also has a QR code um so so there's the final page you know how to reach chff Johnson right yeah now you can use that you know how to you Outreach me we've got some extra folders here for anybody who wants a hard copy uh of the presentation the QR code though is important because that's the link to our employer Gateway so we just we just launched uh a v employer Gateway oh there it is uh and that that should the the QR code should work um but there are three main there really three main components to what we're doing in our employer Gateway uh and that is hire our graduates upskill your employees and work with us on work based learning programs those are the three big things that we do with employers here in the state of Indiana we've we've been putting out strong associate and bachelor degree students for decades and decades employers around the state of Indiana rely on us for that uh employers have grown to rely on us to upskill their employees when I arrived at vu in 2007 we did about $4,000 in employer training this year we're going to do 7 million so it's we've got and that's and that's due to Great Partners uh employer Partners who relied on us for decades for these graduates and now they know they can rely on us to help upskill their employees and then we've seen as I talked to Dr Jenner earlier this growth in work-based learning is really really important to the state because if you're a high schooler who doesn't know what you want to do you can get a chance to work and learn and earn at the same time uh if you're coming out of high school you've got a chance to go Vu work earn get a degree graduate with no debt and have a full-time job uh or if you're already working for an employer you got a chance to go get a better job uh with better training and a career for the future so it's great work that we get to do hopefully you've seen some of the things that we do in this area I'll be glad to take some questions you have them also be around just in the interest of time for the agenda sure you will be around by all means if you have questions and we have your QR code too absolutely find you click on it yeah thank you so much thank you very much so before I turn it over to commissioner Lowry for his report we definitely want to welcome secretary Jenner and congratulate you on your appointment to being the lead of the education vertical on behalf of Governor br so beginning today we've we've wanted Secretary General with us pretty much we invite her to every meeting but now she's going to come she'll be joining us in the future whenever her schedule allows as an ex official member and so she won't be voting but she's here to help us answer questions and Dan Peterson did want me to mention too how happy he is that you will be joining us at these meetings because the alignment across all of the components of Education in this vertical is where the power is so we're very excited to have you as part of the group um after commissioner Low's report we will ask secretary Jenner to share a few thoughts regarding the transition and the new education vertical so with that turn it over to commissioner Le very good thank you Nancy um i' have to start too by thanking our friends here at M planfield um this is a special place our friend by the way lovers is going to join us for lunch later today we're going to do something special right before lunch and it occurred to me it's the last time last time teres and I were here together this almost three years ago for sort of a transition yeah and uh so we'll look forward to that this is a really special place um I I got pulled into this whole idea many years back by Scott Olinger superintendent the school corporation and just to see what The Visionaries in this community is have done is just remarkable um we talked a lot about our partnership Pentagon of course at the commission and business education government philanthropy and nonpr and this is a manifestation of that just something better for the community better for Indiana and just be remiss if I didn't just say Kudos Brandy thanks for your presentation Dr Tracy and others for hosting us um and then also to tag on just really quickly to thank our friends for Vi C University uh I thought uh President John was back there some somewhere is he back there somewhere um very good um but certainly you know thank you to Tony to David to Dr Johnson I was looking at the list and I think I've been through you know so many of your different locations um had a funny thing occur shortly after I arrived I think many of you know I tried to go to campuses a lot uh I'd like to be there to be present and um on my third trip to the main bu campus President Johnson greeted me and I could tell like something was on on his mind he kind looked at me and he said anything special you wanted to do today I said no like war is yours kind of looked at me and I said you can put out restraining order on me but I don't know how to do this work if I'm not pres seeing what you're doing and what you're doing is impressive um you know the work that you do to really really embed yourselves in the community be I think it was roughly 60 600 that I added that your David while you were talking somewhere in my notes here um you know folks who have you know had an opportunity and been able to seize a possibility kind fit in the Hope agenda does and it who your opportunities and possibilities through education and you really see that all our state very much said it's Ed in communities Better Lives for fers and doing it hand in hand with employ partner so we're grateful you hostess and for the work you're already doing U I'd be remissed too if I didn't welcome secretary Jenner to this table to joining us um some you know we've been partners in crime like well predating our official roles today and it's just a delight to have her here and just working together even more so today so welcome your com my presentation is probably going to be brief than what the agenda calls for that may shock [Music] them but I'm going to cover a handful of different things today first of all very briefly a little bit about the the transition I know Dr Jen's going to talk more about that but how it has affected our office and I'm quite proud to say I think it's it's gone very well and we'll talk about this just a little bit um as I think most or all the in the room know certainly commission members we triy to keep you up to date again I hope we haven't I haven't bombarded you too much in the last four to six weeks with information but uh the commission is part of the education vertical created by uh Governor Braun one of eight vertical with a cabinet secretary reporting directly to him um I will admit when I saw it I thought this makes so much sense I don't know how you have 30 to 40 direct reports um I've never done that yeah I just don't how to do it so there was such logic in my this the commission maintains of course its uh quasi governmental quasi agency status and uh under the executive order Secretary of Education shall have responsibility for coordinating policy with commission and other uh certainly herb but then direct reporting if you will by some other agencies all of this also brings us to some transitions that occurred and again probably most of you in the room know this but I again I would just love to share a little bit of the backstory with you secretary Jenner and I and others were in conversations um once Governor Brawn announced the transition plans the uh eight vertical including education and um it just one of those things where I can't recall exactly conversations Katie but um saying two different points you know I I know a person who would really sered well um with you at that cabinet secretary level um you know I'll either regret this I won't regret it this we'll talk about that in a second but more importantly to uh have amazing people be able to go do even more amazing work um and as a leader you you cannot and should not stand in the way of that so that resulted in I think it was the first recommendation that you look at a fellow named Seth Hinshaw to be the uh vertical CFO and to to say that selfishly I ried on SE the last two years uh n and a half months these counting um is an understatement I think all of you know his reputation Reeds him it's all distri ways and meting committee um um respect and admiration for the work he does and he's he's moving into the right spot and doing already great work similarly um Dr Jenner and I were talking about Chief staff that kind of roles you already know they where this went right and um I said yeah you know there people I've been able to hire or promote over time did Garrison Escape yeah that's he did yeah I knew he would yeah do something right smarter than me I wasn't going to say itap yeah we will as you probably know by now Josh Garrison is the new chief of staff for the new education vertical um was absolutely one of the best um promotions I when he became chief of staff for us at the commission one of the best Personnel Human Resources moves I've been I've never made been allowed to be party to I guess uh because it speaks to what an incredible leader he is and again he is in the right spot uh I think that um that triangle of Dr Jenner and Josh and SE just I know that it's working together 24 hours a day is it's really good for Indiana and I firmly believe I think our team knows this you do that with great talent you don't stand in the way of it you you live um so if we could quick hand for JN embarrass them later with that so you related to those things before I jump to the next page I know commission members certainly know and some of our partners that over the past few years we have been doggedly diligent about driving and implementing a strategic management process um very clear uh it's part of our R&D approach ripoff and duplicate um from our friends at Hill and brand BCG helped create that originally and so forth and so we've been deploying this strategic management process more on that moment too um but also a talent strategy getting great people to want to run to the commission and be part of our team and U I think we've been doing well um and also I don't know I think any person on our team who's spent any minutes in my has heard me say first selfishly please don't ever leave while I'm here secondly if there's a great move for you whether you see it or I see it I'll be the first person to say yeah that or how can help and I say that because it's you what we get done at the end of the day it's not the building of one one West Ohio that matters it's not U you know the tools the computers the desks and all those things we have that it only comes down to roughly 60 people who are doing exceptional work and then we have the ability to say who's next Who's On D who can step into this void that people like Josh said would be and with that um I would say we were able to make a pretty seamless transition I know commission members especially know that literally within moments of the time that the move by step and Josh were announced the moves were announced um we had our own announcements too and that was that Michelle bcra would continue to step up from her role of senior associate commissioner and chief program officer now to being senior associate commissioner and Chief Operating Officer and yes she is the number two person of the agency now um one of the most remarkable leaders I've ever worked with uh Bru lost a few years ago the state's gain U similarly Brook Kyle who had been our associate commissioner for business intelligence was asked to lift up to senior associate commissioner for uh Business Solutions and uh now has not only business intelligence which I think all of you know she built it with her team it did not exist and also has information technology in that space and findings um we also uh doing remarkable work added Allison Kier who's our associate commissioner for marketing and Communications to our team you know she and her team have led the recent research we've done the part mind strategies and of course Matt U Butler who's been with us since early November what I point out to you all is three of those four people are new since the beginning of November and the team is not missing a be they're each one is exceptional and and the teams they lead are exceptional um you know this gives you a little bit of representation of how that structure looks at the cabinet level and a little bit around uh their duties U I know we sent to the commission members a a more full sort of deck you the slide that's next to this one showing the perview of each one of these four cabinet members and you know was putting in my notes last night I think we have the 18 lead ERS ship in those War leading the 18th and um I I know commission members you've heard me say I could not be more proud of the the full team that we have commission and in a second I'm going to tell you part of the reason I feel that way I pause take a breath for a second and anybody wishes to comment or ask anything well I'll start Chris uh when when the announcement uh was made um you were immediately lifted up your talent and not all leaders do that and I cannot thank you enough for lifting up zth and Josh and others who were not stolen other St discuss that remain um but it but it helps the full the full vertical uh we now represent 60% of the budget so Seth as a big job um Josh is back at the state house with a lot of different 150 legislative opinion and others um and I just think it's it's for the betterment of all of us that we could blur our teams a bit bring some Talent together so I just want to applaud you as a leader and say thank you Michelle I don't know since we're in the middle of this uh both Brooke and Michelle's positions do need to be officially ratified by the the commission so this is a good point I think that maybe we go ahead and do that so the promotion of Michelle ascra to senior associate commission commissioner and Chief Operating Officer U may I have a motion all in favor say any Michelle you can't see that so similarly U we also need to have a motion for Brook Kyle to serve as the senior associate commissioner for Business Solutions and may I have a motion second all in favor say I I any opposed now we can thank you for indulging me just to get that little bit of bus and thank you I'm so glad that that's official thank you commission members and Dr J thanks for your your generous remarks but it's it's this team it's just as I said it's it's the full a team thanks for your marks um related to all this uh commission members you know this journey that we've had our team on with several things in the last couple of years um you know coming together and creating the Hope agenda which is our strategic plan um those first five speak of very specific things we're trying to accomplish from enrollment to credit prior learning our adult strategy completions graduate attention those things that we um all know we measure them not only by the lagging but leading indicators as soon as we can get data then you know begin forecasting on all that and then the two big ones in Social and economic mobility and prosperity and then of course being the state recognized uh for its strength of human capital aspiration be top 10 and all those by 23 you know thrill on that and as you'll recall commission members what we have done with the strategic management process now two years roow is is to take those big goals and show every person uh on the commission staff how she or he would f in it back and we have made it a requirement now two years in a row that each person has a very distinct measurable goal for himself or herself that relates to those and then we measure those and individuals and supervisors also discuss those every quarter um I just noticed last night I have quarterly discussions coming up with my direct reports reflecting the most recent quarter and so so we do that and what we uh have started doing of course now you'll see in front of you is rolling those things up aggregating them and saying how well are we doing against the goals if if I could too I would remind you that um we we believe in stretching goals um I think some of you on the commission may recall there were some big rocks along the way that we wanted to move like um uh pre-admissions and when we you know looked at something like that there was only a couple months out from implementing by summer and for for the fall first year we did it um yeah it would have been logical to say hey we'll do that next fall and we can we can get everybody but instead the team said you know what let's just give it a job and see if we can do that by this September and I don't we got 80 or 85% of the high school seniors Say by example so stretch goals I would just remind you of that um so factoring out the goals that were Exempted so I'll tell you about exempting a couple goals for specific individuals along the way here I'll give you a couple examples U the team this is these are the individual goals of each person and commission uh the commission staff met uh made progress toward which is what we're looking for made progress for or actually exceeded the stretch goal that we had um I was very pleased with that some some know I like to be pleased and rarely satisfied I'll put the U adjective on this time was very very pleased with that um individual from 84% to 91 % and then um Exempted and I'll explain that when we look at the goals factoring out the ones that were Exempted you can see it's 93 to 96% and great success uh in those goals were made on goal one which is around enrollment College gr rate not surprising to any of you and then probably also not surprising to you hope go four around completions and so that were place where we had the greatest movement so why do we exempt some uh you notice we count them both ways Exempted and non-med because we we want to know a great example of that is this past year when the federal government created a mess with fast uh we were building some things into ourem and literally it couldn't be finalized and pursued because we didn't have everything we needed from the feds I know that doesn't shock any of you having heard me own la about problems with Peds Bas so that's an example of it or U you know an associate has left you know they get replaced two or 3 months later we've also you know shifted some job duties um you know a specific goal that somebody was pursuing now comes over to somebody else has three goals so will we track all of that too maybe it's in the weeds but we think it's important because then we can have very very specific discussions with people on team about you how they're doing how we can do better you know what's the next Big Goal you know how can we take the thing went from here to here and go to here so each person gives her or his input um and and related to that one example um I know commission members remember sometime a year or so ago me talking about Tai on our team um who I don't think Tai's yes Tai is I get to embarrass you two years in a row time yeah Ty and I thought this like right next to each other and so I'm always asking so how's that going how's it going uh Next Generation fut your educator Scholars um I don't know how to put this but what we've developed this team has developed is a culture around bus and around the work that leads to making Improvement for our Fellers to Tai and I were walking through the hall earlier this week and I we see each other all the time we're desk I getting talk or something and she said hey you got a m and I said sure and she said we're you know she basically said we're close to the deadline of measuring um applications for Next Generation F your educat for Scholars I and um so backstory on that you may recall that last year I had shared with you that the record we had for um applications was short of 600 five something TI yeah it's like a quiz now because you just blown past it and it it had been 500 and something and Ty and her direct supervisor said you know we've never grown any more than just like you know incrementally and so they said 700 and she they finished the year 958 this year white white I trying to stop me in the hallways say well we're approaching the deadline and and um we don't do the final number yet everybody but the team and Tai are going to blow the old record out of the water and my point in telling you that is because one we are setting my goals and and we're measuring and we're talking about them all the time and how can we help each other the other thing we do that I don't know that others do this but we think it's pretty important is every person in our agency as every other person's want and I know for a matter of fact that they take time to look at this and then they tell me hey so and so had this brilliant idea to help me lead on this or I thought hey you know the uh Outreach coordinators could help on this and just across the board and um the primary thing I want to share with you is the goals will being met um we're pleased but not satisfied which is why all the goals are higher than um but that the way in which these individuals are supporting each other because they know it relates to those those seven big goals they want to move the needle you know they are at Commission because they believe in the work that's getting done and so um I be really would miss if I didn't share that way we got all kinds of nerdy numbers around our gos if you want to dig into with me or but Michelle probably knows all the by heart for every person every goal you think I'm kidding I'm not by the way that's around 180 goals within an agency all tied principally to five five big things we're trying to do focus is a good thing uh I would also like to introduce a a new team member we have Mitchell Mitch here stand up don't hide behind here get up here um great thanks Mitch Mitch just recently joined our team it's a CP program manager um thrilled to have him on board he's been with us for a few weeks and just it's just a great addition um funny story I think everybody in this room and de hoer you know the world is about this big and um I makeing the practice to either you know sort of a soft interview slash at least talk with every person who joins our team have interns in here I know Joe you so Mitch and I had one of those conversation I did find out he likes to go by Mitch right only your brothering children yeah when in trouble when you're in trouble I said I can relate to that um but then then the world is so small I said you wouldn't happen to be related to a bite just new for a long time so you probably did to Gordon um who was sort of a legend of Indiana history especially in the 70s 80s '90s and he said well he was my great uncle and very just love how small Indiana is anyway Mitch welcome Stu today yeah well no I about that they burn um so the next kind of fun thing I get to do is to talk um is to share just a little bit of news that I I know Nancy Dan and others our team also wanted to make sure we recognize and I'll probably get in trouble now for embarrassing Dennis Bland um yes sir um Dennis was recognized recently uh just with a trific award the recorder Media Group 2025 award you may know have read about those recently and just um a recognition of just really distinguished leaders in our state for just exemplary work that they do and very specifically um commission member Dennis Bland was awarded Dr Martin Luther King Jr fre you know I couldn't help but think again last night as I was looking at my notes Dennis that our new governor talks about two words a lot and wow this this moment in time of course the U holiday you know recognizing the commemorated life of Dr Martin Luther King was just passed it's usually right around my birthday so I I look forward to it and but I thought have opportunity that Governor bra talks a about freedom and opportunity and the then you've exemplified that understanding through your leadership of of what Freedom really means and what it brings you can I have something thing to myself um L any of us take that for granted um what it means for us in the free Society each day can get better at it but I mean it is I mean you know how I feel about you Dennis it's humbling to be able to offer comments about you and then to put it in in perspective of what you have done for many years at the center for leadership development and that's bring opportunity bring opportunity quite often to um many folks who would not otherwise have had it and I think commission members that speaks so well for what youve committed to do in your commission so again Dennis I know on behalf of all of us we're just so delided for you and say thank you for your leadership Nancy I promise you I was going to be more brief this time I I have really just one more slide to cover okay um the team is over there thinking w we are moving along today um just a couple of quick things and this is for our institution Partners especially but also to sort of update you as commission members U commission members some of you are very familiar with it Larry who I noed on the phone today Larry and I talked about the stra state opportunity index multiple times and others certainly on the commission and I talked about it you know about it just a a critical report that our friends at strata education launched last spring uh this this state was the first to get to see the results we actually got a preview of them before they became public and it focuses on five really critical pillar looks at every state doesn't rank us but puts puts us into one of four buckets how well we're doing um very specifically you make recall that str's assessment and it's very fa assessment is that no state was uh really doing anything beyond sort of Developmental stage around career coaching and work-based learning however Dr Jenner um others in this room um the state has been working on both of those things diligently including with the the design credential of value really reimagine high school our highed institutions pushing on things like career coaching and work based learning because they also know we want more of those graduates to stay right here in again those are part of the recipe to get them to stay and so you know we're we're pleased we can't be satisfied on those two but with all that said strata uh heard and saw the research was just so important to all of the states we we we our team spent a lot of time St up talking about the research having them come and talk with us U giving suggestions and ideas and they're doing a new survey 2025 version and they're looping in U 2-year and fouryear institutions instead of we're working with the institutions to help with the the survey work um this is to assess how well students you think these things have occur in a variety of different ways they're measuring so anyway we want you as commission members to know we continue part very closely with stata uh the new surveys is coming out our institution is going to be participating in that and of course you know in some months we'll have a report to share with you all and you know be digging through um nominations for the faculty nominating committee are due uh Friday February 7th you can see it on screen here um I know Dr Loch Miller has just been an incredible addition we're going to talk a little bit more here uh about some other upcoming events like the uh AI um faculty leadership conference that really focused on artificial intelligence that's just coming up the week and so you can see the information there our team is the person to whom nomination should be made and then lastly you have in your packets commission members a set of talking je thank you u in this instance I think at this at this table over different times some of you said you have we could have and U we probably went overboard so we wanted to make it more of a menu for you thank you yes we're Team um but we we wanted to sort of make it a menu for you you hear us throw out a lot of numbers right you know the 60% goal or 53% going rate or n in the nation at uh uh you know completion rates now and so forth but that is in your deck and yeah so ranging from I'm just going to give you the Highlight the 60% role you hear us talk all the time about the pipeline you've got some bullet points there we know you won't use all of them you pick and choose um the economic and social metrics those are ones that um I think many of you have given a lot of attention certainly when we are out talking around the state they get a lot of attention the fact of the matter is um you know when someone progresses to a high school diploma you know some post high school training and education and then to a bachelor and higher their lock in life just measurably distinctly improves that's just all areas to it um and so you know the facts folks you know we see that in Unemployment uh I you know I pause for a second our latest number folks in Indiana with a bachelor's degree have an unemployment rate most recent numbers it's only 1.8% that's pretty much non-existent um however for those with less on high school diploma getting back to think Dr Jenner and we and others are working on exceeds 10% um and then flipping the page I think it's also important to point out that that same comparison you know it was someone without a high school diploma someone with bachelor's degree and higher you know that the very big difference five more than fivefold in unemployment and you can see things like we've been reporting on these for a long time but but things like uh you know Medicaid utilization right I think that's a nearly sixfold uh difference there so anyway stats that you hear us talk about all the time we just want you to have them um college going rate certainly we talk about that quite a bit completions few facts again talk about agenda um things around outcomes based performance funding for some of you are newer to the commission um you know my Aly probably just like dreams about I'm only sort of kidding like U you know the OPC based performance fun funding formula but certainly have less experience with that uh frankco ban Grant caught a lot of attention because of the you know Spike uh resulting from federal Fiasco um by way ongoing conversations we really talk much about that today but ways to help keep students whole the media College core FASA pre admissions um our data strategy again that you Brook really LED standing up um research recently completed our strategic management process or S&P we actually refer to it and then you the good news I I think this commission has been really bold about not shying way where our challenges are and more so thinking of them as opportunities but in as a result of a lot of that work you know for many years and and you know certain concentrations in the past couple years on the very last slide there are things that you know commission members and all of us just need to talk about more we need to shed a little bit of the H your humility and let folks know that Indiana is eight and eBay's Financial a and we for the nation Dave Tucker reflecting on your comments about certification C MJ there Tech and you the work that's been done to to lift up the sub associate degree credential fit in the nation that's remarkable um our institutions you know we I know Dr Jenner pointed out yesterday the raise of Means Committee was delighted the sixth past in the nation now continuing um for for years now at holding down tuition um you know my view I'm a premarkets person and best way to meure where the best schools in the nation are is to see where people uh where they come to where they where they uh spend their money ha best in the nation uh institutions right here in Indiana and the new number of commission members because I think the last time we spoke with you um we were tied for 10 we had been 11th for a little while prior to that we were 14 not long ago uh you all know we were 14th in the nation at completion rates we are now ninth officially in the nation at completion rates please but not satisfied um and at least internally we'll adjust this somehow in our boarding over time but um you know frankly the the team we kind of put our hands at Center maybe I just push it a little bit and said okay our has been to be top 10 in those things and we will tell you right now our completion rate goal for 2030 has changed and is be the number one state nation in completion rates U it's you know at this point we should require nothing less than that so okay that was a lot I'm glad to take any questions or comments Nancy and and just thank you all for indulging that conversation I just have com again I may have missed this all long but um what struck me is the n is the only state United States that uses graduation attention yes surprising St is yeah absolutely that said I think um some other states may be follow I guess U because when I asked K I asked my peers Chio State hirate executive officers organization um when I brought this up a couple of years ago I guess now a little more than a couple of years ago it was uh you know the silence was deing as they say and I do know other states are talking about it haven't P trigger yet but hope it D so we have the advantage there but yeah question for the group we are a little ahead of schedule does anyone need a quick break or should thank you Nancy a great call smashing ncy U really quickly I also want to mention to you I I it's going passing just like to give you a few more details um our faculty leadership conference is scheduled for next week in Bloomington on Friday 9:45 starts around 9 or so um again you know I I it's going to be incredible artificial intelligence Focus uh but uh Dr Chad Miller has been leading that effort and and has yeah I know few more meetings before we did the transition P to stay with this um but I it's been fun watching him just really engage with our team again I didn't ask for permission on this but U we just we talk all the time and talk all the time he does with our team uh in setting these things up and um yeah I think that's why we're uh able to engage I don't know team do you know what the registration is right now for next Friday or it full I know I'm thr c b here it's a 208 right nowc registration the bowl is 250 and I owe Dr l mler a steak dinner yeah by the way have a stretch goal I think it's probably originally B somebody pushed and said let's let's BMP that up so anyhow just want to make sure you're Weare that and I guess break time now let's take a let's take a quick break and be back by 10:30 by because I want to make sure we've got time for question and answers and dialogue with Dr Jenner so back at 10:35 and we'll right back out e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e just to keep us right on time again we want to make sure we have plenty of time for we are ready for you if you don't talk into the microphone we can't hear you don't you worry Larry Larry the microphone for you and high I can't see her face right now smiling um you know talking to the commissioner when getting coffee I asked if he was comfortable I share the story I think some folks know this um others certainly do not um Chris and I started having coffee about 10 to 12 years ago at a coffee shop in Batesville pretty often what's that coffee shop called AMX well AMX well it's still there little plug for AMX well um but you could find commissioner Lowry and I there and we talk both of us could talk let's be honest so they were long cofes we were very caffeinated by the end of those cofes um but Chris was living in baseball at the time I was living in Madison and both of us were on fire to try to do everything we could to help our part of the state which was Southeastern Indiana not be one of the lowest educational attainment rate regions in the country and um gosh both of us had so many stories about people who if we had just connected with them earlier that it would have changed their life and then and and then again this went on we we had copies for years and years so then it ended up like let me tell you about this person and how you know the blurry line between kto highed Workforce how it how it helped them and um we even and you didn't give me permission to say this I'm going say we even even um at one point uh 10 to 12 years ago we're going to write a book together and yeah don't open records rep back that no I'm kidding I'm kidding actually um the the whole point of of sharing that is uh and those of you who know me um my faith is strong everything um I know we all come with in in different walks of faith and uh but all I can say is the good Lord works in mysterious ways because we we started that little coffee shop in Beville dreaming big about how to help South Eastern Indiana um and have had the opportunity to work together to push together to battle together um I only look forward to that continuing uh commissioner and so it is truly quite an honor um you know thinking about our opportunity ahead in Indiana uh we have an opportunity to build an education system where we blur the lines between K12 higher education and the workforce and I want to make one thing really really really clear we are going to battle those details that is part of a healthy process of of pushing um we are going to battle the detail how to push through the barriers um almost weekly I have a state who who calls and reaches out and said how was Indiana moving how are you all doing this and it's truly I think because uh we are willing to have honest conversations with each other number one we're willing to not let the perfect get in the way of the good we're willing to implement and then we're willing to learn from what works celebrate that but Al learn from what doesn't work and be humble enough to adjust and so just huge shout out to this commission um and to the many Educators k12 and hire at in this room and uh throughout the state who are all working to make it better uh for hooers and your each and change agent roles we're all in here and change agent roles and we have to just keep that momentum and push to make it better because we are absolutely on to something special okay I just jumped like multiple slides right there all right uh most of you know right now I think everyone probably knows the commissioner just shared uh the governor has eight cabinet secretaries uh what most people might not know is the state has over 70 state agencies and so uh this is the way Governor M Bron has selected uh to organize so we are a part of the education version and on team education if you will it is uh the Department of Education the State Board of Education the commission for high the charter board the education employee relations board the Indiana School for the Deaf the Indiana school for the blonde IND visually impaired and the Indiana State library that is team education and our goal our shared goal is um ultimately number one to best serve hooers uh to do everything we can to make in our case these Paths of opportunity and freedom as seamless as possible uh for hooers this includes focusing on driving efficiencies one such example commissioner Lowry shared today um across our vertical in particular secretary it'll just take one second okay um you can tell my patience level I'm like come on come on uh so can you go to the next slide would you mind yeah across our vertical um one thing that the commissioner and I spoke about and others have as well is you know we don't need eight Chiefs of Staff and eight CFOs and eight General councils and you know how can we really have a more efficient vertical um where we can streamline communication really really work together um how could we continue to focus on and really double down on increasing accountability and transparency so that we can set those key goals and keep moving the needle so that's one of the areas that I'm beyond pumped to work with the commission on I'm gonna click and I'm GNA delay okay there we go I think the delay is on this one maybe correct because this one's moving and that one is still not there we go now it is um so this is what I was mentioning earlier when Seth Hinshaw's name came up um higher typically runs about 10% of the budget um this current budget at the start at 99.4% 4.4 billion and I know that uh staff will walk through some more of the numbers K12 typically is a right 50% um we're right uh usually over the bium um around 21 22 billion um for K12 education so together team education we are 60% of Indiana's budget um step is gonna talk a bit more about this but I just want to call out um one of the the big things that I'm watching uh that I know the commissioner is and others uh when you were that much of the budget like any squeeze any tightness it causes challenges for us um once not only so we're looking at the revenue forecast uh was less than we've seen in the past several budget years and Seth will get into this 3% year one but 3% year two and then the Medicaid squeeze is keeping me up at night for sure because that level of growth is really what uh is squeezing our space a bit and I know that uh that's a bit out of our Lane right um the decisions that that they'll make at the State House will impact that I know we have a lot of Advocates uh who are also for team education um but but that's real and honest oh and that's it okay so I guess question or com yeah reflection for our group is I don't think it dawned on me when you put this all together that it's 60% of the budget it doesn't Dawn on most people but it is yes but also it it makes me appreciate that this group has such a strong fuer commitment to taxpayers to the students of the state and I just going to say that I'm even now more happy that you're in this role when I know how much of the budget it is thank you thank you I appreciate that and I'm glad we have a team of people who are helping to to make sure we spend 24 to 26 billion dollars to the best of our ability and and call out we've been very honest about this in in k12 and I know Chris you and I have talked about that across the board but where are we getting the return on investment let's invest more in that where are we not getting the most return on investment okay let's take those dollars and reallocate them um I spoke a lot to Ways and Means and uh commissioner Ally you were there yesterday um at the ways and means but we talked a lot about where are we getting the return where can we best invest these dollars um I gave some specific examples about reading where we've invest in millions one place Millions other places where we're getting the return is where we're going to uh realate to keep moving the needle other questions comments thoughts and most of you have my cell phone I think conveniently I think I know nearly everyone before coming on here uh J I think I'm okay without the uh microphone um I just wanted to say as we sit Larry might want to hear your voice thanks Secretary General um I just want to say as we sit here and you know I know the Medicaid um anything with Healthcare obviously is not in our lane but I think just an overall uh the the general picture here is we talk about education as it comes out of my mouth you know it's going to sound ridiculous because it's simple and what we are trying to do and that is to get more people educated in our state but uh an educated population uh and the higher on that scale you go the the longer you live uh I think the the healthc care is affected by a state that has a better educated populace so I think that's something to think about in the in the overall scheme of things is if we can drive down healthare cost through having more educated uh populous I think that's super important something to to always kind of think of in the back for so yeah absolutely and that's also s a big part of the conversation that we've already started having and we'll continue to have is um again let's learn from what works so we know that uh with the commission's help and with K12 uh with our higher ad Partners we are seeing more and more students earn Market driven credentials of value while at high school and that could and there's a bill that I probably will be discussed later um if we can continue to improve our stackability and stackable credentials then Indiana's ranking uh with some of our short-term credentials could continue to improve also when we look at hopefully right the associates degree the bachelor's degree level Etc a lot of opportunity there but I think the the work that Indiana is doing and again blurring the line between K12 higher ad is going to be key I go on as well but I'm thinking brevity and my mind out of respect for the Commissioners yeah I I have to tag on that to I'm so glad you and Secretary General raised that topic um you know the talking the refresh talking points that we have given all do hard cops electronic by the way those be the audience anybody wants it you're welcome to G reps were just sending it to you everybody talking about these stories right um but in that economic and social Mobility or economic and social for bite do and those each of those FES that makes the point for us right you'll see on the social uh impact side of it Medicaid is column staff utilization let me tell you we don't have room for all the stats on there but the way that they scale is also the same for housing assistance it is also the same for utility assistance pick a data one and it just gets better as we have attainment um and and also I have pull on the thread Secretary General that you referenced with return on investment you all many of you will recall that two years ago when along with secretary Jenner and others Le State housee um you pushed us push through Auto for 21st century Scholars first of all there a lot of T pushing for that which is great that that's way you have do it right and end up being bipartisan gay um but I'll Tell You Folks at the end of day what sold the story was a return investment analysis said just on the economic side of it wages would increase over the expected wages that an individual who would have by tenfold over the over the original investment State 10 fold what we didn't look at was the other half of the equation which I'm looking at our team saying I know that now what would be the expected savings right on the other side someone's not having to use Public Assistance you besides making more living longer and all those other great things right so the equation return investment I just I have to underscore that your comment Secretary General that that's um those are real outcomes that we can measurably distin see as we you know move these agendas forward and and commissioner I'll also just add you know these discussions are active with our um presidents and Leadership of universities listening to v s and I know we didn't have time for questions and they've had to head out the door um some things that we all listen for different things and some things I was listening for included um Market driven always retention in Indiana uh but also stackability of credentials and uh the work-based learning apprenticeships work and so I went through this is like for future higher EDS that present uh all of us have looked for full disclosure um but I always go through and circle and like code uh and this is common terminology that we're hearing right now from our presidents in higher education and and I just I really really appreciate that United partnership as well it is is tough to navigate and change a massive system uh for the good right tough um but Indiana Indiana is set to to do that and keep doing it so exciting um I we'll get to Dennis I think we've got a couple of our commissioners on the phone does anyone have a question on the phone no I would like to just compliment uh Katie Indiana's leading the country and education reform and it's your vision and Leadership this do it Katie so thank you very much thank you Larry it's teamwork there are a lot of people who are working to get this done you're one of them Larry go late night phone called text messages you get them too commissioner they matter thank you secretary congratulations and thank you for your presentation and and I know this is early and premature but just fallowing up on your last time this is obviously such a seems to me to be such an obvious and even transformative institutional alignment government realign yeah I know it's premature just as you get into this role with this dramatic realignment I would love to hear some immediate thoughts regarding Revelations insights and opportunities and then I'll just be looking to ask that same question that year for now but Revelations the mediate insights again from this alignment bringing all this together and then opportunities that you may fore based upon this dramatic realignment thank you Thinking Out Loud here um which is sometimes dangerous but let's do it um one of the the big elements uh that I did not know how it would go is uh H how willing and it's not just because I'm here with HRA today I would say this so ways a me that they asked me yesterday too but how willing K12 in higher aded or willing to just tear down as many barriers as possible to work together I mean they are calling us saying can you get this out of the way can you get that out of the way gosh what if we did this um and and the reason I highlight that is uh because when I talk to fellow State Chiefs around the country and commissioner you're probably the same way in the high at space that is that is not common at all and it's been quite incredible in Indiana that the Synergy and the willingness and um to really think through not not a defense of like we're not doing that it's more of like what if we did this that's really where a lot of the thought has been the other thing that I would call out is um again I said this earlier I think the good board works in mysterious ways um maybe you saw some of the headlines that were hitting me and H you saw I don't know all of you smile and chuckle you did because I heard from some of you um I think that that was a really U meant to be moment uh for our state quite frankly uh because what that showed is we were able to work through something very very tough in a public Arena in that process of of diploma Rison um that first draft wasn't the draft we had thousands truly might have been record setting in terms of how many people waited in on a rule for the state of Indiana we had thousands of people weigh in but all of that made us better and got us to a place of consensus an agreement but it forced the tough discussions it it forced them um um so to me that was when when I was going through it um it wasn't awesome but uh but it was important and I could feel I could feel the growth moment uh in that time um but but seeing everyone come together that was powerful and that shows that we can and we're going to keep on WE ultimately all have the same Mission and that's to do everything we can uh to help kids or adult students uh hooers um and quite frankly uh and I'm a little competitive but to show our country how it's done and Larry's right Indiana is leading in this space and not scares some people by the way I tell you I go into some rooms and when I say Indiana's leading in this space it's it's probably some of them are like yeah and some of them are like why are we leading we shouldn't be leading Indiana never leave I'm not kidding you um but we're we're pushing through something very very hard because again it matters for people it matters for the future of our state so I don't know that I wrote them down in the three categories Den did I leave anything out OPP opportunities ahead thank you um I'm very excited about uh what is in um several of the bills that we have going through the State House some of the bills by the way we could do this administratively but when you have the executive branch and the legislative branch with us and driving change it's really really helpful so um I'll give you some quick examples um in the K12 space maybe you heard and the and all of it builds right it's a system we're Team education in the k112 space yesterday uh we were ranked the highest we've ever been in fourth grade reading six in the nation and four grade to the kids at home like all all the things right but we're we're moving on reading so there's a math Bill uh we have to build those foundations better H has been saying this for a long time so we're going to keep pushing this by the way uh respectively uh we were ranked six in the nation in fourth grade reading sixth in the nation in eighth grade reading ninth in the nation and fourth grade math um and 13th in the nation and eighth grade math uh that was our K12 ranking uh for the country um so we've got to keep building those foundations uh there's an accountability Bill going through in the K12 space and then there's some accountability and transparency in the higher ed space that's really really important we've got to set the goals be honest with where we are to keep driving uh I am beyond pumps about the higher ed work work Workforce Development bill that uh Senator good is carrying um there are some elements that we need to tweak let me just call it out I met with Senator micheller yesterday I swear I said it like eight times in the room we are going to fix that yeah remember I said it a minute ago we're going to fix that we're going to fix it we're gon to fix it um I know for is probably in the room and others but there's a line in there about 50% um gosh because we're going to fix it I'm trying to remember what it says commissioner yeah yeah 50% at every institution's each Campus of every public institution having at least 50% that's right and so yeah there's language going on by the way Senator good is going to join us later this afternoon oh super we're going to do legislative update we is that you visit for grade and I'll add call her and but yeah Senator Good's going to be here at some point so good that it's a great so so that element um we're going to fix but the the reason why that element was so important to discuss as you've been focused on retention we know it's an Indiana student coming to an Indiana school they are far more likely to stay in Indiana I think our uh our rate of students who come from out of state to Indiana who are leaving uh what is it 19 about 20% um versus those from Indiana who 74 74% um so we at least wanted to have the honest discussion um I think that there's a solution on the table that we're discussing that uh will be helpful so stay tuned but beyond that I I call that out I always tend to put the elephant right in the middle of the room um beyond that though the bill is really strong uh it it requires um us to start building a stackable credential system so that when hooers off ramp they don't have to restart totally again so that we don't have multiple M showing the stackability but it's really a lot cleaner um uh for uh our K12 our high red and our our people it also includes um again the accountability element um some um program analysis and you know really trying to better understand of the 3400 higher ed programs that we have in the state of Indiana uh there are some phenomenal ones for sure let's Elevate those um every program costs money let's just acknowledge maybe others that um may have very very low numbers um so that transparency is key those are some of the elements that I'm very excited about that uh and and commissioner I'll pass to you as well but again having the executive branch and the legislative branch all saying yes is really really important to move fast go ahead commissioner yeah thanks Secretary General yeah the other element consider good is going to with more death but um I think that point you make about executive and legislative holding hands and we can do something really big something we've talked around these tables about now off and on for a year and a half has been prior learning you all made us the eth state the nation last March to adopt the framework much more detail about where we want to see credit for prior learning go and Secretary General and I talked about this our team has many folks this state is going to lead the cred fire learning period um in honor of the work um and educational experiences that adults bring to whatever that post high school training education looks like this state is going to lead and that's also just another important component of that bill and I can't wait for Senator good to be here to talk more about it yeah um Dennis the other thing that we've already picked up on pretty quickly is um there were some areas that were duplicative across our state agencies that we were doing that Chris and team were doing right so we're already seeing some of that that we can improve upon um and I look forward to you asking that question a year from now uh you could maybe even ask it sooner than that quite frankly because it's we're working together to again bonding efficiency streamline communication increase accountability and transparency and make it better for uh hoers so it's going to be ongoing for sure and and I would say if you see something that you have a question about or an idea uh Dennis other Commissioners other others in this room like please ping us that's where the ideas are coming from yeah thank you do a little bit of a change of order with the agenda um because we want to make sure that we can have Senator good join Greg on the legislative update and because we're still as mid ahead of schedule um we're going to ask Seth to come up and give the financial and budget updates normally we stick him right after lunch when we're getting sleepy so the account we talk to Sleepy people we're still wiw thank you sir count it's pretty good joke um all right is this on so ification okay uh good morning everyone um Madame chair members of the commission dinner commissioner thanks for having me um I do want to point out you know before we get into this um I'm gonna oine just for a moment because I have a microphone um but I I just want to go back to the comments made earlier uh first of all thank you very much uh for the support of this body for the last three years that I spent with the commission uh as seems to be the status quo for my career it wasn't necess necessarily looking to exit but when a good opportunity comes uh and good leadership asks you to move into another opportunity uh it's hard to say no uh so I will deeply deeply miss uh working day-to-day with the commission staff with the members of this commission specifically with the budget and productivity committee members um but I must say I really appreciate the opportunities that I've been given in this role and uh as I mentioned at the budget and productivity committee meeting two weeks ago uh and I've continued to offer my support to commissioner Lowry especially through this legislative session to continue to provide updates to this body to be as supportive as I can especially uh as the commission uh Works through this new organizational structure related to that uh I do also want to give a huge shout out to uh the the three team members uh who were elevated as part of this transition uh and especially I just want to brag a little bit uh that I think recommending Brooke Kyle uh be brought on to the Comm a few year or I guess a year ago just a little over a year ago it's one of the best professional decisions that I've ever made uh and so I leave you in phenomenal hands and yeah just want to say that um well let's dive in I have a clicker okay I'll look over here because apparently that's the the quick one um you know we've already talked a little bit about this Secretary General shared a quick uh pie chart update to give you a look at really what we're talking about um I'm going to focus on the higher ed portion today because of course that's been the focus of this body's work um now in my new role I'm of course looking uh in a number of different areas as well uh including the two schools Indianapolis school for the the de and School for the Blind visually impaired um and and really enjoying a lot of that work but today we'll focus on highered one thing I think that's worth noting uh we're going to get into the revenue forecast get into the Medicaid forecast just a little bit but I think to set the stage for you two years ago the state moved from a budget of approximately uh 38 billion make sure I get my numbers right uh to sorry $36 billion to $44 billion from 18 billion a year to 22 billion a year and so that's really the the position that we're all entering this legislative session is you know combining the incredible volume of federal funds that the state received with incredibly robust state revenue growth that occurred um you know following the pandemic and the the Boon that occurred um the reality is that state government is kind of in this incredibly incredible historic position of just coming off of one of the most we'll call it generous uh appropriation periods in State history uh I know we talked a lot about that specifically at higher ed two years ago and we've kind of continued to talk about that since um but based on the revenue forecast uh in December revenues are still doing fairly well uh we're still expecting kind of more back to normal if you will Revenue growth we're not talking about decline l in revenue or even Flatline in Revenue but you're not talking about the billions and billions of dollars of new Revenue that the state was dealing with uh January through April of 2023 just on second set sorry yeah all Vamp you you vamped too much at the beginning yeah I did my vamp in already sorry Alison um you know one thing I'll note we did present uh the education vertical budget to the Ways and Means Committee yesterday commissioner Lowry uh Secretary General and um and I think one thing I do want to highlight is uh I feel very very good that there's strong uh expectations of uh the Education team uh in the BR Administration but but also a lot of trust uh and a lot of support that I think we can expect uh from you know the house as of yesterday hoping to see similar uh outcomes from the senate in a couple of weeks uh and I believe that the state will be better for um the people that are placed into these roles maintaining that trust and support from the general assembly as well as from the governor's office all right title page okay so at a very high level jumping back into the revenue forecast and again I really want to set the stage today you know these figures are comparing to uh the revenue numbers specifically are comparing to the revenue forecast in April of 2023 and the reason I do that here is because that is the revenue that was on the table to be budgeted if you will in the last budget so when you're looking at how much new state ongoing revenue is expected this budget cycle versus last budget cycle you're looking at about 760 million a year one and then nearly flat uh another hund yeah another 70 or so million dollars in year two again these are both compared to that 23 expectation for fiscal 25 and so that's also somewhat abnormal traditionally what you would expect revenues to see in a forecast is say plus 2% in year one and plus another 2% in year two and so that is kind of built into the culture of budgeting right where you see uh specifically more investment made in that second year so this relatively flat Revenue growth in the second year of the budget also creates some unique uh challenges and a budget model right where you may see investment in year one uh but it will be significantly more challenging than the previous B year regardless of Revenue levels to see a similar compounding investment in year two and you'll kind of see that throughout the governor's reced budget and frankly you'll probably see something similar in uh the next iterative steps of the budget until the April Rue forecast updates uh Medicaid specifically obviously there's been a lot of headlines about this uh I want to start by saying I am no Medicaid expert i s spent a brief period of my career working in the Health and Human Services space and state finance but that's been long enough now that I won't wait too far into those Waters um but I think it's really important to note in aggregate what we're really looking at is Medicaid expenditures which the governor's budget fully funds and has he's maintained his commitment to fully funding that completely absorbing any and all new state revenue growth that's really the headline we have relatively good Revenue growth 700 and $800 million of new state revenue is not a bad figure the challenge is that it's completely absorbed by anticipa expenditure increases in the Medicaid Program and that's really what's driving a lot of the conversation in the State House what's driving conversations by the budget agency and the governor's office uh and I'm sure all the secretaries uh all the secretaries offices and agencies is that recognition that yes the state is in a relatively fiscally healthy position uh strong reserves prudent fiscal management uh the challenge is Medicaid expenditures are absorbing uh any new funding opportunities that would otherwise exist so let's jump over now and talk through at a very high level uh what's included in the governor's recommended budget for higher education uh Secretary General spoke earlier a little bit about this um the governor actually just last night uh his State uh the state of duress spoke a little bit about these priorities including things like teacher teacher pay Public Safety school safety um a lot of local government Finance issues related to Pary Tex and things of that sort uh but let's zero in on higher education you may have heard uh that among a number of cost-saving initiatives that the governor has proposed um are administrative kind of cost savings opportunities across all of state government which equate to about 5% on average for most administrative line items in state government so specifically what we're talking about here is operating dollars not programmatic dollars but operating dollars uh for the institutions um I can say with extreme confident having worked very closely with commissioner Lowry uh in preparing for this that the commission is in a very strong place and a good place uh to manage through uh these uh cost reductions uh that are being proposed in the budget Bill uh and frankly I think the commission is probably a little bit ahead of the curve as far as being prepared uh and able to kind of uh manage through that CHR I'll call for you commission members um the commission took steps to meet guidelines uh to achieve these cost savings on the first day the Governor's in office so it was our intent to move quickly because this is a necessity to PR funding for uh priorities been set forth so SE thank you and thanks for your help in helping achieve that a team effort amongst many people but I just wanted you all know that LE done immediately thank you commissioner um the commission also included in its uh budget recommendation an increase for the CBO program uh the CBO program among a number of other things provides uh reimbursement to our public and private institutions for fee remission tuition remission they provide to Children of disabl veterans to Children of Public Safety professionals Etc um that is an interesting program because students have to self-identify and there's an application process through that program it's not some sort of click the button and automatically apply to anyone mostly because we don't always know the institutions don't always know who these students are but they've been doing a much better job at helping students self-identify Mak students aware of that opportunity so the program has grown fairly consistently over the last several years the governor's recommended budget includes uh a consistent flat appropriation to what was appropriated in fiscal 25 for that program to be very clear that does not mean that those students won't receive that benefit statute is very clear that a tuition remission uh they will not be charged tuition once they're identified uh and their application is approved uh but it does mean that uh the total dollars requested by the public and private institutions to reimburse them from that cost may not be available uh if the program even stays flat at its fiscal 25 level or grows uh and so we've been in very close communication with the financial a community uh we have very good relationships there uh and we'll continue to keep them updated but we'll have updates for the commission uh as we move forward through the budget process and and what the implementation of that looks like uh Additionally the governor's recommended budget does call for uh a number across the state uh of very targeted and specific line item uh reductions and eliminations uh the governor I think announced over $700 million in uh reductions throughout the budget uh he he's kind of put those into two buckets right the majority of that is in very targeted line item uh ation or reduction uh programmatics specifically looking for efficiencies looking for better outcomes from spending the same dollars elsewhere as well as those administrative reductions that we talked about which accumulates to about $90 million a year the One impact for the commission is the stem teacher recruitment program the stem teacher recruitment program I think's been around for about a decade now uh it's $5 million a year it is granted to a number of entities uh including University partners and other thir nonprofits uh with the goal the stated goal of supporting uh the Recruitment and preparation for uh students to eventually go into a career in the stem teaching profession and there's a number of other initiatives kind of at play in a similar space uh there's a number of other works you know the Department of Education uh does work in this area and so that line item was not included in the governor's recommended budget um again that's a grant program not a student financial aid program so there was no negative imp the Student Financial LA and if I may uh that was an example Dennis to your earlier question of um a potential duplication right uh we do have efforts to recruit stem teachers within the department um again none of this is fun you all taking out your red pin if we talked about the Department of Education we'd be here a lot longer than Seth is going to be on one time uh that was why Ways and Means was twice as long as it was supposed to be yesterday um but I did want to flag we take ttim stem teacher recruitment very very seriously um we're just trying to look anywhere in the couch cushions to see what we can do uh when we're in this situation thanks that absolutely um university operating University operating uh was uh held at the fiscal 25 appropriation level um however importantly the governor's recommended budget did not include the base building uh outcomes based performance funding monies that were earned in fiscal 2025 that is something that secretary Jenner commissioner Lowry and I have kind of raised up the flag poll and we working with both the governor's office budget agency and legislative leaders uh to ensure it's made very clear that uh the governor uh secretary Jenner commissioner Lowry strongly are committed to Performance funding for higher education just like they're strongly committed to Performance funding at an agency level we're hearing a lot of that there um and I think frankly um you know I think there was some amount of intention right to hold that flat uh and so as we' worked through kind of educating uh some some key team members on specifically how the funding formula works because as a reminder the funding formula uh the way it shows in the budget bill was brand new in the 2023 budget uh historically it had been done differently uh and so working through that um we're hoping uh that we can work through this and again something you'll hear uh many people state in the coming weeks right is uh the budget is an itera process uh and we remain committed to Performance funding um both at the secretary's office I know commissioner low and the commission remain very committed to Performance funding uh and I know the administration does well will continue to work through what that exactly looks like uh through the budget process and I would just emphasize uh the governor's office has doubled down on this we flagged that already through House and Senate leadership it's very important the work you've done and we'll continue to advocate for that even in an incredibly type budget uh it it matters dual credit uh so the commission for the last decade has recommended uh $50 per CR per credit hour for Technical and high priority dual credit courses and Technical uh and sorry Technical and high priority dual credit is a list that's managed and own by the commission uh it is not all dual credit it is exactly what it sounds like it's much it's much more focused than that um but the commission has made that recommendation for many years General Assembly while there has been a little bit of movement over time usually based off of Financial Health State and the availability of dollars has tried to as best as it can maintain that $50 that $50 per credit hour um recommendation the governor's recommended budget um held line items flat to fiscal 25 levels so the total spend Still Remains around $30 million importantly another item that uh education leadership is flagged for the governor's office and the leg lure is that holding line items flat doesn't really take into account the different work that's being done across our institutional partners and and really more than seven institutions so take for example I think if Purdue Northwest saw a 10% growth in the Dual credit funding uh or so the Dual credit credit hours that they provided students from last Bia to this Bia uh whereas ivtech provided 30% more dual credit credit hours between last Bing and this bingum well holding those line ad of Appropriations flat effectively creates a significant swing in the dollar per credit hour that we're providing to those institutions and so uh we're going to be working to uh at whatever the total funding level is create some sort of per credit hour parody amongst the institutions uh right now that would look around $42 per credit hour or something like that um but I do want to to make sure that we fit yep to make sure that we fit within uh what the budget allows for but we do that as equitably and effectively as possible with our institutional Partners who again as a recollection this is based off of the 2223 Academic Year data that these funding recommendations are based on so these are credit hours already provided students already educated uh really a year and a re and by the time they see the funding two and three years and a re so we're continuing to work on that um the governor's recommended budget did not include EXC will that be effective July 1st I mean you're working on right now so the tournament theb exactly so the funding that we're talking about now will begin July one of this of this current year that'll be the beginning of fiscal 26 uh and continues for the next two years through fiscal 27 or June 30th of 2027 uh RNR was not includ Ed in the governor's recommended budget uh RNR is kind of an interesting creature in that it is obviously utilized by institutions for Capital purposes um but it is included as an above the line if you will in the State Surplus statement as kind of an ongoing um cost if you will there uh and so again we're contining to communicate the administration uh continue to communicate with their institutional Partners House and Senate to kind of work through that um but that was not included in the governor's recommended budget and then part for the course and I think it's worth reminding that commission members um the sorry I should say this first the governor also did not include any new capital funding for institutional capital projects in uh his recommended budget and I would just like to not that's part for the course um the the governor has rarely ever included University capital in their recommended version of the budget Bill uh and so I think it is worth noting uh that you know at a very high level this is this is kind of how this is always operated the the budget is a very iterative creature uh we are working through unique times uh because of the pinch uh being created by uh the Medicaid Program uh at a time when revenues are fairly strong and stable uh and so there's a there's a lot of uniqueness to what we're going through right now and I just keep coming back to you know you go from where we were in the 21 budget to where that April forecast came out and two billion dollars of new Revenue was was announced the 23 legislative session and budget where where several billion dollarss of new Revenue was known for the whole Obsession to where we are today where there's still strong revenues uh but those Medicaid expenditure postco uh policy adjustments and and all of that is is really we like better terms eating the lunch uh of the state budget and so we are committed to continuing to work through this process um you know I think secretary J said yesterday you know the budget is until signing die it's written in pencil. concrete uh and so we'll continue to partner uh with all the necessary parties to to get to the Finish Line in as strong a place as we can for Education said great explanation on all that well done reference to all commission members um when bpc adopted this recommendation in October you adopted your recommendation in November um something that you uniquely did that was really beneficial to us especially if we look at the new Revenue expense forecast so high is De prioritized um and that has been a I can't tell you how important that has been to us at the highest level you said operating funding first second we literally number them second s talked about those arnard dual credit third being capital and then fourth being increase uh to the formula around RNR I say that to you because it's especially uh significant for us as we work together with Dr Jenner and legislative leaders governor's office and so forth that you you helped to give us a road map on where your primores are again when you took your work uh you know when you completed your work on the recommendation back in November we didn't have the forecast RI and certainly the governor trying to think of the government didn't get them formly elected but you know had certainly set his priorities and so forth but just that prioritization um I'm going to do thought doing probably probably s um anyway it is service well so thank you for doing it yeah can I ask one question um on the CVO program if that fund is expired or fut down then who's responsible for the associated yeah great question so the institutions themselves are responsible for providing the tuition remission to the students they then seek reimbursement from the state uh for that dollar amount we're working through right now what it looks like if we exceed uh in 2024 uh we were on track to exceed that appropriation and I should also note that fund has had a uh carry forward balance in it for several years because it has Additionally underspent the appropriation but in the last two years our institutions have done a very very good job helping identify students who are eligible for that award apply for it and so the doll the in cost has been increasing But to answer your question uh the institutions are required by to provide that tuition remission regardless if the reimbursement level is sufficient to fully pay for that cost and then I would really quickly if I if I could wrap I apologize lastly I just want to note uh you'll continue to get updates um and again I've committed to commissioner Lowry to support him through this process uh The house's budget will release sometime in mid-February I've kind of noted the specific technical deadlines in here usually those budgets come out a few days before those deadlines um and so mid-February here in just a few weeks we should have a strong idea of the priorities of the house uh and then early to mid April we should have a a strong idea of the priorities of the Senate and then towards the end of April uh is when the magic happens in conference committee and and uh you know the three uh the the three players if you will the house senate and uh executive branch will come together and kind of negotiate that Landing place there will also be a put it on here an updated Medicaid and revenue forecast in April uh and so there we'll also know that and so I think it's just worth noting going going back to the pencil not and not and stone the April revenue forecast has historically been you know it's it's it's always some amount of a game Cher um and there's always groups and interest uh who are waiting for that forecast and kind of keeping their fingers crossed that something wonderful is going to happen that doesn't always occur um but you know hopefully revenues remain strong uh you know God willing uh Medicaid expenditures uh will come down uh I know the administration is working really hard uh to to find efficiencies where they can but we'll continue to keep you updated throughout the process first of all as I think about your your new role and I look at this vertical first thought that comes to mind for me is sincerely how envious I am of you and your role I do not sure thank you I don't know if you ever set out in your career Journey even in the world of Education where you said I'm going to have an opportunity to work in a space that will also include school for the debt or the Deb the blind that's really de so again Kudos the question use the question I as to Dr Jenner again early right any Revelations any insights any opportunities thank you yeah happy to answer thank you very much J us and I appreciate your words um also maybe if we you would like to trade we can have that conversation as well um you know I think there's a number of opportunities um something you know from the small from what I call the small stuff like you know identifying the halves and hals Nots within state government right where the secretaries going to break down walls and silos that artificially exist there because they have there's a different business unit people saw terminology you don't need to worry about um to you know to to try and provide you know reasonable similarities and experiences for for state employees and the hooers they serve um I think there's a ton of opportunity there uh specifically the two schools I've had the opportunity to meet with the finance team and some other leadership with both the schools uh and there so much opportunity there something a lot of people don't know is the schools both of the schools serve more than just the students who are residentially located on their campuses and I mean you know the beauty of uh education and Indiana is that the parents of the children uh who may qualify to attend those schools either locally or residentially still have to make that choice it's still their choice on if they want them to be educated locally at a local school corporation uh commute once uh you know one every day back and forth there's a number of students who do that or the tens are you know many many students who are busted in on Monday to start class and are busted home on Friday uh to rejoin their families for the weekend so the responsibility of uh both helping them both identify efficiencies supporting them both uh through the challenges every organization has um while also making sure that we maximize services for the students they serve weighs heavily on me something that you may know uh and others may or may not know is the state is currently investing a substantial sum of money into a Consolidated campus uh a physical location for both schools with at the location uh that's currently the school for the the Blind and Visually paired and I think what's really exciting about that is just like we hear at our college campuses right uhti buildings attract people and I have no doubt those schools are looking forward to I think 2029 is when they're they're expecting to open those doors that when they bring a family for a visit uh that they will feel so much better about leaving their students there either for the day or for the week and I genuinely believe 10 years from now uh we're going to see better educational outcomes from the intensity of services those those two schools can provide um through economies of scaled um through the specialization that really you know are hard to find in other places in the state to the the density that those two schools provide so I would say uh absolutely excited to be a part of the team uh but I also recognize Finance as my role which means I'm not always going to be everyone's favorite person uh and looking forward to working through that as well thank you very much quick followup and then did you talk to about some examples of some of those economies yeah absolutely question for those who maybe didn't the microphone it's a question about ecomod of scale yeah um you know I'll I'll steal a little bit from secretary Lisa hman um who is uh responsible for the Office of Management and budget and all the agencies within that vertical um I think again one of the beauties of these verticals is that not not just within the vertical itself but within all the verticals there's an approach being taken um I mentioned how the halves and have not uh you know something Lisa has talked about is Fleet Services which I know doesn't necessarily impact the commission uh but the state owns a lot of cars and there could be huge variances in the vehicles uh in the usage in the quality and the number that indot needs and has versus the Department of Natural Resources versus State Police versus Department of Corrections uh and so taking a holistic view of that I believe is where we're going to find those efficiencies one thing that I've heard her mention specifically is you may have a agency over here whose average mileage for their vehicles say 5,000 a year and an agency over here whose average utilization of vehicles is 30,000 miles a year right there's an efficiency that that can be found there um so that's just one example um but I'm really excited to partner uh with secretary Jenner and all the agencies obviously commissioner Lowry and and this agency uh to identify ways that we can uh try and make sure uh that we're removing walls and barriers where they don't need to exist uh and and just to be frank it's going to be a challenge it's it's going to take time to get through all of this uh but I'm very excited that the governor and the Administration has taken a very keen interest in efficiency uh something I've shared with the fiscal leaders and all the agencies uh that are within the education vertical is this is our time to shine uh when when when the Administration has strong and high expectations and Leadership has strong and high expectations about uh efficiency that's when fiscal leaders really get to step up and not just pay the bills uh but but lead and so I'm that's my expectation uh fiscal leaders and all the agencies of an education vertical and I believe secretary J's expectation of me all right while we have set we do have three capital projects that need the the V and discussion discuss so um Mike you're the head of the BCC uh well I just say yes we do have three capital projects we met on January 21st and reviewed those and uh the uh uh budget committee brings those forward uh we felt they were worthy of consideration so we do want to bring them forward and I know first we've got one from Indiana University and the medical school so we'll go ahead and thank you Mike members of the commission secretary Jen commissioner Lowry IU is here asking your approval for bu uh the buildout of basement at the IU School of Medicine Medical Education and Research building which if you're driving downtown a new 10 story building next to the new hospital complex is coming along nice very nicely as well as the IU School Medicine van Medical Science building which is located uh in on the IU Indianapolis campus the total of this project is estimated at 20.5 million and will be funded by the I School of Medicine funds uh funds and gifts so primarily research and philanthropic dollars the basement buildout project of approximately 24,500 ft will create additional laboratory space needed to accommodate the growth of research programs and house Laboratories and administrative offices for research cores the Medical Education and Research building is primarily used for academic instruction and this project will house an an Innovative educational lab space for the Department of neuros neurosurgery and uh the Oto andology uh Department as well to support their skull-based programs and we create a destination program for IU School Medicine trainees due to the proximity of educational spaces to one another and the location within the building the Hub uh for research cores and the van Medical Science building will include cores supporting muscular skeletal health and basic science courses research support space will accommodate the growing number of researchers housed in the facility and the freezer farm would add an additional 45 freezers we ask for your support very good thank you very much uh other and now let's have recommendations from staff thank you members of the commission uh first of all I would just like to uh note that Dr bison looks a little different today um but Zach thank you for being here for presenting um I would also know if you may recall I believe it was a year ago the commission reviewed a capital project for a uh additional floor space similar conversation right where they're building uh space for future uh build out of that space as opposed to kind of doing it all at once and they better identify the needs and again this is on that new campus uh that's causing wonderful construction and wonderful traffic problems all down town um but I'm not there anyways with that being said staff does recommend approval of this project have a motion so I'd make a motion for approval all in favor say I I oppos good uh next is Purdue University Northwest uh and a new residence hall good morning everyone uh my name is Kindra letherman director of government relations for um Purdue University first project I'd like to request approval for is to build a new residence hall on the Purdue Northwest Campus it's going to be a a 42,000 square foot residence hall with 150 beds geared primarily for freshman and lower division students estimated total cost is $29 million funded by nonb replaced debt housing and Diving fund um on the financing side we're doing a combination of uh issuing new revenue bonds refinancing older bonds to increase capacity and using $9 million of Reserve to help facilitate that process um at our Purdue Northwest Campus we've had a waiting list uh for housing every year since 2022 and um we have also had an increase in 17,700 new undergrads for fall 2024 um our total enrollment is up 4.3% uh from the previous year and so we in ipate this will help um bring down the weight list if should this project move forward uh if the project is approved we would uh start construction in October um through December of this year great thank you very much I just say as we reviewed this at budget committee we were very focused on the impact on enrollment and uh and what that would had bo in terms of what the current uh housing capacity is and the positive impact this will have and and and also on enroll so with that Zach or Seth would you like to share staff comments I would love for Zach to share I yeah I bet I don't know that Kendra would love that so much uh really quickly I'm not sure but I don't know that we've actually introduced KRA Kendra Leatherman to the full commission before so I just want to welcome Kendra uh to uh I think her first commission meeting am I right okay well I told her I would just embarrass her a little bit uh Kendra and I worked together for many years she joins Perdue from the NC Board of accounts where she was Council for the general counsel uh and altogether uh super super super helpful colleague for many years to me in my role with the commission so uh thrilled for Pur you to have her um the only thing I just want to know regarding the project itself is I think it's just the the commission has had really good conversations in the past about rate setting about uh room and costs and things like that um but I think the pin up demand for student housing really spoke for itself in the project when staff was reviewing it uh and so understanding that there is that unmet demand and also understanding the investment that's happening at Purdue North uh Purdue uh Purdue Northwest uh staff does recommend approval of this project all right and with that I'd make a motion for approval all in favor right and then the third is renewing a lease for Purdue Indianapolis and kend you want to share that again to do this up and down a few times uh thank you everyone uh the next project that we're looking for approval today is for a lease regarding our Lux on Capital lease I'm going explain it a little bit because it's a little convoluted currently we have a lease for the apartment complex on Lux on Capital we're requesting to not only extend the term of the lease but expand the scope of it and so should the project um be approved it'll be a threeyear lease term total through the end of the 26 27 and 27 Academic Year um the entire apartment complex will allow us to have 196 apartments that have 672 beds for student housing uh if the lease is approved we will kind of maintain um control of the entire building uh which is a positive for us in maintaining security and safety for students um the source of funding is from auxiliary funds housing and dining okay corre thanks KRA questions yeah this is one meni just keep it up everybody so just a this was mentioned prior to us and I just wanted the this is a facility that has um the retail on the bottom and so you said you would maintain full control of the building but you're not responsible for the lease and you'll continue to have a office uh retail managers separate is that but will you be managing that also that's a very good question I got some clarification from our team on that the first floor retail space is actually shell space at the moment it's not built down or anything and there's no actual retail in there at the moment we're not intending to build that out um because it's only a three-year Le it would require substantial investment for us at the moment we don't really see the return on that but um you know it all kind of depends on what enrollment at uh Indianapolis campus is and how we had to move forward with the housing on in our Master Okay thank other questions uh stman thank you Mike and members of the commission um following the review that the budget productivity committee uh had with good conversation uh commission R you you engaged actually two weeks ago in and the followup conversation with staff uh commission staff does recommend approval of this project have a motion i' make a motion for approval all in favor I you oppos all right that concludes the budget committee so we we are just a sidge behind where we wanted to be at this point but we got some really important business that taken care of which will help overall but I think at this point I'd like to turn it over to commissioner Lowry for a couple of very important recomendation excellent thank you Nancy yeah this this is one of those things that's just fun right we we spend so many evenings going okay bring the rest tonight the big topics we have we get to honor a couple of folks today um I think Tom Saunders could not be with us um any of you know Tom SP on the commission for a couple of years great contrib to that and we have a brief very brief resolution I read and then iume you'll ask for a motion and vote on that whereas Tom Saunders served with distinction on the Indi for higher education uh since July 2022 as an at member where comm's service on the commissions was back as a bookend to his distinguished career as public servant whereas he brought over 25 years of experience to the commission from his time as an Indiana State Representative providing unique insight into the role legislation plays in increasing po entainment where Tom understood the relationship between education attainment and economic and social mobility and prosperity seeking to increase opportunities for all fers whereas he shared his captivating experiences with significant public figures from all backgrounds as well as fast collection of political liilia with fellow members of the commission now now therefore be resolve that the Indiana commission for higher education expresses its deep appreciation with Tom for service to the state on behalf of the Grateful Indiana higher education system and wishes him every success in his future endeavors and his this is probably a non-controversial resolution that we can all get behind before we take the votee does anyone have any comments or may I have a motion second all right all in favor I any oppos excellent well it's wonderful to honor Tom in that way he really was a valuable member of this recruit and so valuable for the state overall and I think that now we get to talk about someone who Val I'm not sure you could even calculate I'm an accountant but my brain can't even imagine the number of people's lives who would improve because of Dr s and I don't want to get musy so um I did also want to pass along um Dan Peterson really wanted to be here for this he has such deep respect for you Dr sour and he really wanted to say that you have been such an incredible contributor for four plus decades to the state and to educating Cruisers so with this I'm going to turn it over to Dennis Bland who is going to read a resolution for Dr s thank you please yes we want to embarrass you you're doing a good job before I resolution they corn that be S here never got f c no no no Nobel Prize winner but my regard for Dr s so high this is one of the greatest HS I can being able to be in p read this resolution a privilege the resolution honoring Dr Ken s whereas Dr Ken s dedicated nearly four Decades of the state or to the state of Indiana and the Indiana commission high education bringing an unwavering commitment to academic excellence and increasing opportunities for educational attainment for all boes and whereas Dr Ken during Ken's tenure which span seven governorships he left the commissioner academic Affairs and quality committee where he oversaw the review and approve for thousands of degree programs and many strategic initiatives such as the creation of Indiana's competence of community college system through legislative action and whereas Dr sour coordinated commission activities for the statutory infrastructure of Indiana's credit transfer system this Indiana as a national leader in transfer and whereas he developed the Statewide transfer and articulation committee the 88 course core transfer Library the Indiana college core and the 23 transfer single articulation pathways are TPS not to mention exam cour equivalencies for AP cleep IB and the Cambridge International and whereas he harnessed technological innovations to advance higher education in the 21st century such as the transcripts the Indiana credential registry and the transfer Ian and Mike Bish cor websites and whereas he helped launch the nationally transformative effort the state authorization reciprocity agreement or Sarah which Indiana was to first to join and still relies on today and whereas Dr sour maintained active involvement and held leadership positions with many key organizations inside and outside of Indiana such as Meek Indiana's board for prioritary Education hlc NC Sarah M Sarah and Shia and whereas prior to joining the commission Dr SAR worked for the national Center for higher education Management Systems where you provided leadership on a federal contract to produce the classification of instructional programs or CIP codes which the center still uses annually for collecting data from all us colleges and universities now therefore be it result that the Indiana commission education expresses its deep appreciation and gratitude to Dr Ken s for his leadership thoughtfulness and guidance as he concludes his long and distinguished career in public service and we wish him well and God speed in this next chapter of his life motion for approval I thank you thank you very much um members of commission everyone really uh for this resolution a very humbling and touching and be ass sure it means an awful lot to me so thank you once again um so what do you say after 40 years Chris you said I had add an hour right I'll I'll keep it to three point uh the first point really relates uh to the work of the commission and uh based on the uh obvious uh Dedication that each member of the commission brings to commission deliberations I think you already know how important your work is but you know from time to time it's nice to be reminded of that uh the decisions and recommendations you make the policies you pass uh do affect student lives and gives them opportunities that they might not otherwise have now you may not have the kind of direct feedback from students that let's say uh Chad has when he mentors students in his program uh but uh be assured that you do make a difference to individual students and it's been my privilege to work with you and previous commission members uh and in some cases for for many years and uh I know Jud and Dennis I think you're the longest serving commission member uh and Dan and but for all of you I really it's been a privilege to work with you and Dennis I so uh treasure the the conversations we had uh in advance of AQ uh committee meetings so thank you all my second Point relates uh to the uh many uh outstanding uh staff colleagues here at the commission uh with whom I have had the privilege of working uh and I'm delighted to hear my old B Teresa lers here and I would be remiss if I didn't especially mention colleagues in the academic Affairs team might worked Ross Miller Harry Lambert Jessica Barrett Don Clark Julian Shelton ktia coats uh more recently Rachel Martin uh and uh it's just been terrific to work with them and uh by the way I should also mention as an honorary member of the academic repairs team and here I'm referring to my wife nean that with 55 years of encouragement and support anything that I've accomplish she deserves credit for that as well and my and my third and final Point um relates to Partners more specifically to institutional Partners but there are so many partners in other state agencies for example uh uh philanthropic organizations uh and to return to something I alluded to earlier um that we can do some great work uh at the state level but uh ultimately it's the institutions uh The Faculty uh the academic leaders regist admissions officers counselors institutional researchers facilities managers all of those people who ultimately will make the difference in student lives uh and commission institutional partnership is so critical I could just use one little example here uh I work closely within uh state senator Jim Banks uh on the legislation that he authored that created the Indiana College Court and it was critical in that legislation uh that it said that the ICC had to be based on competencies and by the way there's a direct line between that and another kind of partnership that the commission had as a result of a grant from Luma Foundation uh to do some work on the tuning project which focused on a European project that focused on competencies so let's not forget our philanthropic Partners as well but uh the to return to the legislation the Indiana college Corps it was really my job to bring acemic officers together to identify what turned out to be the six competency areas and then in turn to convene faculty panels that uh created the more detailed competencies and the important thing is uh that it was the institutional expertise uh the academic leadership The Faculty leadership that really resulted in the specific set of competencies and that's why these Partnerships with the institutions are so important and um it's uh so to my talented institutional Partners uh thank you for all that you do and it has been a privilege to work with you as well and I did keep it under an hour Chris when I was saying it was an honor to be asked the resolution if you spend any time looking at the news reading the newspaper you quickly get a sense of how L Humanity think Humanity that are wors and that privileg come through Miss pration for over 20 years and the I have a chance to meet a man that actually sets a gold standard for Humanity on best the grace keight the Insight the passion The heing Who guide the real deal it's such an honor to you well and now I have an honor to call Tony H back up to uh tell us where to go for lunch thank you look back in right well know our friends are in here but yumy watch really good we switch the agenda around just a little bit and we did learn that Senator good is not going to be able to join us today so with that um we're going to move right into the legislative update with GRE Carol I shouldn't G here go I think all I have to do is just introduce Greg Greg Harold assistant commissioner for public policy and thank you and I G to say commission member May realiz that in recent months great the step up to assistant commissioner and is leading our policy and legislation and a so I might very a so and so CG thank you for doing this yes Senator good I just texting they're going into s at 1:30 until there's just no possible way you can make that um I think I'm probably going to invite him though to come back in March right because as with sen 448 breaks we talking about and all the other legislations I would put the Astros on this right now we're going to tell you what they look like today bear in mind what Seth said about the schedule yeah we've got 13 weeks and since uh yesterday as a Katie probably got like 13 weeks of session uh ahead of us so we'll tell you where things are today we know the little work over time um we'll be visualant about that but I just especially once recognize Greg for leadership he is showing and that we'll work on getting Senator good here with us maybe in March well and congratulations yeah thank you madam chair members of the commission and commissioner Lowry um Madam chair Jordan thank you for those comments um here to speak about the 2025 legislative preview and for those commission members who um have served with us for um some years Rec called Josh Garrison and I doing this um in tandem um during past years and so for new commission members um we are going to discuss four different items today so we'll lead off just talking more generally about uh the legislative session which is a budget year as s benaw mentioned um earlier um some timelines third we'll talk about Senate Bill 448 um would have been great to have um Senator good here um although he had a conflix so I'm happy to um discuss that bill which is a priority bill for governor Braun his administration the office of um education secretary Jenner as well as us at the commission for higher education and then finally I will discuss um about six bills which would impact our um work and operations of the commission for huc as commissioner Lowry indicated uh things are moving really quickly at the general assembly and they will continue to do so up to the point at which the um um legislature adjourns uh which which um must be no later than April 29th during s i so we'll continue to keep your priz with that but wanted to give you just a preview snapshot of where things are today you might give an idea how many bills you are just watching we are give that to you from this for Greg uh that Greg is really watching and again feing information to the rest of yeah thank you commissioner Lowry you're a step ahead of me I actually have that here I think maybe if not the next Slide the following one so happy to share that thank you all right so diving in as I said we'll start with timeline the general assembly um ceremoniously started November 19th with organization day um and reconvene this month on January 8th um a couple more items to be aware of um at bills are making their way through first chamber um the third reading deadline is February 20th for both the Senate and the house um s talked about the U kind of break in in session between first and second chamber um second half of session begins March 3rd and then finally as I indicated just a moment ago um statutorily the legislature must adjourn no later than April 29 so back to uh commissioner Lowry's point there are as you know in all of years many bills that are are are filed um we're overall about 1,200 across the board we ourselves are tracking um just slightly fewer than 200 bills um 181 to be exact that are centered on higher education k12 and the workforce and want to point out that um while that that sheer number seems daunting um not all of the bills that are um educ ation or or Workforce related will ultimately even receive a hearing um and while I am leading education um higher education legislative efforts at the commission um as secretary Jenner noted in her presentation we are working in close coordination um with her team and they've been wonderful um to work with so to have that um partnership with David Buzzy Molly Colin Sarah bz at the department we've really been able to um work together strongly and and further our efforts um next uh talking about um just the governor's uh agenda bills there are a a series of those um and I won't go through them all most of them um are are priority of secretary Jenner um in the Department of Education uh however we do have a shared um focus on Senate Bill 448 which is the commission's agency Bill and so um the next two slides I'll discuss um the bill it's got four different components and commissioner Lowry Secretary General please as I'm going through feel free to had um comments as well um the bill you know when you look at at what it seeks to do um are a couple different things you know we're we're raising academic standards and I'll talk about that here in just a moment with the degree approval and review process um that we all administer the commission for higher education really maximizing the effect effectiveness of that process um as always we're laser focused on increasing Education and Training Beyond high school and then finally we are are again uh very focused on addressing Workforce challenges and shortages here in the state of Indiana and we think that this bill can address those those topics in keyways so first the the biggest priority uh really of of um the commission is um refreshing the degree program approval and and review process we think there's a lot of opportunity um there and as you all aware we at the commission um um approve or disapprove um existing program are those that are are proposed to existence um overall we have about 3,000 academic programs that currently exist and that is just talking public institutions alone they're even more about double da when you start looking into um different bachelor's degrees associate degre Etc with our our private institutions so um I I do want to say our our institutions are doing really great work in preparing um fer students for um Workforce success Beyond um um getting their their um degrees or or credentials um but that that number has um you know kind of continued to um climb over the years and I'll be frank we we think that needs to be um addressed there you know with 3,000 options in our public institutions alone we think there's some some pretty good opportunity to make that process more efficient and effective um not just for our students but for our state and H taxpayers yeah yeah I I have to rip on this one a little bit too um GRE thank you great explanation of that 448 U I reminded Kathy of the question you asked a little bit ago about our other states focusing performance funding on graduate retention um this is not dissimilar um over the last year or so with my colleagues from around the country um we've seen a couple we have seen a couple presentations around the program approval and I've been poking on them a lot um and asking so what does your state do what does your state do what does your state state do I we have an opportunity like know what secretary J said so here U there just aren't great models nationally doing this you as a commission we've had broad statutory language because we do program review improv uh but not the strength of really getting that Clarity that the executive and the legislative branch are together in this U very specifically to think about those things second bullet point under refresh that process you know looking at those things like outcomes job placement you know wages including credit private learning and so forth and to reflect it's actually about 3,400 public U programs and degrees 3,000 private side side and right toly understand all resources no matter how fast they may look again think of the $26 billion to which you referred Secretary General numbers like that always just seem beyond my comprehension and the fact of the matter is they are by and I think we have learned that with a revenue increase projected for 1.6 million billion and then a Medicaid increase of 1.6 billion scarcity wasn't clear clear in that instance I don't what would be so all of that to say um as Greg said institutions are doing a great job that there is a reason we are ha for the nation for attractions to these great programs Great Schools relative and so forth but we think that could be strengthened uh especially for better outcomes for cooers and for better outcomes in our economy so this is a really exciting piece for us uh it was I think the day that I formally offered this role to to the chief academic Affairs officer to mat Butler U had a month or so before he was going to start I well I'd like your star because uh be thinking about this because we are going to really tackle it you know in Earnest with our partners at the institutions with employers and others to really up our game here in indana so sorry took so much time correct but I wanted folks to know that this is going to lead to a whole lot of other things and the credit PR earning component that's in there too there's a lot of language in there including around military but um you military service could could really language that can set us on a course to be leaders in cred PRI learning if you think of the core transfer library that we have that Dr Sal was so instrumental in developing that just makes it so much more seamless for students across our institutions folks we can have something like that with credit for prior earning by the way I'm not suggesting exactly like that PR we can have that ability as a state because we've done those kind of things before and I'll be quite now corre you know this the part that I really get wound up about then stackable sign you're to talk about next but quick question on this I I'm excited I'm look forward to hearing about changes and maybe revisions of the review process my question on that second bullet item is will this be do you anticipate this will be retroactive you anticipate that we will need to look back at the 30 33400 plus programs and re-evaluate and look at hold hold our universities and institutions accountable for the job labor alignment for graduation and that sort of thing so commission member Cabo thank you for the question we're in complete alignment with um our thinking is is I directly with your question and that it's not just focused on new degree program approvals but it also sets a standard timeline for program review and we think that that's really important so yeah and you know across the board this this really you know as commissioner Larry I think was highlighting codifies um the direction in which the commission was moving um already and so I think it it supercharges the work that um you know Dr Butler and his team have have been embarking on and so we're really excited um for this part in particular and um did you have another question I'm sorry and in kind of moving down to the second component can I offer uh the uh this may be blastous in the higher education field but I think we ought to go to the other end and have the uh universities run profit and loss statements on their on their degree programs uh the fact that it loses money is not necessarily excuse to kill the program but there has to be some other redeeming qualities uh to keep the program alive if it it has if it loses a lot of money and there's nothing else going for um they've got to face the market realities is is a what as a product they're offering by being bu bought by the customers that brings up a point that came with Senators yesterday who were talking about kind of in a room kind of questioning um is it is it also looking at very low enrollment if you had three kids in five years in a program and yet have and and these are tough conversations I understand but part of the goal is being very transparent about the 3400 programs and where we're seeing the best results let's invest more in those yeah we we agree completely Secretary General and great also for everyone points I know Larry you made Secretary General there components and language like that looking at involment in the bill looking at uh debt load and things like that you know what is what is the practicality or problem ability of you know these having success in the marketplace and measure and saying did we have it or not you know you're point about you looll three or four people and so forth that for the first time really digging into these things appreciate that comment commissioner Lowry I I would completely agree I think I mean with what we see on the board labor market alignment job placement um that's really just a snapshot of of the different criteria that are in cin bille 448 and that's very important because we are looking at this topic very holistically so thank you can I just make one comment I I think it's important U maybe this is the first time that I've actually disagreed with something but there is a perception in some of the commentary that universities actually aren't being responsive and that is not accurate in fact institutions have mechanisms in place to review under under enrolled programs take action on those programs and work with faculty and so I think we need to be careful in mischaracterizing how universities work because we actually do have mechanisms that are thoughtful deliberative respect faculties perview of creating curriculum um what this does is it actually puts in place a clear structure in the law that allows the commission to to engage with that and as I've con to both the commissioner and to to Dr Butler my my expectation and hope as a faculty member in the state would be that that process is deliberative collaborative uh and that some of those existing Norms in the institutions themselves um aren't disrupted to the point of being detrimental or aren't disrupted to the point of uh potentially um undermining the excellent work The Faculty to to lift these programs in the first place yeah and with all due respect Dr lck Miller I think this is the opportunity for higher education to prove some of that because the sentiment that you describe is real it's beyond Indiana Nationwide so what an opportunity for Indiana to lead on this to affirm the value of some of these programs and to be honest about some um um that may not be as valuable as they used to be I think an honest conversation is key um and and it's long overdue because that sentiment real um if I may ding into the um second component of the bill this is one that that we are also very excited about um and Secretary General you you handed at it um a little bit earlier I think um you know to your point this really enables um you know Indiana in a very deliberate way to um establish a much more permeable Nimble um P to to 20 system and so we're really excited for that um you know from from our side as well I think it um you know complement kind of fits hand and glove with some of the great work that's been being produced by IAB led by the Richard and Fairbanks foundation and and many others across the state to um Advance youth apprenticeship um so excited about that um as well can't correct would add too and this is kind of reflecting on Dr Lo Miller's comments too I think what we know in this area with stackable credentials is various institutions are doing just really amazing work to ensure that um I know Dave Tucker this morning alluded to some of the things I was hoping you would dig into a little bit further from your SES U but when the individual who earns the industry certification and how that's maed all the way up through the bachelor's degree in applied sciences that they offer I mean I that's the kind of thing we need to do so that then whether it's that 15-year-old who is a sophomore in high school and this or this or this that he or she can see how that maaps through a degree uh or likewise the 45-year-old who says I want to go back and how can I get what I need today to proove my lot in life but then realizing well jobs change the economy changes so will I be wasting my time when the skills that I have today are changed somewhat so that again you know hooers have the advantage of knowing where those Secretary General referred to that maybe it's on and off ramps where those on and off ramps are and that they don't to steal that n for that they don't take a turn and then they're the dead end um I think this is critical um again a lot of really good work has begun I was starting I was going to reference Institution the specific things I know among seven publics they're each doing but I think bringing that standard as you and I talked about Dr Lo Miller whether it's to the review process stability and and just being hyper intentional whether it's the CBE classes and Industry certification bachelor's degree what what is contained there in there's just a lot of opportunity here uh you to to serve futes even more effectively okay and rounding out the there's also a report from mph or the management performance H um which is a state agency that um does a lot of great work around business intelligence and data um and supporting our state agencies um to my point earlier about aligning to Workforce demand uh this this uh component of the bill I think is critical in um requiring the mph to annually report the number the number and types of credentials needed to fill key roles in Indiana's economy and then M mbing that and looking comparing to the number and types of credentials earned by fer so I think that is um really actionable data um to support all the work that we do um in the education vertical what what is mph yeah thank you um commission member Gaton it is the management performance Hub and they are a state agency focused on business intelligence that works um especially if multiple state agencies trying to tackle a problem they help identify a solution terrific thank you Larry thanks for that this is Chris thanks for that question I I was about to add U yeah management performance Hub the you know to pull together the kind of data we need comes from data streams as Craig was sent various state agencies um Larry you'll remember this one very clearly of anybody involved in this meeting uh some years back at ibtech we when I was still in that role with the you know the workforce side of the of the institution we we determined we were going to do a review every year of every program at every campus and among of the things we were going to do was a supply demand and wage analysis wow um this would have been like birthday and Christmas gift in one for us at the time you know because finding all those data sets uh getting all the agreements pulling together Etc to been able to go hey we we can just go to mph I really mean it would have been if it took a while by the way I don't think MJ's here but they do a really really um laudable job they being IB Tech and that work they did the really great Stu after I left you know um but um yeah this is one of those things it kind of looks bureaucratic even and kind of nerdy wow um Dr Lo Miller I think you and I have talked about this as institutions do their very robust processes to have the ability to understand what other institutions are doing you the I think you call it a framework you my talk I can't remember um but a framework and to be able also compare across institutions right this only seems logical to me this is this market analysis in my view um will really be a game changer and the last Point had you talked yet about that not yet I I'll leave that to you yeah thank you and the uh thank you commissioner Lowry the last um component of the bill focuses on increasing Indiana resident enrollment at our public institutions as secretary Jenner um highlighted earlier that part of the bill has um probably drawn the most conversation so far and I think that it's been very productive um so I won't go into too much detail on this part of the bill um in its present form um requires our public institutions by the 6 27 Academic Year um to enroll at least 50% of their Freshman Class um have having been um Indiana residents so um I think what I do want to focus on is the intent and I want to to emphasize commissioner Low's Point earlier in that um you know we need more students to go to college we especially need more Indiana residents and so we've been doing a lot of things at the commission to help boost that uh but the fact of the matter is is that um when you look at Indiana residents those that Come Away with the degree your credential 34 of them end up staying in the state and so we're really excited to continue to to have discussions and conversations about this part of the bill um we think it is is very important um and we'll have um you know updates on that um for you all soon all right so that um wraps up um discussion on 448 the remainder of my presentation will be focused on just a few bills as I highlighted um that impact our our operations at the commission uh the first is House Bill 1049 Public Service attorney scholarships this was authored by representative um stal and um really the the origin of this bill some of you might recall the Supreme Court uh has been really focused on Indiana's attorney attorney shortage um over the past few years and so in um spring of 24 um the Supreme Court established a commission um you know that would really dive into this particular issue and come up with solutions for solving the shortage so this bill is a product um of those conversations over the past year so it would charge the commission with administering the program um applicants of course would um need to be as part of Eligibility criteria admitted to an accredited Indiana law school and similar to some of our programs such as the Next Generation whoan educator scholarship which commissioner Lowry highlighted earlier it does have a service requirement so upon um finishing law school passing the bar um applicants would um be required to serve as dep Deputy Prosecuting attorneys or public defenders for a period of five years um and so for the amount of scholarship received um a portion of that scholarship would be forgiven for each year service so the funding the way that that would flow would be you know analogous to our next Generation us your educator scholarship does their proposal include funding for the scholarship yeah so uh the bill does not make an appropriation um it was heard and passed out of the house education committee uh in fact this week commission member Ali and has been recommitted to the Ways and Means Committee um since it does have a fiscal impact um the amount of scholarship um ranges depending on whether a student is full-time or part-time in the Bill's current iteration for full-time students it's a total of $20,000 per year up to three years for part-time students that would drop down to 15,000 but it does allow them to use um the word for four years so in either case total of $60,000 so that will go to way the means for hearing and and you hit the nail on the head any bills that are asking for new money that don't presently have budget line it will be very tough for them to get it across the line yeah yeah that's that's the reality now those of you who want this bill to pass and who want it maybe it's just going to be it's going to be very tough yeah keep skipping ahead there we go um House Bill 1111 is um the Indiana National Guards agency bill so there are a number of different um parts of that bill specifically as it relates to us the bill would expand the National Guard supplemental Grant to in demand apprenticeships as well as other approved credentials so um for those of you that that um maybe aren't as aware of this program it is one of our financial B programs that we administered the commission for higher education um presently it can be used for uh qualifying associate degrees bachelor's degrees and can be used at The Graduate level as well so it would just expand it um two additional options um for members of the um army or Air National Guard both student groups are El the second move on yeah we have a question online Larry did you have a question no no thank you okay and there is one other component to the bill that I'll I'll mention um it would allow a recipient of the National Guard supplemental Grant who is also a 21st century scholar um to use the National Guard supplemental grant for room and board expenses for a period of two years so um to kind of um take a step back and explain that because both of these Awards um fund tuition um you know in the past it was one or the other so simply that would um expand eligibility to vote um and allow um there we look at some data um recently in in last Academic Year there were about 100 students who would have fallen into this category and uh this bill has has really flown through the house um it's already um at the house and has been referred to the Senate so um we will continue to keep an eye on this bill um throughout the remainder of session next is House Bill 1326 which focuses on teaching scholarships um this is authored by representative hiney and uh you'll probably recall for the last two legislative sessions um he has been a pass champion of addressing indn teacher shortage and doing that by way of creating the transition to teaching scholarship um which the public policy team administers to the commission for higher education and allows those with a bachelor's degree who have you know a desire um to contribute to Future classrooms to make that career transition so what the um Bill does for the transition to teaching scholarship is that it does shift the income guidelines of that program and uh to go back to last legislative session um the general assembly did make that a meat-based award um there is a standard income guideline of $100,000 um for any applicant to that scholarship so what this bill would do is shift the um income guidelines to align with the choice scholarship eligibility so um the main distinction um between what is current practice and this change is that there are um you know income brackets depending on family size the second part of the bill um again kind of the overall theme of this bill I would say is is flex expanding flexibility uh we administer in addition to the transition to teaching scholarship for other teaching based Awards and what this bill would do would allow um us you know for example if there is unmet need in um the um High needs scholarship that we we provide for St um teachers um we could pull that from um you know another fund um that has a leftover balance remaining at the end of the fiscal year so um it really just expands current practice that already exists between the Next Generation who should educator scholarship and the transition teach scholarship question question hi um I was curious about this program I don't really know much about it but is it the same sort of situation as the pliers scholarships where they're given like loan forgiveness or is it while they are in that major they are able to receive that sort of scholarship progr yeah so only two of our teaching scholarships have a service requirement that's the Next Generation who's your educator scholarship and the transition to teaching scholarship both of those are a five-year commitment for our students and we wave 20% um of that scholarship total um for each year of service completed so for for those who may switch majors are they still eligible toward towards this like let's say they were two years undergrad for a different major and then switched to teaching would they still be eligible for that yeah so if I were you know a philosophy major for two years and decided you know teaching is my calling I want to do it um with the Next Generation who's your educator scholarships so long as that student has two years of of um you know um two academic years remaining in their undergraduate career they could be eligible so it's up it you know about 75% of our our students we select each year are high school learners the 25% come from current college students who have eligibility remaining thank you for the question um House Bill 1515 education and higher education matters um this bill authored by representative Banning has a number of um different areas that it impacts um we weren't tracking this bill as as heavily until yesterday when there was language um amended into the bill um during House Education um about the workforce ready Grant so um the workforce ready Grant is is a program that um is is you know focused on high demand um High wage certificate programs the the commission prior education so anything from Advanced manufacturing to Business Services um what it does there is an educational attainment cap uh for that award currently so um individuals with bachelor's degrees associate degrees or who have earned Workforce ready Grant eligible certific certificates are not currently eligible for the program the only thing that this bill currently does is strikes um the limitation on certificates and would allow individuals who have already earned a Workforce ready Grant eligible certificate um to utilize the award um I think the intent behind this is um and we we saw this commissioner Lowry and I were actually just chatting about the other day um we were able to expand the workforce ready Grant um during the covid-19 pandemic uh with some Fe funding um and support cers who were um making career transitions um you would likely see the same thing play out that this um you know change really focused on on those um you know job Seekers who are are looking to Pivot from one place to another and and I do think that was partly a source of the interest by folks in the legislature to look at at the time it's SP taking cres to the next level I remember very involved in that um as part of the state's rapid recovery team and um I couldn't speak on behalf of Representative Bing certainly but I think that understanding recognition that the uh shelf life if you will of skills um is shrinking much more rapidly than what I used to I think in fact the latest estimate was going five a year and a half that those are just realities of a rapidly moving economy especially from a tech you technological standpoint so just additional information on it one way or the other about it but that was probably bit of the way this was informed the sh of yeah thank you thank you Fe um so their analyses that look at um in essence the length of time that a specific skill set okay is still adequate um you know the Brookings Institution for an example several years ago did a really interesting analysis of how those changes were take place I think it was between 2018 or 19 and 2030 and not surprisingly right in Indiana any place else you know the slope of the curve starts to go like this and right certainly with things like Quantum Computing its impact arici intelligence and so forth so which I think is a signal to all of us we've got to keep our skills refreshed just constantly and goes back to the whole stack of the system and on and off L you'll be able just get back on get what you need and go on whatever else life it is that you be doing thanks for it's great question okay and diving into the last bill of Senate Bill 285 comparative College and Career Information it uh moved through the Senate education and Career Development Committee yesterday um and has been recommitted to um appropriate so the the fiscal Committee in the Senate uh you know focused on this one been tracking it um it does a couple of different things chiefly uh task the commission with developing an interactive website called the student Horizon dashboard and um Brook Kyle and I have have had several conversations on this um seeing where it may align uh with you know a lot of the really rich data that we um provide already um so we've been having some conversations on that front but um the Bill's Focus a number of of different um you know outcomes and measures looking at post-secondary education um uh attainment Career and Technical education earnings student debt and so it would require the commission um to publish a a dashboard which um you know probably has a little bit more fiscal impact than than maybe something more stagnant on on a website um and the other the other part of it is a student graduate Horizon scorecard um which brings in a lot of these same elements that is a little bit more targeted um looking you know looking to inform consumers on things like the 50 um highest paying you know degrees here in Indiana um 20 20 highest CP Pathways um and other factors um with this um it would be um something that the commission would uh uh be required to distribute to um Public Schools charter schools and accredited non-public schools for student and family consumption isn't there some kind of a product we've been shown a demonstration of something similar to this in previous years I seem to recall there's a a a product out there and I don't know if this replicates that or enhances that or what impact that may have yeah well you do recall correctly some projects that Dr Sal has been involved in a couple of others that have come for you um and I think they're at various stages of development um some needing a lot of development still and some that are would say pull it off the shelf some certainly a lot closer to probably what we're looking for as a state or what I believe the authors are probably talking about and we we've been uh engaged in discussions on this bill and um we continue to be so hopefully we can build off something we've developed to some extent rather than starting all over REM go Senator bur that's right thank you you're welcome question I'm interested you mentioned that the student graduate Horizon scorecard it will be reflective of where the students the top paying jobs are right now it's interesting that they use the word horizon because I think that forward as opposed to backward so is it forward looking projecting or is it s i I think it's to um you know while I won't speak on the auor have I I I would assume the intent is um you know arming consumers students with with information to help them make um you know Wise you know Forward Thinking choices with regards to education training options be high school so I would hope and I that's right I think so then I would hope that we really be looking to the Horizon forecasting I don't care what it is right now because quite honestly five years is going to change and so I this is my feedback of I really want it to be Horizon looking as close to Great comment question Kathy I assure you so do I so do we um you know if we won wor more numbers and things but even the most recent study from the C education Force at Georgetown University foring of the 20 30 or 31 projections and what types of skills and so forth are going to be be needed and they're just forecast as we all know forecast nothing else forecast you know it's wrong for the moment you give it but the closer you can get it to being uh you know to being accurate right is where it's really helpful so um yeah I believe that's the whole intent and certainly is a vow be forward looking and saying what bu to impact going to be in the future so um yeah all all the technological advancements I think we're all tracking those are the things we got keep our eye on yeah thank you Mr lry I'll add just one comment um commission member K before transition to the next um slide we are really keeping um our eyes on all data bills and and Brooke and I are having continued conversations on that front I mean we we share the same um intent I think with Senator burn and and other legislators who um you know have ideas similar to this one is that we want to provide our our students and families with you know clear concise information that's actionable and can help them chart you know whatever path they decide to see on high school so um yeah we'll continue to do that thank you and I'm sorry I one more bill I forgot I had so Senate Bill 365 is education matters um which is authored by Senator rosz um the kind of the first couple parts of the bill uh focused on various um return on investment analyses um that for some topics would be required of the commission for higher education in coordination with other state partners um there's also a provision uh tasking the Department of Education um to do the same uh as far as return of investment for adult education programs I believe were mentioned in that part of the bill as well um you know at risk of repeating myself I we've been you know kind of talking about this all day we want to be you know aligned to uh the labor market ensure that you know our investment for um that we're making is great for students our employers um and ultimately future taxpayers so um and you know frankly with some of the uh programs that we would be charged um uh uh to produce a a return on analysis investment the data is there it's rich and thanks to Brooke and her team it's it's readly available so whether that is college going completion rates continue to climb as well as the way at which our students um stay in the state of Indiana um we're that's that's a very good story that we can tell so um those are kind of the first two components of the bill uh the last one and I'll I'll just be briefly on has to do with the career coaching Grant um as many of you will recall this was one of um the biggest pieces uh that was uh created as a result of hous act 102 act in 2023 session and and really helping you know providing supports and services to our students um so that they you know early on not you know by the time they graduated high school and entered college but early on are exploring their interests capacities capabilities so we received a $25 million appropriation during the 2325 by UNM uh selected about 30 intermediaries to carry out this Grant and they are delivering some fantastic services that are aligned to uh you know the former 3D Grant uh really hyperfocused on Career exploration engagement and experience and doing really good work and so simply what what the bill does there's a little bit of language that modifies the um language and code about the career coaching Grant um some around eligibility of intermediaries and um also gives a little bit more Direction on the supports and services and expectation um of of um you know career coaches um being supported by the grant so um with that um Madam chair commissioner Lowry that concludes my presentation I'm happy to stand for any other questions the commission might have real real quickly great I'm only going to add to what you said about the return of investment you know Mand in 21st CTE are called out here I I think should probably know anyway this is the where this is where we've been headed anyway with the commission it's um I think about the work that Brook and her team have done in buiness intelligence a lot of this has started you frankly the ROI analysis that we did two years ago around 21st century to help build the case it was like what is it bailing wire you know tap whatever they're saying is that's what it was like to build that we got such a Slicker process now much richer data and so forth the the data the insights you see in those 4x4s on economic and social impact of attainment Beyond no high school diploma are very much paron pars of that um so any we're already head there anyway that to the degree it's cified those who follow us are required to do that so even better thank you thank you okay home stretch so we have four academic degree programs for expedited action um they're in the agenda book beginning on page 13 and Dennis I don't know if you want to give any additional information or comments on the thank you I did want to say just introducing these and you just mentioned the four programs actually three bachelors and one Masters but I'd be remissed if I didn't start how much I appreciate Dr Butler his transition into the road he's just been outstanding and PR us and helping us to get ready for review for each of these program you can our work thank you then I also want to appreciate Dr L because it was his Insight that actually challenged us to think more critically about this word of apply as we see it so much so interesting each of these programs have this applied prefix to them and so it's important in this mind we actually have a common understanding about what we mean now we evaluating things similarly as we look at different programs coming from different schools do we really have understand what this word app bu means so with that we have these four programs three from Purdue Global and then the one from Bo plan present these for expedited are for consideration as expedited items thank you all right do we have a motion for expedited action on these four second all in favor the opposed there is another order of business in academic Affairs and it's great to land that you talked about Dr Butler because um before we move on we want to put forth a formal recommendation from the commission for Dr Matt Butler senior associate commissioner and chief academic officer to be appointed to serve as Indiana's Midwestern higher education compact that's MC commissioner and an interstate compact MC brings together Midwestern states to develop and support best practices collaborative efforts and cost Shar ing opportunities through these efforts it works to ensure strong Equitable post-secondary educational opportunities and outcomes for all so you might Rec call Dr s talking about this because he represented us for a very long time and Matt has stepped into those shoes and I think is very capable and we talked a little bit Offline that he has some interactions with this group anyway so I would like to entertain a motion Dr Matt Butler V our representative so all in favor anyos I think it'll take me longer to put the mic back in the stand but just to finish up the last item which is that we have some informational items um they are in the handbook there's an academic degree program to the action section academic degree program actions by staff and then just the media coverage that we gener any old business any new business all right so the next meeting of the commission is March 13th in Indianapolis and also we want to remind you of the upcoming AI session if you can make it put together febrary you can make it would be great but otherwise we will see everyone in March and we stand to Germany