The Office of Academic Affairs hosted its first faculty retiree reception since returning to the campus last year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, honoring the career dedication and efforts of 54 faculty retirees for 2021-22.
Expressions of gratitude, including remarks from Interim Chancellor Andrew R. Klein and Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer Kathy E. Johnson, were shared with the retirees and their colleagues, family and friends at the event May 10.
In his remarks, Klein mentioned the many milestones IUPUI has reached in number of full-time faculty, research and graduates.
“None of these accomplishments would have been possible without your hard work and dedication,” he said. I” am grateful that you have helped lead us through so many periods of change, none more challenging than guiding our students through the pandemic these past two years.”
Charles R. Goodlett, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus in the School of Science, was the keynote speaker. He talked about helping to establish a graduate research program now called Addiction Neuroscience. The program is still in existence, having graduated more than 30 Ph.D. students and accruing tens of millions of dollars in external grant support. He spoke of the transformation of IUPUI, including hiring stellar faculty, overcoming obstacles to advance the IUPUI mission and embracing a deep respect for the principles of shared governance.
He closed his remarks by focusing on the future at IUPUI and challenging the campus to grow faculty diversity, expand public and community-engaged scholarship, create paths to promotion and tenure that support those practices, and defend the principles of shared governance and academic freedom.
