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President McRobbie appoints committee to review Center on Congress at Indiana University

• Oct. 4, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie has announced that he has appointed a committee to review the Center on Congress at Indiana University with the goal of determining whether there are opportunities for it to chart a new course.

Bruce Cole, a former IU faculty member and IU trustee who also has served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities during his distinguished career, will chair the three-person committee. He will be joined on the committee by Mike Sample, IU vice president for public affairs and government relations, and Russ Hanson, a professor in the political science department in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington.

The committee has been asked to review the focus and work of the Center on Congress and provide a series of recommendations to McRobbie, IU Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel and Vice President for Research Jorge Jose regarding the center’s:

• Mission and focus, and whether they should be modified to enable the center to pursue new opportunities for institutional engagement and fundraising.
• Governance structure, to assess whether it remains appropriate if a new mission and focus are recommended.
• Staffing, budget and level of institutional support with an emphasis on changes that would enhance the center’s ability to become financially self-sustaining.

“The Center on Congress has done laudable work and made considerable contributions to the study of the U.S. Congress since its founding in 1999, much of it due to the strong leadership of founding director Lee Hamilton,” McRobbie said. “With Lee taking on a greater role at IU’s School of Global and International Studies as a Distinguished Scholar, this is an opportune time to reassess the role of the center in the future.”

Hamilton, a former longtime U.S. congressman serving Indiana and one of the nation’s leading voices on international affairs, welcomed the review as an opportunity to take a fresh look at the center’s mission and focus.

“I am extremely proud of the work done by the Center on Congress since its inception, and like all institutions, it must continuously explore ways to adapt and grow stronger during changing times,” Hamilton said. "I am looking forward to the review, which I think will be very good for the center."

McRobbie has asked that the committee complete its assessment and make its recommendations by the end of the current academic semester.

Related Links

• The Center on Congress at Indiana University