Trine president making a difference

Brooks joins Indiana College Completion Council

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ANGOLA, Ind. – Trine University president Earl D. Brooks II, Ph.D., was recently invited to serve on the Indiana College Completion Council by Teresa Lubbers, the Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education.

The Indiana College Completion Council, which is comprised of presidential leaders from Hoosier colleges and universities, was established this year to focus and align contributions toward fulfilling the education attainment needs of Indiana students, employers and the state.

Brooks was invited to join the council due to his extensive collegiate administration experience. He earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Tennessee and has served as the chief operating officer at two other universities. He has been recognized as an accomplished fund-raiser and strategic planner.  As a result of his efforts, Trine raised more than $90 million to fund the endowment, build scholarship funds and complete capital projects. Under his leadership, Trine has experienced an enrollment increase of 49 percent, doubled its residential population and been recognized as the fastest-growing private institution in the state and region in the last five years.

“It will be a privilege to serve on this council,” Brooks said. “Our concerted effort will have a direct impact, not only on college retention and admission numbers, but also will help individual Hoosiers attain their postsecondary goals.”

Over the past three years, Indiana’s Reaching Higher strategic plan has built momentum to increase college access and success, ensure affordability for students and families and align the state’s system of higher education to the economic and workforce needs of the state.

“While these accomplishments and the dedication of campus leaders, faculty and students have been significant, considerable work remains,” wrote Lubbers and Beverley Pitts, co-chair of the council. “Indiana’s ranking of 42nd in the nation in the percentage of its residents with education beyond high school has not been improved. Indiana and its institutions of higher education must recommit and accelerate on the promises of Reaching Higher.”

With the upcoming adoption of the Indiana commission for Higher Education’s new Reaching Higher, Achieving More strategic plan, the state hopes to:

• Establish one of the best and most student-centered systems of higher education in the country.
• Increase the educational attainment of Hoosiers with a postsecondary credential from 33 percent to 60 percent of the state’s population by 2025.
• Increase Hoosier certificate/degree attainment by 2 percent annual starting in 2012-13.

For more information about the commission’s efforts, visit www.in.gov/che.

To share your news, contact Trine University communication specialist Lindsay Winslow Brown at winslowbrownl@trine.edu.