Indiana State University
Credits
History
Indiana State Normal School in 1903
Fairbanks Hall Dome
A seminary building was constructed and later used for Vigo Collegiate Institute. After several years the school closed and the property sold to be part of a public institution of education. It is now part of the Indiana State University campus.
Indiana State University was established by the Indiana General Assembly on December 20, 1865, as the Indiana State Normal School in Terre Haute. Its location in Terre Haute was secured by a donation of $73,000 by Chauncey Rose. As the State Normal School, its core mission was to educate elementary and high school teachers.
The school awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in 1908 and the first master's degrees in 1928. In 1929, the Indiana State Normal School was renamed as the Indiana State Teachers College, and in 1961, it was renamed Indiana State College due to an expanding mission. In 1965, the Indiana General Assembly renamed the college as Indiana State University in recognition of increasing student population and expansion of degrees offered.
Campus
Rankin Hall
The Indiana State University main campus is located on the north side of Terre Haute's downtown business district and covers more than 200 acres (0.81 km2) in the heart of the city. The main campus comprises over 60 brick and limestone buildings, halls and laboratories. Efforts to beautify the campus continue: a section of Seventh Street that runs by the university has been converted into a boulevard with flower beds and antique light posts; the old power plant was razed in 2002 and replaced with a modern facility; Stalker Hall reopened in fall 2005 after a complete renovation; Normal Hall, a Neo-Classic building erected in 1909, originally served as the library, was newly renovated in 2015. In 2009, the university dedicated a more than 109,000-square-foot (10,100 m2) Student Recreation Center, financed via private funding and student fees, and the Bayh College of Education was relocated to the newly renovated, historic University Hall. The Scott College of Business has relocated to the renovated former Terre Haute Federal Building, a classic Art Deco building built in 1933. In fall 2019, the Fine Arts Building was rededicated after a $15 million renovation begun in the summer of 2018. The Hulman Center athletic arena is currently (summer 2020) being renovated at an estimated cost of $50 million.
The Indiana State University field campus is an outdoor teaching, learning, and research area designed to accommodate educational programs and services. The field campus is located on 93 acres (380,000 m2) approximately 18 miles (29 km) east of Terre Haute near Brazil, Indiana, and includes eight man-made lakes.
Fairbanks Hall
Fairbanks Hall serves not only as an academic space for learning but also as a performance and fine arts venue. The Bare-Montgomery Gallery located inside provides students with the opportunity to exhibit their work or to curate exhibitions of student work.
Fairbanks Hall serves as both a working art studio as well as gallery space for the art department of Indiana State University. Originally built as a Terre Haute public library in 1903–06; it is an outstanding example of Beaux-Arts architecture and constructed entirely from Indiana Limestone.
In 1903, Fairbanks offered to construct a new public library on a site the city would provide; it was to be named in honor of his mother Emeline Fairbanks. Terre Haute acquired a parcel of land at Seventh and Eagle Streets by May 5, 1903, and the groundbreaking took place on March 15, 1904. On August 10, 1904, the cornerstone was placed. A time capsule containing the history of the building, as well as a list of city and university officials, photographs of the namesake Fairbanks family, a copy of the program for the ceremony, copies of the city's newspapers and a 1904 Terre Haute city directory.
The informal opening and dedication of the completed building took place on April 29, 1906. On Saturday, August 11, 1906, a formal ceremony to open the building to the public was held, the following Monday, the Emeline Fairbanks Memorial Library opened to the general public.
In 1978, Indiana State University took ownership and following its renovation, it was named Fairbanks Hall in honor of the prominent Terre Haute businessman and philanthropist, responsible for its original construction, Mr. Crawford Fairbanks.
Normal Hall
Originally built as the library in 1909, Normal Hall is the last remaining structure from Indiana State's Normal School era. Normal Hall served as the university library until Cunningham Memorial Library was built in 1974 and named in honor of Indiana State's first Librarian, Arthur Cunningham (1891–1928). On the centennial of Normal Hall's construction, it was announced that it would be fully remodeled and will become a student academic honors center. The 2014–15 renovation was approximately $16 million; the original grand staircase and a stained-glass dome featuring images of at least 24 educators and philosophers were restored and the building now meets ADA requirements.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Center for Student Success (CFSS)
The Center for Student Success, housed within Normal Hall, provides tutoring, supplemental instruction, mentoring, advising, classroom instruction, counseling, and academic success workshops.
The center also provides specialized support programs including the 21st Century Scholar Corps Program, First-Generation Program, Summer Career Exploration Program (SCEE), Students in Transition Program, and Student Support Services Program which includes assistance to persons with disabilities and special needs, and first-generation, low-income students.
University Hall
The Indiana State Teachers College Laboratory School was a PWA-funded project, built on land donated to the university by the City of Terre Haute. The initial wing of the building was completed in July 1935. The Sycamore Theater and a gymnasium were completed in 1937 through funding provided by an additional PWA grant. Terre Haute-native Gilbert Brown Wilson added several murals to the interior. The laboratory school operated as a unit of the Vigo County School Corporation. In 2008–09, it was renovated at a cost of $29.8 million and became the new home of the Bayh College of Education.
The Bayh College of Education houses:
Administrative Placement
Audiology Clinic
College of Education
Blumberg Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Special Education
Department of Communication Disorders and Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology
Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Media Technology
Educational Assessment, Research, and Evaluation
Department of Educational Leadership
Department of Elementary, Early, and Special Education
Indiana Principal Leadership Institute
Instructional and Information Technology
ISU Educational Development Council
Teacher Licensure
Porter School Psychology Center
Professional Development Schools Partnership
Rowe Center for Communicative Disorders
Academics
Students
For fall 2023, minority student enrollment was 2,359, which represents 29.22% of total enrollment. The top three international student countries are India, Nigeria, and Ghana. Vigo and Marion County are the two largest counties that enrolled students originate from and approximately 57% of enrolled students originate from the state of Indiana.
Indiana State was the first public university in Indiana to require incoming freshmen to have a laptop. ISU first awarded laptop scholarships to incoming freshmen with high school GPAs of 3.0 or higher (on a 4.0 scale), giving students the option of choosing either a laptop or an iPad. The university now awards a laptop computer to those students who are admitted and are Pell-eligible as determined by the FAFSA.
Colleges
ISU offers more than 100 programs in the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Business, Education, Technology, and Health and Human Services. The College of Graduate and Professional Studies offers programs that lead to doctoral and master's degrees. Students can also pursue certificates in a concentrated area of study, enroll in professional development courses, and fulfill continuing education requirements. ISU also offers 20 bachelor's degrees, 22 master's degrees, and 7 doctoral degrees—in addition to many professional certifications—available through Indiana State Online.
Academic rankings
National
Forbes 640
U.S. News & World Report 293-381
Washington Monthly 82
Indiana State University is organized into six academic colleges:
Bayh College of Education (est. 1865)
Donald W. Scott College of Business (est. 1918)
College of Graduate and Professional Studies (est. 1961)
College of Arts and Sciences (est. 1962)
Bailey College of Engineering and Technology (est. 1962)
College of Health and Human Services (est. 1963)
ISU is also a member of the College Consortium of Western Indiana. This membership allows students who are full-time at their home institution to take classes at the other member institutions of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
Library
The Cunningham Memorial Library collections include more than two million items. Undergraduate students may check out most materials for a three-week loan period, using their student ID.
Accreditation
Indiana State University as a whole has been accredited by The Higher Learning Commission continuously since 1915. The Scott College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the Bayh College of Education is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The doctoral program in clinical psychology (Psy.D.) is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). The School of Music is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). The nursing programs are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). The Bachelor in Social Work program and the Master in Social Work program are both accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The Doctor of Athletic Training program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE).
Campuses
Indiana State University-Evansville (now University of Southern Indiana) was created as a branch campus in 1965. Like Ball State University, it became an independent institution of higher education when it was granted independent standing as the University of Southern Indiana in 1985.
Student Media
Student Media was created in 2012 in a merger of Student Publications and electronic media outlets under Academic Affairs. Since then, in addition to operating the Indiana Statesman, Sycamore Video, and WISU-FM; Student Media has grown to include The Sycamore, a digital yearbook; Sync Creations, a client-driven video and web production group; the Indiana State Sports Network, which produces video for ESPN3 and ESPN+; WZIS, a student-staffed station created when WISU converted to a public radio format; and the Center for Innovation in Technology and Digital Media. While the center is the newest venture, Student Media outlets have been a part of the Indiana State experience for decades. The Statesman dates back to 1895 and WISU first went on the air in the early 1960s. The Sycamore, long an institution at Indiana State, was suspended in 1993 and revived in 2013–14.