Indiana students earning Enrollment Honors Plus Seal Diploma to be pre-admitted to IU
Indiana high school students who have earned the state’s new Enrollment Honors Plus Seal diploma will be pre-admitted to Indiana University as part of a new agreement between higher education institutions and the state.
Gov. Mike Braun announced the initiative at the Indiana State Library on April 2 alongside Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner, and other key partners involved in the high school diploma redesign process present, including IU President Pamela Whitten. It aims to help graduating seniors understand their college choices and the many resources available to help them continue their education.
“Indiana University is proud to partner with the state to ensure graduating Indiana high school students have access to a world-class college education,” President Whitten said. “This innovative program creates a unique opportunity for a streamlined partnership between Indiana's high schools and universities. We are excited to collaborate with Gov. Braun’s administration on an initiative that exemplifies the state’s emphasis on education.”
Under the agreement, IU will pre-admit students to all of its campuses if they’ve earned the Enrollment Honors Plus Seal diploma. Students must then submit their application by the application deadline to be admitted.
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Watch the Governor’s announcement
Learn more about the Honors Plus Readiness Seals guarantees
Learn more about Redesigning the Indiana Diploma
State Update
The IU State Relations team has reviewed every bill that has been introduced at the Statehouse, and determined if and how the bill could impact the university. This Statehouse Update provides a summary of bills the team is tracking that have had activity up to this point during the thirteenth week of session. Bills must move out of the opposite chamber’s committees by the Thursday, April 10 deadline to remain eligible to still become law.
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Federal Update
This week’s Federal Update covers Congressional and Executive Branch activities of interest in Washington, D.C.
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Economic Engagement Update
Tourism researcher aims to boost industry’s sustainability and resilience
From a global pandemic to natural disasters, the tourism and hospitality industry has faced considerable challenges in recent years. Indiana University’s Becky Liu-Lastres is helping industry professionals better prepare for such disruptions to their business, while ensuring the health and well-being of their employees and visiting tourists.
Liu-Lastres is an associate professor in the Department of Tourism, Event and Sport Management in the IU School of Health and Human Sciences in Indianapolis. Her research operates at the intersection of crisis communications management, workforce development, and resilience and sustainable development.
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8 communities to partner with IU on heat pump adoption, tree canopy health
Indiana University is partnering with eight local governments this year to accelerate adoption of energy-efficient heating and cooling systems and to expand community tree canopies.
The program, the latest chapter of the IU Environmental Resilience Institute’s Resilience Cohort, aids Hoosier communities with their climate goals by connecting them to specialized training and resources as well as support from IU students.
This year’s Resilience Cohort is split between two tracks: a heat pump accelerator track and an urban green infrastructure track. Heat pump accelerator participants will be spreading awareness about the technology’s benefits and building a local contractor network. Urban green infrastructure participants will conduct community-wide tree canopy assessments and plant trees in areas that will benefit the most from investment.
During the summer, each local government will work with a McKinney Climate Fellow — an IU student interested in a climate and sustainability career. Fellows will be embedded in each community, providing extra staff capacity, leading community engagement and analyzing data to guide community decision-making.
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IU in the News
Researchers study coal waste as potential domestic source of rare earth elements
Researchers at the Indiana Geological and Water Survey at Indiana University have been investigating whether these essential earth materials could be found in the United States in great enough quantities to make their extraction economically practical.
One possible domestic source is coal mine waste, which Indiana has in abundance from its nearly 200-year coal mining history. Indiana Geological and Water Survey researchers have been working to determine the critical mineral potential of that waste, both pre-combustion (coal preparation plant refuse, such as coal tailings) and post-combustion (coal ash).
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Academic programs, sense of community factor into IU Bloomington’s record applications
Indiana University Bloomington junior Ashley Lara first became interested in the medical profession as a young girl, when she would interpret for her Spanish-speaking family members at the doctor’s office or hospital. She said IU offered a great opportunity to pursue that path, with a well-suited major that offers an abundance of opportunities.
Her choice of university reflects prospective college students’ growing interest in IU, which has led to another record application cycle. IU Bloomington has received more than 73,400 applications for the 2024-25 cycle — a 9% increase from 2023-24.
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Bright ideas: Chemist’s fluorescent innovation has potential to disrupt health car, tech industries
Amar Flood never set out to create the world’s brightest fluorescent materials. Rather, it was plain curiosity and a desire to collaborate with a former colleague that led to the breakthrough of a lifetime that has the potential to advance human health and more.
Flood, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington, is globally recognized for creating the brightest fluorescent materials in the world, known as small molecule, ionic isolation lattices. Recently, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences for his innovation.
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Study targets depression in ICU survivors to fight cognitive decline, dementia
Over 40% of the 5 million adults admitted to intensive care units in the United States each year will eventually experience cognitive decline, and such stays are a well-established risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. This raises important public health questions, including whether there are effective ways to prevent or delay cognitive decline after an ICU stay.
Jesse Stewart, professor of psychology at the Indiana University School of Science in Indianapolis, along with co-principal investigators Babar Khan and Sophia Wang from the IU School of Medicine, will address that question by conducting the first randomized controlled trial to test whether cognitive behavioral therapy for depression can reduce cognitive decline in ICU survivors.
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Partnership with Williams Elementary allows IU Northwest students to introduce children to STEM
At Daniel Hale Williams Elementary School’s back-to-school night last summer, Tomeka Pope watched her students engage with Indiana University Northwest students. The pre-professional IU Northwest students were conducting different STEM experiments.
Seeing her students’ interest in the subjects, Pope, Daniel Hale William’s STEM teacher, had an idea. The school didn’t have a STEM Club – why not create one?
“When we were first doing our demos (during the back-to-school night), I thought these kids wouldn’t be interested at all. It’s the iPad kid generation, I didn’t think they’d be interested in seeing an actual experiment take place,” Nasar, a senior neuroscience major, said. “But the kids were so entertained that we kept doing more and more experiments and we actually ran out of materials.”
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