INDIANAPOLIS – The appointment of Michele J. Hansen as assistant vice chancellor for institutional research and decision support, or IRDS, has been announced by Kathy E. Johnson, IUPUI executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer. Hansen’s portfolio will include leadership for the IUPUI Testing Center, effective July 1, which will further strengthen campus efforts to improve student success, Johnson said.
Hansen had served as the founding executive director of IRDS since 2015. The unit combined resources and talent from Academic Affairs with the former Office of Institutional Research housed within Planning and Institutional Improvement. IRDS was founded on principles articulated in the Association for Institutional Research’s Statement of Aspirational Practice for Institutional Research, to which Hansen contributed.
“Michele and her team have done an outstanding job of putting actionable data related to students, faculty and staff in the hands of decision-makers across IUPUI,” Johnson said. “Her leadership enables us to plan and to make strategic decisions more effectively.”
Merging the IUPUI Testing Center with IRDS makes great sense at this time, Johnson said, because much of the center’s work directly contributes to student success, a key priority in the IUPUI Strategic Plan. The IUPUI Testing Center supports assessment and evaluation initiatives through the collection of data obtained through the administration of course-evaluation instruments and the dissemination of that data to support instructional decisions within the IUPUI campus.
The Testing Center’s mission is to provide departmental, institutional and national testing opportunities to students and non-students in the IUPUI community. The center’s services extend to the Indianapolis community as well by providing assistance with national certification exams and achievement tests. The center’s longtime director, Howard R. Mzumara, will continue his role of managing the day-to-day operations of the unit.
“This transition will provide colleagues within both units the opportunity to leverage their expertise and collaborate in the areas of enhancing student success and learning, methods of assessment and evaluation, and provision of information for data-informed decisions,” Hansen said. “By being housed together in Academic Affairs, we will benefit from sharing expertise, collaborating on joint projects, and leveraging technology and other resources to support the individual and collective missions of both areas.”
