Kelley Dean Pat Hopkins
With the start of the fall semester, the familiar rhythms of campus life have returned. Students are moving briskly between classes, and lines at Starbucks are stretching long during passing times. Faculty are setting expectations, while advisors are offering steady guidance. It’s a time of motion and momentum, and even as the broader landscape around us continues to shift, this familiar beginning brings with it the same focus, energy, and sense of potential at Kelley that it always does.
Alongside this familiar cycle, something extraordinary is unfolding. Over the summer, Kelley designed and launched a generative AI course that is now available to all students, faculty, and staff across IU’s nine campuses. Led by Professor Brian Williams and developed through Kelley’s Jellison Studios, the course has already auto-enrolled over 96,000 students, with faculty and staff joining voluntarily—likely pushing total participation past 100,000. This is a remarkable milestone, not just for Kelley, but for IU as a whole. Not only is it a sign of large-scale innovation—it is a direct investment in our students’ ability to navigate and lead in a rapidly evolving professional landscape.
Although the current course is limited to users with an IU login, I’m happy to share that we’re actively working to make this content accessible to our alumni. Two exciting initiatives are already underway: an upcoming podcast from the IU Alumni Association offering practical GenAI tips—created by the same team behind the course—and an open version of the course itself, expected to launch this fall. So, please stay tuned—we can’t wait to share these new resources with you.
This course is part of Kelley’s broader, strategic effort to future-proof our students and our larger community. Following a year of mobilizing and refining our internal processes, Kelley published guidance for integrating GenAI into curriculum through AACSB and hosted a schoolwide GenAI leadership summit to engage top executives on how GenAI is reshaping business operations.
We’re now moving forward with the creation of a Dean’s AI Roundtable, bringing together leaders from across industries to inform Kelley’s strategy with clear signals from the marketplace. Internally, we’re also expanding our capabilities through an AI Core team focused on translating our ideas into AI-enabled outcomes. These efforts reflect Kelley’s commitment to preparing students not just for their first job, but for a career defined by lifelong learning and unimaginable opportunity.
All this momentum is unfolding as we begin the year with record enrollment in our Bloomington Undergraduate Program and increased enrollment in our Indianapolis Undergraduate Program, clear signs of the trust students place in Kelley to prepare them for life after graduation. That same confidence is reflected across our entire portfolio of graduate programs, with most programs experiencing increased enrollments and with record enrollments in our Indianapolis Evening MBA and Physician MBA programs. The value of a Kelley education continues to resonate, helping people build and strengthen their careers at every stage.
An important differentiator for our degree programs is the extent to which experiential learning is infused throughout our curricular and co-curricular offerings. In that spirit, we’ve also recently launched the IU K+M Collective, a first-of-its-kind experiential learning initiative between Kelley and the IU Media School. This integrated consultancy offers students paid, professional experience working with real clients in a cross-disciplinary environment. Led by Nancy Paton, teaching professor of marketing and former IU vice president and chief communications and marketing officer, the program begins this fall with a faculty-led seminar series and continues in spring 2026 with the launch of client projects.
Kelley’s alumni community—137,000 strong and growing—continues to be a source of our ongoing pride. Across industries and continents, you are shaping the business landscape with the rigor, creativity, and leadership that reflects our shared Kelley values. The sheer scale of our alumni network defies easy comprehension, and that, coupled with your ongoing excellence, is what makes its impact so powerful. We’re excited to see how you continue to shape the future with bold ideas and meaningful connections.
Warm regards,
Pat Hopkins
Dean and James R. Hodge Chair of Excellence
Kelley School of Business