host: can we start with your general thoughts before we talk about the details of the university. but your thoughts on the challenges facing those in higher education today?

guest: i'd say the greatest hallenge in front of us is to continue to provide a quality affordable education, especially to the students of the state of indiana. a state university after all. that education both affordable and assuring the students are graduating with very high level that will enable them to prosper in the work place is a great challenge. is a whole range of factors to deal with the function in the institution of $3.3 billion. host: what steps do you think have to take place in order to that affordability with quality?

uest: one of the key things we're doing in terms of affordability is really focus in couple of in the last years. on the whole issue of student debt, you're probably aware that his has got didn't -- i'm sure you're aware this is appropriate attention. ours.een a concern of and so last year, we introduced comprehensive financial literacy program that involves that all e modules entering freshmen have to omplete on financial literacy courses on financial illiteracy or credit and a variety of administrative matters to give students much better control and their student debt. what is remarkable about this is the we saw a 11% drop in

amount of debt that students year and that amounted to 31 -- that is if you across all of the institutions of higher education 4500 e country, there are multiplied you that, you can see how one could on the enormous impact student debt that students are taking on. of 's a critical component the affordability. can one find the resources to fund an education. that's been a really major that we have been aimed at affo affordabili affordability. host: what do you tell students mounting debt to get an education. is if they ask if college worth it. how do you answer? there's don't think

any doubt that college is worth it. study fter study after prospects in the work place in general are better with a college degree. now, it certainly is the case growing emphasis n the kinds of skills that students are graduating with. and we have put in place -- in i announce this last year that i asked all of the students evaluate ensively opportunities for creative ombinations of degrees, certificate, associates, masters degrees, so on. ast week, we announced a new program between our very highly ranked kelly school of business and sciencesf arts acceleratedovide an

masters degree that will provide bachelor's degree in a field like economics, mathematics, so on. degree in masters business. so that's an accelerated process. one-year master's can be completely completed on-line. you can see how you can place, , go to the work and complete another master's on-line in obviously a very practical applied area of is a skill that always going to be marketed by our students. we're looking at things like that across the board at the institution. have a program already that provides a certificate of usiness on top of a variety of different bachelor's degrees as well. mindful.

we have a responsibility to have to be concerned about their welfare after they graduate. we cannot as an institution and ete the education away take away -- not be concerned happens to them then. the programs prescribed to you on focused in part greater g to the schools to go along with the education that we provide at indiana university. and we also are mindful of the the fact in spite of that unemployment is still falling,ly high, though there are some estimates, 2 illion or 3 million unfilled positions because not enough graduates are graduating with the right kinds of skills. ll of that is what we're focused on. and the final part of that is a

comprehensive approach across the university to really improve career consulting. advising, sorry. we're really focussed on nsuring that all of our students have access to top to help areer advising to maximize the opportunities to find employment. c-span bus is doing a big ten college tour. presidents are joining us on the of to talk about issues higher education. we're joined by the head of indiana university, and he's take your questions on issues of higher education. generally on ons the issue of higher education. there's the chance to talk about 202-585-3880 for 3881.ge students, parents, a college or university professor, 3882. residents, 3883. 6,000 students at the

university of blooming ton. undergraduate.re 10,000 graduate students, faculty and staff of 8300. talk about cost of college specifically for indiana university, how much of your up by employee salaries, staff salaries, and facilities? salaries are the 80% of the total costs of the years plus employ benefits plus health care, so on. intensive sonnel organization like most other universities there. we are focussed on direct interaction to students and classroom.s in the

though i think we've seen a greater and greater impact of education, i still don't think there's a amount of completelyat it will replace that fundamental student-teaching relationship for as long ased universities have existed which is over 25 centuries. host: the annual budget for the billion.y, $1.4 an endowment of $2 billion. alumni, 370,000 worldwide. as far as the annual budget is concerned, you talk about personnel. what about facilities. how much do you spend to keep up facilities?nd add host: this is been -- this is my fear as president. is a major focus of our board of trustees it over this period. institutions, we actually had a very large deferred maintenance bill.