IUPUI Chancellor Retires, Reflects on Career

After more than three decades with the Indiana University system, including more than six years as chancellor of IUPUI, Nasser Paydar is now retired. He has held various administrative and executive leadership positions since he joined IUPUI in 1985 as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Paydar has been credited with boosting IUPUI’s reputation as a leading urban university.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Paydar said since taking the helm in 2015, the campus community has changed in many ways.

“Since I started here, IUPUI has really dramatically increased. The number of faculty has increased significantly. But more importantly, the number of students. We have roughly 30,000 students now at IUPUI. And 91% of the students come from state of Indiana,” said Paydar.

Likewise, Paydar says 91% of the graduates stay in Indiana to start their careers. He says graduating rates and diversity of the student body has also increased.

“Graduation rates have doubled in the last six or seven years. I’m very proud of that. The other thing is that at IUPUI, we want diverse student body. The incoming students this fall 40% of them were students of color. And that is terrific. Yeah, because we want to have diverse student body come here and graduate,” Paydar said.

In spring 2004, Paydar was named vice chancellor and dean at IUPUC. Three years later, he was appointed as the chancellor of IU East.

In 2012, he returned to IUPUI as executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer and served in this role until his appointment as chancellor.

Last month, IU announced Andrew Klein, a professor At the IU McKinney School of Law, will serve as interim chancellor, as the search for Paydar’s successor continues.