The Place to Be

Jeffrey Stanley recalls that when he attended IUPUI, students never had a place to hang out. The campus did not have a student union, and you just had to make do with what you had.

"In between classes, there was no place to go," says Jeffrey (MSW’95). "So you did a lot of your socializing while driving around in your car."

All that has changed. Construction is complete on a new Campus Center in the heart of IUPUI. The four-story center houses community spaces, restaurants, offices, and diversions like a theater and game room.

And it has a place for alumni like Jeffrey.

The Distinguished Alumni Board Room is located on the fourth floor of the center. "There’s never been a space like this anywhere for alumni on the campus," says Stefan Davis, vice president of the IU Alumni Association and executive director of alumni relations, IUPUI. "There’s been no unified location for our various alumni boards to meet."

For IUPUI, the new center is becoming the hub of campus life. Imagine a student who needs an apartment. She goes to the center and scans bulletin boards for rental notices. Our student then runs into her professor in line for a cup of coffee. The two have a chat about study abroad possibilities. She then rushes off to her Habitat for Humanity meeting on the third floor.

The Campus Center provides a place for people to interact—and that turns individuals into a community.

These same benefits apply to alumni and their life on a campus. At IUPUI, alumni groups, like students, are affiliated with individual schools. But each school is part of the larger campus community. And that community depends on the volunteer efforts of all those graduates for support.

"Many of the groups who will meet in the board room will take significant leadership roles on the campus," says Jeffrey, who also serves as chairperson of the board room’s fundraising committee. "Furthermore, I think a place for us to meet sends a message to the academic community that we are a part of that community. And our goal is to continue to be a vital part."

Since they’ll be in close proximity to students, alumni can also teach the next generation of graduates-to-be by example.

"We are always trying to connect with students," Jeffrey says. "We want them to see what it means to be alumni and what their future relationship with IUPUI will be like."