As I plan another great year for our Executive Council and Board of Managers, I am reminded of how these top volunteers got their starts at IU.   Whether from IUPUI, IU Bloomington, or one of our regional campuses around the state, many of them stumbled upon IU as a newbie to the area, eager to get their first or advanced degree.

Somehow along the way, these future alumni leaders made connections with professors and friends in their student organizations.  IU became a home away from home even if home wasn’t in a residential hall or apartment with other college kids.  Was this by chance or a deliberate set of acts by those who came before us?  Was it a smile from a stranger in the Campus Center or the usher at the IU Auditorium?

Consider how we welcome these students now and what impact we can make in their first week.  Not all of us has an office across from Assembly Hall on the A bus route with the ability to interact with students regularly – but statistically most graduates living in Indiana are pretty close one of our eight wonderful campuses.  You’re bound to run into the fresh-faced freshman or worldly graduate student from time to time.  At IUB alone, there is another record-setting year starting this week: 8,118 for the Class of 2022.  Our other campuses are experiencing the same surge.

Open your big Hoosier Arms to these new students and remember they are just like you. Sure, they are seeking truth, intellectual expression, and academic freedom. But the experience these students have is also sustained and strengthened by the connections they make while here. We welcome them unreservedly.