Program History and Reports

The Evolving Initiative

The Welcoming Campus Initiative has brought many positive changes to the IUPUI campus and seeks to continue to do so in its second iteration, (Re)Building Community through Engagement.

The changes that have resulted from the initiative have ranged from dramatic updates to campus landscaping to our Welcoming Campus Innovation Projects that have been driven by people from across IUPUI.

The Welcoming Campus Initiative is tied to IUPUI’s strategic goals outlined in Our Commitment to Indiana and Beyond: IUPUI Strategic Plan, especially our efforts to support student success, faculty and staff development, and community engagement.

Original Initiative Objectives & Leadership

The five principal objectives of IUPUI’s Welcoming Campus Initiative are to:

  1. Seek input on what it means for IUPUI to be a truly welcoming campus for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members and in our physical environment.
  2. Identify how peer and aspirant institutions foster welcoming campus environments and investigate how to adapt or replicate such practices at IUPUI.
  3. Determine what is presently driving us toward and what is holding us back from being a more welcoming campus.
  4. Develop preliminary recommendations for how IUPUI can become a more welcoming campus, including indicators we can use to gauge our progress and effectiveness.
  5. Use the recommendations to improve our culture, both centrally and throughout IUPUI, in order to be a welcoming campus.

The executive committee met regularly to ensure that there was coordination and clear communication among the various task forces and the steering committee, to review progress, and to help ensure that deadlines were met. The executive committee also prepared updates to various stakeholders through formal informal communications.

Members:

  • Kathy Johnson, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer – Chair
  • Christine Fitzpatrick, former Chief of Staff, Office of the Chancellor
  • Stephen Hundley, Senior Advisor to the Chancellor for Planning and Institutional Improvement
  • Becky Wood, Director of Communications, Office of the Chancellor

The Steering Committee was broadly inclusive, provided connections between and among groups, and offered overall direction, leadership, and coordination of the Welcoming Campus Initiative. Steering Committee members included co-chairs of each taskforce, members of the Executive Committee, as well as select taskforce members.

Task force co-chairs served as conveners to facilitate discussion, synthesize information, liaise with the Steering Committee, and develop a preliminary report with recommendations for IUPUI.

Members:

  • Kathy Johnson – Chair
  • Rachel Applegate, President of Faculty Council
  • Robin Hughes, former Interim Executive Associate Dean, School of Education
  • Jim Klenner, former President of Staff Council
  • Robin Newhouse, Dean, School of Nursing
  • Marianne Wokeck, Chancellor's Professor Emerita of History
  • Representatives of the Undergraduate and Graduate Student Governments

Task Force Co-Chairs:

  • Chancellor’s Task Force on IUPUI as a Welcoming Campus for Students: Tralicia Lewis (former Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs) and Cathy Buyarski
  • Chancellor’s Task Force on IUPUI as a Welcoming Campus for Faculty and Staff: Simon Atkinson (former Vice Chancellor for Research) and Juletta Toliver
  • Chancellor’s Task Force on IUPUI as a Welcoming Campus through Cultural Climate and Multicultural Competence: Karen Dace and Lori Patton Davis (former associate professor of higher education and student affairs at the School of Education)
  • Chancellor’s Task Force on IUPUI as a Welcoming Campus for Alumni and Community Members: Amy Warner and Monica Medina
  • Chancellor’s Task Force on IUPUI as a Welcoming Campus in our Physical Environment: Camy Broeker and Aaron Hart (former Associate Dean of Students)

Each task force had one co-chair who is a member of the Chancellor’s Cabinet as well as a co-chair with specific expertise in the task force subject. Each taskforce also included one dean, and, where appropriate, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members have been included. The composition of task forces provides a broad range of input by individuals with knowledge and experience working in each respective area.

Learn more about the Welcoming Campus Initiative