Professional Staff Profiles
Janice Wiggins
Janice Wiggins (far right) with students
Janice Wiggins has been an administrator for over 25 years on the IU Bloomington campus. She has spent the past fifteen years as the Director of the Groups Student Support Services, a program that annually admits first generation, low income and physically challenged students to IUB. The Groups Program is a funded by a Department of Education TRIO grant, and allows many students to successfully complete college who may not otherwise have had the chance. In 2006, the Education Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., highlighted Groups as a "best practice" for promoting student success.
Wiggins is responsible for the program’s financial administration and budget, administrative and operational policies and procedures, grant proposals, staff supervision, and development and dissemination of program publications and reports. Groups has grown from 43 students in 1968 to approximately 300 students in 2008 to attend the Groups Summer Experience Program. During its 40 years, over 9,000 students have participated in the Groups Program. “Groups students hail from all geographical regions from the Indiana,” said Wiggins. “These students continue to enrich the intellectual and cultural atmosphere of the IUB campus community… Groups is a true representation of Indiana citizenship.”
Wiggins graduated from Indiana University in 1971 with an A.B. in Psychology, and received a Masters of Science in Educational Psychology in 1975. She spent several years as an Academic Advisor on the Bloomington campus before turning to administration.
“In the year 1976 I was attending a dinner party with other faculty wives.” said Wiggins, who has been married to Bill Wiggins, IU Professor Emeritus of Afro-American Studies, for over 40 years. “I mentioned the fact that I wanted to wait until our daughter completed middle school before I sought employment. Immediately, I was informed that if the opportunity availed itself for employment I had better take advantage of it…employment was very difficult to come by on IUB campus.”
In 1978, Wiggins was hired as the director of Cooperative Education on the Bloomington campus. This new initiative gave opportunities for students to be employed by businesses, government or non-profit agencies to gain work experience. She spent the next 15 years in a variety of administrative roles at IU, and in 1996, she was approached by Dean Richard McKaig regarding the open position as Director of the Groups Program.
“After talking over this possibility and its enormous challenges with my family, they still truly believed that I was the right person to do this,” said Wiggins. “Emboldened by their encouragement and the support of other administrators whose counsel I valued, I applied for the directorship and I was hired and given this opportunity…the rest is history.”
In addition to her position as Groups Director, Wiggins has served as the Senior Associate Director of the Career Development Center at IUB since 1993. She has presented over 200 career development workshops in her time at IU, covering resume writing, interview training, job search strategies, networking and motivation in the work place. She has served her campus and community as an officer on dozens of boards, and is listed in Who’s Who in the Midwest, as well as the National Distinguish Service Registry: Counseling and Development. She has received numerous awards including the 2006-2007 IU Commission on Multicultural Understanding Staff Award, IU Division of Student Affairs Shoemaker Special Merit Award and; in 2004, Governor Joe Kernan bestowed upon her the Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana’s highest service award.
Other awards include the Indiana Association of Women in Education Distinguish Service Award, the I-MAOEPP State Association’s “LaVerta Terry Outstanding Service Award”, and the MLK Building Bridges Award. Wiggins was a consultant to the Counseling and Psychological Division at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Twelve years into her tenure, as the Director of the Groups Program, Wiggins reflects on her job. “This is the first time in my professional life that I have had the opportunity to make such a rewarding impact on young people lives; namely, first generation and underrepresented students from urban and rural Indiana many who never dreamed that they would have an opportunity to attend an Indiana University,” said Wiggins. “A student most recently said it best: ‘I think it is important that you know that your efforts do have real and positive consequences for the people that you and the others in the program touch.’ “
