Campus innovations address needs of a diverse student body

Student activities

“We have students who are on campus for greater periods of time, and we try to provide more activities for them to get involved in between their class periods,” Hawkins said.

Comedians and musicians perform at the Kelley Student Center food court during lunch periods. Interactive programs, such as caricature artists and a creative dating workshop, have been other popular mid-day events. Sports and fitness activities offered at IU Kokomo include yoga classes and league play in softball and basketball.

Students from all areas on campus—“a nice mix of traditional-age and adult students”—participated in a spring leadership retreat, which Hawkins hopes to repeat each semester.

“We have been working to forge stronger relationships with the academic units, to really connect the activities we are sponsoring with what the students are learning in the classrooms,” she added. Students from freshman learning communities attended a recent performance by InterAction Theatre, an improvisational acting troupe that dramatizes social issues to prompt audience reflection. Students and faculty judge the enhanced learning “very successful,” Hawkins said.

The number of student organizations at IU Kokomo has doubled since the early 1990s, Hawkins said. “I think this demonstrates the increase in student involvement and the diversity of their interests.” Groups include multicultural clubs such as Umoja International Student Organization and El Mundo Hispano, a film society, a student newspaper and clubs focusing on academic disciplines, such as education, nursing, criminal justice and mathematics. Students, staff, alumni and community members helped launch two new opportunities for musical expression in the past year—a handbell choir and community band.

Traditional-age students sought permission this past fall to bring social sororities to the Kokomo campus. A chapter of Sigma Lambda Gamma, a historically Latina-based national sorority, registered with the Office of Student Activities in November. Other students have asked the National Panhellenic Conference to consider IU Kokomo as a site for one of the twenty-six fraternal groups it represents. A committee of faculty, staff and students has been drafting guidelines for bringing Greek life to campus, Hawkins said. “We will soon have the groups on campus for formal presentations, and decisions will be made regarding which group to invite to colonize on our campus.”

Hawkins and her staff work to balance the needs of adult students, especially by hosting family-oriented entertainment during evenings and weekends. The most popular is the Halloween Open House, started in 1990. Last fall, the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) honored IU Kokomo’s 2001 Halloween Open House as a “Program of the Year.”

Held on the Friday before Halloween, the open house provides a dry, safe alternative to trick-or-treating door-to-door. Children of IU Kokomo students and community youngsters can enjoy two hours of games, music and storytelling at the Kelley Student Center. Student organizations pass out treats at individual booths.

IU Kokomo’s entry stood out in the NACA judging because of security measures implemented at that year’s open house, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. The Kokomo Fire Department sent firefighters to campus and had vehicles present during the Open House. “By inviting the firefighters, we hoped that children and parents would understand that it was a safe event. It provided peace of mind to those concerned,” said Matt Troutman, coordinator of student activities programming.

“Especially post-Sept. 11, many were wary about taking their children trick-or-treating,” said Kylene Berkheiser, director of the Student Union Board in 2001–2002. “We felt that we offered a safe environment for the community to take their minds off of the troubles of the world—if only for a couple of hours—and focus on the innocence of their children in fun costumes.”

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