Bantz
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Although I came to Indianapolis only this past June, the IUPUI campus immediately had a familiar feel to it.
I spent my formative undergraduate college years on an urban university campus very much like IUPUI—in my case, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Like IUPUI, the campus in Minneapolis is set along the banks of a river. It has the most comprehensive array of academic programs of any institution in the state, as well as the widest range of graduate and professional programs. The campus, just minutes from downtown, offered almost unlimited academic and experiential opportunities for students and faculty alike. Two-thirds of Minnesota’s doctors, veterinarians, dentists and pharmacists earn their professional degrees at Minnesota. The same is true of IUPUI, where 41 percent of the state’s doctors, 75 percent of the state’s lawyers and 90 percent of the state’s dentists earn their professional degrees.
As a student at Minnesota, I found that the classroom was not the only place of learning. Surrounded by arts and culture, centers of business and government, a diverse cosmopolitan community filled with urban energy and rich reservoirs of history and tradition, opportunities for learning were everywhere. Almost in spite of myself, I found them. Friends tempted me to explore their interests. Faculty talked about off-campus activities and sometimes drew me to new experiences by requiring that I visit a museum or attend a play as background for writing a paper. Employers sought interns and graduates from the university to grow their businesses. Agencies sought professionals to fill social service needs.
Minneapolis is a city with a famous river running through it—the Mississippi. Consequently, there were lots of bridges, but at the university there were bridges between campus and community as well. All you had to do was find and cross them.
As I spend my first months at IUPUI, it is readily apparent to me that Washington, Michigan and New York Streets aren’t the only bridges that connect the IUPUI peninsula to the community it serves. As a newcomer to Indiana and IUPUI, I look forward to finding and exploring the campus/community bridges that await me here.
IUPUI Chancellor’s Web site:
http://www.iupui.edu/administration/chancellorbantz.htm
IUPUI Web site:
http://www.iupui.edu/
See today’s feature for more on IUPUI.
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