Creating a Strong Future Through Student Success

I have good news to share. Our Imagine Unlimited Campaign is 88 percent to its $75 million goal. We have you and your steadfast support to thank.

The campaign has three overarching goals—academic excellence, student success, and diversity and inclusion–that have guided us in structuring the university we aspire to be through the lens of the campaign.

Academic excellence and diversity and inclusion are tangible: we are committed to creating eye-opening experiences through engaging academic experiences and by exposing students to new people and situations, preparing them for the world they’ll encounter after graduation. In terms of the Imagine Unlimited Campaign, those relate to ensuring the next generation can access innovative programming and leading-edge facilities.

Student success is closely aligned with that kind of preparation, but sometimes, the concept is not as clear cut. As I see it, student success begins and ends with a first-rate, engaging, and transformative experience–with the emphasis on completion, but what happens in between can vary greatly, depending on each student’s background and educational journey.

For students who are willing to work hard to better themselves, we are ordering all of our resources and all of our work to ensure that each is successful—both here and after graduation.

That means focusing on, among other things, pressure points they might have. If it’s financial burden, we are working to fill gaps through scholarships and financial counseling. If it’s uncertainty about what sparks their academic interest and what they want to do after graduation, we have stepped up our efforts while working with them through programs like the new University College and the Center for Career Development.

In the next edition of IUP Magazine, you’ll read about the growing concern on the national level for the mental health of students on college campuses. We’ve responded with initiatives that include expanding services in the Rhonda Luckey Center for Health and Well-Being and providing more training to our personnel to ensure that any student who needs some extra emotional help can get it.

Just as we’ve worked to open doors to students of varying circumstances—the Labyrinth Center for students with autism, for example, or the Military and Veterans Resource Center—we are finding new and different ways and are striving to make sure those who come here can succeed here, with dignity and on their own with appropriate guidance.

With you, we are facilitating a greater future by guiding students to be academically prepared and well versed in the ways of the world and who are able to adapt to new situations and challenges and are confident, because of the success they experienced at IUP.

Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

With sincere thanks and great wishes for 2020,

Michael Driscoll
President