Indiana University Northwest celebrates brand new Student Success Center with ribbon cutting ceremony

At Indiana University Northwest, the educational institution’s mission is defined by three values: engagement, academic excellence, and student success. When there is an opportunity to find the answer to all three at the same time, it’s a no-brainer for IU Northwest to take it.

On Monday, March 30, IU Northwest hosted a ribbon cutting with its students, faculty, and staff members to celebrate the opening of the new Student Success Center. This space is located on the third floor of Hawthorn Hall. What was once filled with quiet halls, storage rooms, empty conference spaces, and offices, this new Student Success Center officially opened earlier this spring and has been buzzing ever since.

Dr. Arrick Jackson, chancellor at IU Northwest, shared his gratitude with all the helping hands who played a part in the opening of this Student Success Center.

“With all the energy for this new center, I appreciate the community and all of the work that was involved to bring this center to life,” Jackson said. “We’re opening up this center with the Crimson Corner Game Room and the RedHawk Refuel Food Pantry. I’ve been here three or four times before just to watch things come into place, and it’s been fantastic since the first day I stepped onto the campus.”

Jackson has seen plenty of enthusiasm in this project. Not only will it serve as an area for students to gather, but also as a resource that will give them extra educational opportunities.

“This represents a true central hub. It’s a place where students can study, gather, connect, meet with advisors, and access campus and community resources they need to succeed,” Jackson said. “One of the major reasons that I was drawn to IU Northwest was because of student success, and we’re seeing it on display here today.”

The Student Success Center is a space that helps all students. One club that is directly benefitted is the SPIRITS Magazine, which is the art and literary journal of IU Northwest. Nicole Bostic is an English student and staff member for this magazine. At first, she was a little nervous with the location change, but now she embraces it with open arms.

“The Writing Center used to be on the fourth floor, where the English department was,” Bostic said. “When I heard we were moving, I was like, ‘I don’t know what that’s going to be like.’ Once I started helping out and seeing everything in full swing, I thought it was the most amazing move we could have made. We have way more people who come walking in.”

While the students can receive a better learning experience with the Student Success Center, the space serves to assist more than just students. It also allows students to have somewhere to decompress if they have time between two classes.

“It amplifies the welcoming environment that I feel like we have on our own, but when we’re all together, it’s easier to redirect a student if they need help,” Bostic said. “Having such an open and inviting space for meetings, studying, and even breaks between classes provides students, faculty, and staff with a supportive atmosphere to encourage engagement and collaboration.”

Jackson notes that this project would not be possible without the partners who believed in the vision as much as the IU Northwest faculty and staff. The construction of the space was provided by the support of a Federal INVEST (Inspiring, Valuing and Empowering Success Together) grant.

Cynthia O’Dell was the principal investigator and original visionary for the INVEST grant. This project derives from another project that the university was a part of between 2016 and 2018.

“This project has been a labor of love for me and many others at IU Northwest. Long before we wrote the grant that funded the construction of this center, there were some key projects the campus was involved with that set the stage. We were part of AASCU’s ‘Re-imagining the First Year’ project, and over 60 faculty, staff, and students at IU Northwest were part of that project. It fundamentally changed how we viewed our students’ needs and our thoughts about the student experience,” O’Dell said.

IU Northwest built a capacity based on this with pedagogical innovation, seminars, summer bridge programs, block scheduling, and more. In 2019, an eight-member team joined the Higher Learning Commission Student Success Academy to continue that work. The participation in the Student Success Academy revealed that more than 50 student success initiatives were active when it started and scattered across the campus.

These findings became the foundation of the federal grant in 2022. As a part of that grant, IU Northwest proposed the Student Success Center to support these students.

“The Student Success Center provides students with a variety of tutoring and study spaces, a place to have snacks, and it co-locates our academic advisors, our success coaches, and our resource specialists to provide students with as much support as we could fit into one space,” O’Dell said. “It’s taken from 2022 until now to achieve that dream. Hawthorn Hall has always been a significant building on campus, but I feel like the addition of the Student Success Center really puts the cherry on top.”

Pamela Whitten, the 19th and current president of Indiana University, was in attendance for this ribbon cutting ceremony. Upon her arrival, Jackson and many other IU Northwest faculty members showed Whitten all the amenities of the new space.

“This is a terrific space. I’ve had the chance to check out the game room and all the study spaces. These students get to have fun playing some air hockey and video games to take a break from studying, but it also addresses the needs of our students. This is another important, wonderful addition that will help them be successful,” said Whitten.

Whitten has been pleased with the constant developments that the IU Northwest campus has made since she started her tenure as the president of IU in 2021. She hopes that it will elevate every student who uses this new campus resource.

“Every time I come to this campus, there’s some amazing new changes,” Whitten said. “This is all about our students, who are the center of our universe. We want the students to have an amazing experience. At IU Northwest, this is a campus that is committed to making sure – academically, intellectually, socially – that the students learn, grow, and develop.”
For more information on IU Northwest, you can visit northwest.iu.edu.