The University of Indianapolis Honors College is planning to move from its established location on the second floor of Esch Hall to a newly renovated house on the southeast side of campus.
Even though this change was recently announced, the idea to move the honors program to its own building has been in the works for quite a while. According to Dean of the Honors College James Williams the idea to move the program to its own dedicated building has been around for a while, but was buried due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the change in presidents at the university. With the announcement of the increased gift in February by Laura Strain, the idea could finally move forward. Williams said the specific plans on how the honors college will use the space are still in the early development, and that as of right now, the only renovations currently being made are to make the house ADA compliant, along with some repainting. As of now, Williams said his office and the honor’s student lounge will be located in the new house, and they plan to move before the start of the spring semester.
The house is not new to UIndy’s campus, as it was was previously used by the Greyhound Club, which moved to the Stierwalt Alumni House, according to Vice President of Advancement Phillip Thornton.
“There’s been a transition of departments given the new strategic plan,” Thornton said, “and as part of that we made the decision to unify the three alumni-facing departments of campus so that would be the Office of Advancement, Alumni Relations and Athletic Fundraising also known as Greyhound Club, and unify all three into one team in one building.”
According to Thornton, the Greyhound Club used the house as office space, housing four people who worked with UIndy alumni in support of student athletics and the athletic department. The Greyhound Club, along with Alumni Relations, now work under one roof as the three departments are now combined under the Office of Advancement, Thornton said. One of the largest changes, according to Thornton, has been reevaluating the space in the Alumni House for the incoming departments.
“It’s gonna be a positive in every way possible,” Thornton said. “… A big part of this is we want our alumni to have the best experience possible, and in this new model, we have an opportunity to design one holistic experience instead of kind of three separate groups all working separately on this. It’s gonna be one team working in one direction, and I think it’s gonna yield some great results.”
Both departmental changes come as the university has worked to meet the goals of its new strategic plan which was released to the public in April.
