The radical makeover of Hanna Avenue — it’ll be finished soon, we are promised — isn’t the only news as the University of Indianapolis rolls into the 2011-2012 academic year.
Here’s a sampling of what else is happening for UIndy this fall:
Super Bowl hoopla
UIndy will conduct a dedication ceremony Sept. 1 for its Athletics & Recreation Center, the official NFC practice site for the February 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis. In addition to hosting the championship team’s practice and planning in the week preceding the big game, the center’s massive domed space will host rehearsals earlier in the winter for the hundreds of people playing technical and supporting roles in the extravagant halftime show.
New China partnership
University officials will travel in September to Shaoxing, China, for the opening ceremony at Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages-UIndy International College. Housed in a brand new facility about an hour from Shanghai, the college will admit up to 300 Chinese students annually for a three-year program that offers rigorous English language instruction, associate’s degrees in business and applied English, and a coveted opportunity to complete a bachelor’s degree in the United States. ZYUFL-UIndy is the university’s second joint-degree program in China.
New residence hall
UIndy will break ground soon on its seventh major residential building, Roberts Hall, named for inaugural university President John Taylor Roberts. Scheduled to open in Fall 2012, the five-story building on Hanna Avenue will feature amenities aimed at upperclassmen, with private and semi-private rooms for about 200 students.
CAC and CELL anniversaries
This academic year, UIndy marks the 10th anniversaries of the founding of its Center for Aging & Community, which offers education, research and advocacy on issues facing older adults, and its Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning, a leading force for education reform in Indiana.
New academic programs
- One new academic path this fall is Experience Design, which students can select as a 30-hour major, an 18-hour minor or a 12-hour standalone concentration. This cutting-edge interdisciplinary program, which focuses on researching, designing and implementing interactive experiences, can be applied to careers in such fields as hospitality, event planning, marketing, retail, game design, entertainment, education and cultural outreach.
- Also welcoming its first incoming students is the Master of Science in Anthropology program, which offers specialty tracks in bioarcheology, molecular anthropology and archeological science. Along with the latest theory in anthropology, the program emphasizes lab and field experiences and offers access to UIndy’s Indiana Prehistory Laboratory, Molecular Anthropology Laboratory (skeletal DNA analysis) and Geoarcheology Laboratory.
