The Division of Undergraduate Education supports strategies related to promoting undergraduate student learning and success through collaboration with academic and support units across IU Indianapolis. The division is a nonprofit organization dedicated to maximizing private sector support for undergraduates to succeed at IU Indianapolis.
Mission of the Division of Undergraduate Education
Our commitment to advancing racial justice
The Division of Undergraduate Education at IU Indianapolis supports all undergraduate students by supporting high-quality learning and on-time degree completion. Matters of equity have always been at the core of our work, and we are committed to confronting systemic inequities in higher education through our programs and initiatives that propel students of color and those who are underrepresented and/or under-resourced to success.
Below, please find a list of our programs working to create a sense of belonging and inclusivity among students as they enter into and move through their journeys toward achieving graduation.
You can also use these links to jump ahead to sections.
University College | Honors College | Institute for Engaged Learning (IEL)
If you would like to learn more about partnering with the Division of Undergraduate Education to support these initiatives, please contact vprodue@iu.edu
University College
Dedicated to Enrichment, Achievement, and Persistence (DEAP) program
The mission of the Dedicated to Enrichment, Achievement, and Persistence (DEAP) program is to enhance the transition and success of IU Indianapolis students from populations that have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education by addressing academic, social, and personal matters that have an impact on persistence. Through connecting, affirming, guiding, and engaging students, DEAP helps to ensure their success at IU Indianapolis. DEAP offers intensive retention programming and a supportive community. This program has made significant strides in retention and graduation rates for IU Indianapolis students of color.
21st Century Scholars Success Program
The 21st Century Scholars Success Program supports IU Indianapolis 21st Century Scholars with an array of programs and services, including professional coaching, financial literacy and education programs, as well as peer mentoring. The number of 21st Century Scholars enrolling at IU Indianapolis has almost tripled since 2008, and the services offered to support them have significantly narrowed the gap in retention rates for this program and other students at IU Indianapolis.
Bowen Scholars Program
Through the generosity of the Bowen Family Foundation, we offer the Bowen Scholars Program at IU Indianapolis for selected Ivy Tech Bowen Scholars. This program for returning adult African-American students provides monthly workshops, mentoring, a computer lab, and financial support for up-to-three years. One hundred percent of Bowen Scholars have graduated from IU Indianapolis.
Nina Scholars Program
Funded by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars Program offers students who face significant barriers to educational success an opportunity to obtain a bachelor's degree at IU Indianapolis. The program is offered to lower-income individuals who were either raised in the child welfare system (such as foster care), have physical disabilities, or are returning adults with dependents. Nina Scholars regularly have over a 90% first-to-second year retention rate, and a 69% six-year graduation rate.
THRIVE Program
Funded by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, THRIVE is designed to empower independent students to develop their capacity for personal growth and self-authorship for students who were formerly in foster care or experienced housing insecurity, homelessness or emancipation from a parent/guardian. Participants engage in a full IU Indianapolis experience, as well as activities beyond the classroom, including workshops, cultural events, excursions, and retreats. The first-to-second year retention rate for THRIVE participants is 80.5.
Student Support Services
Student Support Services (SSS) is a program funded by the US Department of Education to help students from low-income, first-generation backgrounds from orientation until they graduate. A proven program of information, support, and guidance helps provide SSS students with the academic and personal support necessary to excel at IU Indianapolis. Over 300 students participate each year. The first-to-second year retention rate for SSS participants is 80%.
Sophomore Internship Program
There are internship opportunity gaps among under-represented students at IU Indianapolis. These gaps are evident in comparing 2019 Black graduates’ rate of participation (59.9%) to that of White graduates and Asian graduates (72.8% and 74.4% respectively). Students without internship experience report first full-time job salaries thousands of dollars below their peers with experience. To help in eliminating this gap, the Sophomore Internship Program (SIP) is designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply their academic coursework in a paid internship experience. Students are placed in professional internships with local industry partners. This program is aimed at sophomore students of all majors and provides supportive services throughout the application process and internship experience. Priority is given to students from historically underrepresented populations with focused recruitment from students who are 21st Century Scholars and who participate in DEAP.
Career Outcomes Data
IU Indianapolis maintains public datasets on graduates’ career outcomes that can be disaggregated by race, first-generation status, income level, and internship experience (career.iupui.edu/outcomes). Data is collected on employment, further education, starting salaries, debt, and confidence in repaying debt.
Upward Bound
IU Indianapolis Upward Bound provides low-income, first-generation potential college students quality instruction and academic support to ensure their successful completion of a bachelor’s degree. Students from targeted schools in Marion County participate throughout high school including a 6-week residential program in which students can earn college credit.
SPAN Division
Special Programs for Academic Nurturing (SPAN) is an IU Indianapolis program that gives academically motivated students the opportunity to get started on their college education or to take courses that are not available at their local high school. In order to promote enrollment by students in IPS, IU Indianapolis awards tuition scholarships each academic year to academically eligible Crispus Attucks High School and George Washington High School junior and senior students engaged in coursework at the Indianapolis campus through the IU Indianapolis SPAN Division. Students can earn up to 12 hours of college credit. Low-income students from any area high school are eligible to earn up to six credits of discounted tuition ($25 per credit hour).
IU Indianapolis First-Generation Celebration, national designation of IU Indianapolis as a “First Forward” institution
IU Indianapolis has been recognized by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators as a “First Forward” school for our efforts to recognize and support students who are the first in their families to attend college. For the past three years, IU Indianapolis has hosted celebration of students, faculty and staff at IU Indianapolis who are first in their families to attend or graduate college.
Honors College
The Honors College offers a unique experience with housing, peer mentoring, student organizations, and more benefits that will make students’ time at IU Indianapolis challenging, engaging, meaningful, and relevant. Comprised of high-achieving students from a variety of academic degree programs, our students can experience Honors coursework, one-on-one advising, and opportunities for research, international study, service, and experiential learning that allows students to build strong foundations inside and outside the classroom.
Institute for Engaged Learning (IEL)
Institute for Engaged Learning Equitable Pathways
The Institute for Engaged Learning promotes and supports the equitable progression of undergraduates through pathways of connected and scaffolded curricular and co-curricular, applied, integrative, and experiential learning opportunities that prepare students for lives of commitment and success with skills to communicate, innovate, and engage in local and global communities to address 21st century problems. The institute is comprised of units and centers that work together to support faculty, staff, and students in these efforts.
First-Year Experience – Summer Bridge and Learning Communities
Bridge Week takes place the week before fall classes begin and gets you ready to hit the ground running. Learning communities combine a first-year seminar and one or two other linked general education courses, and include Themed Learning Communities and Gateway Learning Communities. Fall 2018 Bridge participants were significantly more likely to return to IU Indianapolis in the fall It should be noted that 2018 Bridge participants were more likely to be first generation, more likely to receive a Pell Grant, and had a lower average SAT than non-participants.
For more information
If you would like to learn more about partnering with the Division of Undergraduate Education to support these initiatives, please contact vprodue@iu.edu