A host of programming is planned to celebrate the new academic year and to welcome new students into the community, including the university's annual State of the University address, Freshman Convocation, and the Common Freshman Reader program.
On August 27 at 9:00 a.m., Tony Atwater, IUP president, will present “Through the Storm and Bound for Greatness,” the 2009 State of the University address, in the Performing Arts Center's Fisher Auditorium. The program, which is open to the community, will be followed by a continental breakfast and reception in the Oak Grove.
Members of the community are also encouraged to attend the Freshman Convocation on August 30 at 5:30 p.m. in Fisher Auditorium. This event, which is the formal welcome of new students to the university, will feature Samuel Heastie as the keynote speaker.
Heastie, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, N.C., is president and chief executive officer of Heastie Consulting. He has developed a program called “Successful Start, Successful Finish,” a workshop teaching students how to master memory, study, and test-taking skills.
A graduate of West Virginia University, Heastie worked as special assistant to the president for diversity at Grove City College before taking his current position in North Carolina.
The convocation program also will feature 2009–2010 University Professor Gian Pagnucci as master of ceremonies and remarks by Alyssa Stiles, president of IUP's Student Government Association. The president will host a university cookout immediately following the Freshman Convocation ceremony in the Oak Grove.
The first day of classes for the Fall semester is August 31. More than five hundred students arrive on campus August 22 for the College Undergraduate Success Program, a weeklong program of courses, workshops, and seminars designed to help students have a successful transition to university life.
Students new to IUP will move into the Northern Suites, Suites on Maple West, Delaney Hall, Sutton Suites, and McCarthy Hall on August 28 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and into Elkin Hall, Suites on Maple East, Putt Hall, Suites on Pratt, and Sutton Suites on August 29 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. All other students will move into university-owned buildings on August 30.
IUP will continue its Common Freshman Reader program this year with Make the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland. The program, in which all freshmen read the selected book, is designed to enhance new students' understanding of the academic climate and what it means to be a member of IUP's learning community and to build more connections with faculty and fellow students in the pursuit of academic success.
Starting with Fall orientation and Welcome Weekend and continuing through their first year, students will have opportunities to share their views and join in discussions with members of the IUP community about the book. Strickland will be on campus for a presentation in November.
The Phase III buildings of the Student Residential Revival project, the Sutton Suites, and the Suites on Pratt will be open this Fall. A formal ribbon-cutting event to celebrate the opening of the buildings will take place September 24 at 10:00 a.m. in the Sutton Suites quad.