Progress Updates
Reinvent the residential life experience with new facilities and social and mental health resources to support a meaningful development experience on campus.
March 2024
President Glazer is engaging prospective capital campaign influencers to align with their strengths and interests. He and Tami Armstrong are meeting with Alumni in different legislative districts to engage them in our advocacy efforts for rebuilding the residence halls. We have created four one-page documents to showcase ways in which IMSA is impacting the state of Illinois:
In addition, President Glazer met with Congressman Bill Foster’s office to inquire about pathways for capital support.
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February 2024
Tami Armstrong hosted a kick-off meeting with CCS Fundraising for philanthropic campaign consulting and President Glazer has begun meeting with prospective capital campaign influencers to explore early phases of the campaign. In addition, our capital planning team has been meeting with Bailey Edward to develop some schematics for future residence halls in a manner that would allow a phased construction. Regarding our efforts to obtain capital funding from the state, we are working on a set of highly visual documents for appropriations budget hearings that intend to highlight IMSA’s impact on the state, the experience of our current students, quotes from alumni, and other information for legislatures as they consider our request for residence hall funding.
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January 2024
Three of our Reinventing Residence Life Theme team members, Erin Ryan, Michelle Bemis and Cesar Patino, visited the Louisiana School of Math, Science and the Arts and came back with a lot of information for us to consider as we continue our work. In fact, on February 7, the team held a gallery presentation and discussion with colleagues around reinventing the residential life experience.
Most exciting is that we have engaged architects at Bailey Edward about developing a construction design that would allow us to rebuild new residence halls over phases, depending on the amount of funding we are able to receive.
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December 2023
Chief Student Affairs Officer Katie Berger presented Reinventing Residential Life as a Deep Dive discussion for the January 17 Board meeting highlighting important pillars that will shape our strategic direction with this theme.. A white paper was also offered to provide context of stakeholder input and engagement that led to the proposed findings.
We were pleased to host Senator Laura Ellman and Dillon Santoni, the Deputy Director of Policy and Budget for the Illinois Senate President, for a tour of the residential halls just before the winter break.
Theme 2 team and the Residential Life team are evaluating what enhancements and changes can be made more immediately in the spring and fall 24 semester
November 2023
A team of colleagues focused on reinventing residence life is working with a wide variety of stakeholders to present a plan for state-of-the-art residence halls at the January 2024 Board of Trustees Meeting. The Theme 2 team includes Erin Ryan, Chris Kornsey, Michelle Bemis, Cesar Patino, Joe Mastrocola, and Meg Junk.
The IMSA experience is an immersive and holistic one. We serve as an around-the-clock living-learning lab that nurtures each student’s curiosity, creativity, and interest in collaborating with others. In their residence hall, students engage in informal interactions and sharing among themselves, scientific tinkering and experimentation, and countless aha moments of discovery. As they make connections with roommates and hallmates from vastly diverse backgrounds, students learn to understand a broad range of perspectives and also gain an understanding of their own talents and interests in ways they might not otherwise discover. They experience the benefits of teamwork in solving problems, and they build lifelong bonds.
While IMSA’s current living quarters have served us well over the past four decades, they’ve now deteriorated to the point where they can no longer support our goals for our students’ learning today and into the future. The limited number of residences, the cramped spaces, the dearth of public areas where students can work collaboratively or just relax and recharge, and the lack of convenient access to healthcare facilities and other important IMSA support services are just a few of the challenges that the current facilities present. Replacing, enlarging, and modernizing the residence halls is key to fostering a meaningful educational experience and increasing access for more students.
