It happened. I am no longer a student of Indiana Wesleyan University, but an alumna. Having this label is something that seemed so far away to me, something I thought would never come. But it did, and with it has come a whole new perspective about the place I used to call home.

What does it feel like to be back at IWU after having graduated? What’s it like to be on campus, to interact with friends and faculty, and to sit at McConn like I used to?

Well, honestly, it’s different than what I expected. I mean, I knew it would be different to some degree, what with no longer being a student or living on campus, but there is another kind of different I hadn’t anticipated: the feeling of not belonging.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’ve run into big flashing red signs reading, “Keep Out!” or like I’ve been told I should leave, but it’s one of those “I’m getting weird looks and am being confronted about why I’m here” experiences. I live right next door and have a lot of friends who are still students, and IWU was my home for the past four-and-a-half years. But now that I’ve graduated, I’m starting to feel that it’s not anymore.

Now I live in a house near campus with a friend who graduated with me. It’s really nice having my own place instead of living in a dorm room where I had to abide by a list of rules, though I must admit I miss living across the hall from friends and being within walking distance of the Student Center.

I enjoy coming to McConn still, though it’s weird not having my student ID for coffee whenever I want it. Using my debit card up at the counter just feels wrong, and spending money at the College Store isn’t going to happen. It’s weird not being able to swipe myself into Baldwin, but at least I have friends who will give me a break from the PB&J I live on at home. It’s true: You really don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

It’s still nice to see the people on campus, however. Spending time with them has been pretty normal – except for the moments when someone pops up out of nowhere and says, with a quizzical look, “Didn’t you graduate?”

Sigh. I’m one of those, now, aren’t I?

Part of me wishes I could have graduated in April so I would have had a summer to look for a job after classes got out. Having finished mid-year makes me feel like I should still be a student with one more semester to go; to enjoy everything on campus that the academic year brings. I met a lot of great people last semester and made some new friends in the last few classes I had to take. It’s weird not being back with them again. Yeah, I know, I’m done with classes and homework, but I’m also done bonding with friends over crazy assignments and professors who made us pull our hair out. That may not sound fun, but I actually made some good friendships during group projects like these. (Good groups are possible, rare as they may be.)

Now that I’m no longer in class, I’ve been on the hunt for a job. My roommate landed a teaching position a couple of weeks ago, and I just got a call back from a company about a possible job offer, but it’s taken some waiting to get here. I graduated with a double major in Writing and Leadership and a minor in Public Relations, and finding work nearby that is writing-or- communications-related has been difficult.

It’s strange. I thought it would be fun living close by, as a lot of my friends are a year or two behind me – but it doesn’t really feel right anymore.

I still feel a sense of “home” when I think of IWU or when I come to campus. However, it’s almost as if it’s an old friend who treated me well while I was there, but now that I’m done taking classes and paying tuition, doesn’t give me much attention anymore. I understand why, but it kind of smacked me in the face to suddenly see it from the outside.

It also seems like once graduated, alumni aren’t as welcome on campus because they are no longer a part of the community, so to speak. I think it’s more a mentality that IWU students have. It’s as if this community is so tight-knit that it tries to protect itself from outsiders, including post-graduates. I never really saw IWU this way until now and it has me wondering how people from the Marion community feel.

Living off campus as a graduate makes IWU seem like a whole different world that I suddenly don’t fit into, though I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily a bad thing. As a student, I loved that IWU felt like a different place. I loved that campus wasn’t just a bunch of muted, randomly scattered buildings that looked like everything else nearby, but that it felt like home – my home – where I had friends and family and basically anything I needed, a place easily distinguishable from the surrounding area. A place all its own. And once you experience what that’s like, what it’s like on the inside, it can be hard to look back at it from the outside.

There are better things ahead, though, and experiencing campus this way has made me feel more ready to discover what those things are. Everyone graduates, and when you do, a new group of students come in and take your place. That’s just how it is. Where my IWU journey has ended, another has also begun.

I loved my time in college, and while I’m in Marion, I’ll be thankful that I still have friends and family on campus, because there will come a time when I am unable to recognize a single student here. Then campus will have really changed.

Enjoy your time at IWU, because this may be the last time you live in a college community with people your own age, with your best friends across the hall, with food and coffee (almost) whenever you want it and experiences with work, class and friends that will help determine who and where you will be tomorrow. IWU may not be perfect, but it’s full of great opportunities. So try to savor every moment – even the hard ones – because graduation day is coming, and when it does, this place will no longer be the same.

Indiana Wesleyan University’s Marion-campus retention rate has dropped roughly 1 percent each year since 2006.

In 2006, the retention rate stood at 82.6 percent for first-time freshmen and 73 percent for first-time transfer students. Currently, the rate stands at 75.1 percent for first-time freshmen and 66 percent for first-time transfer students.

According to Dr. Brandon Hill, assistant dean of academic affairs, “retention” measures how many students, from one fall semester to the next, enroll their first year and come back for their second. This includes both first-time freshmen and transfer students.

Before 2006, IWU’s retention rate had been rising. Hill said his current position was created after the retention rate started going down and that part of his job is to explore why.

Hill said that a lagging economy could be one of many reasons for the decline.

“Retention was going up as the economy was going up,” said Hill. “And as the economy started going down, our retention started going down. I mean, you could almost see it follow that same curve.”

Hill said students have asked him why some schools have higher retention rates than IWU does. In response to this, Hill said each school has different acceptance requirements – such as Harvard University, for example.

According to Harvard’s website, most of its accepted students rank in the the top 10-15 percent of their high school graduating classes and the retention and graduation rates for its students are each around 98 percent. IWU’s six-year graduation rate is currently 69.5 percent, according to Tony Parandi, assistant director of institutional research at IWU.

But the three universities within 30 miles of IWU that are also members of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities report freshman retention rates similar to IWU’s. Anderson University’s retention rate is 74.2 percent, while 75.2 percent of freshmen at Huntington University return for their sophomore year. Taylor University’s freshman retention rate is 86 percent, according to US News & World Report’s 2012 college rankings.

Hill said IWU is currently conducting studies to see if it should make financial aid adjustments, as the school did last year, to help more students return to class.

“I do know that the institution is spending millions of dollars covering aid loss from the state,” said Hill. “So, definitely, IWU is trying to do something about the financial picture.”

Dr. Don Sprowl, assistant provost for institutional research and accreditation, said the university doesn’t know why the rate is dropping.

“The trouble is, students commonly don’t want to tell the real reason,” Sprowl said. “Sometimes it is really economics. Sometimes it really is family/personal issues, but sometimes students just say that just because it’s an easy sort of answer, without going into the details.”

Hill also said some students may be less prepared for college than students before them.

“Some of that may be academic unpreparedness, but I believe there’s also a lot of life-skill unpreparedness, emotional health difficulties, that I think we’re seeing in greater numbers,” said Hill.

“But those are very hard things to measure, and we don’t have historical data on that,” added Hill, who said this is something the university is trying to prove and do something about.

Danielle Graham (fr) said she knows some IWU freshmen who are struggling with college, and some have decided to drop out.

“Mostly, the reason people are leaving that I’ve heard is just because they don’t like being away from home,” said Graham, who said she believes that this has to do with students relying on their parents more than they should.

“I don’t really have that much trouble being away from home,” said Graham. “I miss my family a lot, but I think my mom prepared [my brother] and me really well.”

Graham said that her mother taught her and her older brother how to take care of themselves and do things on their own, like calling the doctor’s office if they needed to schedule an appointment.

“We weren’t fully dependent on her,” said Graham.

Graham said she knows freshmen who are afraid to go places such as the Financial Aid Office and the Health Center to make appointments on their own.

One of the things Hill has been working on is Map-Works, an online assessment that seeks to help students improve academically by allowing them to evaluate their skills and habits. This assessment is sent to each IWU student’s email twice a semester, and it tracks each student’s progress as he or she assesses personal habits and receives suggestions for improvement.

“Not only does it allow us to help individuals, but it’ll give us a bigger picture so that we can create a better experience for students, or one that they are more likely to succeed in,” said Hill.

As student body president, Aaron Morrison (sr) had been working with the Academic Affairs Office on the Student Success Committee, which is made up of students, faculty and administrators who seek ways to help students succeed at IWU.

Hill chairs the committee, which has been working on developing a course to help students improve their academic skills, according to Morrison. Along with this, the committee is looking to reformat some of the preliminary courses on campus to better prepare students for college.

Morrison believes that there may also be other factors contributing to a decline in student retention, such as students’ sense of belonging at IWU.

“Unfortunately, I think that what happens in higher education, is we have this idea of student containment, and not student development,” said Morrison, who added he believes student containment comes from an atmosphere of simply going from class to class and living in nice residence halls.

Morrison said that if students have this outlook on college and don’t believe that they can do more than this – that they can have an impact on the world around them – they may feel disconnected from the university.

“If you find ways to cultivate more loyalty to a community, by telling people that, ‘You can contribute, that you can make a difference in your community,’ then people would be much more inclined to stay, even through economic trials,” said Morrison.

Sprowl said if students transfer to IWU, some of the issues they had from those schools may stay with them at in their new home. He also added that some people may no longer believe that going to college is beneficial or profitable for them.

“I think that sort of universal confidence has been questioned recently,” said Sprowl, who believes that this may be a factor that causes some students to drop out of college and go to work instead.

“School is not cheap,” said Hill. “Families have to make decisions, and I believe that a large factor in that decrease every year has been a worsening economy. If the economy starts to recover we may see some improvement there.”

Morrison said that “efforts are already under way” to help students who are struggling to stay in college. Hill said students should contact him with any questions or concerns related to the Student Success Committee.

Time is a frustrating thing, isn’t it? You have to give everything time.

You have to wait for the light to turn green, for your boss to promote you, for that girl or guy to finally turn your way and give you that long-awaited happy ending.

You have to wait for something to happen at just the right time.

And if it doesn’t happen, then it’s not the right time.

What time is it then? Is it time to go yet?

You’re just taking your sweet time, aren’t you?

Even though it’s often hard to wait, time can be a very good thing.

I can be impatient, yet I’m also very careful and hesitant, wanting to make sure that something is right before I do it. And if I don’t feel I’ve been given a green light, I won’t go.

I’m sure you’ve heard people say, “All good things come with time.” And if it happens, it was meant to be, and if not, there’s something better. Things are coming whether good or bad, and we can’t do much about it, so why worry?

Still, have you ever wondered what would’ve happened if you had or had not been in a specific place at a specific time? If you would have met someone earlier or later, when circumstances were different? I have. But I try to believe that somehow all of the gears are moving together how they’re supposed to do. I may have to wait for some things, but the longer I wait, the more appreciative I’ll be for something that happens the right way – something worth the waiting.

Your future spouse, for instance, is worth the waiting.

As a freshman, I thought I was going to meet my husband at Indiana Wesleyan University. I’m a little ashamed of this, though I’m probably not alone. Now though, as a single fifth-year senior preparing to graduate in December, I realize that finding my future husband here is unlikely.
But that’s OK.

At IWU, there is this fear that some students have of not finding a spouse during their allotted four (or five) years. I mean, let’s be honest – the dating pool shrinks immensely once we leave campus and are no longer surrounded by 3,200 people our age anymore.

I had little interest in dating when I first came to college, but had this idea that my spouse would come around during my senior year, right before graduation. I would be older and ready to find the right person then, and I would be fine. No senior scare for me!

Except – it hasn’t turned out that way.

I don’t think this is a bad thing, either. Yes, I am in a place now where I’d like to find someone and be done looking, but I also enjoy being free to hang out with my guy and girl friends whenever I want and not worry about it. Because when I (hopefully) get married later, my husband and I will (hopefully) be married the rest of our lives, and I’ll never be single again.

This isn’t to say that I don’t want to date. I do. I hope I meet someone who is the right fit for me. I hope I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend, with someone who makes me a better version of myself. I can’t wait.

But at the same time, I can, because I believe that good things come with time. And that requires waiting.

Hmm. There’s that word again.

Still, waiting is frustrating. Have you ever been attracted to someone, but had to wait weeks or months before finding out if he/she felt the same way? Maybe you still don’t know.

Or have you ever known two people who seemed so right for each other, but because of the circumstances, things didn’t work out between them? Sometimes this happens, and later on with time, they fit together better and can come together more easily.

But why couldn’t things have just worked out the first time?

In her song “Begin Again,” Colbie Caillat says, “Let’s just try to cool it down/The fighting, the feeling of flames / Let’s just try to slow it down / We crash when we race.”

You’ve probably seen this happen before. If you try to make something go faster than it knows how, it will likely spin out of control and crash into a flaming, ugly mess.

Why? Because it’s not ready. When something is ready, it will move forward smoothly, with few[er] scratches and bumps. Slow is good. Sometimes, you’ll have a better chance of crossing the finish line this way. And that doesn’t mean crossing first. I don’t think that our personal circumstances should be compared with those of others; it’s not a race if we’re not all on the same track. You are the only one living your life, walking down your own path. Something that happens to Jack isn’t necessarily going to happen to Jill, because they are two different people with their own paths to follow, whether those paths point in the same direction or not.

Everything will come together as it should for you as God sees fit, so don’t worry. He knows your friend just got engaged while you are still single. Your path is simply different. God is still in control and He knows your desires. Trust in His timing and wait for your engagement to come when it’s supposed to, better than it would if it were to come right now.

I’ve realized that one person’s time for something is going to be different than mine, because my life and my circumstances are different. My life clock is wired differently than anyone else’s. There are times when I wish I could speed it up, but alas, I cannot. I just need to remember that when the clock strikes midnight, God will be prepared, even if all he has to work with is a small glass shoe.

A new course, titled “Beyond Suffering: A Christian View on Disability Ministry,” will be offered during May term 2012 at Indiana Wesleyan University.

The course was inspired by two IWU nursing professors who took a course on disability ministry through the Joni and Friends International Disability Center and became certified in suffering and disabilities ministries.

One of these professors, Rose Sprunger, said the course will look at “the Biblical basis of suffering and disability.” This includes assessing and working through one’s own sufferings and learning how to love others with sufferings and disabilities.

“We’ve got people with invisible disabilities everywhere around us,” said Sprunger. “There are other people walking around who have emotional problems, people who have a lot of spiritual problems, and people who have physical problems that you can’t see.”

According to Nathan Herring, director of disabilities services in the Center for Student Success, “The purpose of the course is to develop an understanding of pain, suffering, brokenness, compassion and how to apply compassion in a practical way.”

“This course will help you be more spiritually aware of the needs of other people around you,” said Sprunger.

Herring said the first two weeks of the course will include activities outside the classroom, such as small-group activities, reading and spending about four hours at different disabilities ministries to see the practical side of the ministry. The third week will consist of intensive daily meetings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, when students will be able to talk through what they learned during the first two weeks of the course.

Kathy McReynolds, director of academic studies at Biola University, will teach the third week of the undergraduate course. Herring and Sprunger will both teach the seminary graduate course.

Sprunger said she thinks this course could be beneficial for all students, whether one’s major directly relates to helping people or not.

“A lot of people say they don’t want to take a class like this because ‘I’m not called to take care of people with disabilities,’ ” said Sprunger. “But you are called to take care of your fellow man.”

For the undergraduate program, “Beyond Suffering” is listed under the course number NUR-318, but it is cross-listed, so students within any discipline can enroll. It will also be offered in the seminary program under MIN-596.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a nursing major,” said Zach McConnell (sr). “It matters that you have a heart for it.”

Leslie Whonsetler (jr) said she feels IWU students don’t have many opportunities to interact with those who have disabilities and don’t know how to address the topic.

“We don’t always know political correctness or how to look beyond [disabilities] and be like, ‘You are a person, let me just love you and care for you,’” said Whonsetler. “And I think that whatever major you are, you need to know those skills.”

Whonsetler said she was awakened to this idea when a friend of hers who has spina bifida, a spinal cord disorder that often causes paralysis of the legs, shared some of her struggles with having a disability.

“She was like, ‘You have the potential of somebody loving you someday because you have two legs and you can walk. And because I’m in this wheelchair, people don’t even give me a second look.’ And that was hard for me to take,” said Whonsetler.

Andrea Miller (jr) thinks this course seems like a great opportunity to create an awareness of what some people with disabilities go through.

A guest speaker came to one of Miller’s social work classes and shared how he felt as a disabled person on IWU’s campus. He told the class he is glad he attended Ball State University for his undergraduate degree rather than Indiana Wesleyan because people there would actually look at him and talk to him. On IWU’s campus, he felt ignored, as if people “would rather not see him,” said Miller.

Herring said the course will address other aspects of how disability, suffering and compassion are viewed by both society and the Church. Students will discuss questions like, “What does that mean about God?” and, “Why does stuff like this happen?” according to Herring.

“And if we can’t answer this question for ourselves, then we’re not going to be able to answer it for the people who come in to our churches, the people who come into our classrooms,” added Herring.

Kelsey Schneck (jr) said she likes that the course will help students look at their individual struggles as well because “before we can go out and help anyone with their own problems, we need to figure out our own.”

“I think it’s a good idea to open it up to everyone,” said Miller. “Everyone has suffered somehow.”

Herring said the vision for the future is to have the class be available for not only undergraduate and seminary students, but also for any student enrolled in any IWU program and even anyone in the community, including the local church.

“Everyone says they want to help people,” said Sprunger. “But a lot of people leave here not knowing how to do it in real ways that touch people’s hearts.”
Sprunger said this class will help increase students’ spiritual awareness of others’ needs.

“I think it’s one thing to learn about how we can share our faith and just love upon people,” said McConnell. “But it’s another thing to actually, physically be there and be in the presence of people who just need to be loved, who need to know the heart of God.”