IUPUI Celebrates 50th Birthday

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When you think of IUPUI, what is the first thing you think of? Diversity? Academic Success? The Natatorium? Parking, oh the parking!

Those and many other of those aspects helped create IUPUI into what it is today. Since the downtown satellite campuses for Indiana University and Purdue University merged in 1969, IUPUI has grown from a small commuter school to a large urban university with a diverse student body. For the past 50 years, IUPUI has dedicated itself to help future generations grow with an open mind and superior knowledge.

To celebrate this milestone anniversary, IUPUI threw a 50th anniversary Birthday Bash in the Campus Center from noon to 10 p.m. The celebration helped students reflect on the history of the campus and what lays in store.

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At the entrance, volunteers handed out passports with a list of all sorts events students, staff and faculty could attend. As you walked through the row of cupcakes and beverages you could see the towering birthday cake fit for the entire university.

At the end of the cupcake line the dance floor was lighting up with a DJ playing tunes all throughout the day. A crowd of onlookers stood outside the Barnes & Noble to watch  People many students and faculty dancing and celebrating IUPUI. The dance floor was shaking while people were dancing their hearts out after class.

One of the most popular activities was Stuff-A-Jag, held by SAPB!,  where everyone could stuff a small plush jaguar. Attendees were told to arrive a half hour early if they wanted to be one of the 500 people to receive a plush. Everyone was given a bag of cotton, an IUPUI t-shirt for the plush and a small jaguar. When they were done, they had a jaguar to take home. 

There were events you could attend on almost every floor of the Campus Center. The basement held some cool tech that attendees could interact with, such as 360 TimeZone and Exploring IUPUI: 3D Virtual Reality Tour where everyone could experience the university in a whole new way.

Party-goers could also get a 3D photo taken, complete with fun props to pose with. 

The cool technology wasn’t only in the basement. If you traveled up to the 3rd floor you could get your face scanned and emailed to you so you can 3D print a bust of your face if you wanted to!

Chantelle Huebner, senior American Sign Language major, attended the 3D scanning. “I thought it was really, really, cool!” Huebner gave us the inside scoop on the process and interesting facts about the 3D scan. “The light was super, super bright and like I wasn’t supposed to blink very much,” she went on and stated they rendered the scan and would later send it back. “They will send me the file where if I were to go to a 3D printer, like the one in the library, that I could go there for like 20 cents per ounce… I could print out that scan.”
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Throughout the day, lectures on campus history were held throughout the Campus Center, as well as a human library. Students had the opportunity to share their thoughts on the campus on the Democracy Plaza whiteboards and to sign their name on the timeline banners that adorned the basement walls. All the events could lead the main prize that symbolizes IUPUI as a whole: 3D printed golden jaguars. If you attended three or more events you had the opportunity to get one for yourself. 

Whether you celebrated IUPUI’s 50th birthday with dancing, free cupcakes, learning about the school’s history or even just high-fiving one of our mascots, the 50th anniversary Birthday Bash was filled to the brim with IUPUI spirit and celebration.

Here’s to 50 more

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