In the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, tensions between black IU students and University administration began to boil to the surface.
Students began peacefully protesting the lack of diversity at IU, sitting in at the racetrack to delay the Little 500 race and locking students, staff and administrators in Ballantine Hall.
IU’s answer was the Groups Scholars Program, an initiative to support IU’s first-generation and underrepresented students. The program provides academic, financial and social support for these students, such as special advising, scholarships and peer tutoring.
“Everybody brings a different flavor and experience with them to the classroom, and that’s where the learning really happens,” said Mary Stephenson, Groups Scholars Program director.
Stephenson said Rozelle Boyd, the first black man elected to the Indianapolis City-County Council, came to the University in 1968 to be the program’s first director. She said Groups first sent students, staff and faculty to Northwest Indiana to recruit new scholars.
“We started with 43 students in the fall of 1968,” Stephenson said.
Today, Stephenson said the program has around 1,300 scholars on campus and roughly 13,000 alumni.
One of these scholars is Isaiah Hudson, a senior studying informatics. Hudson said he became aware of Groups after his high school rugby coach, a former Groups student, suggested he apply to the program.
“I’m a first-generation college student,” Hudson said. “I didn’t know anything before coming to college or coming to Groups.”
Hudson said the Groups summer program helped him learn information about IU and going to college he might not have learned otherwise.
Groups Scholars must complete a separate application for admission to IU, including a recommendation from a high school or community agency. Once students are admitted, they come to campus for a 6-week summer program to take classes and get familiar with campus.
Hudson said the people he met in the summer program, including his resident assistants, made him want to give back to Groups and become a RA himself.
“I really just wanted to give back and share some of the experiences that my RAs shared with me,” Hudson said.
Besides working as a RA, Hudson is also helping to plan the 2019 Groups spring graduation ceremony. Hudson said it will be the biggest graduation celebration that Groups has ever done.
“I’m definitely excited, especially because I’m a senior,” Hudson said. “I can say that I got to graduate during Group’s 50th anniversary.”
It’s not just current students and staff celebrating the 50th anniversary. Alumni are also planning to get in on the action during the Groups 2018 homecoming celebration.
Stephenson said while she hopes alumni reconnect with each other and IU, she hopes they also connect with current students.
“That’s the most valuable part, is that they remember their fond times but also they reconnect and pay it forward and support our current students in their efforts,” Stephenson said.
Hudson said he and other Groups students are helping with the homecoming celebration.
“I can’t wait to see alums,” Hudson said. “Some of the first people to come to Groups are supposed to come, so I will definitely be excited to get to meet them.”
He said the program forges a deep bond between members of the Groups community, past and present, making everyone involved feel like part of a family.
“You can definitely go to the Groups office whenever you need to see family,” Hudson said.
