IUPUI students ‘close out an era’

When Jessica Johnson decided to return to college in 2020, she had no idea that just a year later she’d be diagnosed with breast cancer.

These last three years were nearly impossible as she balanced cancer treatment with college classes. But it all paid off.

Johnson, 46, graduated from IUPUI with her degree in social work on May 9 with her family there to support her and a pink ribbon for breast cancer adorning her graduation cap. During those dark months, she looked to her faith to get her through.

“I knew that God needed me for something,” she said.

Johnson was one of thousands of students who received a degree during IUPUI’s graduation last week. And while commencements always signal change, for this group of IUPUI students, it was truly the end of an era.

The class of 2024 is the last group of students that will graduate from IUPUI as the school prepares to officially split into IU Indianapolis and Purdue in Indianapolis on July 1.

The commencement in many ways was as much a celebration of IUPUI as an institution as it was to the graduates. A video at the start of the ceremonies for the roughly 6,700 graduates paid tribute to the partnership between IU and Purdue that had educated students for decades.

“Today, we stand ready to look forward,” the video said, “but not without first looking back.”

Closing out an era

Though the students who graduated from IUPUI last week won’t be affected by the upcoming changes, that didn’t mean it wasn’t on their minds as they prepared to graduate.

Linsey Babrick, 24, got her bachelor’s degree in English education last week. A first-generation college student, she started at IUPUI in 2018 but eventually took a semester off, which delayed her graduation.

She said she’s proud to be able to keep the memory of IUPUI alive as part of its last graduating class.

“It feels a little bit more special than it would for any of the other classes before because this is a monumental change for the school,” she said.

Ashley Holman, who studied tourism, conventions and event management, said she has gotten lots of free IUPUI merch in the last few days, which she says is “soon to be a collector’s item.”

“It was nice, just to close out an era,” Holman, 22, said.

But it’s not just the impending IUPUI split that made this commencement special for some graduating seniors.

Many undergraduate students in the class of 2024 graduated high school in 2020, the year of socially distanced and Zoom commencement ceremonies. For some, this was the first year they had a graduation ceremony.

Kiera Sloan, a 22-year-old business major, had a socially distanced high school graduation in 2020. Graduating today, surrounded by her friends and classmates, is a welcome change.

“This is much more commemorative,” she said.

A graduation protest

Some students also used commencement as an opportunity to express their opposition to IU’s administration. During President Pamela Whitten’s remarks, a group of about 30 people stood up and shouted chants such, “Get off the stage” and “Israel bombs, IU pays.”

For the last few weeks, college students across the country — including in Indianapolis — have been camping out in protest of the Israel-Hamas war and demanding that their colleges divest financially from Israel. In Indianapolis and Bloomington, students are also calling for Whitten and other top administrators to resign.

Yaqoub Saadeh, who graduated from IUPUI with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, is one of those students.

Saadeh, who is Palestinian, is the outgoing president of IUPUI’s Middle Eastern Student Association. Though he’s proud of himself for graduating and values education, he said he can’t separate his degree from his anger at IU.

“At the end of the day, all I can think about is the fact that there’s no universities left in Gaza,” he said. “Although I’m getting to celebrate this momentous occasion, the class of 2024 in Gaza doesn’t get to celebrate this.”