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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

IU to have first day of engagement

IU is having its first day of engagement April 12.

IU Day will consist of 24 hours of activities, donations and connections for current IU students and alumni worldwide.

The IU Foundation was looking for a new way to engage its donors and alumni and started benchmarking ideas with other universities, including Purdue University and Florida State University. But unlike others schools, IU wanted its day to be about more than soliciting donations, said Jessica Parry, director of marketing for the IU Foundation.

“A lot of them are focusing on just giving during those 24 hours,” Parry said. “We don’t want to focus on giving, we want to focus on participating and advocating on social media.”

There are several ways for people to celebrate IU Day, Parry said. The easiest one is to put on cream and crimson and support the University by wearing gear.

Another is to tune in to the various social media campaigns IU will be running throughout the day, Parry said.

“We have about 40 pieces of IU Day content we’ve created or are reusing, including things like IU basketball crossword, learning about how Sugar & Spice makes their delicious cookies by posting some recipes, as well as some fun educational pieces,” Parry said.

Many famous IU alumni will be joining IU Day through social media, such as Orlando Magic player Victor Oladipo, ESPN anchor Sage Steele and the star of ABC’s hit reality series “The Bachelor,” Ben Higgins.

Also, live-streamed from the IU Cinema in Bloomington, “Breaking Bad and “Better Call Saul actor and IU alumnus Jonathan Banks will talk about his career and time at IU. He will answer real-time, Twitter-submitted questions at 6 p.m.

Every time someone uses the hashtag #IUDay the IU Foundation will donate $1 to student scholarships.

Special events will take place on the Bloomington and IUPUI campuses to celebrate. On the Bloomington campus, students can 
participate in a scavenger hunt that will take them to local landmarks as participants receive stamps on passports for solving clues correctly. Prizes for the scavenger hunt include a C parking pass and a gift certificate for the IU bookstore.

Other IU Day programming will include interviews with cinematic luminaries Meryl Streep and Werner Herzog, exclusive footage of the a cappella group Straight No Chaser — composed entirely of IU alumni — a behind-the-scenes tour with IU Bloomington Athletics, fun videos about the future of fashion, sci-fi technologies likely to be seen in our lifetime, the top five medical myths and TEDxIndianaUniversity talks.

Through all the events, people will be able to 
connect with the campus in a new way, even if they haven’t been back in a long time, said Bethan Roberts, interim communication director for the IU 
Foundation.

“We really see it as a great way to showcase to IU alums and supporters what the IU experience looks like now,” Roberts said. “And for students, it’s an opportunity to engage in parts of campus life that are not a part of their daily student 
experience.”

Parry said she hopes this will be the start of a great annual tradition.

“We hope to have IU Day every single year from here on out,” Parry said. “People will look forward to this day in spring where they can celebrate IU and what it means to them.”

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