IUPUI Appoints Nationally Known Student Union Professional as the First Campus Center Director

Dan Maxwell, IUPUI Campus Center Director

INDIANAPOLIS – Construction of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Campus Center has been called a big step forward in building community life on the urban campus that serves more than 29,000 students.

A nationally known administrator with almost two decades of experience in developing and supervising college union activities and programs, such as homecoming, Family Weekend gatherings, and fraternity and sorority organizations, will be at the helm of operations when the multi-million-dollar center opens in fall 2007.

Daniel M. Maxwell, past president of the Association of College Unions International, will become the first Campus Center director at IUPUI. Maxwell, currently director of the Office of Student Activities at Western Illinois University, will take his position at IUPUI on July 1, 2006. His appointment was announced recently by IUPUI Vice Chancellor of Student Life and Diversity and Dean of Students Karen Whitney.

“Dan is a nationally known student union professional. He is simply one of the best in the business and we are most fortunate that he will be our first Campus Center director,” Whitney said. “With Dan’s national experience as past president of the Association of College Unions International and his current experience as a director at Western Illinois University, I am confident that the Campus Center is well on its way toward meeting its fullest potential of serving students and revolutionizing student life at IUPUI.”

As director of the IUPUI Campus Center, Maxwell will be responsible for the development and coordination of all Campus Center facilities and operations, including building maintenance, personnel, technology, security, public relations, commercial activities and other matters. He will oversee an estimated annual estimated $800,000 operating budget.

The Campus Center director will also collaborate with the director of Campus & Community Life in support of co-curricular events and activities housed in the Campus Center.

The newly appointed director said he looks forward to working with and reaching out to the diverse populations of students, faculty, staff and alumni at IUPUI.

“The Campus Center is about creating, building and enhancing community and that can only be accomplished with solid, purposeful and result orientated partnerships across the campus,” Maxwell said.

The fact that the IUPUI community saw the need to create the Campus Center, worked together collectively to design the Campus Center, and found the funding to build the center is a credit to the leadership of the university, the new director said.

Maxwell’s appointment comes in advance of the opening of the Campus Center which is scheduled for fall 2007.

Appointing a director now accomplishes several goals, Vice Chancellor Whitney said. It allows the director to be involved in the creation of the center’s vision, mission and goals, and in the designing, recruiting and training of center personnel, including the management team and more than 40 student workers. The director will also be able to participate in the final set of decisions regarding the building’s furnishing and fixtures.

Maxwell has served as director of the Office of Student Activities at Western Illinois since 1998. In that position, his many responsibilities have included supervising a number of special events including Homecoming and Family Weekend; advising the Student Government Association and its council; and directing and supervising 30 fraternities and sororities and the University Union Board.

Prior to going to Western Illinois, he was a professional speaker and presenter with CAMPUSPEAK, Inc., an agency that provides educational speakers and programs for college campuses and organizations. Maxwell’s presentation topics included diversity, leadership and retreat facilitation.

Maxwell held management positions in student programs at the University of Arizona from 1990 to 1998; and in Greek life programs and residential services at Syracuse University from 1988 to 1990.

Maxwell earned a master of science in education degree with an emphasis in higher education leadership from the University of Miami (Florida) in 1988. He holds a bachelor’s degree in personnel and industrial relations from Syracuse University.