It’s okay, and you will be okay.

The debut of the Kaplan Institute is a stark example of failure to be student-centered.

When we started SeekNow, we wanted to have the app released by November 2018. It was a far stretch, because both Prince Hodonou and I knew we had a rough semester coming our way. But we took it as a challenge.

Once per semester, the Illinois Tech Student Government Association (SGA) hosts an open event wherein the university’s president and provost take to the stage and answer direct questions from the student body. The fall 2018 installment of the President-Provost Forum saw President Alan Cramb and Provost Peter Kilpatrick answer a plethora of student questions during the lunch hour on Wednesday, October 28.

The most recent installment of the Future of Higher Education forums was held on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 23 in the MTCC Ballroom, packed to capacity with Illinois Tech students, staff, and faculty, with a follow-up forum repeating the same process on Tuesday, October 30 in Morris Hall at the Downtown Campus.

The first new academic building on Illinois Tech’s Mies Campus in over 40 years, the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship (Kaplan Institute) officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and press conference on the afternoon of Thursday, October 25.

With the Kaplan Institute officially open as of the October 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony, no doubt many Illinois Tech students, staff, and faculty members are curious as to the layout and operational functions of the building. Thus, guided tours of the new building were held the following day with the building’s architect, John Ronan, as well as the Executive Director of the Kaplan Institute, Howard Tullman. Through these tours, the two laid out many of the building’s core design features, as well as their visions for the space to be used by all Illinois Tech students to pursue innovative ideas and collaborative synergy.

On Wednesday, October 17, the President’s Student Advisory Council (PSAC) met as a group with both President Alan Cramb and Provost Peter Kilpatrick for the second time this semester.

Third-year architecture student and Student Government Association (SGA) Senator Marcos Mercado is in the midst of a project that is very personal to him as an architecture major. For the past several weeks, he has been in talks with Illinois Tech Career Services to look into better options for bolstering the portfolios of architecture students.

Although for many it may be far too early to start seriously planning out the summer of 2019, the Lewis College of Human Sciences has already been advertising some very unique opportunities for interested Illinois Tech students: faculty-led study abroad opportunities.