Mike Perry began his role in September 2020 as the new director for Housing and Residence Life at IUPUI (HRL). He brings with him an extensive background in housing, as he has held various leadership positions at other universities, such as Augsburg University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most recently, he worked at East Carolina University as the associate director of residence life for academic initiatives.
As far as finding IUPUI, the housing team stood out to Perry compared to other universities. With a strong presence at conferences and being a trendsetter in the field, IUPUI’s housing office was something Perry had heard about before and he wanted to be a part of the development.
"It already felt like a place where I was comfortable, a place where I have a lot of the same values and ideas about supporting students and keeping students at the center of what we are doing," he said. "I have heard that over and over again throughout the interview process, so that made me really confident in coming here."
One of Perry’s biggest focuses as director is to really listen to students and attend to their needs while they are living at IUPUI. He wants to make sure that HRL is providing the resources and facilities that students need to be successful.
The pandemic created some challenges on how students live in the residence halls and go to class, and Perry is driven to transform the experience for those who have not yet had in-person opportunities.
"I think we are seeing higher levels of anxiety in students because they didn’t have those in-person experiences during their first year," he said. "We need to take some time and rethink how we are creating that first experience for freshmen and sophomores."
On top of that, since IUPUI pulls a large percentage of their population from surrounding Indianapolis areas, Perry wants to transform the student experience for those who are not familiar living in a city.
"I think an urban campus has an opportunity to really transform students in a way that campuses in smaller communities might not be able to," he said. "I think that we have a really good chance to build on how we interact with the city."
Perry wants to devote his first six months to building connections and relationships with campus partners and take time to find out from them what is going well and what areas are up for improvement.
Perry pursued a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and spanish and a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
For more information on HRL, visit their website.