Senior Academy November 2025 Newsletter

2025 IU Indianapolis Last Lecture

Friday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. in the Campus Center Theater, Dr. Susan Hyatt, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, will deliver the 2025 Last Lecture entitled “Off the Campus and Into the Community: Teaching as Community Organizing." A reception follows.

Over her career, Dr. Hyatt’s groundbreaking community-engaged teaching, research and service helped advance our university’s core mission of collaborative involvement with communities of central Indiana and beyond. Dr. Hyatt fostered collaborative work between students and community members, including projects involving Jewish and Black residents of the Indianapolis Southside and in education programs that brought together campus and incarcerated students as part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange pedagogical model.

Click on this link to register to attend. The Last Lecture is hosted by the Senior Academy, the Office of the Provost and the Indiana University Foundation.

Register Now for December Holiday Gathering

Register by November 21 for the 2025 Senior Academy Holiday Gathering, 12-2 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 11, at The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center. Join us as we mingle, enjoy a lunch buffet and visit the annual Festival of Trees and other collections of this important Indiana venue. Featured exhibits in December include RESIST! highlighting Notre Dame student activism against the KKK and The Electric Railway: Indiana's Interurbans. Permanent exhibits include the Cole Porter Room and the W. Brooks and Wanda Y. Fortune History Lab. A brief program will leave plenty of time for conversing and connecting with your Senior Academy friends while experiencing the IHC’s festive holiday ambience. 

The $30 cost includes lunch, parking and admission to the Festival of Trees and all IHC collections and exhibits.

Click Here to Register!

Read a Historical Novel of the Conquistadors’ Arrival at Moctezuma’s Gates with the Book Club this Month Wednesday, Nov. 12 on Zoom, 11 a.m. to noon. Set in 1519 in the city of Tenochtitlan—today’s Mexico City — Alvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires is a fantasy of the clash of two empires. The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes enters Tenochtitlan accompanied by his entourage, where he will wait to meet the Aztec emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages and two possible futures. You Dreamed of Empires brings Tenochtitlan to life and reimagines its destiny. Stephanie Dickey will lead a discussion of the novel.  For more information and to receive the Zoom link, register at this link.

String Theory Donates Knitted & Crocheted Items Made in 2025  String Theory is a welcoming group of Senior Academy members, spouses, partners and friends who get together with others and chat while knitting, crocheting or being otherwise creative. In 2025, participants knitted and crocheted a record 194 hats and hat/scarf sets for donation to people facing challenges. Individuals attending the String Theory meeting in October sorted the items for distribution to the following: Simon Cancer Center, IU Student Outreach Clinic, Gennesaret Free Clinics, Horizon House and Exodus Refugee Immigration. Mary and Mark Grove, who delivered hats and scarves to Simon Cancer Center, described the joy the gifts brought to patients with whom they interacted, explaining that the String Theory group intended simply to share some warmth, physical and otherwise. String Theory meets the second Tuesday of each month from 4:30-6 p.m., except in November and December when they don’t meet. Meetings will resume Jan. 13, 2026. Anyone interested is invited to participate. All skill levels are welcomed and supported, including beginners. To register for the January meeting, follow this link. For questions or additional information, contact Becky Porter, who leads the String Theory group, at rporter@iu.edu.

Photographs by Becky Porter 

Meet Our Scholarship Winners Four students receive scholarship support during 2025-26 from three endowed scholarship programs funded by Senior Academy members. We are featuring one student here each month. Senior Academy General Scholarship Courtney Harris is a first-generation student at IU Indianapolis pursuing a BA in Political Science and an accelerated BA/MA program in Sociology with a Medical Concentration. Throughout her undergraduate studies, she served as a Campus Ambassador, helping to create a welcoming environment for future students. She also worked as a Business Analyst Intern in the Indiana Legislative Services Agency during the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions, where she gained firsthand experience with policymaking and its connection to public policy and sociological research. After completing her MA, Courtney plans to attend law school to focus on healthcare law and advocate for individuals and families impacted by healthcare disparities and systemic barriers.  Learn more and support the Senior Academy General Scholarship.

Retiree Open Enrollment

Retiree Open Enrollment is coming up. Not much is changing for Blue Retirees and changes are minimal for Under-65 Retirees. Rates are increasing just slightly for each. We are doing the following communications to retirees:

• The materials are online at https://hr.iu.edu/open-enrollment/retiree.html.
• The same materials are being sent to home addresses, hopefully arriving in the next week or two. (USPS is not always reliable on a specific delivery date, so it may vary by retiree on when it arrives.)
• Also, Oct. 16 a direct email was sent to retirees with a link to the online materials.

If we can help with anything, please let me know.

Christan Royer
Director, Benefits
Human Resources
812-855-6709
cmroyer@iu.edu
https://hr.iu.edu/ 

Stay Connected with the Senior Academy 

Whether you joined the Senior Academy recently or years ago, we want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your membership. Visit the Senior Academy Member Center to:

- Confirm your membership dues are current

- Update your contact information

- Share your interests and preferences

Simply log in using your university username. Keeping your profile up to date helps us tailor opportunities and communications to you—so you never miss out on what matters most.

Contact Christine Fitzpatrick at ude[dot]ui[at]tapztifc if you have questions.