Those are the moments when the University of Louisville’s “” steps in.

The university opened the permanent, on-campus resource earlier this year to ensure no student’s career path is blocked by a lack of access to professional clothing. Managed by the ��(SSC) and located in the , the no-cost shop offers suits, shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, ties, shoes, belts and bags in a variety of styles and sizes – all completely free to any current UofL student.

An official ribbon cutting was held Feb. 5. said the university has a “shared responsibility to remove barriers so every student regardless of background or circumstances can fully pursue their goals.”

“This space exists because our students were honest with us about what they needed to be confident,” she said. “The university believes success is more than course work. It’s about success. It’s about confidence. It’s about access.”

As students prepare for spring career fairs, the SSC aims to ensure they walk into interviews focused on their skills, not their clothes. The clothing resource is open Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. and is staffed by SSC student workers.

How it began

The closet represents an expansion of student support that grew out of a series of “pop-up” events. Charice Patterson in the said she saw the need as far back as 2020.

“I’ve always thought it would be nice to see a professional clothing closet on campus,” Patterson said. “And then we had a student employee in the Career Center who really took on the project to turn this wish list idea into reality.”

Natalie Hicks, a student in the , helped plan the original pop-ups. Hicks believes the resource fills a critical need for students balancing professional expectations with financial hurdles.

“Growing up first generation and low income, we can be overlooked and outsourcing for resources,” Hicks said. “In the business school, there is a lot of expectations on appearance, and it can be inaccessible for low-income students.”

The first pop-up event was so successful they “gave away almost everything,” eventually requiring three times the amount of donations to meet student demand for the second one. That response led to a collaboration between the Career Center and the SSC to establish a permanent home.

The power of partnership

Hire Attire now falls under the wider umbrella of services related to accessibility offered by the SSC. SSC Manager Josie Raymond helped lead the effort to get the resource established permanently.

“It’s been really fun to watch students come in, try on their first-ever suit and walk out feeling really confident,” Raymond said.

Other on-campus partners included the , which helped convert the previous storage space into a boutique-like atmosphere, and the which offers casual wear and gives the more professional pieces to Hire Attire.��

Community partners have donated attire and hosted donation drives, including C. E.& S. Foundation, DXL Big + Tall, Dress for Success Louisville, Omni Louisville and Portland Avenue Community Trust.

Supported by campus partners, local organizations and a growing network of donors, Hire Attire reflects what can happen when a community comes together for its students. It’s more than a clothing resource; it’s a collective investment in redefining student success.

For more information, .��

Network Champion colleges and universities are national leaders in advancing first-generation efforts and contributing to a knowledge base of evidence-based practices, leadership engagement and scaling student supports.

“UofL is becoming a magnet school for first-generation students,” said Katie Adamchik, director of student success. “Students are coming here saying they chose us because we’ve got such strong support for them. When we started this work at UofL, first-generation work was not institutionalized. We scaled our efforts, and we see it has positively impacted the recruitment and retention of students and created new ways to engage with UofL alumni and retirees. This work brings together the whole UofL community and makes us a leader nationally.”

UofL has been participating in the network since 2021. To date, 429 institutions of higher education, including two statewide systems, have entered the network, representing 49 states and the District of Columbia.

“Not only is the University of Louisville doing excellent work to support their own first-generation students, but they continue to provide support and add to evidence-based practices that serve as a model for all those working to support this population in higher education,” said Sarah E. Whitley, executive vice president with FirstGen Forward.

To learn more about how UofL supports first-generation students, read the fall 2023 UofL�� Magazine article, ‘On Solid Ground: First-gen Cardinals get targeted support.’��

“It seemed like something really important to be educated about,” said Meadows, a student success ambassador with UofL’s Student Success Center.

A comprehensive strategy called focuses on preventing sexual violence, dating violence and stalking. Changing campus norms by empowering bystanders to take action is a big part of the program’s goal, says Kathleen Elsherif, program coordinator for Green Dot and the .

“Combating power-based personal violence is a public health issue, and we all have a role to play. Green Dot gives faculty, staff and students shared language and a shared understanding of the small choices we can each make every day to change our culture – we say that no one has to do everything, but everyone has to do something,” Elsherif said.

A key component of creating this community is through campus-wide campaigns, mobilization events and targeted bystander intervention trainings that teach the model: direct, distract or delegate. A direct intervention involves a bystander confronting a situation to stop it, the second strategy aims to create some type of distraction to diffuse what’s happening, while delegating enlists the help of someone else, perhaps a friend or if necessary, police.

“The main takeaway from the training for me is whether I use my voice, behavior or attitude to promote safety it doesn’t matter – what matters is that I step up and help those around me,” said Meadows, an early elementary education major.

It’s been seven years since Green Dot trainings have been offered at UofL, as additional campus buy-in and resources were needed to continue and upscale the initiative. When the program relaunched this past spring semester, Elsherif says they started with student influencers, which included Meadows.

This fall,�� have been extended to individual schools and departments, along with faculty and staff. Although the PEACC Center manages the program, there are now more than 20 members of the Green Dot initiative across UofL’s campuses.

“It is so important to become aware of the Green Dot initiative because in college we sometimes find ourselves or others in uncomfortable and maybe toxic situations. If you know about Green Dot, then you might have ways to get out of those situations,” Meadows said. “The training can give you some great tips and resources to use for yourself or to help others.”

In the 50 years since its creation, the Pell Grant has helped more than 80 million students attend college and pursue their dreams. The Pell Grant has increased access to higher education for countless low-income and first-generation students. That access has helped close a massive opportunity gap – a bachelor’s degree holder earns a median of , which is about 75% more than if they had only a high school diploma.

At the University of Louisville, the opportunity gap has been closing for the past several years thanks to a dedicated focus on supporting underrepresented and at-risk students, including those who receive a Pell Grant. UofL’s six-year graduation rate has improved by 8% over the past six years, for instance, marking the highest rate in university history.

Geoff Bailey, executive director of the REACH program, believes UofL is among few that has made such material strides.

Part of this success comes from our vast ecosystem of programs and resources provided for students to help them navigate their educational journey. This includes REACH, which provides peer tutoring, academic coaching, seminars, intervention courses, financial and academic workshops and more. There is also the Student Success Center, which REACH partners with frequently. It consists of student success coordinators, the First Year Experience office, exploratory advising and first-gen programming.

Additionally, last year UofL launched the Cardinal Commitment Grant, a last-dollar scholarship that pays for the remainder of a student’s tuition after they have received and applied for federal and state grants and additional institutional aid. Students must be eligible for a Pell Grant to take advantage of this new program.��

Leveraging data to identify students most in need of support��

Another way UofL differentiates itself is by having the resources in place to dive deeply into metrics and understand what programs are working. For instance, REACH has the ability to pull data sets to examine how students from certain cohorts – such as first-generation or Pell Grant-eligible – are faring when they use its services compared to those who do not.��

“This allows us to make sure our students are performing well and retained. It’s pretty rare to have this sort of staffing and political support. I can think of maybe four other schools that have this type of support,” Bailey said. “We want to make sure our most vulnerable populations are receiving support so they can take advantage of our resources. We know there is a correlation between our deep dives and graduation rates.”

Having the resources in place also allows REACH to target students who may need the most help getting through their academic careers.

“For the students who are not using us and who have below a 3.0 grade point average, this allows us to get into the weeds with them, message with their advisers and follow up. We make sure we’re bending over backwards with a support message because we are seeing that Pell Grant recipients who use our services are going to thrive and do better than those who don’t,” Bailey said.

To get to that point, Bailey and his staff have to find out why a student may not be leveraging these resources. There are three primary reasons – they’re thriving and don’t need the help; they prefer to figure things out on their own and don’t want to come in; or they have jobs and are simply too busy.

“The third one is the one that scares me because they can’t carve out more time to get more help and we can’t move the needle so easily on those students,” Bailey said.

At a high level, tutoring services are what make the most difference for students who are most at risk of dropping out, but there are additional services they can receive during their time here. UofL’s student-facing teams also work to make sure these services run tandem with students’ courses, so they can get support outside of class, apply knowledge beyond class and develop better habits overall. Bailey said it’s critical that all of these services and resources are top-of-mind for students and their parents.

“When students take tours, even if they’ve not yet applied, they’re hearing about our services and support. They end their campus tours at the Belknap Academic Building, where they learn about critical support services offered by the Student Success Center and REACH. Advisers are reminding them constantly of the services we have,” he said. “We wrap around and reinforce the key areas that students need to pay attention to as they transition to college. Without that, we’d be like any other school.

“Our ability to forge campus partnerships is what makes an impact and where we distinguish ourselves. It’s woven into our institution that everyone has a role in student success.”

Why it’s important to prioritize Pell Grant students

Zooming out a bit, it’s important to understand the impact the Pell Grant has, and has had for the past 50 years. The biggest barrier to obtaining a college degree is funding.

Kentucky has one of the , at 16.3%. , only about one-fourth of Kentuckians have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Thirty-four percent of undergraduate , and 51% of funds go to students whose families earn less than $20,000 a year. In Kentucky, nearly 94,000 students are Pell Grant recipients, averaging about $4,000 a year.

“Economically, a good portion of our state is depressed. If we’re going to move the needle, a college education is the great equalizer. We play a critical role in helping to break the cycle of poverty,” Bailey said. “The Pell Grant fosters opportunities those students wouldn’t otherwise have and we’re not just issuing money and saying, ‘good luck.’ We’re focused on being stewards and helping to change lives.”

UofL’s work is hardly done. The institution will continue to target Pell Grant-eligible students as part of its overall priority to increase access to higher education. For example, the 2022-23 budget allows for a 0.0% tuition increase for undergraduate students, as well as the continued development of the Cardinal Commitment financial aid program.

NCLCA Award

For its work, REACH was recently awarded the National College Learning Center Association President’s Outstanding Learning Award for Specialized Populations. UofL was the only four-year institution to be recognized this year.

All three found the help and encouragement they needed from a Student Success coordinator in UofL’s Student Success Center.

Introduced in fall 2014 in the Office of Enrollment Management, the Student Success coordinators joined the new Student Success Center in the Belknap Academic Building when it opened in 2018. The first staff member, Greg Vittitow, now assistant director, was tasked in 2014 with helping to identify and intervene with freshmen at risk of dropping out. What could UofL do to support them in reaching their academic goals?

Since then, the team’s staff has grown to five and it has awarded more than $1.5 million in small grants to 1,053 students. The grants average $1,500 and often are used to help students who have a financial barrier preventing them from graduating or registering for the next semester. But they can help with life’s basics, too.

In one case, a small grant helped first-generation student Jackson Roney purchase a new pair of glasses when his broke during his freshman year.

“I was holding my glasses up to my face because I couldn’t see at all. I would have dropped out,” said Roney, who was in the second semester of his first year at the time and had no family or insurance to help him. He had spent his entire savings on textbooks. “I was beaten down. I had no money because of books. It hindered my education because I couldn’t see, even if I was sitting at the front.”

Roney, 20, is now a junior studying political science, philosophy and sociology. His goal is to go to law school. He feels a special bond with Anika Strand, the Student Success coordinator who continues to support him with advice on things like finances but, especially, offers mentorship.

“Anika’s been a lifesaver for me,” Roney said. “They are here for you. They are here for the students.”

Katie Adamchik, the center’s director, said the center’s work helped UofL achieve its highest retention rate in 2020 at 80.9%, and its highest graduation rate in 2021 at 61.6%.

“We want to see students be retained from semester to semester if that’s what’s in their best interest,” said Vittitow, adding that often when students come in, there is usually more than one problem that has to be addressed. Many students the center sees are first-generation and need guidance navigating college. Some may have no family support and need a cheerleader.

“The need has always been there but we’re now getting referrals from around campus. We’re becoming more known around campus for what we do. At the core of what we do, we care about them and their well-being.”

One of Vittitow’s students, Estrella Flores, arrived at UofL from Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2016 as an undocumented immigrant with $20 in her pocket and a $1,500 scholarship. She had come to the United States at age 2½ with her parents.

Flores, now 23, originally set out to become a nurse, but recently changed her major to organizational leadership and learning with a goal of working in the automotive industry. Through the years as she has struggled with financial and academic challenges, Vittitow has offered support, advice and encouragement. She received her green card in 2019.

“He has been a great mentor for me,” she said with tears in her eyes.

In December, 37-year-old Lenora Bradley crossed the commencement stage at the KFC Yum! Center after an 18-year quest to earn her bachelor’s in sociology. A single foster parent of two teenage girls and adoptive mother of one, she is now enrolled in the Kent School of Social Work and is pursuing a Master of Science in Social Work.

She credits the Student Success Center with the financial help and support she needed to finish her bachelor’s degree. Her adopted daughter just applied to UofL, and Bradley hopes her journey serves as an inspiration.

“This is a second chance for me,” said Bradley, whose grandmother worked at UofL as a custodian. “I didn’t think I deserved help. … I’m very grateful. I don’t think I would have been able to have this much assistance at any other university. When I tell friends and family, they can’t believe it, they’ve never heard of it. And I never expected anything. There’s thousands of students here!”

Other coordinators in the Student Success Center are Eric Turner, Tony Robinson and Toni Robinson.����

Check out the video below of students sharing their Student Success Center stories.����

Lenora’s grandmother, Jessie, spent her time at UofL not as a student but as a custodian, cleaning classrooms, offices, bathrooms and hallways in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering and the Brandeis School of Law until the early ‘90s.

“She was very smart, she just didn’t have the opportunity,” said Lenora, a soft-spoken, single adoptive mother and foster mother who, despite many challenges that threatened to throw her off course, never gave up on the higher education goal she set for herself after graduating from high school.

At commencement, she will celebrate her August completion of her bachelor’s degree in sociology. She immediately turned her attention to a new goal and has started her master’s in social work at the Kent School. She also works full-time at Stuart Middle School.

Her two teenage foster daughters and teenage adopted daughter will be at the KFC Yum! Center to cheer her on. Missing from the audience — but not her heart — will be her late sister, who always strongly encouraged Lenora to stay in school, and her late grandfather, a lifelong Cardinals fan whose 90th birthday would have fallen on the commencement date of Dec. 17.

After years struggling to pay for her classes amid family deaths, crises and health issues, Lenora was just a few classes away from finishing when she ran out of financial aid. She credits counselors with UofL’s Student Success Center with helping her obtain a persistence grant that carried her through.

“I would say to any student that feels that they are not deserving or are in a hard situation … and they feel like their academic journey is over? I would reach out to the Student Success Center and get some assistance that you need so you know your journey’s not over,” she said. “(I would say) that you can keep going and it’s just one hurdle, but it’s not the end. You can keep going.”

Lenora has fostered pre-teen and teenage girls since 2014. This year, she adopted her 17-year-old daughter, who recently applied to UofL.

“I didn’t think they were paying attention, but they were paying more attention than I thought,” she said. “They haven’t seen anybody go to college. … If they see me do it, they say ‘OK, maybe I can do it.’”

Check out Lenora’s story in her own words below:��

In the summer of 2020, President Neeli Bendapudi charged the to lead a taskforce in bringing forth recommendations to guide UofL in becoming a premier anti-racist metropolitan research university.

“To be an anti-racist institution, UofL cannot rest on the racial advancements of the 20^th century,” Bendapudi said. “We are facing long-held racist beliefs, action and inaction, and we aren’t shying away from the fight.”

The agenda, now in the final stages of development, underscores the strategic vision of the university as a great place to learn, work and invest through celebration of the unique attributes every individual brings to the university community.

“The approach of this work focuses on evaluating policies and institutional behaviors as a means of shifting cultural values and perspectives toward greater racial equity,” said V. Faye Jones, interim senior associate vice president for diversity and equity.

CARA progress

Representatives from throughout UofL’s campuses — faculty, staff, students, trainees (residents and post docs) and administration — helped develop the agenda. These five subgroups of the taskforce have carefully and thoughtfully drafted a report of six priority areas, and action steps, which are now being refined. Completion of a final plan, along with implementation is expected this year.

The six broad priority areas are:

• Culture, Policies, Practices and Procedures
• Equity in Work, Compensation, Professional Development and Reward
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Images and Communication
• Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Talent
• University and Community Relationships

This year the taskforce anticipates a report with action plans for every strategy, a data dashboard making diversity data transparent and accessible and a CARA cultural impact to improve the lived experiences of the entire Cardinal family.

Campus movement

As details of CARA are being finalized, movement to support the agenda is already in motion. Every unit throughout campus is laying groundwork to break down barriers and make changes that reflect our anti-racism goal.

For example, leadership from each of the four Health Sciences Center schools participated in a 10-week immersive executive leadership program with the Aspen Institute focused on leading institutional diversity, equity and inclusion. Not only this, but leaders at many schools and units throughout the university have set aside funding to support dedicated diversity, equity and inclusion positions at the director, assistant dean and associate dean levels.

Faculty, staff and student support is one area of growth. Through the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), faculty, staff and students can receive on-demand access to mentoring, professional development and support leading to success in the academy. Several faculty of color are being supported by their school’s dean and the to participate in NCFDD’s Faculty Success Program designed to help faculty increase research and writing productivity while maintaining a healthy work/life balance. This opportunity will provide needed resources as the faculty pursue tenure. Meanwhile, Human Resources has developed an affirmative action review process for faculty tenure and promotions, seeking to understand whether decisions made regarding tenure and/or promotion adversely impact members of certain groups.

Launched through the Office of Research and Innovation, the new ��provides mentorship, funding and other support to high-performing associate professors. The goal is to boost the national impact of the fellows’ scholarship, with a focus on work in diversity, inclusion and community empowerment.

Other actions, too, are helping the CARA progress, as staff and faculty have opportunities to participate in book studies and Continuing ����ֱ�� sessions on the topics of implicit bias, microagressions, power and privilege, health disparities and racial justice. A new Lunch and Learn series also helps welcome, mentor and retain Black faculty, with plans to extend to Hispanic and Latino faculty. Development of a faculty search document, Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Increase Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) will lead to workforce change, and a new Employee Resource Group is focused on faculty and staff who identify as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Office of Diversity and Equity, in collaboration with the Employee Success Center, also is working to better incorporate diversity and equity in university onboarding, leadership and retention programs, policies and practices. Programs and services to support employees and students experiencing racial trauma also give credence to one of UofL’s guiding principles as a Community of Care.

A new Undergraduate Student Success Taskforce, coordinated through the Office of Diversity and Equity, aims to make it easier for underrepresented, underfunded and first generation students to have an equal opportunity for achievement. The group will work to improve information sharing, communication and collaboration across units; identify gaps in services, student performance and experience; and develop creative ways to eliminate barriers and build student success. The taskforce will have a plan in place this fall.

A course for first-year students taught by student success center staff also is being revised in time for the new academic year to more intentionally thread themes of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the curriculum. All GEN 100 instructors will be trained on what it means to be an anti-racist institution and tie the work of CARA to first year students’ experience as they join the university community.

And advancement is working to raise funds for student financial support aimed at racial equity. The School of Nursing’s Breonna Taylor Memorial Scholarship and the J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s diversity education scholarship through are two examples.

New committees and groups

The Student Government Association recently created a diversity and inclusion committee, the Staff Senate created a and new recognized student organizations have launched this year, including the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA).

Jason Deakings helped lead the effort in bringing together the BGSA. As a CODRE student representative, he’s also helping shape CARA. Deakings worked on a committee to explore anti-racism initiatives at other universities, and had the opportunity to listen to both graduate and undergraduate student ideas and concerns related to the agenda.

“Inclusiveness is of paramount importance for students,” Deakings said. “Even as new RSOs have been created, we are working toward unification and progressing inclusivity.”

Inclusiveness and belonging are key, says Jones.

“We��must ensure equity in all of our practices and policies��that are inclusive of our multiple identities,” she said.

As the world begins to recover from the devastating effects of the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, we maintain our commitment to providing education that is fair, just and true, and leads toward an end of the devastating effects of the long-term racial pandemic.

With the learning environment leaning heavily on online classes since the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, UofL purchased 700 Dell laptops to give away to qualifying students. Classes at UofL for the fall semester have either converted to entirely online or are a “hybrid” model, a combination of online and in-person.

“This the first time we’ve been able to anticipate technology needs,” said Provost Beth Boehm. “Spring’s swift pivot to remote learning made it clear that the digital gap is real, and so we wanted our students to have the technology necessary to do all the work in a hybrid or online environment.”��

Freshmen and incoming/transfer students with the greatest financial need were the first to be offered an invitation to apply for the free Dell 3300 13-inch laptop equipped with webcam, microphone and speakers. The Student Success Center will expand invitations to continuing second- and third-year students in the next phase.

Natalie Uhl in the Office of Communications and Marketing contributed to this article.

At a glance mid-construction, the Belknap Academic Classroom Building very much looks the part it was meant to play – contemporary, state-of-the-art, spacious.

The nearly 170,000-square-foot building, on pace to open by the fall semester, is dedicated entirely to student success as evidenced through its active learning classrooms. The classrooms, for example, will include movable furniture, white boards for student use and interactive Mersive Solstice pods for wireless connection to classroom displays.

The building also has many informal meeting spaces for group work and projects outside of class time, a Student Success Center and labs for physics, biology, chemistry and anthropology.

Think: less lecture hall, more student/teacher engagement.

According to Gale Rhodes, executive director of the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning, traditional, faculty-centered teaching methods are not always optimal for student learning.

“Innovation in higher education is essential and traditional. Research on learning and in brain science has demonstrated that interactive, student-centered teaching methods position students for greater success,” she said.

There is ample evidence to support this approach and that research stretches back throughout the past 30 years. Active learning research traces its roots to the Studio Course model at Rensselar Polytechnic Institute, which was incorporated into the curriculum in 1994. NC State Physics Professor Robert Beichner also pioneered the Scale-Up classroom in the mid-1990s, which focused on student interactivity, or “upside down pedagogies.”

One of the most cited studies is Scott Freeman’s 2014 paper that analyzed 263 active learning studies. Freeman and his colleagues found that students’ probability of failure was significantly less with active learning.

However, translation to practice has been slow, according to Rhodes, due in part to faculty’s and students’ notions of what effective teaching and learning is.

“In the past, there has been a lack of support for faculty to innovate. That’s what this building will do,” she said.

There are plenty of universities and colleges that have active learning classrooms, but very few have entire classroom buildings dedicated to active learning.

“We will be one of a small group of universities in the country to have a large classroom building entirely dedicated to active learning classrooms. The University of Minnesota built one of the first buildings in 2010, and only a handful have opened since,” Rhodes said, adding that experts predict ALCs will be mainstream by 2020.

In preparation for the fall 2018 opening of the BACB, UofL’s Teaching Innovation Learning Lab has been supporting and training faculty for this approach.

“(The TILL) provides an opportunity to experiment in a state-of-the-art learning space while having the benefit of technological and instruction support, and it is equipped with identical technology that will be found in the new building,” Rhodes said.

Learning spaces represent improved understanding of pedagogy

Jeff Hieb, assistant professor of Engineering Fundamentals in the Speed School, said he will spend time in the new building observing how other faculty are using these classrooms. Still, he doesn’t consider the BACB’s focus to be on new teaching methods as much as it is on new learning spaces.

“The reason we need a building with new types of learning spaces is that they represent our improved understanding of the role technology, space and pedagogy can play in student learning and student success,” Hieb said. “The spaces improve student interaction, allow faculty to have high quality interactions with small groups of students, and the technology is designed to promote collaboration, which is a skill students need to develop.”

In addition to improving interaction and collaboration, Rhodes said the building will also serve as an effective recruitment and retention tool for the University of Louisville.

“This state-of-the-art building will attract first- and second-year students and top faculty to UofL, retain them, and best meet their advising and support needs,” she said. “It represents the new future of teaching, allowing our university to meet educational needs in ways we never have before.”

Expected to open for the fall 2018 semester, the four-story, $80 million academic building primarily will serve undergraduate students on the Belknap Campus. It will house 17 classrooms, as well as science labs and group study areas, gathering spaces and food service options.

It also will feature a student success center, which will integrate academic support, advising and career services and a new Teaching Academy into one facility designed to improve the academic experience for undergraduate students and better prepare them for life after college.

“This building will directly impact student success,” said Acting President Neville Pinto. “First, it will address the severe lack of classroom space for our undergraduate students. Second, it will allow us to combine several key student services in one location, making it easier for our students to get the support they need. And it will allow us, through our Teaching Academy, to share resources and ideas that will enable our faculty to more efficiently and effectively teach our students.”

The Kentucky Legislature approved funding for the building in 2014 to address a significant lack of classroom space at UofL. According to a Kentucky Council on Postsecondary ����ֱ�� study, UofL had the most significant shortage of classroom space among all Kentucky’s public universities.

“Lack of quality classroom space has been a consistent concern among our students,” said Aaron Vance, Student Government Association president. “More high-tech classrooms, more convenient services and comfortable gathering spaces will have a big impact on learning at UofL.”��

The new facility will be built on the site that previously housed Crawford Gym. Built in the 1960s, Crawford once served as the practice facility for the UofL basketball and swimming programs and then as home to the Department of Health and Sports Science. Those offices have been moved to the Swain Student Activities Center.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday. .��

Check out video from the groundbreaking event below:��