Student success is the focus of every faculty and staff member in the College of Humanities. The college is committed to helping students thrive in the classroom and is confident their training will help them find success both personally and professionally after graduation. Defining success, though, can be a difficult proposition. The college’s mission statement declares, “we seek to understand the nuances of cultural issues, to interpret human experience, and to appreciate the power of words and ideas.” The college provides opportunities and resources outside the classroom and within the walls of the university, to holistically train and engage undergraduate students. One of the key sites for students’ success will be the new Humanities Student Success Hub, an inclusive community space inside the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building that will offer services, programming, training, and support in an environment that will allow every student to grow.

    The Humanities Hub was born of a recognition that the college hasn’t always had physical spaces for students, faculty, and staff to connect with the university and the broader public. When Caputo’s restaurant closed inside the building’s lobby during the pandemic, the high-traffic space became open for use. Through careful deliberation, the college decided to use the space to help students access and recognize the many resources available to them at the U.

    Taunya Dressler, assistant dean for undergraduate affairs, envisions “this new hub as an inclusive space that fosters a sense of

belonging and identity in which every student can thrive.” She says the space will operate as a “front door” for the college, and thanks to a generous matching grant from the Alternative Visions Fund and the support of more than 70 individual donors and foundations, including a generous commitment from O.C. Tanner, the space can become a second home for students.

    Dressler explains that for her, “the first sign that the Hub is a success will be seeing people come together in the space. Helping students see that they are part of a larger community of humanists and have a home in the college is the first step.” Although hard to quantify student thriving—the college is designing metrics to quantify impact—a primary goal is to have each student walk through the doors of the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building, see the Hub, and know that they are home.

    The Humanities Hub will serve as a central location of not just academic support, but also of the many aspects of learning that are encountered at the U. Students can access academic advising, find financial literacy resources, explore internships and career options, and learn about opportunities provided by the college’s partners such as the Tanner Humanities Center, the Career & Professional Development Center, Learning Abroad, and the Hinckley Institute, to name a few. Whereas previously, students may have encountered these resources separately, they will now see how they’re threaded together to help promote holistic student development.

    The Humanities Hub is part of a long-term college plan to support first-generation students. As Dressler explains, “The U campus is complex and can be difficult for any student to navigate. Those learning how to access university resources for the first time will especially benefit from having a single space where these resources are centered.”

    Jeff Turner, a doctoral candidate in history, says that student success is about much more than the grades one receives in the classroom. “Students need to learn about the resources that the U, their college and department have to help them.” Turner adds that working with student leadership, specialized centers like the Bennion Center and Hinckley Institute, being trained in financial, physical, and mental health, and receiving mentorship from faculty “are crucial to an education.” 

    Drawing upon critical resources is particularly important for first-generation students who sometimes don’t know where to begin. Students who have had family members attend a university may know that they need to speak to an academic advisor and that there are classes available on managing money and mental health resources. The Humanities Hub will be attuned to introducing students to the people and programs that will help them succeed at the U. As Dressler says, “An education is a process through which students identify their vocation, or calling in life and are empowered with the skills to answer this calling.” The Humanities Hub will support that reality by investing in academic support, providing space to explore professional interests and career options, gain financial literacy, and connect academic learning to community engagement.

    Students are the primary beneficiaries of the Humanities Hub, but they are not the only ones. According to Dressler, faculty and guest lecturers will offer community talks geared to answering pressing questions that the humanities are especially well-suited to answer. A historian may speak about the history of Ukraine in European history; an environmental studies scholar may discuss the relationship among nature, literature and human flourishing; a literature professor may discuss why it’s essential to allow students to access any book they’d like to read rather than restricting their options. The Humanities Hub is a place for everyone at the U to engage in local and global communities.

    Alumni are critical to the Humanities Hub’s success. The space will host networking events for students and alumni, connecting generations of U students. Its resources will draw upon alumni to help place students in high-impact, high-reward learning experiences. Dressler says that alumni will be asked to participate in skill-building workshops, allowing students to learn from those who have traveled similar learning and professional trajectories. Alumni can make a large impact in the life of an undergraduate or recent graduate and the Humanities Hub provides a formal space to connect generations of students in ways that will benefit the U and its communities.