Campus Notes Ep1: Iowa State's Student Belonging Strategy

Iowa State's Destination Iowa State program tackles student belonging head-on. Jordan, its Assistant Director, doesn't define belonging as simply having a place to live.

He describes it as students feeling comfortable everywhere on campus — in the dining hall, walking between classes, at an athletic event — until the campus starts to feel like home rather than a place they're visiting.

The Event: Making Your Community

The program's signature moment is 'Making Your Community,' a choose-your-own-adventure day built around zero-commitment, zero-barrier activities:

• Trivia hosted by a troupe of stand-up and improv comedians
• A ballroom converted into open board-game space — students bring their own games alongside what's provided
• Trips to the farmers market, the community pool, or a local ice rink
• Help navigating to Target for last-minute dorm supplies
• A four-foot beach volleyball exhibition at the rec centers

From a Few Hundred Expected to Nearly 800

Launched two years ago, the event badly undersold its own turnout:

• Board games: Jordan expected 100–300 students; nearly 800 showed up over four hours, with lines forming 45 minutes before doors opened
• Colossal volleyball: drew over 400 students in a two-hour window against a projected 100–200

Belonging Before the Syllabus

Jordan ties the strategy directly to Maslow's hierarchy of needs: students can't focus on academics until they feel safe and connected.

So the program deliberately front-loads social connection before classes start, with no coursework or lecture format attached.

What's Changed This Year

Growth has reshaped the event:

• Athletics is now a full partner, with an exhibition volleyball match against another program
• Multiple courts had to be added for colossal volleyball to handle demand
• Catering orders have grown
• The community pool — always weather-dependent — is being replaced with ice skating, which is closer to residence halls and immune to storms

Ice skating is now the only ticketed activity, since Iowa State covers the cost; everything else stays free and drop-in.

The Real Metric: Friendships

Jordan is candid that the clearest signal of success isn't attendance data.

It's stories like the student who met their future roommate on the bus ride to Target — someone outside their assigned orientation group entirely. That's the kind of connection the whole event is designed to engineer room for.