UIndy Trustees Robert Wingerter (above left) and Deborah Daniels present the presidential medallion to Dr. Robert Manuel at Thursday’s Investiture Ceremony. The reverse side (below right) bears the names of UIndy’s nine presidents.

The University of Indianapolis celebrated a milestone Thursday with the inauguration of ninth President Robert Manuel. The afternoon investiture ceremony took place in Nicoson Hall before an audience of students, alumni, faculty, and staff; previous UIndy Presidents Gene Sease, Ben Lantz, Jerry Israel, and Beverley Pitts; and current and emeritus Trustees, including longtime Senator Richard Lugar and four-term Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut.

In his inaugural address, Dr. Manuel noted that higher education is continually beset by new demands and waves of change, but UIndy has always taken such pressures as opportunities to adapt and grow. Though the university must be willing to rethink its structures and methods, as it has in this year’s Vision 2030 process, the institution will continue to be guided by its traditions and founding values. And he renewed UIndy’s commitment to community involvement and “Education for Service.”

“We must broaden our thinking to include the notion that our campus is an anchor for the community, not an island in the middle of it,” Manuel said. “The moment is at hand to define our value to the world. … The only failure we have to worry about at this moment is one of the imagination.”

Mark Vopelak, curator of UIndy’s Institute for Civic Leadership & Mayoral Archives, holds an Indian ceremonial pipe presented in 1979 to then-Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut, an example of the intriguing range of materials in the archives.

It’s a big job, but someone has to do it, and that person is Mark Vopelak.

One of just 14 certified archivists in Indiana, Vopelak joined the UIndy staff this month as head archivist and curator of the university’s Institute for Civic Leadership & Mayoral Archives.

Now under development at Krannert Memorial Library, the institute is being built upon UIndy’s collection of city government papers and related items dating back more than four decades to the mayoral administrations of Richard Lugar. The institute is envisioned as a national hub for research, education and public programs exploring the events and people behind Indianapolis’ reinvention as a world-class city.

“It’s such a great time period in Indianapolis history,” says Vopelak, who previously served as supervisor of the Manuscripts & Rare Books Division of the Indiana State Library.

First, however, the university must catalog and digitize the archives, which include several hundred boxes of documents, photos, recordings and physical artifacts. The effort received a major boost last year in the form of a $2 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. Vopelak is taking over the collection from university archivist Christine Guyonneau, who has overseen the initial inventory and care of the materials.

Vopelak and Associate Professor of History Edward Frantz, interim director of the institute, want to make portions of the collection available online as soon as reasonably possible in order to generate more interest among scholars and the general public, as well as people who have materials and memories to contribute to the archives.

“History is only interesting to people to the extent that you can make it personal,” Vopelak says.

They hope to use a new method developed at Harvard University that combines and streamlines two traditionally separate processes: the identification and indexing of materials and the creation of a searchable and cross-referenced digital image collection that can be updated easily as new information comes to light. The approach has never been used with such a large amount of material, Frantz says, and the results should be impressive.

“This is going to be far more accessible and interactive than anyone can imagine at this point,” he says.

Vopelak, 48, holds a master of library science degree from IUPUI and a master of public history degree, with a concentration in archival management, from North Carolina State University. A Connecticut native, he has lived in Indianapolis for the past 12 years.

Wheeler

The most recent came from the baseball team, which lost the first game but then won five straight to rule last weekend’s conference tournament in Evansville. Those wins included the first recorded no-hitter in GLVC championship history, thrown Saturday by junior Phil Wheeler, a criminal justice and psychology major from Decatur, Ill. The achievement was noted on ESPN’s SportsCenter. Head Coach Gary Vaught‘s top-seeded squad begins NCAA regional action Thursday night in Ypsilanti, Mich.

The other Greyhound conference trophies this year came in volleyball, men’s indoor track and field, women’s golf, softball, and both men’s and women’s outdoor track and field. The All-Sports Trophy is UIndy’s fourth, and its first since 2002-2003.

Willey

“I’m incredibly proud of our student-athletes and coaches for their success this season and excited that the GLVC All-Sports Trophy will be back at UIndy,” Director of Athletics Sue Willey said for a story on the Athletics website. “It’s a credit to their athletic dedication, in addition to the hard work they put into their academics, that makes UIndy a model NCAA Division II institution.”

Executive VP and Provost Deborah Balogh, left, and Professor Julie Gahimer

Professor Julie Gahimer of the Krannert School of Physical Therapy has been named UIndy’s Teacher of the Year for 2012.

Dr. Gahimer, who earned her Master of Science in PT from UIndy, specializes in the rehabilitation of adults with neurological injury and disease, but she also is known for her broad contributions to the university and her community health work. She has taught at UIndy since 1986 and received the Distinguished Faculty Alumni Award in 2009.

Executive Vice President and Provost Deborah Balogh presented the award to Gahimer last week, with a citation that noted her ability to engage students.

“Her teaching philosophy is guided by the principle that if someone walks by a classroom, they should want to come in and participate, and her teaching style truly achieves this,” the citation reads. “To quote two of her students: ‘She is one of the most creative, engaging teachers that I have witnessed’ and ‘her teaching style made the hard work for the course seem like fun.’”