“Since moving to Collins three years ago, I have been amazed with the wealth of opportunities for student involvement within the residence center. I quickly became part of student government, and have held several positions bringing me to my current role as Collins Center President. I encourage anyone interested in living in a fun, welcoming community with plenty of ways to get involved to live at Collins. Collins has plenty of resources not found in any other residence halls such as multiple art studios, including a ceramics studio, which I can attest to being a great place to practice as a beginner. The best part of Collins, however, is the strong community between its students, and how we uplift and support each other through various channels. I have loved my time at Collins, and look forward to finishing my college career here.”
Student Testimonials
“From managing the ever-popular Cheshire Café, to going on hikes at Griffy Lake with E-Force, to teaching Q199 to incoming Collinsites, Collins has provided innumerable wonderful experiences over the years. In addition to countless student groups and events available to residents, the overall community in Collins is unmatched. Not only do you find friendly faces greeting you around every hallway, but also overwhelming interest in doing and creating new things that make Collins an even more exciting and fulfilling place. I always look forward to all the new experiences that each year brings.”
“I was attracted to Collins for its beautiful, intriguing buildings and arts resources, and have returned year after year because of my interactions with dedicated staff, opportunities to take command of my education in a hands-on way, and of course my passionate and welcoming peers who represent a multitude of majors across IU. My freshman year I felt isolated and overwhelmed on a big campus, and it was Collins’ resources and community that helped me find comfort and a sense of belonging. My involvement with Collins’ Arts Council introduced me to a community of students who had the creativity and agency within their university to create their own arts programming. This collaborative, accessible art made me feel less alone. My freshman year I submitted regularly to Arts Council’s weekly publication, the Collins Columns, my sophomore year I became editor, and now I am the chair of all of Arts Council. I have also had the opportunity to teach and mentor underclassmen through my role as a Q-Instructor, a role that provides me as much of an opportunity to learn as it does my students. Collins is a place where I can practice my leadership skills and feel empowered in a community that supports me. I have met so many kind, creative, and passionate people in my time at Collins. I have no doubt I will meet countless more before I leave. I am deeply grateful to have a place like Collins to call home.”
“The Collins community houses the most diverse, yet strangely related and extremely united group of students on campus. Living here, you’ll find yourself laughing, loving, and living with genuine people you’ll soon wonder how you ever lived without. With culture so wondrous, food so delicious, and people so heterogeneous, you’ll feel more ‘at home’ than you have ever felt at your own home before…and never want to leave.”
Kaylie Starkey, 2012-13 resident
“For four years, I spent more time at Collins than anywhere else on campus. I met my best friends, proposed marriage, learned my political beliefs, and developed an obsession with gnomes. Collins didn’t just shape my life, it was my life.”
Josh Warren, 2012 resident
“What I like best is that everyone here is creative and active, always coming up with new and exciting ideas and actually carrying them out for the benefit of the community.”
Ronak Shah, 2008-10 resident
“Through the Board of Educational Programming at Collins, I help select and develop classes that are offered right here. I really feel like I have an impact on what goes on. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
Tim Gross, 2005-09 resident
“I lived at Collins (MRC) 1975-1977. This is what it meant to me as I reflect on those college days: Friendship, diversity, learning to live with others, great conversations, learning to value the thoughts and opinions of others and fun times!”
Brad Romine, President and CEO, Dalton-Cole & Associates
“Somehow I learned of Collins. Its size and location, architecture and opportunity for small classes, were all very appealing… with one exception of a man I know from law school, the only people I remain friends with now, forty years after we moved elsewhere, are people I knew at Collins. It must have appealed to all of us in some weird way that worked to connect us as compatible people- even though we all took different paths for work, where we live now, etc. It was the best part of my time at IU- up there with the NCAA winning season, in 1976, and learning to swim as an adult beginner in the old ‘women’s pool’.”
Dianne L. Sawyer, Attorney at Law, Portland, OR