Herbert Simic Bantz Bepko

The final tally for the comprehensive campaign, which ended June 30, showed that $1,039,042,828 had been raised for student support, endowed faculty positions, research, academic programs, buildings and other initiatives that will enable the campus to better serve students and Indiana.

Nearly 70,507 donors supported the campaign. Sources of campaign support are:

• Gifts from donors— alumni, friends, corporations, foundations and other organizations—$548 million.
• Gifts to Riley Children’s Foundation—$79.4 million.
• Non-governmental research grants—$411.6 million.

The landmark campaign for IUPUI underscores the “coming of age” of an urban research university that has become the state’s health sciences campus.

“We are very proud to announce that the IUPUI campaign has successfully concluded by exceeding its original goal and reaching the very impressive total of $1.039 billion,” said IU President Adam Herbert. “And it puts us in very elite company. Only 22 universities in the nation have successfully completed billion dollar campaigns. Included in that list of institutions are such universities as Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Yale,” he added.

“This highly successful campaign demonstrates that IU’s supporters understand the importance of higher education and are committed to making those supplemental financial contributions that will enable us to meet and exceed the expectations of our state’s citizens,” Herbert said, noting “this campaign will significantly advance IU’s three missions of teaching, research and public engagement.”

Among the many campaign accomplishments are:
• $36. 2 million for student financial support.
• Support for the construction of Eskenazi Hall, the new home of the Herron School of Art; Lawrence W. Inlow Hall, the new facility for the IU School of Law-Indianapolis; major growth in facilities for the IU School of Medicine; and the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex.

“The success of this first-ever comprehensive Campaign for IUPUI means that a university/community partnership has come full circle,” said IUPUI Chancellor Charles Bantz. “In 1969, Indiana University and Purdue University created this partnership campus known as IUPUI because the Indianapolis community needed a comprehensive public university in the state capital. Through the Campaign for IUPUI, our community has shown us how important IUPUI is to them and to the future of this great city.”

“If every dollar is a vote of confidence in IUPUI, every dollar also secures the pledge that IUPUI will fulfill its promise to the citizens of Indiana, to our friends and supporters, and to our students, alumni, faculty and staff,” Bantz added.

When the seven-year campaign began on July 1, 1997, no one thought IUPUI’s would be the first campaign conducted by a public university in Indiana to reach $1 billion.

“A day like that had never been seen before on this campus, much less in the state of Indiana,” said IU Foundation President Curt Simic.

“Ten years ago, this campaign, which is now so gloriously concluded, was only a dream. The carefully considered initial goal for the campaign, $500 million, was thought to be a great stretch, one that it would be a challenge to meet,” Simic said. “But IUPUI had outstanding programs and people. And it had a plan. Under the leadership of Jerry Bepko and then Charles Bantz, IUPUI had a vision for an urban university that made alumni proud, faculty and staff loyal, and the community—the business, civic, and government leaders of Indianapolis and central Indiana—fiercely determined partners in realizing the potential of this amazing urban campus.”

The $500 million campaign goal had to be increased to $700 million before the public announcement in 2001 because of the tremendous outpouring of support during the campaign’s silent phase, Simic said. “And the support continued to pour in, far beyond the dreams of nearly a decade ago.”