>newground
With 18 months to go before the Campaign for IUPUI formally concludes in June 2004, the campus is already reaping the rewards of increased private support. New construction projects are the most visible influence of the Campaign. These include Lawrence W. Inlow Hall, the new law school; the renovation of Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hall, the former law school and now the future home of the Herron School of Art; IU Medical School Research 2; and Fairbanks Hall, the "new front door" for the IU School of Medicine.
"The campus's primary asset is its people," explains Interim IU President Gerald L. Bepko. "The Campaign for IUPUI is providing the resources the people of IUPUI need to excel at their missions and continue our progress to become one of the nation's best urban campuses."
New Faculty Recruited
Take for instance the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute. The institute will become the cornerstone of the IU School of Medicine neurosciences research program. It will also attract new physicians and researchers, as evidenced by the recruitment of Gerry Oxford, the institute's new executive director and one of the top neuroscientists in the country.
New chairs and professorships have been created across the IUPUI campus, many for the first time in some schools and departments. For example, the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI has gained its first endowed chair in biomedical engineering. "The Thomas J. Linnemeier Guidant Foundation Chair in Biomedical Engineering will enable us to take our young biomedical engineering program to the next level much faster," says dean of the school, H. Öner Yurtseven. "Endowed chairs and professorships make an enormous difference in the institution's reputation nationally. They are a great recruiting tool."
The Best Students Rewarded
Scholarships share a similar recruitment purpose, attracting talented students to study at IUPUI. When Neil Jain and David Drennan were in high school, they never dreamed that their participation in Project SEED—a program that provides a summer science research experience to high school students sponsored by the American Chemical Society—would lead to a scholarship to attend IUPUI. Jain and Drennan are the first recipients of the Indianapolis Project Seed scholarship established in the School of Science at IUPUI.
Roseanne Bonjouklian, a medicinal chemist in discovery research at Eli Lilly & Co. established the scholarship to benefit local Project SEED participants interested in studying science in college. "I have always had a strong interest in science education," she notes. Bonjouklian became familiar with IUPUI through her 24-year involvement with Project SEED where high school students work side-by-side with professional scientists at Lilly, IUPUI or IU Medical Center laboratories.
Drennan says the scholarship gives him the financial cushion he needs to concentrate on his education. "The scholarship makes it easier to focus on my studies because I do not have to worry about the finances," he explains. And his previous experience as a Project Seed participant led him to choose his major in chemistry. "I hope to work in a research lab when I complete my education," Drennan comments.
Likewise, Jain's summer research project at the IU Medical School under the tutelage of Dr. Joseph Bidwell, led him to choose his major in biology. "I want to work in a biomedical field," said Jain. "This scholarship will open doors for me in that field."
Such examples abound. They illustrate just a few of the concrete benefits the campaign has produced for the IUPUI campus. With each new gift IUPUI reaches a new level, bringing us closer to our goal of becoming the premier urban campus of the twenty-first century.
>Ellen Crowe