Bloomington Herald-Times Articles
November 12, 2008
Kelley School gets $15 million for minority aid
Carmel investor and school alumnus William Fry contributes the money for scholarships
By Nicole Brooks
November 12, 2008
It wasn't a tough decision for William Fry, handing over $15 million. He had the money, and wanted to help young people.
The Indiana University Kelley School of Business alum is giving one of the largest amounts ever donated to the Kelley School, to be used for scholarships for minority students.
"I like to help people that need help," Fry said Tuesday from his Carmel home. "The primary purpose of a college is not necessarily what you learn, but learning how to learn. I think IU did that," he added of his experience at Kelley in the late 1950s. He wants to aid young people who have talent, but also limited means, in learning to learn.
The Fry Scholars Program funds will be doubled by the university's Matching the Promise campaign, so a total of $30 million will be put into an IU Foundation endowment for tuition scholarships for underrepresented minority students.
"What this gift will allow us to do is achieve our long-held diversity goals. Which today are simply a business imperative for the Kelley School," said the school's Dean Dan Smith.
Recruiters who visit Kelley want to hire employees who mirror their customers in terms of diversity, Smith said. "It's now incumbent among business schools to make sure that they can provide businesses with a profile of students that matches up with their customer base."
He wants to increase the percentage of minority students at Kelley -- currently 3 percent of that school's undergraduate student body -- to 7 or 8 percent in the next few years.
Underrepresented minorities in this instance includes Latino, African American and Asian students, and not necessarily women, although they will of course be in the running for scholarships, Smith said.
The Kelley School will annually receive from the Foundation 5 percent of the Fry Scholars Program money, or $750,000. With the university's match added to that, the Kelley School will have each year $1.5 million available for student scholarships.
This will provide full tuition for between 80 and 90 students. And, as long as the student stays in good academic standing, that scholarship will cover all four years of undergraduate study. The program will start next fall.
"It's really a special gift. They know when they come here they're not going to have to pay any tuition," Smith said.
Fry scholars can choose any major at Kelley. And, Smith said, most business students take half their classes outside the Kelley School, so this program will help diversify the campus overall. Smith said the Kelley School also is pursing private support for hiring more faculty members from underrepresented populations.
"This really is an initiative that tracks with one of the top priorities of Karen Hanson for the IU Bloomington campus." Provost Hanson was helpful in securing the Matching the Promise campaign, Smith said.
Kelley recruiters will focus on in-state high school students, he said. "We're going to work very hard in the Indy area, also up in the northwest corridor and probably down into Evansville."
A former stockbroker with Merrill Lynch, Fry started his own investment management firm in Indianapolis, Progressive United Corp., before buying five radio stations in Shreveport, La. He sold those in 1999, and has focused on investments since.
The Winamac native spent five years in the U.S. Army at Fort Jackson, S.C., and in South Korea after graduating from IU. During that time he went to Hong Kong.
"I took a tour that impressed the heck out of me." Fry saw workers barely living on 20 cents a week, living in chicken coops. "When you see things like that you can't help but be touched by people who need a break in life."
Indiana University
IU dance marathon aims to top $1 million
Since 1991, event has raised more than $6 million for Riley Hospital
November 11, 2008
More than 2,000 Indiana University students are expected to bust a move in this year's 36-hour IU Dance Marathon, beginning at 8 p.m. Friday. The 18th annual marathon raises money for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
Last year more than 850 dancers, 350 student committee members, 500 volunteers and IU alumni raised $1,041,197 for Riley Hospital, the highest amount in the event's history. IU students hope to again surpass the $1 million mark this year.
The marathon runs through 8 a.m. Sunday at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and will feature testimonials from Riley families and other guest speakers and food. The event is open to the public all 36 hours. Visitors are asked to use the entrance on the northeast side of the HPER gym. Bands 40 percent Steve, Buzzkills, Straight No Chaser and the Clayton Anderson Band will perform.
The event began in 1991 in honor of Ryan White, an AIDS activist and Riley Hospital for Children patient who died of AIDS in 1990. Since then, more than $6 million has been raised for the Ryan White Infectious Disease Center at the hospital.
This year's marathon marks a turning point, said Jason Mueller with Riley Children's Foundation, because for the first time more than 20 Indiana high schools and colleges are holding their own marathons, with all proceeds going to Riley.
For more information about the IU Dance Marathon, see www.iudm.org. Donations can be made on that site by clicking "Donate Now."
Our opinion
Chamber weighs in with strong legislative agenda
November 12, 2008
The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce has stepped up its advocacy with a comprehensive legislative agenda, including a set of five priorities it will push during the 2009 session of the Indiana General Assembly.
The more active approach comes at a time when political engagement is at a high level, and the Chamber is right to be proactive in offering its thoughts alongside everyone else.
The issues it has chosen to highlight are important to our community and the state.
At the top of the priorities is Indiana University and strong support for funding for the Indiana Innovation Alliance, a partnership between IU and Purdue. The alliance's goal is to strengthen the state's activity in biosciences and life sciences, areas ripe for growth in both educational opportunities and employment.
Ivy Tech Community College also gets priority support from the Chamber, and well it should. Ivy Tech is bursting out of its current Bloomington campus, and expansion is required to allow it to meet its potential in helping Hoosiers take another step in higher education and/or learn new job skills.
A third priority is to support development of a Certified Technology Park near the Ind. 45/46 Bypass and East 10th Street. The park could be a catalyst for turning research into applications, leading to benefits for society and jobs for area residents. Key to progress in this area is improvement to the roads and intersections in that area -- projects that have been under consideration for a decade and which the Chamber hopes will make progress this legislative session.
The Chamber also intends to raise its voice in support of reforming local government as recommended in a report from a bipartisan commission headed by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard. The Chamber understands that the local government structure set up in the 1800s is outdated for the 21st century. Less important to us is the fifth priority, which opposes a constitutional amendment that would cap property taxes.
Among the roughly two dozen agenda items that didn't make it to priorities are these:
Encouraging regional mass transit, including light rail between Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Improving public transportation, including expanding the area in which Bloomington Transit can operate so it can serve Ivy Tech Community College and neighboring businesses.
Strengthening the development of a strong system of medical education to address a national and local shortage of primary care physicians.
The Legislature should heed those points, and many others in this thoughtful agenda.
IU diversity proposals vying for $1M to carry them out
By Nicole Brooks
November 12, 2008
Twenty-five proposals have been submitted to Indiana University as answers to president Michael McRobbie's call for ideas to increase the diversity of faculty and students.
The 25 proposals, at least one from each of IU's eight campuses, were drafted by faculty and students system-wide. McRobbie in September announced that $1 million would be available for winning proposals that outline new ways to increase the diversity of people at the head of the class and also of those seated at the desks.
Some submissions addressed graduation rates, others how to increase diversity as the university hires people. The money is not designated for creating new staff positions, said Edwin Marshall, IU's vice president for diversity, equity and multicultural affairs.
"I'm encouraged by 25," he added. Marshall is now in the process of putting together a 10-member review committee that will score each proposal on its merit.
The applications should address at least one of the four key areas McRobbie outlined: institutional leadership and commitment, curricular transformation, campus climate and representational diversity.
As head of the judging committee, Marshall will sit down with McRobbie to decide how much funding each proposal will get, and will announce those figures in mid-December.
"My guess is there will be some that are very, very large, some will be small," Marshall said. The funding is intended to finance a proposal for a three-year period.
According to university enrollment data, this fall semester 6.8 percent of IU students, system-wide, are African American. American Indians make up 0.3 percent, Asian Americans 3.1 percent and Hispanic students 3 percent.
Disgraced ex-candidate John Edwards re-emerges at IU
By Brady Gillihan
November 12, 2008
Former presidential candidate John Edwards made his first public speech Tuesday at the Indiana University Auditorium since his admission of an extramarital affair shocked the world of politics in early August.
Edwards gave his thoughts on the recent presidential election, explaining how he made his decision to bow out of the Democratic race when he felt his party would benefit by rallying behind Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and also because, "I wasn't winning."
He focused much of his talk on poverty and his hopes and dreams for America, the world, and the relationship between the two.
After his half-hour speech, he answered written questions that had been submitted before his event by those in the audience, which nearly packed the IU Auditorium. The affair was not mentioned in his speech, nor was it brought up in the written queries.
On the heels of what is being called a historic election, Edwards said the most important asset he felt president-elect Obama would bring to the United States and the world was "vision".
"Not mired down in the details, although the details are important, but vision for what we need to be doing," Edwards said. "What we and the rest of the world need to be doing. Think about the challenges we're faced with-because they are extraordinary and deep."
Global warming, population growth, extreme poverty, health care reform are some of those challenges, Edwards said. "America cannot solve these problems alone. It is impossible. It is crucial that the president convince America that their fate, your fate, is tied to what's happening in the rest of the world."
He spoke heavily on reducing poverty, an issue he says is close to his heart and the "cause of my life ... We can't stand by quietly and watch 36, 37 million of our own people wake up every day worried about feeding and clothing their children."
When asked about his focus on poverty and his inspiration to squelch it and also what his future in politics would be, Edwards talked about his poor upbringing when he was a young child and how that helped shape his priorities of civil service.
"When I die, if I have done something in however many years I have on the planet, to help alleviate the poverty and the suffering and the struggles of people both in America and the rest of the world, and to give them a chance ... that's what I want to spend my life doing," Edwards said.
He also spoke highly of former vice president Al Gore and the impact he has made on the world outside the political system.
"He's had an amazing, amazing impact, all outside of politics. And, I think that if you care enough and you're willing to work ... openings will present themselves to you."
His lecture, which was free to the public, came six nights after Election Day, when the Hoosier state voted in favor of a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson was elected in 1964.
