One author took President Michael McRobbie's suggestion to write a book when he retired and looked to IU's buildings for his material.
The book “Indiana University Bloomington: America’s Legacy Campus,” was written by Former IU Vice President and Chief Administration Officer Terry Clapacs and published by IU Press.
The book will be launched 4:30 p.m. Friday in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. It will feature speeches from Clapacs and McRobbie, members of the IU Press and the opportunity to purchase the book and have it signed.
The book is about the way IU has changed physically from the 1800s to now, including a description and image of all of IU-Bloomington’s buildings.
“It’s more than that,” Clapacs said. “It’s a story about the people who occupy these buildings.”
Clapacs said he heard many people say they believed IU is one of the most beautiful campuses in America, and he shared this opinion. He said he wanted to show how it developed to look how it does today. He said he also wanted to get first-person accounts from people who work, live and learn in these buildings.
“The buildings themselves aren’t what makes Indiana University,” Clapacs said.
Working at Indiana University for 43 years gave him knowledge about the campus, so some of the information came from his head, Clapacs said. He said he would not have been able to piece it together without the first-person stories of the buildings or the information from the University archivists about IU’s history.
“It is a combination of many sources,” Clapacs said.
The idea for the book came from McRobbie, Clapacs said. He said when he was getting ready to retire in 2009, he was having a conversation with the president, and McRobbie suggested that he write a book.
“I worked on it at a retirement pace,” Clapacs said, adding that he traveled some and worked on the book in his free time. “In the last couple years, I worked harder to finish it.”
The launch of Clapacs’ book is part of the Bicentennial Publication and Media Series. Brittany Terwilliger, communications and marketing manager of the office of the bicentennial, said the IU Press will be publishing several projects like this one in the time leading up to 2020.
“The purpose is to spark interest in IU history, achievements and the IU legacy,” Terwilliger said.
Clapacs said IU Press did a good job of arranging the pictures and making the book aesthetically pleasing. He said he thinks people will appreciate a new collection of IU’s history to read.
“I hope they come to see a history of Indiana University presented in a beautiful way,” Clapacs said.
