Within the last six months, the Maurer School of Law has accepted $8.9 million in financial gifts from friends and alumni of the school.
These major financial gifts were granted as a part of the For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign. The Bicentennial Campaign was started in 2015 to honor IU’s 200th anniversary in 2020. The goal of the campaign was to raise $2.5 billion by the anniversary, and this goal was exceeded when the campaign closed September 2020 with a total of $3.9 billion.
The Maurer School of Law had set their own goal to raise $60 million by the end of the campaign. They succeeded in reaching this goal and ended up with a total of almost $63 million.
This money will be used to fund research and programming within the law school, but the majority of the money will be used to fund scholarships for students.
Ken Turchi, assistant dean for finance and administration at Maurer, said staff and faculty are very excited for this money to be used to help IU’s law students avoid large amounts of student debt in the future.
“Between 25 and 35% of our students graduate with no debt every year,” Turchi said. “And you look at a school like Harvard, their students graduate with something like $150,000 in debt.”
Turchi credited the success of this fundraising to the students, alumni, faculty and staff of the school, especially those who havestayed in touch with alumni and donors over the last few years.
“The faculty and staff gave more than $4 million to the campaign. Everyone that's been involved with the school has had a hand in making it successful,” Turchi said. “And that's what makes it so exciting. We've got a very engaged community over here at the corner of Third and Indiana.”
Lisa Hosey, the director of stewardship and financial gifts at Maurer, said everyone in the school has been very humbled by these recent gifts, especially considering fundraising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It's just an uncertain time for so many of us and to have these gifts and to finish the campaign so strongly, it was just a boost of confidence to everyone from faculty, staff and students that our school of law is doing something right,” Hosey said.
Everyone around the school is thankful for those who made donations, Hosey said, and are excited to see the money implemented for good causes and helping law students succeed.
“I think it really was a testament to these incredible alumni and their dedication to the school and the vision of our dean and our students' hard work,” Hosey said. “It was just incredible how it all came together.”
