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Keeping the Promise Alive
Radio Commentary of
President Michael A. McRobbie
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN
November 7, 2007
I’d like to share with you a story about one of our students. IU freshman Esteban Velez graduated in the 98th percentile of his Indianapolis high school class and had his choice of universities. But a full scholarship and the opportunity to conduct research with an IU Bloomington faculty mentor kept him here in Indiana. Now Esteban spends ten hours a week doing genetics research in Professor Viola Ellison's Microbiology Laboratory. He says the scholarship has meant the world to him and notes that it is a great foundation for his future career in dentistry
I was extremely pleased last week to announce the public phase of the fundraising campaign that provided Esteban’s scholarship and that of so many other students on the Bloomington campus.
Ambitious Goals
It is called “Matching the Promise,” and it has the bold and ambitious goal of raising $1 billion by 2010. We announced last week that we had already raised $652 million. Our donors’ remarkable generosity has so far endowed 700 scholarships and fellowships that will enable our students to realize the great promise of their potential.
The campaign provides graduate fellowships, merit-based undergraduate scholarships, and need-based undergraduate scholarships for students who would not otherwise be able to pursue their dreams.
I met one of these students last August during move-in day on the Bloomington campus. Her name is Monica Burris, and she, too, is from Indianapolis. Monica is the first person in her family to go to college. She wants to be a teacher. She said her goal is, in her words, “to push herself higher [as an example] for future generations of her family.”
Our goals in creating this endowment are two-fold. First, to ensure that an IU education will always be accessible and affordable for every Hoosier. And second, to keep the best and brightest young Indiana students here in the state because they are our greatest resource for the future.
The campaign’s impact has been dramatic and immediate. This year, for the first time, an IU education is almost free for Hoosier students with family incomes below $50,000! The 1,000 in state freshman with family incomes under $50,000 who entered IU Bloomington this year will pay just $341 for tuition, room and board, compared to the full annual cost of $14,512. Just $341 for a year at one of the nation’s great public universities!
And the good news does not end there. Hoosier students with family incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 who are eligible for financial aid also are benefiting from this campaign. This fall, almost 1,500 of our incoming Indiana freshmen class are in that category. Their average out-of-pocket cost has fallen to just $8,300, which is 40 percent below full cost.
The Match
We are very grateful to the scores of generous donors who believe, as we do, that educational opportunity is the best foundation on which to build Indiana’s future. We want to maximize the impact of their gifts.
That is where the “Matching” part of the Matching the Promise Campaign comes in. We are using institutional funds to match the income from scholarship and fellowship endowments established by our donors. We are doubling their impact for students like Esteban, Monica, and others.
Keeping the Best and Brightest in Indiana
In my inaugural address, I pledged that an IU education would remain accessible and affordable to every citizen in the state, no matter where they come from, no matter what their background, and no matter who they are.
At a time when college costs are squeezing middle and lower income families across the nation, Indiana University Bloomington is keeping the promise of public higher education fully alive for students across Indiana.
At a time when our state must marshal all of its resources to compete in the 21st-century knowledge economy, IU is working to keep our best and brightest here at home so they can help create a brighter, more prosperous future for Indiana.
