Donations add millions to IU bicentennial campaign total

  • Oct. 5, 2015

Editor's note: This story from The Bloomington Herald-Times is being published here as a courtesy for readers of IU in the News.

The Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing’s newest building will be named Luddy Hall, thanks to an $8 million gift from former IU student Fred Luddy, the university announced Friday.

Luddy’s donation follows more than $40 million in total gifts announced to the university in less than two weeks.

The $39.8 million, 124,000-square-foot Informatics building is slated to be completed in December 2017 along Woodlawn Avenue between Cottage Grove and 11th Street.

Conrad T. Prebys also pledged $20 million to IU’s Kelley School of Business and proposed amphitheater this week.

The president of Progress Construction and Management in San Diego plans to donate the money to IU’s Kelley School of Business and a proposed amphitheater, according to a news release from the university Thursday. The money will establish student scholarship and faculty endowment programs, in addition to a new career services center in Hodge Hall. The university plans to construct the amphitheater by December 2016 near Bryan Hall and host musical and theatrical productions.

Prebys’ donation is part of several in the last week that will benefit IU’s bicentennial campaign, which launched publicly last Friday with hopes to raise $2.5 billion by IU’s bicentennial in 2020. David Henry Jacobs announced a $20 million gift to the Jacobs School of Music, which is named for his parents, and IU President Michael McRobbie and first lady Laurie Burns McRobbie pledged $1 million to endow two professorships.

Prebys has a bachelor of science in general management from IU’s School of Business (which was later given the Kelley name) and is a native of South Bend.