$10 million gift for tech initiative brings DePauw to 85% of $300 million goal

The DePauw University Board of Trustees has accepted a $10 million gift from an unnamed donor to The Campaign for DePauw toward new technology innovation at DePauw, President Brian W. Casey announced Friday.

The gift, accepted by the board at its meeting last weekend, will develop a signature Technology Center and Visualization Laboratory to be created an engaging and visible high-tech space where students will learn technology and computing skills.

The gift will also allow DePauw to appoint a director to provide leadership for technology programming, bringing the Technology Center to the status of DePauw's other signature programs and centers such as the Kathryn F. Hubbard Center for Student Engagement, the Robert C. McDermond Center for Management and Entrepreneurship and the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics.

Those efforts are designed to broaden and deepen DePauw's Information Technology Associates Program (ITAP), which will be renamed the Technology Intern Program.

The program will allow DePauw to invest deeply in state-of-the-art technology and teaching and be a leader of its type among other liberal arts instutions in the nation. The investment aims to produce graduates who are substantially more proficient in computing and technology than graduates of peer institutions.

"This gift will help move DePauw to the forefront of liberal arts universities in the nation," President Casey said. "I continue to be moved by the commitment and passion of our alumni and Board of Trustees to provide our students and faculty with outstanding programs and spaces that allow them to be leaders and thinkers of consequence. Gifts like this will continue to live on and change how DePauw students live and work in an ever-changing landscape."

The gift will also increase the Founders Fund for Computer Science, recognizing the impact Robert Thomas, professor emeritus of mathematics and computer science, had on the donor. The fund provides computer science students and faculty access to cutting-edge tools, supports project work that hones their skills, and sponsors programs that help computer science majors prepare for high-tech careers and graduate study.

Campaign gifts received since the board's October 2015 meeting total more than $31 million.

Melanie Norton, vice president for development and alumni engagement, commented, "The love our alumni and friends have for this institution has us on a path toward exceeding our campaign goals and creating new opportunities for generations of students to come."

In total, gifts to The Campaign for DePauw, which formally launched in October of 2014, now stand in excess of $255 million toward a $300 million goal.

Additional gifts accepted recently on behalf of the campaign include:

-- Elgan L. Baker '71 has made a provision for an unrestricted gift to DePauw of $3.3 million through his estate.

-- James A. Campbell '72 and Margaret Sweeney Campbell have included the university in their will for an unrestricted gift of $250,000.

-- Luis R. Davila '81 and Deborah White Davila '82 have provided for an unrestricted gift of $500,000 to DePauw through their estate.

-- Douglas Hallward-Driemeier '89 and Mary Hallward-Driemeier have committed $100,000 to establish the Douglas and Mary Hallward-Driemeier Endowed Fund for the Honor Scholar Program.

-- Roger Bain Nelsen '64 has increased his commitment for an estate gift to DePauw by $1,125,000, bringing his total commitment to more than $1.6 million to endow the Roger Bain Nelsen DePauw Trust Scholarship.

-- An anonymous donor who graduated with a major in history has offered a $1.5 million estate commitment to establish an endowed chair in the department named for the late Professor Clifton J. Phillips, who taught at DePauw from 1953 to 1983.

In response to that challenge, Albert E. Crandall '56 and B. Louise Crandall '50 have made a major estate commitment of $1.5 million to establish the Albert E. Crandall Endowed Professorship of History. In addition, they have reserved funds for a leadership gift to the DePauw Trust for student scholarships and additional faculty support.

-- An anonymous donor has made a gift of $200,000 to establish the Catherine E. Fruhan Endowed Art and Art History fund.

Additionally, the board recognized Janet Prindle Seidler '58, who paid forward more than $7.5 million of a $10 million deferred gift to the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, which was originally announced in February of last year.

The gift allows Andrew Cullison '01, director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, to put additional programming into place immediately and further distinguish the institute as a premier undergraduate ethics center.