Dedication of Ullem Campus Farm for Sustainability set May 9

DePauw University invites the public to attend the formal dedication of the Ullem Campus Farm and Center for Sustainability on Thursday, May 9. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. and is open to all.

The original DePauw campus farm was founded in 2013 on a one-acre property adjacent to the Prindle Institute for Ethics with financial support from James R. Gates (Class of 1978) and Roberta P. Gates and Richard S. Neville (Class of 1976) and Janet Asp Neville.

In 2018, the farm relocated closer to campus to a 12-acre site that allows for expanded agricultural operations and further integration with the university’s liberal arts curriculum. The campus farm’s relocation and expansion were made possible through a gift of Scott Ullem (Class of 1989) and Beth Daley Ullem.

The new site features multiple crop fields and a greenhouse for year-round growing. A multi-purpose center for sustainability will be used for teaching and educational resources; food preparation and processing; and farm outreach programming.

The farm has become a thriving operation with an annual harvest of more than 10,500 pounds of sustainably grown produce for campus dining and local hunger-relief organizations.

It positions DePauw as a national leader in innovative education related to sustainable agriculture, food and energy for rural and urban settings. It is a laboratory for scientific and entrepreneurial experimentation where students, professors and community members -- within and beyond DePauw -- develop viable models for solutions that conserve natural resources.

The May 9 program will include remarks from Scott and Beth Daley Ullem. A Management Fellow and political science major at DePauw, Scott Ullem earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and is currently chief financial officer of Edwards Lifesciences Corp.

Beth Daley Ullem received a B.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. A former college professor, she is a nationally recognized healthcare governance expert and a frequent public speaker advocating patient safety and quality.

The Ullems own a farm in Iowa that has been in the family since it was established under the Homestead Act on May 10, 1843. The Black Angus cow-calf operation and sustainable crop farm is integrally connected to a no-till corn and soybean farming operation, with land conservation planning and erosion control approved by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.