IU BICENTENNIAL SPECIAL

How Their Worldviews Shape (And How IU Has Shaped Their Lives)

A Q&A With Carmen Siering Photography by Rodney Margison

In 1996, then-Indiana University president Myles Brand recruited Michael A. McRobbie to serve as IU’s first vice president for information technology and chief information officer and as a professor of computer science and of philosophy. The Australian native moved his family from Down Under to Bloomington and began his position early the next year. His trajectory within the university was steady. Appointed vice president for research in 2003, by 2006 he was named interim provost and vice president for academic affairs for the Bloomington campus. On July 1, 2007, he became the 18th president of the university. He and his wife, IU first lady Laurie Burns McRobbie, met through their backgrounds in information technology. They had, sadly, also shared the experience of helping a spouse manage a brain tumor diagnosis. After losing their spouses in 2003, they married in 2005. Both brought two girls and one boy to their newly blended family; the three youngest were still in high school at the time. Laurie, a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is an adjunct faculty member in the IU School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and in the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. While at IU, Laurie has used her background in both IT and women’s issues to promote and advance scientific and mathematical literacy, particularly among historically underrepresented groups. She is also a champion of women’s causes and women’s philanthropy within the community. Bloom Executive Editor Carmen Siering sat down with the McRobbies in Bryan House to talk about the university and about their lives as President McRobbie enters his 12th year at the helm of IU.

President Michael A. and Laurie Burns McRobbie in the living room at Bryan House. 136 Bloom | August/September 2019 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | August/September 2019 | Bloom 137 members of the Indiana University Centers around the world, and the Bloom community, our alumni, not only in establishment of the Hamilton Lugar Indiana State Seminary was founded Indiana but in the whole country and all School of Global and International on January 20, 1820, which means over the world. The closing event of the Studies. I think all of this expands in a next year Indiana University is bicentennial year will be a global alumni major way our local and international celebrating its bicentennial. What is reunion here in Bloomington next June engagement, both in terms of student the significance of the bicentennial, and that will be a great celebration of the engagement and in terms of academic both for the university and for the two reach of the university. engagement, and the research of our of you as you preside over the events faculty. There are many others, but I’d surrounding it? Bloom probably highlight those three areas. There’s a very important report When you were named president of called the New Academic Directions Michael IU in 2007, you set out four priorities Well, a bicentennial is, in the truest Report that I commissioned—I think for the university: information sense of the word, an occasion that it was 2010, it came out in 2011—and technology, life sciences, international happens only once ever in the history programs, and physical infrastructure. that was the report that really formed of an institution, and so this is a unique Are those still your priorities? the basis of most of the major changes occasion for us to reflect on everything that have happened since. They sort of we’ve done in the past. To go from Michael emerged out of that report. basically a little, one-building seminary For example, international engage- They still remain priorities, but there in the middle of the woods in southern ment. I mean, I was well aware of the were additional priorities as well. I think Indiana to a major international importance of international engagement what will make the greatest impact in the research university in 200 years is a when I was provost, but realized there pretty remarkable story and involves long-term is the academic restructuring was no strategic approach to interna- thousands of remarkable stories of of the university. And remember, here tional engagement. It was just basically individuals along the way who made it I’m talking beyond just Bloomington, opportunistic as to what would be maybe what it is today. I’m talking about both the two major embraced or not. There had, as far as I It also gives us an opportunity to look campuses and the regional campuses. know, never been an institutional stra- back at everything that’s great about The academic restructuring has A smiling Laurie Burns McRobbie looks on as her involved the restructuring, merger, or husband is inaugurated as the 18th president of tegic plan. So I started to get that under the institution, and at some of the more Indiana University on October 18, 2007. Courtesy photo way when I was provost and then just difficult issues that the university has formation of 10 new schools, but, in had to struggle with in the past. What particular, establishing schools in areas had it finished off when I was president. and of course the new Bloomington are going to be the opportunities in that are, I think, going to be necessary And, of course, the architecture Michael hospital, where IU is also constructing the future? How do we maintain the for the university to continue to be a program—the J. Irwin Miller The necessary on-going renovation a health sciences education building in position that we have now in the world? major research university in the future. Architecture Program, which is now and rehabilitation of the university’s partnership with IU Health. Bloom How do we improve that position in We, unfortunately, did not have an a part of the Eskenazi School of Art, physical infrastructure had fallen way This next question also involves the world? How do we better serve engineering program, and for decades and Architecture and Design, an area behind, to the tune of over $1 billion international engagement, but in a the people of Indiana and the country decades we were unable to establish such perfectly suited to an environment where by the time I became president. But different way. It concerns the number and the world with our programs and a program. Eventually, we were able to the arts and humanities are as strong as Bloom now we’ve almost caught up with of Asian students, particularly Chinese education and research and broader solve that issue and have an engineering they are at IU. I know international engagement is students, on campus. This has been community engagement? program approved, and that became part So, those and other major academic that backlog, with the renovation of particularly important to you. Can you brought up by The Herald Times Two hundred years in European of what is now the School of Informatics, changes in the institution I think buildings like Ballantine Hall being one discuss the different components of and there has been considerable university terms is the blink of an eye, but Computing, and Engineering. have turned out to be the major of the most obvious recent examples. At IU’s international initiatives? discussion about it in the community. in American terms that makes us a pretty And then, the need to establish accomplishments of the period I’ve the same time, we’ve also constructed The question is, “How does having so old university. So we need to celebrate programs in public health. There were been president. Of course, there have a number of major new buildings, like Michael many Asian students on the IU campus that history and ensure that we learn no schools of public health in Indiana been hundreds of people—thousands of the Global and International Studies The major achievements are the almost people—involved in all those changes. impact the experience of all students?” from it and preserve it for the future. until we established the School of Building and Luddy Hall and so on. doubling of the number of our students Public Health in Bloomington, which There’s also the new Innovation since 2007 who annually study abroad grew out of the old HPER school, and Hall at , the construction —that’s across all campuses of IU, Michael Laurie the Fairbanks School of Public Health Bloom of which has just started, and a number but it’s principally Bloomington—the Well, it’s unfortunate that people select I would just add that I think it’s a good in Indianapolis, which grew in part out Can you talk about the many physical of buildings at the Medical School, establishment of our Global Gateway out the Asian students for particular opportunity to gather the current of the medical school. changes to the campus?

138 Bloom | August/September 2019 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | August/September 2019 | Bloom 139 reference. At Indiana University as a unambiguously good thing for Indiana Having good relations with universities, our students is to expose them to the because women are not only garbed, They aren’t trying to be just like us whole, across all eight campuses, we University, and I think we should be and in particular supporting our faculty broader world outside the . they’re in some cases veiled so you only and we shouldn’t expect them to be. have about 92,000 degree-seeking proud of all that our international alums in their relationships with fellow Many of these young students we get see their eyes. But my main takeaway They’ll figure out how to accommodate a students, and we have just over 8,000 have accomplished. faculty members at those universities, here from Indiana haven’t been outside from that was the sense in which, different existence in the future as time international students. So, a little less is not the same thing as condoning what Indiana. Laurie and I have spoken to literally behind the veil, behind all the goes on and there’s room for us to support than 10%. On the Bloomington campus, any particular government may or may probably thousands of students over covering, were women who were more and learn from them just as much as it is we have just over 5,800 international not be doing anywhere in the world, and the years and, to a person, they will like me than I expected. we hope for them to learn from us. students out of 43,000 students. So the There’s no such thing that is our position as a university. say nothing has had more impact on They were professional women number is not huge. Secondly, very similar them than the periods they’ve spent with careers, they were mothers, they Of that number, somewhere over two- as American physics, considerations also apply to our studying abroad. were women who were interested in thirds of international students would " or Saudi Arabian domestic students. One of the most We want to open up as many athletics. We met one of our alums who … as we think about come from East Asia, Southeast Asia, important things that we can do for opportunities for our students to had organized a team. I met lowering barriers South Asia. Chinese students are the physics, or Chinese study abroad as we can, obviously as women living a recognizably modern largest number of those 5,800 students physics, there’s just long as they’re safe, so they can see life, albeit with a lot of other constraints and" creating a more on the Bloomington campus. The total physics, and that’s true for themselves the realities of these that are hard to ignore. equal society, that number would be something like 2,500 countries, but also to hear and argue and I think being interested in women’s benefits everybody, Chinese students out of 43,000 total of every discipline. defend their perspectives to the citizens history and history in general, it’s maybe students. So although IU–Bloomington of these other countries. easy for me to step back and say, “Well, so women’s causes ranks in the top 20 nationally—in fact I think that there’s an enormous you know, it wasn’t that long ago, in the are everyone’s causes. number 19—in terms of the number of amount for them to learn in a place sweep of human developments, that in international students, the numbers, where English is not spoke as the main the United States and its precursors I don’t think, are in any way out of language, where the political system that we separated men and women. proportion to the total composition of Bloom is different, where they actually get to We separated them where they were the student body on campus. IU refused to join the ban on contact see a totally new system in place, and educated and we separated them when with Israeli universities. In fact, realize not everything is done like it’s they worshiped, and we asked women Bloom the Olamot Center here encourages done here, and from that, learn more to cover themselves—not to the same Laurie, can you speak a little bit about Bloom scholarly exchange with Israel. I just about what to value at home and what degree but very much for some of the your initiatives for girls and women? What’s the impact on the student body wondered what your thoughts were on maybe can be learned from the rest of same reasons, that is, cultural and as a whole? this subject. the world. religious norms. Women weren’t even Laurie legally people once they were married. Yes, I could go on all afternoon, so I’ll Michael Michael And that was all based on what was try to keep this brief. Women’s causes Bloom considered moral, and proper, and in and women’s philanthropy are very I’m a huge proponent, as I think the great I encourage scholarly exchange with A couple of years ago, you both accord with religious beliefs. distinct areas in my life and have been bulk of the university community is, in all countries of the world. Our faculty visited Saudi Arabia to establish We figured out how to evolve into a part of my life since I can remember, encouraging international students to live in a world where all research is a relationship with the leading modern society without those kinds of just because of how I grew up and come to Indiana University. It exposes international. There’s no such thing as university there. That country is in the things, but maintaining, for the most the time in which I grew up. I think our students to other perspectives on all American physics, or Saudi Arabian The McRobbies were married at Beck Chapel on news a lot these days, and not for good part, our loyalty to our traditions and generally what motivates me more kinds of issues, it opens up our ways of physics, or Chinese physics, there’s the IU campus on August 7, 2005. Courtesy photo reasons. What was that experience the things we care about. So will women than anything is that as we think about thinking in the university, and it builds just physics, and that’s true of every like, especially for you, Laurie? in Saudi Arabia. Some of them are more lowering barriers and creating a more an enthusiastic and loyal alumni base in discipline. The best minds of the world radical than others, but even the ones equal society, that benefits everybody, those countries. communicate instantly by the internet so women’s causes are everyone’s Laurie can attest as well, because and the best breakthroughs in the world Laurie who are a little more conservative are causes. I really do believe that and I feel we’ve been overseas many times, and are communicated and basic science Having good relations with Well, it was many experiences. I was saying, “We’re going to figure this out, like that is something I do to contribute we always meet with alumni wherever and scholarship are communicated universities ... is not the just going to say, when Michael was we’re going to get the right to drive, describing about how eye-opening it is we’re going to get the right to vote,” and to my community and to my society. we are. They are extraordinarily loyal instantly around the world. So, in order same thing as condoning " for students to go abroad, that I had a so forth. alums of Indiana University, and to fully participate in all this, one has to frankly you’d be hard pressed to find do all that one can to build bridges with what any particular similar kind of experience as an adult As Westerners, I think we need to Bloom people who are more pro-America our colleagues internationally, and government may or may going to Saudi Arabia, especially as better understand the perspectives I know you are trying to promote a woman. they’re coming from. They are very women’s accomplishments at IU. What and pro the American system of that means the universities in which not be doing anywhere higher education than the IU alumni they work. The experience is so different in loyal to their own culture, their own can you tell us about the projects you that we meet overseas. So, I think a The universities are not the same in the world. really profoundly fundamental ways, religion, their own history as a country. are working on? robust international student base is an as the governments of those countries.

140 Bloom | August/September 2019 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | August/September 2019 | Bloom 141 professorship in global strategic studies important, and also architecture is an the different areas of it. That covers so Laurie in the Hamilton Lugar School, and one area of personal interest for both of us. much of what we have tried to achieve Yes, absolutely. I love history and we in modern architecture in our new J. on this campus, and in Indianapolis, have the bicentennial going on, it’s like Irwin Miller Architecture Program in and I suppose on the regional campuses I’m in heaven here! I’m very involved in the Eskenazi School. Michael as well. Add the arts to that. a project called Bridging the Visibility And both of us have IT backgrounds; And I think what’s important is Gap, which is about bringing [to light] that is both a professional and personal the role that we play in the state, but the stories and names and images of interest of ours. We’re both very focused Laurie which continues to grow in terms of women and minorities in IU’s history on international engagement, obviously Right. our national influences. The Hamilton who have been unsung or under-sung Michael in his role as president, but Lugar School is having that impact. for all kinds of reasons. I would like to for both of us—Michael coming from The O’Neill School of Public and think that this would have happened a different country [Australia], and I Michael Environmental Affairs has had that anyway, but it would have been a having grown up in Ann Arbor. My world Also, I think the history and the impact. The Kelley School, through lot harder to concentrate resources was full of people from other countries. heritage of the institution—preserving some of its more prominent alums and without the bicentennial. Going back The best man at my parents' wedding that, investing in it, understanding it others, has had that impact, as have long enough, women were not in the was from Hyderabad, India, and I grew better. And heritage means the physical many of our other schools. The McRobbies, with IU Distinguished Professor Elinor Ostrom in Stockholm, Sweden, the professoriate to anywhere near the evening she was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for Economic Sciences. Courtesy photo up with Indians and Koreans in my heritage as well as the history. It’s what degree they are now. They were not classes at school. I have always wanted makes an institution distinctive. I think in administration, and they weren’t Optometry. She discovered a genetic to travel and couldn’t wait to get on a there are so many areas in which we as Bloom even the majority of the student body There will be a statue marker for color blindness, known as plane to Europe. I was barely out of high a university have tried to invest—in part You both seem to be everywhere, doing until the late 1980s. And that’s in my the Schmidt Sign. But there’s not even a school when I went for the first time. leading up to the bicentennial—that of Elinor Ostrom on so many things. How often do you get lifetime—I was in college in the 1970s. photograph in the School of Optometry. So international engagement is very honor, and renew our heritage and all to spend a day or an evening together, We’re doing a lot to uncover " campus soon. The only photograph we have of her and when you do, what do you do? information about the women came out of the Smithsonian’s database themselves through archival research. of women scientists. She was apparently There are some wonderful interns soon—Michael announced this just a an extremely skilled and beloved teacher, Michael who have put a lot of work in this, few weeks ago. and a clear example of somebody who Well, we—yes, we do work a lot. We try which leaves us with the challenge of But then there are others. For should be known more widely. and do some exercise. prioritizing—we could almost close example, a woman named Ingeborg our eyes and pull a name out, but not Schmidt, who was a German immigrant, quite that. We do some analysis to try post-World War II, in the School of Bloom to figure out who we’re going to look at You’ve both been here quite a while now. Bloom next. We ask ourselves: Is this someone What things do you care most about at Yes, in a previous Bloom interview, you in whose name we should be fundraising IU and in the Bloomington community? talked about lifting weights. for a scholarship or professorship? Or What things do you cherish? is there another form of recognition we Michael can look at? Laurie Yes, the gym is where I’m going straight I think maybe one way to answer after this interview. But, we’re perfectly this is just to look at where we have happy staying at home and having a bit Bloom chosen to put our own personal of time decompressing. We love movies How many people do you think you philanthropy when it comes to the and so we’ll watch movies and just have discovered through the research? university. We have endowed three kind of relax in our nice home. We’ll go professorships as part of the IU out to concerts and what have you, but Laurie Bicentennial Campaign: one in the most of the time, when we’re out, it’s in We have a database of over 2,000 School of Informatics, Computing, and our professional capacities, our official names. Some of them, I should say, are Engineering—specifically in computer capacities, as it were. So, we don’t get probably known to some people and a engineering—and that’s a position for much time to do those kinds of things few are known to virtually everyone, which we have indicated a preference by ourselves. A living room photo from a June/July 2011 Bloom story on the McRobbies' home. Photo by Steve Raymer like Elinor Ostrom. And there will be Ingeborg Schmidt. Photo courtesy of Smithsonian for a woman because the gender gap is a statue of Elinor Ostrom on campus Institution Archives so significant there. We’ve endowed a

142 Bloom | August/September 2019 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | August/September 2019 | Bloom 143 who took their ideas and developed a massive success and it helped that we Bloom them in all kinds of different ways. I hired a director of the cinema of genius, Well, do you know the phrase, was a huge admirer of David Baker, who Jon Vickers. He just is in a class of his “Bloomington famous”? That’s the two was one of the great, great personalities own. The quality of the programs that he of you, when you go out. People want to of this campus, and was a good friend. puts together every semester, the sheer talk to you. Laurie, what do you like to As for movies, I have a complete diversity of them, the adventurousness do when the two of you are at home? weakness for continental movies. Or, of them, the kinds of people he is able to foreign movies, I guess I should say. attract here through his extraordinary Laurie And many of them from the period contacts is, I think, world class. I mean, I like to cook, so I’ll whip something of my youth. I don’t think there’s any truly world class. up. It’s a bit hard to go out and have a connection between the fact that so And it’s added a whole new cultural quiet dinner because we know so many many of these movies were made when I dimension to Bloomington that didn’t people. So I do try to make sure that we was a student or soon after, and the fact exist before, too, and so I’m particularly can just go home, stay home, eat dinner, that I like them so much. I just think pleased about how well that’s worked out. and just hang out. Absolutely, it’s that happened to be a great period of exactly as Michael said. We’ve put movies. [laughs] And so, anything by any a lot into making our house a kind of the great Italian directors, Antonioni Bloom of sanctuary. or Visconti or Bertolucci. And Japanese Speaking of film, Laurie, you movies, especially of course Kurosawa. mentioned recently you’ve developed Michael I haven’t seen all of Eisenstein’s a friendship with actress Glenn Close. movies, and I’ve been trying to work How did that come about? A retreat. through what I haven’t seen. A selection of Eisenstein movies is going to be Laurie the President’s Choice program [at Laurie Well, it came about through a faculty A retreat! Yes, exactly! IU Cinema] in the fall, I believe. Jon Vickers has got that scheduled. member here, a distinguished sociologist, Bernice Pescosolido, whose area of research is mental illness stigma. Glenn herself is very focused Bloom A 2018 family holiday photo: (front row, l-r) Laurie Burns McRobbie holding grandson John Gray, and Michael A. McRobbie. (center row, l-r) Josephine McRobbie and husband, Joe President McRobbie, I understand Bloom on this as an area of her philanthropy O’Connell; Charlie Gray and wife, Jess Meves; and Ryan Howard and wife, Carol Gray. (back row, l-r) Lucien McRobbie, Margaret Gray, and Arabella McRobbie. Courtesy photo you’re a fan of jazz and movies. Who I was going to ask you about the IU and her interest is based on family are your favorite jazz artists, and what Cinema. That began during your experience. She started a national are some of your favorite films? presidency. How do you think it’s nonprofit, and when she did that, I separately, she was trying to figure out Through that whole process, I have worked out? think it may be eight or nine years old, what to do with her costume collection. had multiple occasions to talk with Laurie she wanted a research advisory council So about a year later, I got a call from Glenn, to invite her to come back. The Well, we would credit them, I think, more Michael and she found Bernice and cold called Glenn, and she said, "I’m looking to give Women’s Philanthropy Leadership than anything. They just bonded almost Oh, I’m a fan of most music that’s Michael her. “Hello, this is Glenn Close.” my costume collection to an institution Council here awarded her with our immediately. In fact, really, our two good music. In jazz I can’t get past It was in my inauguration speech in Bernice had the relationship with her because it’s sitting in a warehouse in highest honor two years ago. Anyway, oldest—Michael’s oldest daughter and the greats, which are Miles Davis October 2007 that I committed us to through the organization that Glenn had Bedford Hills, New York.” she continues to be a friend. I just saw my oldest daughter, we both have girl- and John Coltrane. There are many doing that. But if you go back to my one started called Bring Change 2 Mind, and She really wanted it to be used for her in New York in April. boy-girl—they connected immediately. other fine jazz musicians but those and only State of the Campus speech Bernice invited her to come to campus, pedagogical purposes, and her alma I think they kind of set a tone for two I think set such a high bar and as provost, it’s actually in that speech and I offered to host a dinner for her. mater, William and Mary, apparently the others to an extent. And then the have histories of such extraordinary as well. In fact, I’d started trying to And it was one of those great evenings. doesn’t have the capacity to take care of Bloom three youngest, two of Michael’s and get something like that going when I one of mine, lived at home together in creativity that it’s hard to say that they Glenn turned out to be this wonderful, it. And so one thing led to another and I want to ask you a little about your was VP for research and, for various high school, and maybe because they’re can ever be surpassed. And the music warm, easy-to-talk-to person who we now have all 850 pieces. And it will family. How did you manage to blend reasons, I could only really start in all different, it just worked. They also is ageless. I mean, you can just listen to connects very, very well to people and grow as she generates new costumes. your children into one family? it constantly, and so much of modern earnest when I was provost, and then things she cares about. And she kind We already have the wardrobe from The bonded, I think, around the shared jazz is derivative from their works in obviously got it done as president. of fell in love with IU, so she continued Wife. We may be getting her couture experience of having lost a parent. And, the late 50s and early to mid-60s, too. I could not be more pleased with to be involved with Bernice’s work. gown that she wore to the Oscars. And Michael they got that this was important to the I’m interested in and admire the people how that’s worked out. I think it’s been And, kind of in parallel, completely the pieces will keep coming. It was completely painless. two of us.

144 Bloom | August/September 2019 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | August/September 2019 | Bloom 145 We tried to create new family 140,000 people [counting all employees, traditions and all that, but it was harder faculty, students] it’s not to be unexpected, Michael Michael Bloom with three of the kids either in college or though. So that’s one thing. 2009… began with Sometimes legacies can change Oh, there are many able people Laurie, are you thinking any further already out, so it’s not like they were all I think when there are hate crimes us being present, markedly compared to the standards within the university, I think, who than the bicentennial, or is that taking living in the same house. But they made on campus, or at least hate incidents, of the future, but hopefully to have will go on to do great things—who up all of your time as well? it work and, yes, we were very fortunate they are pretty unpleasant and I deeply " representing the made the university better—as simple have already done great things in because it could have been much harder resent the impact that those acts of university, for the as that. To have improved it and to have their careers—but this is obviously a Laurie taken advantage of opportunities to matter for the future. I do think that than it was. stupidity and intolerance have on the Yes, a little bit. I think it’s in some inauguration of our make it better. with respect to the leadership of any harmony of campus life. ways hard to imagine a different life, first African American institution there’s times to go inside and which is, of course, what it means. But Michael there’s times to go outside. president in Washington, even though what we’re doing now is We’re well aware of horror stories I think when I was appointed, the Bloom demanding, I’m guessing we’ll still want of people who blend families. Our D.C., and ended Having been hired from within IU board of trustees determined the time Bloom to be working at something. I’m sure no individual biological kids will yourself, have you thought about who was right to go inside. I think you really And the best moments? with going to Stockholm matter what happens that we’ll be doing still squabble among themselves at IU might be the right person to have to determine this based on where to watch Lin Ostrom that. I’m starting to do some teaching, occasionally, but I don’t think we succeed you? you are, where you want to go, and what I’m hoping to be able to continue doing have had a single significant incident Michael get her Nobel Prize. kind of person do you think will take that, and some writing. And, of course, between my kids and Laurie’s kids. On the positive side of things, I think you there. It was a heck of a year! traveling, although that isn’t something graduations are fantastic. This year we we’re waiting until retirement to do. awarded 21,500 degrees. Bloom Bloom President McRobbie, looking back on And finally, when do you plan to retire Bloom your 12 years as president, what have and what are your post-IU plans? because you know that’s just added to Do you think you’ll stay in Bloomington? been your best and worst moments? Bloom the capabilities of the institution and the That’s across all campuses. Do you impact it will have, whether it’s research Michael attend all of the commencement or education, in the future. It’s public knowledge—my present Laurie ceremonies? contract goes for another two years at For a while, yes. Hate crimes on campus Laurie this stage. But frankly, I’m completely … are pretty unpleasant Michael focused on the bicentennial at the Michael And I would just add, when I think moment. I mean, both the year itself and I deeply resent I go to nearly all of them, yes. They are These are decisions that we just don’t " about this, the first thing that came to and the vast amount of activity that fantastic events. Especially because know because we don’t know what we’ll mind was the calendar year of 2009, the director and others have planned the impact that those a decent percentage of the students be doing yet. The bicentennial is our which began with us being present, for the bicentennial. And on the acts of stupidity and graduating are first-generation total focus at the moment. representing the university, for the bicentennial [fundraising] campaign. students, and so the sheer joy of their intolerance have on the inauguration of our first African We’re actually having a very successful families is wonderful. American president in Washington, D.C., campaign—we’ve already made our goal harmony of campus life. Another is when our faculty win Bloom and ended with going to Stockholm to of $3 billion thanks to the generosity major awards. I always love that. I Thank you for being so gracious and watch Lin Ostrom get her Nobel Prize. It of hundreds of thousands of generous normally try and call them myself, for giving us so much time. was a heck of a year! Those experiences donors, but we want to do much, much * personally, to congratulate them. And are just incomparable. And I would just more. We want to achieve the largest Michael obviously, the high point was Lin’s add that the international trips we’ve possible figure we can. And at the end I think one of the most difficult things [Ostrom] Nobel Prize. And when people taken have been absolute high points, of that, this time next year, I’ll just that I have to do—and you can’t plan for become elected to any of the academies, pretty much across the board. assess where we are and probably make this—is when a student passes away just and there’s only at most, two or three some decisions and announcements before he or she is to get their degree. And of those a year. Or distinguished then about what comes next. so we normally hold a private ceremony professors, when they get appointed. So in which I will confer the degree that’s always good. Bloom posthumously to their parents, friends, And groundbreakings—in particular, While we know legacies are and relatives. That is always, always dedications of new or renovated determined by others down the road, President Michael A. and Laurie Burns McRobbie. extremely difficult. In a community of buildings are wonderful occasions, too, what legacy do you hope to leave IU?

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