Ceremony inaugurates IU’s School of Global and International Studies

Ceremony inaugurating IU’s School of
Global and International Studies

Indiana University celebrated the groundbreaking and inauguration of its new School of Global and International Studies Monday with the vice president of the United States, a sitting U.S. senator and U.S. representative and two of the most respected congressional international affairs experts of their era.

U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., served as keynote speaker, while former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., looked on. Lugar served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations during his six Senate terms. Hamilton served as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Intelligence Committee during his 17 terms. Both have been named professors of practice in the new IU school.

Vice President Joe Biden appeared at the IU Auditorium event through a video presentation, apologized for not being able to appear in person, and paid tribute to his former congressional colleagues and their foreign relations expertise. “Had we heeded more of their counsel, we’d be better off today,” he said.

Biden praised IU and the vision of IU President Michael A. McRobbie in creating the new school. “It’s an important mission that you are starting today, and it’s important because international studies is becoming more and more consequential every single day,” the vice president said. “As you all know, right now we live in a fundamentally different world than we did even 20 years ago. Today there are stateless actors wielding incredible power, even with very few resources.

“Technology is transforming security and international relations,” the Democrat continued. “And new challenges emerge every single day, from the Middle East to Africa, from South America to Asia. Schools like the one you’re inaugurating today are going to be needed in order for us to be able to keep up.”

Coats spoke briefly about McRobbie’s political and strategic acumen in getting the new school launched.

“This remarkable initiative — to establish the School of Global and International Studies — has been an astounding achievement. To create an idea and a program, and then to navigate the maze of academic politics and bureaucracy in little more than a year, is a miracle of good planning and interpersonal skill,” he said.

Coats used the “interconnectedness” of the world as a recurring theme and cited numerous examples of how recent economic and societal events throughout the world rippled across the planet. He spoke of shared interests, shared threats and shared values as reasons why IU’s new school will occupy an important niche in scholarship, diplomacy and preparing students for a rapidly changing world. The Republican senator also emphasized the unique role the United States plays in promoting democratic values as what he termed the world’s single superpower, and invoked the words of American Revolution hero Thomas Paine: “The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind.”

McRobbie outlined the components of the new school, which will pull together the expertise of more than 350 core and affiliated faculty from across the university, more than top-ranked international studies schools Georgetown and Columbia combined. Those numbers include faculty and staff from IU’s 11 federally funded Title XI area study centers — the most in the country. And they include professors and instructors who make IU the nation’s broadest school for foreign language instruction, with more than 70 languages taught.

Monday’s event was attended by five university trustees and U.S. Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., and also included remarks from IU Executive Vice President and Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel and Larry Singell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences that will be the academic home of the new school.

Dignitaries used shovels to turn over dirt in a coffin-sized box on stage to symbolically complete the groundbreaking ceremony.

The new, $53 million Global and International Studies Building will be a four-story, 165,000-square-foot structure between the Wells Library and Radio and Television Building south of 10th Street. It will have the most up-to-date video-conferencing equipment and other technological tools to facilitate its international reach.

Bids for construction of the building foundation will be opened Tuesday, said Tom Morrison, vice president for capital projects and facilities. Construction likely will begin within two weeks, he said.