Purdue's Brian Lamb School to benefit from gift valued at $3 million

March 7, 2013  


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's Brian Lamb School of Communication has received a $2 million gift from an anonymous donor that will be used for faculty, students and school programs.

Portions of the gift will be matched with university funds, raising its value to $3 million.

"This donation will benefit every aspect of the Lamb School - its faculty, its students and its programs," said Purdue President Mitch Daniels. "And the donor has chosen two options that will allow Purdue to add funding, increasing the value of an already-substantial gift."

The Brian Lamb School of Communication was established in 2011, named for the founder of C-SPAN

"We knew from the beginning that securing funding to support the Lamb School's strategic vision would be key to its success," said Irwin Weiser, Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "This gift generously supports that goal."

The gift is divided into three parts:

* $750,000 to create the C-SPAN Chair for a clinical professor with a specialization in political communication, social communication, media and networks, emerging technologies, or civic communication/engagement. This money will be matched by an equal amount though Purdue's Faculty Excellence Challenge Match, designed to endow new professorships.

* $250,000 to create the Lamb Scholars, providing undergraduate scholarships for Indiana students. This money will be matched by an equal amount through the Indiana Challenge Match, designed to help Purdue offer financial aid to Indiana students.

* $1 million in unrestricted funds to be used by the Lamb School in pursuit of its strategic objectives. A focus will be on engagement opportunities and co-curricular experiences, such as those currently offered by Project Impact as well as projects that promote the use of the C-SPAN Archives in research and teaching. Project Impact is an experiential learning initiative in which students produce forums with historians, government officials, journalists, media executives and successful practitioners in their fields of interest.

"We in the Lamb School are excited about the initiatives this gift will help bring about," said Steven Wilson, interim head of the school. "We're gratified to have such a strong show of external support for our work and mission."

Brian Lamb earned his bachelor's degree in speech from Purdue in 1963 and received an honorary doctorate in 1986. He founded C-SPAN - Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network - in 1977, and the network's initial telecasts of the U.S. House of Representatives began in 1979. Today there are three C-SPAN networks offering around-the-clock coverage of the political process.

In 1987 Lamb designated Purdue as the home of the C-SPAN Archives, which records, indexes and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational and research uses. The archives, operated and funded by C-SPAN, are located in the Purdue Research Park.

Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu

Sources: Mitch Daniels, president@purdue.edu

Irwin Weiser, 765-494-3661, iweiser@purdue.edu

Steven Wilson, 765-494-0094, wilson25@purdue.edu

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