$10 million athletics gift given to IU

IU athletics has received the single-largest gift in school history -- but it won't be enough to solve the department's recent budget woes.\nThe Glaubinger Foundation, on behalf of Larry and Lucienne Glaubinger, has committed $10 million to the IU Athletic Scholarship Endowment for non-revenue yielding sports -- all programs except football and men's basketball.\nThe scholarship funding will allow IU athletics, which already ranks in the top-20 nationally, to move further up in the rankings, possibly propelling all programs to a championship level.\n"As a coach, in order to have championship-caliber teams, you have to have championship-caliber athletes," said former IU coach Jerry Yeagley, who led IU's soccer program to six national titles. "This gift will help ensure that all sports will be able to recruit championship-caliber athletes. \n"This will help to secure the school's future."\nYeagley said he thinks he can speak on behalf of all IU coaches when he says that the endowment is an enormous indication of a positive future for the University, which has had to reach into a now-depleted reserve fund to cover scholarships. Scholarships will account for a projected $7.75 million of the budget in 2005-06, with costs expecting to increase in the future.\nIU already has the Big Ten's largest athletics endowment, currently valued at $32 million. The gift will increase IU's endowment to $42 million, and the University, under IU's "Matching the Promise" campaign, will give $500,000 to match the interest earned by the gift, as it does with all endowment donations to serve as an incentive.\n"My reaction was one of great pride," said IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan. "I'm certainly very proud -- it's a great leadership gift."\nStarting with the upcoming academic year and continuing yearly, a group of student-athletes in non-revenue sports will be designated as Glaubinger Scholar-Athletes.\n"It will immediately produce $500,000 next year (for scholarships)," said Scott Dolson, associate athletic director for development and director of the Varsity Club, the University's fund-raising arm. "It will eventually build up to $1 million."\nThe original $10 million will act as a principle and will never be spent. It will earn a minimum of $500,000 in interest each year and will forever benefit student-athletes.\nThe gift will have a slight effect on the athletics department's recent debt. It won't directly affect cash funds because it is for scholarships, but it will earn interest over time.\n"It's revenue, so it will have a positive effect on our cash flow," Greenspan said. "It's just $10 million into the endowment."\nThe family has long supported IU with generous donations to the Kelley School of Business, IU Art Museum, Wells Scholars Program and many other additional areas.\n"They really did this for the student-athletes," Dolson said. "They're just really passionate about IU."\nLarry Glaubinger graduated with distinction in 1949 and is currently the president of Lawrence Economics Consulting. He serves on the IU Foundation Board of Directors, the Varsity Club National Board of Directors and the Dean's Advisory Council of the Kelley School of Business.\nLucienne Glaubinger is a member of the Colloquium for Women of IU and the Board of Advisors of the IU Art Museum, where she created the Lucienne Glaubinger Curatorship.\nThe Glaubingers declined to comment further on the \nendowment.\n"We've had a lot of people working on this," Dolson said. "This has been really just a neat project"