School of Journalism receives 1st $1M gift for public affair studies

Reporter and public relations professional Frank Arganbright, an IU alumnus, has given the IU School of Journalism a $1 million gift from his estate to go toward student scholarships, the largest gift the school has received since its foundation.

Arganbright graduated from IU in 1949, said Beth Moellers, director of communications at the School of Journalism.

“Even though he didn’t live in Bloomington after he graduated, he still felt strongly about what the school was doing and wanted to fund current students,” she said.

Arganbright passed away in his hometown of Lafayette in 2008 at the age of 88. His gift counts as part of the “Matching the Promise” fundraising campaign for the IU Bloomington campus.

The first 10 Arganbright Scholarships were awarded last spring, each valued at $1,000, to support students’ education. However, subsequent scholarships will go toward public affairs studies, Moellers said.

“He gave us some latitude in saying this can support public affairs, such as travel reporting projects,” she said. “He was also really passionate about travel — he’d been to 19 foreign countries.”

The school is grateful for the trust Arganbright placed in it by extending the gift to improve the quality of journalism for public affairs for the future, Moellers said.

“Mr. Arganbright’s gift allows us to think about the best ways in the future to encourage more reporting of public affairs and the creative ways that students might do that in the future,” Hamm said in a press release. “He might have imagined a world when he left here in 1949 of typewriters and hot type. He knew at the end of his life that’s not the future of these students, so he gave a gift based on the content rather than the tools ... I think that’s wise, because the methods might change in the future.”

— Bailey Loosemore