Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

academics & research

Lugar, Hamilton join faculty

caLugar

Two longtime members of Congress are set to join the IU School of Global and International Studies faculty.

IU President Michael McRobbie confirmed Thursday that former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton will join the faculty of the School of Global and International Studies.

The announcements were made at the Lilly Library with Lugar and Hamilton in attendance. University Officials such as Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Larry Singell and Trustee Mary Ellen Bishop were also in attendance.

Lugar and Hamilton will join the School of Global and International Studies as distinguished scholars and professors of practice. They will also co-chair the new IU International Advisory Committee.  

According to a press release, Lugar and Hamilton will advise the University on broad issues concerning its international engagement strategies and the development of the School of Global and International Studies.

Hamilton said the school, which was approved by the Board of Trustees last fall, is a striking achievement for the leaders of IU.

“It places IU on the forefront of international education,” Hamilton said.

McRobbie said both Hamilton and Lugar will serve as major assets to the University.  

“I think it’s hard to see that any other school in the area would have on its faculty two better qualified people with more experience in the last 50 years of politics in this country, outside of certain cabinet members,” McRobbie said.

Lugar, who served six terms as an Indiana Senator — his last ending Jan. 3 — announced the donation of his senatorial papers to IU’s Modern Political Papers collection at the Herman B Wells Library. Hamilton, the current director of the Center on Congress at IU, former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, and Gov. Mike Pence are among politicians whose papers are housed in the collection.

McRobbie said IU made the case to Lugar that they already had one of the finest collections of modern political papers in the U.S.

“I think he felt that having his papers join the papers of those people, most of whom he knew or know and the resources we were able to bring to properly manage and curate his papers just made this the obvious place for him to go,” McRobbie said.

Lugar said there were many alternatives for the deposit of his archives.

“The archives professionals here at Indiana University are truly impressive,” he said. “They have a program which gave me assurance if we shifted over 1,000 boxes of all these archives, all sorts of trophies, metals, memorabilia and so forth.”

McRobbie said it’s a historic day for Lugar, who served on the senate for 36 years, to join the IU faculty and offer his papers.

“He served on some of the most important committees during that period,” McRobbie said. “The committees of the places that really do the work and develop the legislation has had such a profound impact on the nations and the world.”

In 1967, Lugar, then 35, was elected as the mayor of Indianapolis.  He ran for the Senate in 1974 and was defeated by incumbent Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind.

In 1976, he was elected senator after defeating the other incumbent, Vance Hartke, D-Ind.

During his time in the senate, Lugar was the chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and two-time chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee.  He developed a bipartisan reputation in the Senate, and riled conservatives when he voted for Obama’s Supreme Court appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kaganin 2009 and 2010, respectively. He was attacked by advertisements from challenger Richard Mourdock, former Indiana Treasurer, in the May 2012 primary campaign for this reputation.

Lugar was defeated May 8, 2012, in the primary by Mourdock, who then lost to Democratic candidate Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd District.

As of 2009, Lugar had a 98-percent attendance rate in the Senate. He is currently tied with three other senators for the position of 17th longest serving Senator in U.S. History.

McRobbie said Lugar’s papers are a complete record of his time in the senate.

“This is just a remarkable resource for scholars and researchers, for students interested in the political history of the state, for the United States, over the last almost half-century,” he said. “That will soon be available to the whole scholarly community of the University.”

Lugar said he would like to inspire a number of students to become leaders in security of the U.S.

“This is remarkable opportunity for students to engage in a large number of cultures and different languages to understand that threats to America are less likely to be invasions by troops,” he said.

Lugar also said people need to understand the geography of the world and its changing boundaries, especially the dynamics in Asia and the Middle East.

“These are things I hope that I can help pick up, through at least my own lectures or talks, but also responses with students,” Lugar said. “We’ve had great opportunities with all of the hundreds of interns who have been in our senate office who assured, day by day, my experiences, my challenges and I come out from that with a very different view of public service and the world.”

McRobbie said both Hamilton and Lugar played pivotal roles in the development of foreign policy in the U.S.

“We have people ... in the deepest resources of the engine room of foreign policy development in the United States now on our faculty, now in a position where they can be put forth to the students, work with the students, work with faculty and so on for the foreseeable future,” McRobbie said.

Lugar said he has been attempting to set up a new office in Washington D.C. since he left the Senate Jan. 3.

“We’re going to have in that office a sort of many think tanks which we are going to be talking about how do we continue to control weapons of mass destruction, and how do we feel feed the world, how do we bring about productive agriculture in countries all over the world, how do we deal with energy efficiencies and problems with that sort,” Lugar said.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe