In recognition of his gift, the law school building will be renamed Baier Hall, and the law library will be renamed the Jerome Hall Law Library in honor of a longtime law school professor who Baier referred to as his personal hero.
The gift, which will be distributed annually throughout a period of years, will be used to enhance the law school’s facilities, including its longterm renovation and expansion. It’s part of IU President Michael McRobbie’s ?bicentennial plan.
This gift is considered an energizer for the bicentennial project, Baier said.
Additionally, this is a mark for the refurbishment of the law school. Although Baier deems himself a lawyer, he is also in the building business, so he feels a connection to this project.
Followed by the philosophy, a sense of place instills a sense of purpose, and Baier said he believes that if you decree a sense of place, you are adding a sense of purpose.
“If you give students junky facilities and not a good space to think and study, they will not do well,” Baier said.
Baier said he hopes his contribution to the school will continue to inspire people toward public service. He referred to Hall as a great example of a humanitarian who carried public service on his shoulders proudly. Baier said he wants to continue to underwrite this action.
“Becoming an attorney places a burden on a student to become a public servant,” Baier said. “When you take the oath and pass the bar, you add to public service.”
Looking back at his time at IU, Baier said the law school is where he was taught how to think. People are not trained in undergraduate studies to think logically and express complex issues and boil them down to concise words, Baier said.
The money will directly be accumulated into funds for the infrastructure and expansion of the law school building.
Considered an international humanitarian, Baier is one of 14 original founders of the Wild Sheep Foundation, which for 40 years has funded more than $2.4 million annually to reestablish the habitat of the four species of wild sheep in North America.
His exploratory work led to similar programs in Russia and Mongolia.
Since 1975, Baier has been active in the Boone and Crockett Club, America’s oldest wildlife conservation organization founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887.
This gift falls into his humanitarian work by allowing him to utilize his legal training with both legislation and regulation, using an interdisciplinary approach on life.
“My heroes in the law have always been multidisciplinary activists,” Baier said.
One thing Baier said he hopes to contribute to IU in the future is a place for law students to lounge and congregate within the school.
He said he feels the current lounge is not comfortable in relation to areas for undergraduates such as the Indiana Memorial Union.
“Students have to collect and talk and debate,” Baier said. “To argue cases back and forth is part ?of education.”
