Message from the Dean
Forging Tomorrow's Legacies Today
On September 22 we began the public phase of our $290 million fundraising
campaign to support the School's missions of research, education
and service. This ambitious campaign goal matches the lofty aspirations
we have as a School.
One component of our efforts is to address a crying need for better
scholarship support for our students. Today, the typical IU medical
student carries more than $90,000 of debt at graduation. This level
of indebtedness has a tremendous impact on both career choices and
personal lives. Scholarship support allows our students freer choice
in the aspect of medicine they wish to pursue. It also enables us
to recruit bright and promising scholars to medicine.
The dearth of scholarship support leads many of Indiana's best
students to train elsewhere, and these students usually do not return.
Further, it hampers us in attracting outstanding students from other
states. This is not to say that our students are not the highest
quality, but there is no question that every year we also lose top-notch
students who would enrich the School and the state.
To be competitive with the nation's top schools, we need to provide
more support. I actually have an ambitious goal: namely, to create
an endowment sufficient for our students to graduate debt-free.
At first blush, this may seem outlandish. But if you think about
the fact that we have 15,000 alumni and numerous other friends,
it is indeed attainable. Let's do it!
Last December, we announced a $105 million grant from the Lilly
Endowment that advances research, education and training in genomics.
We have already created a new training program in genomic technologies,
awarded scholarships to a group of outstanding MD/PhD students and
recruited new top scientists and teachers. More is still to come.
At both the Indianapolis and Bloomington campuses, research in
genomics, bioethics and other disciplines is hamstrung by lack of
space. To realize our vision, we are working very hard to identify
resources that will allow new research facilities to come on-line
during the next five years. Our success in attracting support for
these capital improvements goes beyond IU; it is critical to Indiana.
The Battelle Institute estimates our success could generate as much
as $565 million in new direct and indirect growth in the state.
Side by side with teaching and research, service to the community
is the third commitment of all medical schools. We will continue
to develop and provide better ways to deliver efficient medical
care, in particular to the underserved. These services are made
possible through grants, patient fees, government programs such
as Medicare and Medicaid, and volunteerism. While public funding
sources have diminished, our faculty and students continue to step
up to the plate to make certain that the highest quality of care
is available to all our patients. I am proud to say that this spirit
of responsibility and altruism extends beyond our immediate borders
through exchange programs in the developing world.
Our goal remains to join the top ten public medical schools. The
entry fee is considerable and well beyond the funding we receive
from the state and through student tuition. Currently, eighty percent
of the School's budget comes from income generated by faculty practices,
contracts and grants. Increased faculty prowess in attracting grants
and patients is critical to our success, as is our ability to create
new sources of support.
I urge each of you to think of ways to help us reach our goal.
As legacies of times past and present, you know the value of building
the legacies of tomorrow.
D. Craig Brater
Dean and Walter J. Daly Professor
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