IU getting $33M from Lilly Endowment for biz school

Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. is donating $33 million to help Indiana University renovate its Kelley School of Business building at Bloomington, IU announced Wednesday.

The gift is the largest received by the Kelley School in its 92-year history and one of the largest ever received by IU, the university said.

Combined with $27 million in other donations, IU has reached its goal of raising $60 million to renovate and expand the 46-year-old, 140,000-square-foot building.

IU President Michael A. McRobbie said in a prepared statement that he’s grateful for Lilly Endowment’s contribution.

“With this support, the Kelley School will continue as one of the world’s leaders in business education and help Indiana to develop and retain the best and brightest minds who will drive our state’s economy in the future,” he said.

The Kelley School routinely has to turn away students each year due to a lack of classroom space in the building, IU said.

Construction of the project's first phase is to begin in the spring. It will involve a 71,000-square-foot expansion of the school’s original building, which will complement the adjacent Godfrey Graduate and Executive Education Center, completed in 2002.

Once the first phase is finished, a renovation of the original building will begin and will add 20 classrooms.

Besides new classrooms, the renovation will add a behavioral lab for researchers, a business communications lab and a stock-trading room.

Both phases are expected to be completed within three years.

Indianapolis-based BSA LifeStructures is the project’s architect.

The Kelley School is one of the largest business schools in the nation and is rated among the best by various business publications. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked it sixth among public universities and 18th overall. U.S. News & World Report also ranked it sixth among public universities and 12th overall. It was named the Kelley School in 1997 in recognition of a $23 million gift from the late E.W. Kelley, who at the time was chairman of the board of The Steak n Shake Co.