IU Kelley School opens $14M career center for students, recruiters

Indiana University has opened a career center on its Bloomington campus to serve Kelley School of Business students and the hundreds of recruiters from the business world who visit the school each year to interview them.

The $14 million, 30,000-square-foot center, named after and funded in part by a gift to the university from California businessman and IU grad Conrad Prebys, will replace the college’s career services operation in the basement of one of its nearby buildings. The new center was dedicated Friday.

The Conrad Prebys Career Services Center includes about 70 interview rooms and is expected to serve more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Kelley School Dean Idalene Kesner said the previous facility was “very old,” not ADA-compliant, and had “other problems” that weren’t conducive to business.

“When recruiters came, they couldn’t get cell service,” Kesner said. “There was problem after problem. It was a miracle [the program] was so highly ranked. We now have a facility equal to the quality of programs."

Kesner also said the former basement space was “inadequate in size to accommodate our needs.

According to IU, more than 300 companies recruit undergraduate students and more than 175 companies recruit graduate students at Kelley each year. There has been a 26 percent increase in recruiting for the business school since 2005.

Prebys committed to building the career center as part of a $20 million gift he committed to IU and the Kelley School in 2015. Other initiatives included student scholarships, an endowment to attract and retain “top scholars,” and an amphitheater.

Prebys died in July 2016 after a battle with cancer.

“His remarkable gift to IU and the Kelley School of Business, which made possible this splendid new center that bears his name, is testament to his strong belief in the value of a quality business education that gives students the skills they need to succeed and instills in them the values and principles that will guide them in their careers and in their lives,” IU President Michael McRobbie said in a written statement.

The center was 43 percent paid for by Prebys’ gift; and IU said remaining funding came from other donors and businesses.