McRobbies to donate $1 million for two IU professorships

Indiana University President Michael McRobbie and his wife will give $1 million to the school to endow professorships in computer engineering and global strategic studies on the Bloomington campus.

The gifts—the latest in a string of annual donations the couple has made—reflect the McRobbie’s own career and personal interests.

The president is a computer scientist who came to IU in 1997 as the university’s first vice president for information technology. He became president in 2007. McRobbie, a native of Australia, also commissioned the creation of IU’s first international strategic plan, which has led to the university’s engagement with more than 30 countries around the world.

Laurie Burns McRobbie was a technologist in higher education for more than 25 years, working at the University of Michigan and with Internet2, a technology consortium for research and education in the United States and internationally.

The couple announced the gift at a Sept. 26 launch event for the public phase of IU’s $2.5 billion fundraising campaign.

The McRobbies have made gifts to IU since 1997 and are members of IU Foundation’s Presidents Circle, which recognizes the university’s most generous donors. McRobbie’s current salary is $578,000.

The university did not immediately release a total dollar amount for all the McRobbies gifts. But in the past, their contributions have established and contributed to several endowed scholarships, fellowships and awards in a number of programs including history and medieval studies, mathematics, the Jacobs School of Music and pediatrics in the IU School of Medicine.

They have also supported the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the School of Informatics and Computing, radio and television, the IU Art Museum, Lilly Library, Herron School of Art, IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Athletics, IU Libraries, IU Cinema and the IU Student Foundation.