One of IU’s biggest departments is receiving a new name, courtesy of a large sum of money from a IU alumnus.
The School of Public and Environmental Affairs, most commonly known as SPEA, was formerly changed to the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs on Monday. Students have quickly picked up on the name of O’Neill School for short. This specific name change has gone in effect for the IU Bloomington and IUPUI campuses.
This change honors Indiana University alumnus Paul H. O’Neill, who gifted the school with 30 million dollars. O’Neill hopes this gift will help continue the recent success of the SPEA program and will open new opportunities for the students, faculty, and deans of the program.
Current O’Neill School Dean, John Graham, says the gift will allow for multiple new services, such as scholarships, a leadership service, fellowship service, and a dean’s initiative fund.
“It’s a big time for SPEA because the gift that Mr. O’Neill has given is gonna allow us to do lots of things for our students and faculty that we’ve never had the resources to do before,” says Graham.
O’Neill graduated from Indiana University in 1966 with his master’s degree in Public Administration. After graduation, O’Neill went onto work in multiple private, public, and nonprofit jobs throughout his career. These include jobs at Alcoa, the U.S Office of Management and Budget, RAND Corp., and International Paper Co. O’Neill served as the Secretary of Treasury for the Bush administration from January 2001 to December 2002, working during through the tragedy and triumph of 9/11, one of his prouder moments working with the Bush administration.
“He’s very proud of working with the president to cut off the money supply to the terrorists.”, says Graham.
In addition to his accomplishments, O’Neill is also the founder of Value Capture and co-founder of the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative, a nonprofit to address regional health care problems.
The Board of Trustees approved the change from SPEA to the O’Neill School on December 7, 2018, but the change didn’t officially take place until Monday, March 4, 2019. According to an IU press release, a formal ceremony is being planned for later in the year.
