Walk through the doors of the O’Neill School and you’ll feel it. There’s an energy here that you won’t find anywhere else. A certainty that what we’re doing has the power to create change. We’re committed to working together to make a better world.
Leading the way to a better world
What is the O’Neill School?
The O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs is a nationally ranked academic institution located on the campus of Indiana University and home to one of the nation’s top Master of Public Affairs programs.
We bring together management skills, science, policy analysis, and the humanities. We focus on governing, managing, and leading. We prepare students to address the complex issues that face society today—issues one field of study alone can't solve.
And the world has noticed. We’ve been recognized many times over for our unique programs and outstanding faculty.
O’Neill creates leaders for every sector of the economy
Our programs run the gamut from public policy to environmental management and from healthcare administration to arts administration.
Our graduates thrive in governmental agencies, private corporations, and nonprofit organizations—and often move seamlessly among all three.
Learn more about how O'Neill can help you lead for the greater good
A Legacy of leadership
Description of the video:
00:00
[inspirational music]
00:01
[Chuck Bonser] Yeah, we were all pretty young. I mean, I was still in my 30s.
00:04
[Carlyn Johnson] Everybody thought that
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there really was a need for something like this.
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[Bill McGregor} We had a chance to create something new and it actually worked.
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[Frank Vilardo] What was unique and challenging was the fact that we could get involved in anything
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and that was also the exciting part.
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[Bonser] In our first year when we opened our doors, which was in the fall in 1972,
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I think we had 20 graduate students and
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maybe about the same number of undergraduates in that first year. They were real pioneers taking a real risk on on this new program, but, um ...
00:33
Yeah, I think people are pretty excited about it. Others saw us, some on campus looked at us with a jaundiced eye, the more traditionalists and...
00:39
But I think we proved ourselves, right?
00:42
[SPEA 40th Anniversary, 1972-2012]
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[Bonser] It was a very edgy time in American society.
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In universities all over the country there was a lot of unease and the students were upset because they thought that
01:02
they ought to be more relevant to the world and they're hearing too much theory and not enough
01:07
problem solving and a
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lot of it had to do with the war. As I said, in Vietnam, there were people upset about that stuff ...
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The Bloomington Faculty Council, around the mid-1960s, appointed a committee and the committee recommended that they develop a school of public affairs.
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Administration at IU,
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who also learned to make some changes, and wanted to bring in direct, hands-on
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work with government and problem solving, as opposed to political theory-- they thought we ought to be
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working on governmental problems. [drums]
01:39
So this, we're talking 1971 now, John Ryan
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who was now president (of IU), and he decided we wanted to move on this and so he approached me in the summer ...
01:48
And I was associate dean of the business school in those days. He invited me over to his house for a drink
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after work.
01:55
So I went by. So they kind of laid this on me, and said, you know, would you be willing to leave the business
01:59
school and
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come into my office and work to help do the plan for the school (of public and environmental affairs) and and then,
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if all goes well, you might be able to run it.
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Yeah, so that's kind of how the thing began.
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I thought we needed a professional school for the public sector and the
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more I got into the field the more I was convinced that's what we needed and that really
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affected the model that we we developed.
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IU bought the Poplars about that time. You know the Poplars? Big, red building on the corner of
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Seventh Street and Dunn?
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[McGregor]HI can't imagine starting life in the Poplars and that you would be tucked away in this hotel for a number of years
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trying to become a--
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eventually--a famous public affair school.
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[Vilardo] It was challenging.
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The library was half of the boiler room
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separated by a cardboard wall
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which didn't make fire safety officials very happy!
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[Bonser] The way that was set up it had
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two rooms and then they shared a bath, so everybody in SPEA had their own private bathroom, you know ...
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We were close to Nick's and we were close to good places to walk to for lunch, so we had a great time.
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Moving into this building in 1982. It was really special. Because we had worked 10 years
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to get to that point and we built a program from nothing to a really flourishing, growing, lively nterprise.
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[Vilardo] That gave us our identity, it gave us the space that allows to do everything. Our advances in environmental science
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really took off because now we had layoffs space and students. I think that that really put us on the map.
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[Bonser] We're fortunate enough to build a new building in Indianapolis as well.
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That was 1981 so before we moved into this one (in Bloomington). That was certainly key.
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You know it was more than a job. It was a cause.
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Because we were determined that we were going to have an effect
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on society. We're going to make a contribution to that and to improving the the
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common good.
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[Vilardo] I think SPEA has been blessed by having the right dean at the right time.
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I think in the early days having a Chuck Bonser there who had the entrepreneur spirit,
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who allowed you to do things ...
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try new things--whether they're going to work or not. So, that's what we did, and I think it was his
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his personality, his spirit, his leadership. They were what got us where we are today and
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he was just a perfect person for the perfect time.
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[Carlyn Johnson] You can trace it all back to Chuck Bonser. You know, he started it and ...
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has remained active in it He's got lots of new ideas ... still has new ideas. He's been ... wonderful.
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Not only was it a brand new school, but it was a system-wide school
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with programs on
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several different campuses.
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[John D. Graham] The key things that Chuck Bonser did that made a difference is
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he created the undergraduate program at the same time as the master's program and the Ph.D.
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There are many schools of public affairs around their country right now who are wishing
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that they had an undergraduate program or a Ph.D. program.
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So, Bonser certainly had the vision from the beginning.
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[McGregor] He stood for a kind of commitment to public service, and he and Nancy together were
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really all in this new venture and for 15 years
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they worked every day at making this a stronger place.
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After Chuck, we were very fortunate to have a
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succession of deans, each of whom made their contribution to the school.
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The net result, at 40 years and counting, is a school that really has no limit on what it could do.
05:57
[violins]
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[Graham] Our undergraduates are predominantly in the private sector our master students are probably 60 to 70 percent in the public sector,
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whether they be at the federal government, state and local government ...
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Young people today are change agents. They want to make the world a better place.
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[Carolyn Raider] We're ranked second in the nation (#1 as of 2016) and
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it's an amazing place because the professors are exceptional.
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Every student I've met here is very impassioned about what they do.
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Right now I'm actually working as an intern at the Office of Sustainability. One of the research aspects
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I'm involved with right now is trying to think of different
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behavior changes that we can bring to the campus at large and what different types of methods people can use to start reducing their energy consumption.
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SPEA actually is known for the tool set that students get when they leaves SPEA
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Primarily I want to make some sort of an impact, so I really would love to be working internationally in the field of energy.
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SPEA is an incredible place to be.
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We have the science side, we have the policy side, and it's very unique in this aspect and bringing those together
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we can really, as students and faculty, come together and bring about
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tremendous change.
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[Bonser] We have had a huge impact. We must have I
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think probably it's between 25 and 30,000 alumni at this school now (33,000 in 2017).
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Which is really quite astonishing if you figure where we began.
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[IU President Michael A. McRobbie] I think it's widely admired for the impact that it's had in that area in the state,
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it's widely admired nationally ... When I travel internationally
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I'm struck by how many people know about SPEA, know about its work, know about the quality of its work. All over the world... Our
08:00
late Nobel Prize winner Lin Ostrom
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had a
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significant role in SPEA as well because that intersection of those two areas
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was an area exactly where Lin did much of a path-breaking work as well. And, of course, it is one of the
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academic jewels in the University's crown being--as I think everybody knows-- the second most highly ranked school of its kind (2016: #1)
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anywhere in the nation.
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[Graham] SPEA is a
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passionate place where the values of making the world a better place are shared by everyone and of course that's its history
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and that's its future.
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[Bonser] I'm just thrilled at how well the school's doing, we're thriving.
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And yet, it's not always easy. It's never easy, as a matter of fact, and we've done a really good job.
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