100 + Years of Excellence: The Kelley School of Business

The Kelley School of Business is one of the world’s premier business schools. Business education at Indiana University dates back over 180 years to the first Indiana University catalog, dated 1830-31, which included political economy in the curriculum. From this first course, the Department of Political Economy was developed during the remainder of the century, later referred to as the Department of Economics and Social Science. It was early courses in these areas that grew into what is now referred to as the “core program” of study in the Kelley School.

In 1902, the university catalog introduced and listed several business courses. These commerce courses constituted the last two years of a four-year course of study leading to a baccalaureate degree. The first two years were spent completing a pre-commerce requirement and included all the required courses of the liberal arts curriculum of that period. Over a century ago, the pattern of building a program of professional education for business upon a liberal arts base was established—a pattern maintained throughout the years and currently emphasized in the education of Kelley students.

 In 1904, the first business catalog, referred to as the Commercial Course Number, was published. In 1920, a separate School of Commerce and Finance was organized. The school became a member of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business in 1921 and in 1933 it was renamed the School of Business Administration and placed under the direct control of its own faculty. In 1938, the title of the school was shortened to the School of Business

The Junior Division (now the University Division) of the university was established for all first-year students in 1942. After that, enrollment in the School of Business did not include freshmen until 1995, when the Direct Freshman Admission Program began.

Graduate coursework in business administration, first authorized in 1936, expanded rapidly after World War II. Programs for the degrees of Master of Business Administration and Doctor of Business Administration were instituted in 1947. In 1961, the designation of the area of study formerly referred to as the Graduate Division of the School of Business was changed to the Graduate School of Business. With the reorganization of the university in November 1974, the School of Business began operating on two campuses—Bloomington and Indianapolis. 

Although business courses were offered as early as 1916 on the Indianapolis campus, a degree was not available there until the MBA program was launched in 1962. The bachelor’s degree in business became available at the Indianapolis campus following the 1969 merger of Indiana University with Purdue University in that city. Beginning in 1969, a divisional structure emerged in Indianapolis with an assistant chairperson at its head. In 1969-70, complete undergraduate degree programs were offered for four major areas in business, as were three two-year certificate programs.

In 1997, E. W. Kelley, who received his BS in 1939 from the Indiana University School of Business, donated $23 million to assist the school in its mission to provide the premier business program in the nation. To honor the generosity of his gift, the IU School of Business was renamed the Kelley School of Business.

The Godfrey Graduate and Executive Education Center, which houses the MBA, Kelley Direct, graduate accounting, and executive education programs, was completed in 2002. The $33 million facility was named in honor of William J. Godfrey, BS’64, MBA’68, an alumnus and successful businessman who bequeathed land valued at $25 million, the single largest gift from an individual to the Kelley School.

Alumnus James R. Hodge, BS’74, anonymously donated $15 million to the Kelley School in 2009. Later, Hodge came forward to encourage others to give to the School’s building campaign—a completely privately funded campaign that raised $60 million for the expansion and renovation of the undergraduate building which opened in 1966. To thank Hodge, the building was named the Hodge Hall Undergraduate Center on March 30, 2012. The upgraded facilities were completed in 2016.