Global engagement is at the core of an Indiana Univeristy education, and President Michael A. McRobbie said the Stephen L. and Connie J. Ferguson International Center will help foster international understanding for students at home and abroad.

The university celebrated the groundbreaking of the new center, named in recognition of the Fergusons' generous $5 million gift, during a ceremony March 4. The center will serve as a place for students who study abroad and international students studying at IU to come together and learn from each other. It will also provide space for internationally-focused student organizations on campus. 

"America’s great public universities, like Indiana University, play a major role in helping to foster a spirit of international trust and respect," McRobbie said. "The Ferguson International Center will be at the forefront of Indiana University’s effort to expand and strengthen this spirit in the university’s third century."

The center will be located at the corner of Jordan Avenue and Seventh Street, near IU's Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. It is one of the few of its kind in the country.