Students studying political science and government at Indiana University South Bend now have access to more support, thanks to a new endowed scholarship in the name of the late Richard B. Hunt. The Hunt Family Giving Fund will support undergraduate students studying political science who are involved with the campus’s American Democracy Project or have demonstrated civic engagement.
Supporters like the Hunt Family are so important to our students and their educational dreams, said Chancellor Susan Elrod. Rick Hunt’s passion for democracy and civic engagement can live on in an IU South Bend student who then can carry on his legacy of political service.
According to his family, Rick was a fixture with the local South Bend Democratic scene, helping candidates in elections from school board to national offices. Together with his brothers he put together one of the earliest election day get-out-the-vote strategies in the country, compiling and using voter data from previous elections.
Jack Colwell, long-time South Bend Tribune political columnist, recalled how for many years Hunt used his expertise with voting data to assist the news media in evaluating vote totals pouring in during long election night tabulating. “Rick prided himself on the accuracy of projections from bellwether precincts,” Colwell said. “He really was a local political historian, keeping precinct by precinct records over decades to analyze voting trends and effects of demographic changes.”
Hunt grew up in an era when politics produced some of Indiana’s greatest public servants who considered politics a noble profession. His family envisions this scholarship as a way to support the next generation of leaders who can prove that politics still is a noble profession.
The Fund welcomes contributions from those committed to the role of politics in our local and national life. Please contact Dina Harris, IU South Bend’s director of development, at diharris@usb.eduor 574-520-4131.
