Indianapolis philanthropist Marianne Glick ’73, MS ’74 has two Butler degrees to her name—a bachelor’s in Elementary Education and a master’s in Educational Psychology—but early on, college proved challenging for her. Glick recalls struggling to make the transition and dropping out after her first year. With the help of her parents, she regained her footing and re-enrolled.
She has never forgotten the support that helped her reach those academic milestones, and she’s built a legacy working to provide that support for others.
“Even with financial advantages and parents who really stressed education, I still struggled,” Glick says. “I would have fallen through the cracks. It’s very important to me that students who may not have the same kind of support systems I had have support.”
A desire to help historically underrepresented students access high-quality education and persist in earning a degree fueled Glick and her spouse, Mike Woods, to make a $2.5 million gift to help launch Founder’s College at Butler University. In honor of their personal and fiscal commitment, the dedicated space for Founder’s College on Butler’s campus will be named the Marianne Glick and Mike Woods Founder’s College Commons.
“I’m really thrilled Butler is doing this,” Glick says. “Providing affordable education at a high-quality school like Butler for those who have historically not been able to go is transformational. I want to make sure that all students, regardless of their race, gender identity, or income have that opportunity.”
During college, Glick, an Indianapolis native, worked alongside her father, Gene, in the family’s real estate development business. Glick says the values that guided her father’s business decisions became the guiding values in her life’s work.
We didn’t build high-end apartments; we built apartments for working class and lower-income families.” Glick says. “Dad had a very strong conviction that everyone should have a safe, affordable place to live. So, because I worked in the business with him, I really felt strongly about that, too.”
The Glick family also has a deep history of supporting historically underserved youth. Gene Glick launched the Pro 100 program in 1981 to provide teens with a summer job. The program evolved into TeenWorks, an independent non-profit organization that provides yearround mentorship, scholarship, and career development coaching in addition to summer employment.
Serving as the Board Chair of TeenWorks is chief among Glick’s many philanthropic and leadership commitments to provide families with access to highquality education and career opportunities. She sees the investment in Founder’s College as a natural extension of that work.
Woods also has a personal connection to Butler University and the Founder’s College mission. His father attended Butler in the 1940s until he was forced to drop out in the second semester of his senior year to care for an ailing family member. Woods sees the couple’s gift as a nod to his father’s Butler experience and the difficulties so many students face in completing their degrees.
Through her community work, Glick has witnessed many similar stories of students experiencing personal setbacks that can derail their academic success. She says the holistic support services embedded in the Founder’s College model were significant in the couple’s decision to give.
“Sometimes something as simple as a flat tire can knock students off their academic track,” Glick says. “So those emergency funds and wraparound support services are really critical.”
As lifelong Indianapolis residents, Glick and Woods see their gift not only as an investment in the lives of local young people but in the community and the state as a whole. With workforce-aligned degree programs, Glick sees Founder’s College as instrumental in contributing to the state’s talent pipeline and preparing job-ready graduates for Indianapolis and beyond.
“I am a big proponent that if students are educated in Indiana, we want to retain them,” Glick says. “They will be contributors to our economy. The Founder’s College courses of study—business, health sciences, and education—are all sectors in need of employees in Indiana. And I think Founder’s College students will be well poised to fill those roles.”