A campaign intended to raise as much as $1 million in new scholarship funds was launched earlier this semester in the name of legendary policy studies founder and professor Bill Coplin. The fund will support students in the policy studies major, of which Coplin is chief architect and lead teacher.

Creation of the Bill Coplin Policy Studies Scholarship was prompted by alumna Elysa B. Wolfe, a 1993 Maxwell graduate who herself majored in policy studies (as well as political science). Wolfe and her father, Ralph G. Wolfe, recently committed a major bequest gift to the Maxwell School in honor of Coplin. To honor the Wolfes and the intention of their eventual bequest, the University immediately initiated a campaign for a Coplin fund, so that other policy studies graduates may contribute.

Over the next few months, policy studies alumni will receive invitations from Elysa Wolfe and the University to give to the Coplin Fund. They will also receive invitations to a May 15 fund kick-off event in New York City, at Syracuse University’s Lubin House, where Coplin will meet with grateful alumni.

Elysa Wolfe is an attorney in New York City who remembers vividly her initial contact with Coplin and the policy studies major. As a Syracuse freshman, she’d grown unhappy with her initial program of study and began searching for a new major. By chance, the resident advisor in her dormitory was a policy studies major and Coplin devotee, and suggested Wolfe sample the program.

“Instantly I knew,” Wolfe remembers. “It just clicked! I enjoyed the coursework’s pragmatism and emphasis on results. What do you see that’s wrong, and how do you effect change? What I especially appreciated was how the program encouraged me to get out into the community, roll up my sleeves, and make a difference.” During her undergraduate career, Wolfe joined other community-oriented organizations on campus and participated in countless acts of volunteerism and service — a tradition she carries on today as an organizer and volunteer in her home community.