page_title: Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Aquinas Hall of The Catholic University of America
context_page_description: The Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies is an interdisciplinary institute and center of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
context_section_description: The Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies has its roots in the Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development.
  In 1972, Boys Town had been found to be sitting on funds of nearly $300 million while serving only 200 residents in its Catholic-run home for wayward boys in Omaha, Nebraska. In response to the scandal, the Boys Town board of trustees agreed to widen the organization's mission to include research on youth development.
  From 1974 to 1982, Boys Town funding at the University supported graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research stipends, support staff, a new building (now Aquinas Hall) and tremendous growth in the National Catholic School of Social Service, the School of Theology and Religious Studies, and the departments of Anthropology, Human Development, and Sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences.
  An interdisciplinary center known as the Life Cycle Institute [LCI] was also founded with Boys Town funding by one of the University's leading professors of sociology, Dean R. Hoge. The LCI soon became known for its empirical research on community, youth, and political demographics and served as The Catholic University of America's original internal think tank.
  Renamed the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies in 2009, the think tank continues to bring rigorous academic research to bear on contemporary questions of interest to policy experts and faith communities.
caption: Aquinas Hall was the original home of the Life Cycle Institute. It now houses the School of Philosophy as well as The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives.
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