Philanthropists Elaine and Gerald Schuster donated $5 million to Brandeis' Institute for Investigative Journalism this month, according to a University press release.The institute is now named the Elaine and Gerald Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism as a result of the gift.

"We are happy to support the urgent work of the institute, especially in this era when fewer media outlets will dedicate the resources needed to dig deeply and expose wrongdoing," Elaine Schuster said in the press release. "Brandeis is just the right place for this institute."

Since its founding in September 2004 as the first investigative reporting center based at a university, the Institute has worked to give students hands-on experience in investigative reporting, according to its Web site.

A course offering called the "Justice Brandeis Innocence Project: Internship & Analysis" gives students the opportunity to participate in the national "Innocence Project" with Institute faculty member Pam Cytrynbaum, which closely examines court documents in search of possible wrongful convictions.

The Institute has published a number of investigative reports together with mainstream news organizations, founding director Florence Graves noted in an e-mail to the Justice. Referring to a story she wrote for the Washington Post examining the safety record of the Federal Aviation Administration, she wrote that "a top Post editor told us that the Post would not have undertaken that important investigative story without our work."

Graves said the gift will enable the center to "maintain our infrastructure, continue to build a fabulous team, dive into urgent projects, publish important articles about major public policy issues and give our student research assistants real-world experience."

She added that the gift would also go towards "fully developing" the Innocence Project as well as the Political and Social Justice Project that monitors government action, and the Gender and Social Justice project, which works to expose underreported injustices caused by public policy affecting women and children.

Provost Marty Krauss said the gift will benefit the Journalism program, a separate entity under the American Studies department, because she anticipates an increase in students interested in journalism.

Both Graves and Krauss stressed that the Schuster grant will increase Brandeis' prestige. "Our work helps put Brandeis University's name into the major news media, associated with groundbreaking, rigorous research into urgent public policy issues," Graves wrote.