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 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.
