Campus stunner: Mitch Daniels leaving, Chiang named next Purdue president in surprise announcement

Questions raised about quiet, internal search that led trustees to Engineering Dean Mung Chiang as Purdue’s 13th president. Here's trustee's explanation

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MITCH DANIELS READY TO STEP ASIDE AT PURDUE. MUNG CHIANG’S UP NEXT

Mitch Daniels, who arrived at Purdue the afternoon his term as Indiana governor ended in 2013, stunned campus Friday with news that he was stepping down at the end of 2022.

Daniels said Friday that he’d been telling Purdue trustees for a couple of years that he was looking for the right time to end his tenure as president.

After batting around thoughts of getting through the 2022-23 school year, Daniels said he privately told trustees in April that the end of the 2022 calendar year would be time to step aside.

Mung Chiang listens as he’s named the next president of Purdue University. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

He said it wasn’t his health, at age 73. He said it wasn’t because he had other offers or immediate prospects waiting in the wings – though he wasn’t ready to use the word retirement. And Daniels said he’s still “got plates spinning” on some big campus projects he expects will be announced by the end of the calendar year.

“Really, that would be 10 years, and 10’s a nice round number,” Daniels said. “I always say, better a year too soon than a day too late.”

Less than two months after setting the date with Daniels, the trustees, opting for a quiet, internal search, named Mung Chiang, Purdue engineering dean and senior vice president for strategic initiatives, to be Purdue’s 13th president, starting Jan. 1, 2023.