Meet the new boss: A message from Mitch Daniels in his interim return to Purdue
Message to campus includes hopes of a ‘very brief’ assignment, as Purdue's 12th president steps in to replace the 13th president, for now.
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A message from Mitch Daniels in his interim return to Purdue
With his bust already among those of presidents past in Purdue Memorial Union’s Great Hall, Mitch Daniels returns to the university Wednesday to run things as interim president as trustees start the search to replace now-former President Mung Chiang, who starts his own new job at Northwestern University.
In a video message sent to the university community Wednesday morning – “a message I never expected to subject you to” – Daniels gave every impression that while he didn’t plan to simply man the office in Hovde Hall, the gig is a temporary assignment.
“I do want you to know how gratified I am and excited I am about the temporary assignment of helping Purdue move forward, maintain the great momentum that you have all have achieved for our university over recent years,” Daniels said.
“It was a jolt to me and to us all when our president, Mung Chiang, was recruited away,” Daniels said in the video. “But that’s what happens when you employ top talent. The world notices. And it’s not the first time that Purdue has been poached by a rival institution for an all-star performer. We’ve got so much going on that’s positive at this university, at a time when much of our sector is struggling mightily. Purdue is at the other end of that spectrum, and my assignment during what I hope will be – and you probably hope will be – a very brief interregnum, is to maintain forward progress, do even better or faster those things which we believe are most essential to Purdue’s future.”
Trustees named Daniels to the interim post in May, a week after Chiang announced he’d leave West Lafayette June 30. Trustees at the time said bringing back Daniels, president emeritus and still chair of Purdue Research Foundation’s board, was a chance to have someone who was familiar with the university and who offered a chance to keep moving on projects started or continued during Chiang’s 3½ years as president. Chiang replaced Daniels in January 2023 after the former Indiana governor spent a decade leading Purdue.
In June, Gary Lehman, Purdue trustees chair, said the board was working through how it would conduct a search for the university’s next president. He said the recruiting Daniels to step in for now came with conditions that trustees “act expeditiously” to find the next president.
Daniels noted that, in a way, as he acknowledged “everyone who has sent in their best wishes and encouragement” since he was named interim president.
“We’ll try hard to live up to that, not to let you down, and in the shortest time possible to hand Purdue back to the kind of outstanding leadership that it’s had over the last three years,” Daniels said in Wednesday’s message.
On his way out …
Mung Chiang took a pass on most exit interviews since announcing that he was taking the job at private, Big Ten rival Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, settling for several public farewells, including one last week at Purdue Memorial Union’s North Ballroom. But he sent a note of his own Tuesday, on his final day as Purdue’s president, addressing students, staff and faculty.
Here’s what he said:
At the reception with students, colleagues and neighbors last week, I felt yet again how special the Purdue community is. On each day and across many nights, you study and work with dedication, perseverance and humility. Because of you, this university is on a clear trajectory upward and forward. And with interim President Daniels and the entire team carrying on excellence at scale, Purdue’s strong momentum will no doubt continue.
The arc of an institution runs long and deep. Today, we ask not how much an individual has changed the institution, but how much the institution has changed each individual. Over the past nine years, I have changed because of Purdue, like the many other Boilermakers we have met whose lives were transformed, and like so many more yet to come.
It has been a deep honor for me and my family to become part of the Purdue family. Thank you for nine years of memories that we will carry and cherish wherever we are. As a student responder observed at the 2026 Spring Commencement, when you graduate from here, you don’t leave Purdue behind; you take that Gold and Black with you. Boiler Up!
How Purdue got to this point …
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