New salary goals for Mitch Daniels: Increase Black student enrollment, grad rates at Purdue
Plus: A legal challenge coming after Republican kicked off 4th District ballot? And a national anthem rendition at Harrison High School you need to see
Thanks this morning goes to the Long Center for the Performing Arts for its ongoing support of the Based in Lafayette reporting project. For more on what’s coming to The Long Center, including a link to updated schedules after last week’s ice storm, scroll through today’s edition.
DANIELS’ CONTRACT GOALS INCLUDE BLACK STUDENT ENROLLMENT, GRADUATION
The fact that Purdue President Mitch Daniels would have 11% of the at-risk portion of his 2021-22 salary tied to some of the goals set by the university’s equity task force was established by Purdue trustees earlier this month.
Just what the trustees were pressing Daniels to do wasn’t immediately clear in student success measures marked and released by the university as the number of Purdue Polytechnic High School graduates enrolled, the Black student yield and Black student retention/graduation rate at the West Lafayette campus.
The question – What exactly does that mean? – came up directly during a Feb. 10 town hall sponsored by the Black Student Union, in the wake of viral video of a student’s Feb. 4 arrest by a Purdue police officer. (Results from an investigation into how Purdue police handled that arrests were still pending, as of this weekend.)
A chart of more detailed metrics, released after a series of requests, gives more specific numbers tied to dollars in Daniels’s salary.
“We will take partial ownership and accountability for the success of the task force initiatives,” Daniels told trustees during their Feb. 4 meeting, when they set his annual objectives.
Daniels’ contract is structured so he’s guaranteed two-thirds of his base salary – or $430,500 – with the other $215,250 available only if he hits a series of metrics based on student affordability, student success, fundraising and operations.
Each of the 17 objectives among those four broader categories include a threshold, a target and a stretch goal tied to his performance evaluation.
“When he does well, he achieves his full base salary,” Trustee Malcolm DeKryger said.
The objectives were delayed from December, when they’re typically set. (Daniels’ at-risk portion of his salary from the previous fiscal year typically gets settled in October.) In December, Daniels had said he’d asked trustees to consider putting some emphasis on the work of the equity task force, formed in 2020 and designed to increase Black student enrollment and faculty rolls.
The equity task force metrics are listed for Daniels under student success categories, which also include targets for four-year graduation rates, six-year graduation rates and the number of degrees awarded across the Purdue system.
While growing, enrollment of Black students is 3% of the total student body, according to Purdue’s Data Digest. By comparison, Black residents make up 12% of Indiana’s population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
The goals set out:
Number of Purdue Polytechnic High School students enrolled in the second year the university’s schools in Indianapolis and South Bend have graduates ready for college: 43 is the threshold; 50 is the target; 57 is the stretch. Purdue reported at the beginning of the fall 2021 semester that 40 members of the first Purdue Polytechnic graduating class had enrolled at the West Lafayette campus. (The goal is worth 6% of Daniels’ at-risk pay.)
Black student yield on the West Lafayette campus, which is the percentage of student who enroll after having been offered admission: 19% is the threshold; 21% is the target; 23% is the stretch. According to the university, the Black student yield in fiscal year 2021 was 18.9%. (The goal is worth 3% of Daniels’ at-risk pay.)
Black student retention/graduation rate on the West Lafayette campus: 47% is the threshold; 50% is the target; 53% is the stretch. The university reported the Black student retention/graduation rate at 47%. (The goal is worth 2% of Daniels’ at-risk pay.)
All totaled, Daniels stands to earn $23,677 for hitting the equity task force targets in his at-risk pay goals.
For more metrics trustees say Daniels needs to hit, here’s the chart – including historic data about how the university has done in each category in recent years – pulled from the trustees’ records:
In 2021, once thresholds, targets and stretch goals were combined, trustees said Daniels met or exceeded goals in 13 of 15 categories. They gave Daniels 108% of his at-risk pay, or $232,470.
With a $300,000 retention bonus included in his year-to-year contract, Daniels made $962,970 in the 2020-21 academic year. That was the most of any year since he started as president in January 2013.
NEXT UP: AN ELECTION CHALLENGE CHALLENGE?
Two days after the Indiana Election Commission knocked him off the Republican primary ballot for U.S. House 4th District, Charles Bookwalter hinted that he plans to challenge the ruling in some way.
“It’s not over,” Bookwalter said Sunday.
What exactly he had in mind wasn’t clear. Bookwalter said to expect something in the next few days.
On Friday, Bookwalter made his defense against a Republican Party challenge of his candidacy, calling the law used to boot him unconstitutional. Indiana state law says that a candidate looking to get on the ballot as a major party member must have asked for that party’s ballot in the most recent two primaries they voted in. (The General Assembly changed the law in 2021 to go from a one- to a two-primary rule.) If candidates can’t show that, they must be prepared to get the party chair from their home county to sign off on the bid.
In Bookwalter’s case, he voted as a Republican in the 2016 Indiana primary and the Boone County Republican Party chair, Debbie Ottinger, declined to sign off on him as a member of the party.
Despite Bookwalter’s insistence – “There is no question that I am a Republican” – the Election Commission ruled that the Army veteran and Thorntown resident didn’t meet the threshold.
Until Bookwalter’s next move, here’s more from that hearing, which left U.S. Rep. Jim Baird alone on the May 3 Republican ballot …
FINALLY … TOMMY SONDGERATH, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN
Take a listen to this rendition of the national anthem, courtesy of Harrison student Tommy Sondgerath before the opening tip of Friday’s basketball game between the Raiders and Marion.
Tommy, who is a part of the national Autism Speaks campaign, starred in one of my all-time favorite stories while at the J&C. This is from May 2019, when Tommy had a duet on “A Million Dreams” from “The Greatest Showman” soundtrack during the Harrison High School spring show and wound up going viral.
Here’s the video his dad, Will Sondgerath, posted then:
And here’s the story behind it: When Tommy Sondgerath’s dad posted, ‘This is what #inclusion looks like at Harrison HS,’ the Harrison High School sophomore’s exuberant performance went viral
Thanks, again, to today’s sponsor, the Long Center for the Performing Arts. For details about upcoming events – including a new date for the “My Name is NOT Mom” show, postponed during last week’s storm – click on a show below.
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Have a story idea for upcoming editions? Send them to me: davebangert1@gmail.com. For news during the day, follow on Twitter: @davebangert.