Of campus loops, new flights out of Purdue and a 14th tuition freeze

A Trustee edition: Purdue moves past CityBus era of campus loops a year after tense contract talks. SkyWest aims for daily Purdue Airport service. And Purdue ready to add 14th year to tuition freeze

• Thanks today for ongoing help from Based in Lafayette sponsor Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette. For tickets and details on all the shows and events, go to longpac.org.

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A few big ticket items from Friday morning’s Purdue trustees meeting. More later …

PURDUE OPTS FOR PRIVATE COMPANY TO RUN CAMPUS TRANSIT, AFTER TWO DECADES WITH CITYBUS

Purdue will bring in a private company to run its bus loops and other campus transportation at the start of the fall 2025 semester, setting aside a longstanding arrangement with Lafayette-based CityBus, according to an agreement signed Friday.

Purdue trustees agreed to a three-year, $7.8 million contract with SP+, a Chicago-based firm that beat out seven other proposals for campus transit, including one from CityBus.

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

Jessica Robertson, Purdue’s associate vice president for auxiliary services, told trustees that process for the new contract looked not only at running the series of campus loops but also at the kind of technology companies used and new ways to run routes to and from parking areas father from the main campus.

“We wanted reliable service,” Robertson said. “We wanted increased frequency. We were very interested in making sure that whoever we selected, they had a strong digital presence. That's how our customers, the students, engage with whoever these operators are.”

How the campus loops and schedules will look like at the beginning of the fall 2025 semester aren’t set, yet, Robertson said. She said part of that would be settling on distant parking lots that CityBus’ larger vehicles hadn’t been able to serve in the past but that she said could hold some answers to growing parking issues on campus. Among those, she said, were parking lots at the former State Farm headquarters on Northwestern Avenue (what the university refers to as 2550) and near some athletic facilities.

Steve Poulsen, director of commercial transportation for SP+, said that work would start now, promising trustees on Friday the sort of flexibility and AI-driven connections they were looking for with campus transit services.

“When you're switching to a situation where you now have control over the fleet, you're able to make a lot more positive change in impact to those services,” Poulsen said after the trustees agreed to the contract. “Within our fleet capabilities, we have every type of vehicle that is available, so we can go through the smallest passenger vans, all the way up to the same type low-floor transit systems. Meeting the capacities of ridership isn't really the concern. The concern is making sure that it's right sized. …

“I’m not here to throw anyone under the proverbial bus, but things can be improved,” Poulsen said.

Not addressed Friday was whether students and staff would get any sort of subsidized mass transit off campus, as they had under CityBus contracts in the past. Robertson that Friday’s agreement dealt only with campus service.

That part turned into a sticking point a year ago in Purdue’s soured relationship with CityBus.