Of course Santa knows Sheila Klinker … and more
Of course Santa knows Sheila Klinker … and more
Plus, Purdue Global’s first Elliott Hall commencement. A Purdue dean rejects South Carolina presidency. A St. Joe legend in the Hall of Fame.
Welcome to the working week, Lafayette. Here we go …
FIRST THIS, VIA THE LAFAYETTE CHRISTMAS PARADE: I have to say Saturday night’s Lafayette Christmas Parade was everything it should have been. Tons of people on the street. Tons of people in the parade. I didn’t keep track of it all – it might have been my head spinning from the third time the Boilermaker Special cruised by our perch at 10th and Main streets – but high fives, for sure, to the singing port-a-johns, that drummer (man!) with the Tejano group I couldn’t get the name of, the state champs from Central Catholic and McCutcheon high schools getting their traditional fire truck rides, the Long Center float with the rendition of the marquee out front and that candy. All that candy. But when we finally got a glimpse of the Big Man at the end of the line, the moment of the night had arrived …
MUNG CHIANG REJECTS SOUTH CAROLINA OFFER TO STAY AT PURDUE: Credit the Post and Courier in Columbia, South Carolina, for this one: The paper reported Saturday that Mung Chaing, who came to Purdue as dean of engineering and earlier this year added executive vice president for strategic initiatives to his duties, was the top finalist to become the next University of South Carolina president.
By Sunday, Post and Courier reporter Any Shain wrote, that had dissolved, even as Chiang was expected to arrive on the South Carolina campus later this week for a final vote by that school’s trustees. In a statement released by the University of South Carolina, Chiang cited that his reason to withdraw was a family decision that he would focus on Purdue “and not on other leadership opportunities.”
In April, when Purdue President Mitch Daniels tapped him as executive vice president for strategic initiatives, the university described his new role this way:
++ As executive vice president for strategic initiatives, Chiang will be charged with using his experience in both state and national advisory roles to help position Purdue to lead the ambitious research and development, manufacturing, education and infrastructure initiatives expected from upcoming and unprecedented federal investment opportunities. He also will lead Purdue’s efforts in identifying and vetting additional major private-public opportunities that will propel the growth and success of the Discovery Park District and the Aerospace District.
Purdue has fed a number of top spots at other major universities in recent years, including a string of former provosts: Deba Dutta to Rutgers in 2017, Tim Sands to Virginia Tech in 2014, Randy Woodson to North Carolina State in 2010, and Sally Mason to Iowa in 2007.
Chiang attended a Purdue trustees meeting Friday, which would be normal. His candidacy at South Carolina didn’t come up during the public meeting.
Here’s another way into that story from the Post and Courier:
PURDUE GLOBAL’S FIRST ELLIOTT HALL WALK: Purdue Global, into its fourth year and 11th commencement as an extension of Purdue University, had never had a graduation on the West Lafayette campus until this weekend.
On Saturday, 814 of the more than 1,700 students getting degrees from the online university walked across the Elliott Hall of Music stage during two ceremonies Saturday. (The other attended a separate virtual commencement that day.)
Frank Dooley, a former vice provost at Purdue and Purdue Global’s chancellor since May 2020, said that after next graduation – when the school is locked into a contract to hold commencement at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis – the idea is to make Elliott Hall the home for handing out Purdue Global degrees. Just as it is for Purdue University graduates.
“I think it’s emblematic of what we’re trying to do – to make Purdue Global formally recognized as a part of Purdue,” Dooley said leading up to Saturday’s ceremonies. “This is where we belong. We are Purdue, and that’s becoming more clear with time.”
Purdue finalized a deal to acquire Kaplan University, then a private, for-profit online university, in 2018. University officials touted it as an extension of Purdue’s land-grant mission to reach students who might never be in a position to commit four years on the West Lafayette campus. As of this year, Purdue Global has 38,000 students, according to the university.
The deal came with blowback from faculty and some national critics about the reputation for-profit schools had – primarily high costs, low graduation rates – and whether Purdue Global would reflect well on the Big Ten university.
The first Purdue Global graduation weekend on the Purdue campus put a nice light on the online university.
“I think I can summarize the initial response to Purdue Global as: Are you going to make us proud?” Steve Beaudoin, a Purdue professor and chair of the faculty-led University Senate, told Dooley during a Purdue trustees meeting Friday. Beaudoin co-chaired a University Senate committee charged with vetting questions about the Purdue-Kaplan deal after the university announced it.
“You really are,” Beaudoin said. “So, congratulations and well done.”
Mike Berghoff, Purdue trustees chairman, said: “This board, faculty, students all shared some concerns where it was going. We were hopeful that the plan would deliver us to where we are today. But that wasn’t certain in the beginning.”
Dooley said that when meeting students working their way toward degrees or certificates, “you get it.” Among those, nearly half are the first in their family to attend college. About 60% of Purdue Global’s students are parents or care for another dependent.
He introduced two graduates to trustees ahead of Saturday’s commencement.
Deja Trotter, who earned a bachelor’s in accounting, started her college career at the University of Kentucky before landing at IUPUI. She interrupted school twice for the births of her sons and came to Purdue Global with about 80 credit hours, looking for a place where she could squeeze classes around the rest of her life.
“I needed something for working adults,” Trotter said.
After getting her degree, she landed a job as a staff accountant with the Indiana Pacers. She called it her dream job.
“Her story is exactly the kind of story we see and the students we serve,” Dooley said.
Brock Turner worked for six years at Purdue, at one point chairing the Campus Support Staff Advisory Committee, which represents clerical and support staff to the university administration. Turner used Purdue’s offer for free tuition for university staff to work toward three degrees at Purdue Global, including a bachelor’s in health and wellness in 2019, a master’s in health education in April and a master’s in public health in November. (He was one of 38 Purdue employees graduating Saturday, and 495 since 2018, from Purdue Global.)
Turner, who recently started a position as health and human science educator for Purdue Extension in Tippecanoe County, told trustees he felt he was at a loss for words to explain why he was there to share his experience.
“But I realized that all the graduates that are coming across the stage this weekend and doing commencement online are doing the same thing,” Turner said. “They were either going back to gain the skill sets to move forward in the career they’re in or gain new skills as they transition careers. … In the end, I was just a dad that was trying to do a good job with his family.”
Saturday’s graduation included students from 49 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and nine other countries, according to Purdue.
“It’s a big deal to bring that story of success here on campus,” Dooley said.
HOSPITALS AND THE COVID SURGE, ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT IT: For weeks, doctors at Lafayette’s two hospitals have been cringing at the latest surge in COVID cases in the community and how many of those are landing in hospital beds. As of Friday, doctors at Franciscan Health Lafayette and IU Health Arnett reported that the number of patients with confirmed cases of COVID had doubled in a matter of days. They said hospital beds were full and that they were running out of options for more space. And even if they could get the space, finding doctors, nurses and support staff to attend to those beds – after nearly two years of running hard during the pandemic – was getting tougher by the week.
For more context, consider this from Micah Pollak, an associate professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest. It shores up, in a different way, what the doctors have been warning about for weeks.
Pollak posted this thread Sunday:
SAINT JOE’S HALL OF FAMER: Saint Joseph’s College isn’t what it used to be, waiting on a resurrection in Rensselaer that may never come for the liberal arts school that suspended operations in 2017. But all Pumas had reason to celebrate Sunday, with the National Baseball Hall of Fame call that finally came for Gil Hodges, a Brooklyn Dodgers great. Hodges, who grew up in Princeton, Indiana, near Evansville, went to Saint Joe’s and played there for two years until he left to join Brooklyn in 1943. Saint Joe’s named its baseball park Gil Hodges Field. The Pumas baseball team was on Sunday after Hodges’ selection:
ONE LAST STORY ABOUT THE SHARK ONESIE: Purdue President Mitch Daniels gave up a few more details about how he wound up in a shark onesie during the Old Oaken Bucket game, a week ago against Indiana, for the regular second-half segment called “Where’s Mitch.”
Here’s Daniels”
“It’s no secret that I like to get out among our students any way I can. The ‘Where’s Mitch’ custom at the football games goes back several years, and I’ve done it in the student section a couple of times. I was invited by students in Tarkington Hall to join them, and since I look for ways to bring some variety to ‘Where’s Mitch,’ this seemed to fit. I want to go on record that I got the shark suit dirty doing push-ups with the drum line, but it has already been cleaned and restored to its original grandeur.”
Then there’s this from Eddie White, host of “Pacers Overtime,” with Daniels and new IU President Pamela Whitten, after the “Where’s Mitch” episode. Proof that Daniels didn’t ditch that suit the first chance he had:
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