Support for this edition comes from the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, presenting Art on the Wabash. The juried art fair will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, at Tapawingo Park in West Lafayette. Admission is free. For more, check out Art on the Wabash here.
PURDUE ENROLLMENT UP, JUST SHY OF CAMPUS RECORD FOR FALL 2026
Buoyed by the third largest freshman class in Purdue’s history, the West Lafayette campus’ student body is the second largest ever for the university, coming 40 students shy of record enrollment set two years ago, according to a census reported Monday.
Enrollment was 55,079 on the West Lafayette campus, as of Sept. 10, according to Purdue’s data. That’s up 428 students – or 0.8% more – than at the start of the fall 2025 semester.
The record of 55,119 students came in the fall 2024 semester.
Combined with the Indianapolis campus, which Purdue considers an extension of the main campus in West Lafayette, overall enrollment was shown at 57,688 – up 0.6% from a year earlier.
The main campus topped 50,000 students for the first time in 2022. A decade ago, in fall 2016, Purdue crossed the 40,000 level.
Purdue officials had been predicting through the summer and at the start of the semester a freshman class that would top 10,000 for a third time in university history.
That happened, with the arrival of 10,173 freshman on the West Lafayette campus and 645 in Indianapolis. That was an increase of 14% over fall 2025 for the main campus, according to university figures. It trailed only the freshman classes of 10,628 in 2024 and 10,191 in 2021.
According to the university, Purdue admitted 75% of all undergraduate applicants who live in Indiana — which it touted as the highest percentage in five years — and less than 50% of all non-Indiana residents.
AS SCHOOL REFERENDUM HEADS TO BALLOT, WL ANTICIPATES RATE WILL STAY FLAT IN FIRST YEAR
Better than expected assessed valuations from recent commercial construction means the West Lafayette Community School Corp. would be able to keep its property tax referendum rate flat, at the current 37 cents per $100 in valuation, the school board learned Monday evening.
