Purdue President-elect Chiang joins Holcomb on economic development trip to Asia
Days after Mitch Daniels said to expect more big news for Discovery Park District, Purdue officials join governor on trip to Taiwan, South Korea. Plus, All American Marching Band tribute to a legend
Thanks this morning to United Way of Greater Lafayette, sponsor of today’s Based in Lafayette edition, inviting you to their inaugural Run United 5K. Please join the United Way on Saturday, Aug. 27, at Subaru of Indiana Automotive for the run. Registration starts at 8 a.m., with the race to begin at 9 a.m. Listen to live music from The Jacks. Dog N’ Suds, Mary Lou Donuts and Kona Ice will also be on hand. This is a family friendly event and an outreach opportunity for United Way and many of its partner agencies. Kids and families can get pictures with Ace from the Lafayette Aviators, enjoy the bouncy house and take a ride on the Boilermaker Special. For more details or to sign up for the 5K, click on the links below.
GOVERNOR, PURDUE CONTINGENT HEAD TO TAIWAN, KOREA: Purdue officials, including President-elect Mung Chiang, are joining Gov. Eric Holcomb on a weeklong economic development trip to Taiwan and South Korea, the governor’s office announced Sunday morning. Holcomb landed in Taipei Sunday morning, accompanied by, among others, Mark Lundstrom, Purdue’s interim dean of engineering, for a trip expected to focus business and academic connections in Asia.
Whether that means economic development news for West Lafayette or Purdue’s Discovery Park District, the governor’s release didn’t say.
(Purdue President Mitch Daniels said last week that the university could have announcements soon that he said “are big” for the 400-acre, live-work-play district on the western edge of the West Lafayette campus, following July’s news about the prospects for a $1.8 billion semiconductor research and manufacturing plant for U.S. -based SkyWater Technology. Also last week, Theresa Mayer, vice president for research and partnerships at Purdue, hinted much the same during a campus visit from Kathleen Hicks, U.S. deputy secretary of Defense.)
News Sunday morning about the governor’s trip included references to Taiwan-based MediaTek, which announced in June a partnership that will put a chip design research center in the Discovery Park District. That partnership, as well as the SkyWater deal, came on the heels of Purdue’s launch of its semiconductor degrees program and a collaboration with Ivy Tech Community College in the microelectronics field, part of a university and statewide attempt to pull the high-tech industry toward research centers away from the coasts.
Lundstrom flew to Taiwan with Holcomb, Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers and others. Chiang is expected to join them later this week, after the start of Purdue’s fall semester on Monday, for stops in Taiwan and South Korea.
“Boilermakers have long-standing academic partnerships with institutions in Taiwan and South Korea, and we look forward to attracting tech companies and jobs to the hard tech corridor in the Hoosier state,” Chiang said in a statement released Sunday by the governor’s office.
‘HEY, MAN, I’M JUST HERE TO PLAY MUSIC:’ So great over the weekend to see Purdue Bands post a photo of Ian Ostermann – no Tennessee football fan barking in his face – holding up the T-shirt the All-American Marching Band will wear on their Gold Days, otherwise known as the Friday rehearsals before a game day.
In it, Ostermann is holding a shirt with a drawing of him in a band uniform, along with the classic, off-the-cuff response he gave to a Vols fan who posted a video of himself taunting Ostermann during the first quarter of the Music City Bowl in December 2021. As the guy went on hazing the fifth-year mellophone player with the band about how the Vols, up 14-0 at the time, “were going to beat the (f-ing) brakes off y’all,” Ostermann played it cool: “Hey, man, I’m just here to play music.”
The social media video went viral during the game. It really caught karma-fed fire after Purdue won a wild game, 48-45, in overtime.
It became the kind of Purdue legend that gets your picture on a T-shirt.
For more on that backstory, this was my conversation with Ostermann shortly after the Music City Bowl, when he was seeing his encounter blow up social media: “I was pretty uncomfortable at the time, and it just came out. I’m glad that the right thing came out. I had a lot of people telling me, ‘If I was in that situation, I would have said ...’”
WEST SIDERS RING THE BELL AHEAD OF ALZHEIMER’S WALK: There are premiums offered for donating to a fundraiser … and then there are West Lafayette Fire Department premiums for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, coming up Saturday, Sept. 17, at Riehle Plaza in downtown Lafayette. A West Side contingent formed a team for the walk, calling themselves “Friends of Mayor John Dennis.” So far, they’ve raised more than $8,000 of a $10,000 goal, in honor of the mayor, who announced in June that he’d been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, a disease the eventually strips memory. On Friday, firefighters upped the ante, offering a chance to ride on a fire truck to anyone who donates to the West Lafayette Fire Department’s corner of the effort. Here’s proof:
Face it, you’re probably not going to win a high school state championship and get a ride through town on a fire truck. (I’m not sure about you, but my eligibility to varsity was up a few years ago.) Here’s your shot.
For more about the walk, here’s a link with details and how to register or donate.
And here’s a story of Mayor John Dennis’ decision to go public with his diagnosis and stay in office through the end of his term in 2023.
Thanks, again, to United Way of Greater Lafayette for sponsoring today’s Based in Lafayette reporting project edition. For more about United Way’s inaugural Run United 5K on Saturday, Aug. 27, at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, click here or scroll back to the top of the page for more.
Tips or story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com. Also on Twitter and Instagram.
My kid won a state championship and even he didn't get invited to ride on a fire truck!
And Outfest was super well attended in the pre-rain hours. A photo down Main street would have compared nicely with your most recent Mosey snap.