Purdue sees Indy growth, as IU agrees to split up IUPUI

President Mitch Daniels says Purdue has been ‘restless’ for years for a new, distinct campus in Indianapolis. Purdue finally talked IU into it

Thanks this morning to sponsor Stuart & Branigin for support to help make this edition of the Based in Lafayette reporting project possible.

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One of the first things Purdue President Mitch Daniels mentioned to Pam Whitten, when they met after she was named Indiana University president in 2021, was about the 52-year-old arrangement the two universities had with IUPUI, their shared campus in Indianapolis.

Purdue and IU had successfully uncoupled a similar arrangement in Fort Wayne, turning IUPU-Fort Wayne into distinct operations that allowed the West Lafayette flagship to put an emphasis on a more focused Purdue-Fort Wayne. Daniels said Friday that Purdue had been anxious to do the same with IUPUI, “restless for a long time that we would like to be more impactful and more visible in Indianapolis.”

A university in downtown Indianapolis, heavily branded in IU’s cream-and-crimson and with nearly six times as many of the 27,000 students on the shared campus going for IU degrees than ones from Purdue wasn’t exactly the visibility and brand Daniels and Purdue trustees envisioned.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels and IU President Pam Whitten shake on a deal Friday to split the IUPUI campus by July 2024. With them, from left, are Mike Berghoff, chair of the Purdue trustees; Chris Lowery, commissioner of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education; and Quinn Buckner, chair of the IU trustees. (Photo: John Underwood/Purdue)

“I wouldn't use the word snags, I would just say that it was not a subject that reached a priority level for IU before,” Daniels said.

“But I think, certainly, she came in with fresh eyes and saw it maybe a little differently – and thanks goodness,” Daniels said of his counterpart in Bloomington. “Like so many people seeing IUPUI for the first time, it's puzzling. It's difficult, really, to explain to somebody what it is, how it works. I think that coming in fresh, as she did, made her especially open to finding something new.”

On Friday, a year after that first conversation between leaders of schools that are rivals and partners at the same time, trustees at IU and Purdue signed off on an agreement that eventually will break up IUPUI.