Q&A: Purdue’s provost on enrollment, DEI cuts, student visa questions, more

In a turbulent year for higher ed, Provost Patrick Wolfe discusses how some big moments played out this summer for Purdue

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PURDUE’S PROVOST ON ENROLLMENT, DEI CUTS, STUDENT VISAS, MORE

Last week, BiL sat down with Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe to talk through enrollment projections on the West Lafayette campus and what those might mean spilling into near campus neighborhoods.

We wound up catching up on a series of big changes at the university, landing largely since the spring semester ended, that included degree program cuts, staff layoffs and reorganization with the elimination of diversity initiatives and lingering questions about student visas amid federal pressure on immigration.

Here are a few takeaways from that conversation.

More on enrollment and the future

Incoming students jump the tracks at Rush Crossing on Purdue’s Centennial Mall, a Boiler Gold Rush tradition ahead of the school year. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

The enrollment story brewing ahead of classes starting Aug. 25 is that this could be the first fall semester since 2014 that doesn’t grow, year-over-year, and the first in a decade that doesn’t set a new record for the number of students on the West Lafayette campus. That, Wolfe said, was done purposely, particularly after Purdue was surprised by a record freshman class in fall 2024 – 10,628 incoming students accepted offers, when the university had been aiming closer to 9,300 – which pushed enrollment over 55,000 students overall.

This year’s anticipated freshman class will be between 8,800 and 9,000 students, somewhat easing some of the housing and classroom space concerns. (Those numbers still would rank among the top six freshman classes in Purdue history.)

The campus also will have an additional 984 beds available in university housing, with the opening last week of the 3rd and West apartments master leased for the next two years by Purdue.

Work also continues on an eight-story, 900-bed residence hall, expected to open in time for the fall 2026 semester. Off-campus, developments with a total of 926 new beds opened this summer, with some huge projects under construction and aiming to bring several thousand new beds on line in walking distance to campus by 2026, 2027 and 2028 – including Hub Chauncey at the old Chauncey Hill Mall site; the Standard on Wood Street; The Approach on North River Road; Rambler at North River Road and State Street; and The District at Tapawingo between North River Road and Tapawingo Drive.

The question: With so many beds coming to the community, plus large classroom spaces coming once the Daniels School of Business project is done, does that open up, say, entertaining 11,000 freshmen? Will this year be a momentary lull in the size of the incoming class? Or is the housing and building trend on and near campus – plus the ongoing record applications – a strategy Purdue sees to build?

Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe (Photo: Purdue)

“It’s a really good question,” Wolfe said. “I don’t have a ready answer for you, because those answers are determined by our board and executive team. But I think that’s exactly the kind of question that we’re going through and thinking about. And I think we’re certainly going to keep a close eye on all of these factors locally.”

He continued:

“There’s students and incoming students in admissions, which is the front end. And there’s jobs, workforce and brain gain and everything else, which are kind of the other end of the equation. I think a lot of these factors would depend on how we want to help this community be flourishing economically in ways that are positive and sustainable. The area is so fortunate to have a healthy and very balanced economy. The university is a big part, but it’s not the only part of the regional economy.

“I think you see that reflected in the healthcare systems that are looking to come in and all of the other suppliers and jobs that would come along with SK hynix. There's a lot going on, and I think we know that we were an important driver of some of these things, but we're also just a big partner in the ecosystem. We would never make these decisions isolated from all of that context.

“I think if we have the quality of students and we feel that we can deliver a great experience and a great education in a way that's good for the community, good for the students, good for the ecosystem, then I don't think anything would be off the table. But I also think we're going to be thoughtful and consultative and deliberate about how we investigate and assess and constantly reassess these types of decisions.

“I do think it comes back to a principle that's been true for a long time, which is ‘better before bigger.’ And growth would never be a driver, it would only ever be a consequence of other things.

“That gets applied at different scales. We've seen all of the lifting up of Daniels School as a strategic priority. And, again, it's growing. But we didn't say, Thou shalt grow, or (Dean) Jim (Bullard), you must grow. It was, let's understand how we can make Daniels a flagship destination, and as you see more and more and stronger and stronger, more prepared and better prepared students applying, then there could be opportunities to grow. But, again, it was a consequence, not a driver.

“So, I think those kind of principles are the ones that would apply. The other big principles will continue to work – to listen to the community and to refine our admissions processes so that we can tune them. The analogy I always use, and I would say this to the board (of trustees) a lot is, it's like and landing the aircraft on the aircraft carrier. You know, running admissions when you've got 86,000 applicants and at the end of the day you're talking about 9,000 or 10,000 students. It's just enormously complex, and so we're constantly trying to refine and improve how we do that in a way that is in the best interest of our students and our community.”

On international students and questions over student visas