Sunday morning grab bag: Rallies on guns, campus transition, and so long, Brother Jed

Gun control advocates rally in Lafayette. Mung Chiang’s first speech as incoming Purdue president. ‘Back a Boiler’ on pause. And Brother Jed, preacher and campus provocateur, dies

Thanks to The Arts Federation for sponsoring today’s issue. Advance tickets are available now for the Taste of Tippecanoe, on Saturday, June 18, in downtown Lafayette. TAF also is looking for volunteers for the Taste. For tickets or to volunteer, click on the links below and scroll through today’s edition.

ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Some this and that for a late Sunday morning edition of Based in Lafayette …

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

RALLIES ON GUN QUESTIONS: On a day of March For Our Lives events across the country, several dozen people marched through parts of downtown Lafayette Saturday morning in the name of calling for new gun control laws in the wake of mass shootings at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store, and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. “That’s just in the past few weeks,” Beth Roberts, a West Lafayette resident, said as the group prepared to step off from the Tippecanoe County Courthouse. “It has to stop.” (The event also drew a counter protester or two, who struck up conversations about gun rights and the limits of legislation aimed at gun sales and ownership.)

Dozens of people marched through downtown Lafayette during Saturday’s March for Our Lives. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

The march was prelude, of sorts, for a new effort called Tippecanoe ACTS, launched by members of First United Methodist Church in West Lafayette. The group will host an evening touted as a time for those concerned about gun violence at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, at the YWCA Greater Lafayette, 605 N. Sixth St., Lafayette.

THE INITIAL MESSAGE FROM PURDUE’S 13TH PRESIDENT: I’ll have more in the coming days from a whirlwind Friday, when Purdue announced that President Mitch Daniels would step down at the end of 2022 and Mung Chiang, Purdue’s engineering dean for the past five years, would be his successor.

Mung Chiang makes opening remarks Friday, moments after he was named the next president of Purdue University. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

For now, here, for posterity’s sake, is a copy of Chiang’s speech after Trustee Chairman Mike Berghoff introduced him as the 13th president of Purdue.