This and that: A $50M Monday edition
Daniels School of Business lands $50M from family of late Purdue trustee Bruce White. Plus, Nobel winner on campus. Boilers drop to No. 3. West Side’s George Karlaftis with Lombardi Trophy. And more.
Thanks to the Long Center for the Performing Arts for sponsoring today’s edition. The Long Center presents Rhythm of the Dance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 18. For tickets, here’s a link. Here’s a preview of the show:
This and that to get the week going …
$50M GIFT WILL RENAME UNDERGRAD PROGRAMS IN PURDUE’S BUSINESS SCHOOL
Earlier this month, when announcing plans to attach Mitch Daniels’ name to the rebranded and reconfigured Purdue School of Business, Purdue trustees said they planned to invest $100 million and raise another $200 million for the school being readied for a full launch for the fall 2023 semester.
On Monday, Purdue announced the lead gift in that endeavor, a $50 million donation from the White Family Foundation. The university unveiled that the undergraduate programs at the school of business will be called the Bruce White Undergraduate Institute, named for the late founder of White Lodging and former Purdue trustee.
The graduate business program at Purdue will continue to carry the Krannert name, going by the Krannert Graduate Institute rather than the Krannert School of Management. Purdue announced Monday that the Bruce White Undergraduate Institute would “serve as a flagship element of the Daniels School of Business.”
Purdue announced plans for a new School of Business in September, aimed at getting it rolling in the fall 2023 semester and positioning it to be a Top 10 business school in seven years with a retooled focus on STEM-oriented entrepreneurship. Earlier this month, Chiang said plans include a new, 125,000-square-foot academic building by 2027, an enrollment of 4,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students by 2028, and approximately 50 new faculty members by 2030. Trustee Chairman Mike Berghoff said at that meeting that naming the School of Business for Daniels, recently retired after 10 years as Purdue’s president, would make the new school an outlet for donors and alumni “who want to support and recognize what Mitch did for Purdue this last decade.”
As of Monday, Purdue reported that donors had committed more than $127 million to the Daniels School of Business. That included the $50 million from the White Family Fund.
White, who died in January at age 70, was part of a number of large gifts, including those through family funds. The White family helped finance renovations at the Union Club Hotel at the Purdue Memorial Union through a combined gift of $30 million. (White Lodging also took over management of the campus hotel when it reopened in 2020.) The family foundation gave $5 million in 2021 to what was renamed the White Lodging-J.W. Marriott School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. There also was a $5 million donation in 2009 to set up the White Lodging School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Purdue Northwest.
In 2022, the White Family Foundation gave $20.8 million in 2022 to establish the Dean V. White Real Estate Finance Program, a move Daniels credited with starting conversations about rethinking the university’s business programs.
Daniels, in a university release Monday, said: “The White Family Foundation’s commitment to an increasingly prominent Purdue inspired us to imagine a business school that addresses the need to reshape business education and produce technology-based graduates who build and lead successful companies.”
CONSIDER SUBSCRIBING TO BASED IN LAFAYETTE. FREE AND FULL-RIDE OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE.
WEST LAFAYETTE/PURDUE’S SUPER BOWL CHAMP: In case you needed a shot of George Karlaftis kissing the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Eagles Sunday in the Super Bowl, here you go. West Side football with the introduction for the West Lafayette and Purdue great …
Meanwhile, pregame Sunday, Purdue coach Katie Gearlds was on board with George Karlaftis, wearing Chiefs defensive end’s Boilermaker number during a Super Bowl matchup with Northwestern at Mackey Arena. Call it a winner, with the 17-7 Boilers over the Wildcats, 76-61.
PURDUE MEN’S BASKETBALL, NOW AT NO. 3: The latest AP college basketball rankings out Monday put Purdue at No. 3, slipping from No. 1 the week before. Alabama was a No. 1, with Houston at No. 2.
It was a rough afternoon, in more ways than one, for Purdue in a Sunday loss at Northwestern. For a look at that, here’s a way in to J&C reporter Sam King’s report:
NOBEL WINNER ON CAMPUS MONDAY NIGHT: The first guest in the Purdue Presidential Lecture Series of Mung Chiang’s tenure will be David MacMillan, a Princeton professor who shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Chiang will host MacMillan at 6 p.m. tonight (Monday, Feb. 13) in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. Admission is free. For more about MacMillan’s work – dealing with the development and impact of asymmetric organocatalysis – and the reason for his Nobel Prize, check the Nobel site here. Chiang’s predecessor, Mitch Daniels, started the Presidential Lecture Series in 2014, using it as a chance for Q&As with newsmakers, business leaders, politicians, historians and authors.
ICYMI, GREATER LAFAYETTE’S ‘LIVE GREATER’ CAMPAIGN VIDEO: On Sunday, Based in Lafayette included a scene-by-scene break down of the Greater Lafayette Marketing Coalition’s latest video touting the community. In case you missed it, here’s a look at the story …
As well as the video, itself …
Thanks, again, to the Long Center for the Performing Arts for sponsoring today’s edition.
THANKS FOR SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT, LOCAL REPORTING.
Tips or story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com. Also on Twitter and Instagram.
Look out, families of David Ross and George Ade. If someone coughs up enough bucks, Purdue will discard your legacy as fast as they gave the middle finger figuratively to the Krannert family. As a third-generation Boilermaker it bothers me to see everything for sale now at my school.
Apparently Krannert was always the grad school and everyone else just assumed the ugrad school was also Krannert, but it was really unnamed. 🤷♂️