Purdue trustees: Business school renamed after Daniels, $300M allocated

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. − The Purdue board of trustees' first meeting of 2023 was an eventful one with a renaming, $300 million going towards the news School of Business and plans for future student housing discussed.

The Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business

One of the biggest announcements in what was President Mung Chiang's first trustee meeting in his position as president, was the announcement that Purdue's School of Business will officially be named the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business, honoring the long-serving president who stepped down at the end of 2022.

In September 2022, the university announced its plans to create a new School of Business, replacing the previous School of Management. Despite commonly being called the Krannert School of Management, this was never an official title for the school, And in fact, the school, now the School of Business instead of management, has never had an official name beyond its baseline title.

That changed on Friday.

"The overall college of management, or now, the School of Business, has never had a name," Purdue President Chiang told the Journal & Courier. "The Krannert name denotes the Krannert Graduate Program in Industrial Management. And that has been the case and will remain the case."

President Emeritus Daniels was previously honored in December 2022 with the renaming of State Street to Mitch Daniels Boulevard.

$300 million toward the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business

In President Chiang's report to the board, he discussed the goals for the upcoming School of Business. Two in particular, those being for Purdue to have a top-10 Business School "with distinct scholarly strengths across undergrad, Master, PhD executive ed and research." The other being for Purdue to educate business leaders in excellence and a technology-driven, free market economy.

Also discussed in this meeting was what will come with the development of the new School of Business. According to Chiang's presentation, a 125,000 gross-square-feet new academic building; about 50 new faculty by 2030; "bigger and better" undergraduate, graduate, online and executive research (resources); new departments, programs, center and learning experiences along with a total of $300 million in funding are included.

Chiang explained that $100 million of that comes from university investment while $200 million will come from fundraising campaigns.

Ground-breaking on the new School of Business building has not happened yet, and Chiang told the Journal & Courier that it will be discussed at a future trustee meeting.

12th year of tuition freeze endorsed

Chiang presented to the board a request for the 12th consecutive year of the tuition freeze. This would secure the tuition cost for Indiana residents to remain at $9,992 per year and $28,794 for out-of-state residents for the 2024-25 academic year.

The request was only presented to the board, and members quickly endorsed it. It will be formally approved by the trustees at their April meeting, per state statute.

"We evaluate year over year and only after the FY mid-year report, which can only happen after the mid-year is over, this is something that (the finance committee) evaluated," Chiang said. "And then we had a conversation with the finance committee, and (looked) at the data for this past month (to determine if tuition could remain frozen)."

Regarding any future plans for the tuition freeze, Chiang referred to the fact that it is evaluated each year and can only be determined then.

Student housing

It was acknowledged by the board that the issue of student housing is prevalent, especially after the university continues to hit record-high enrollment rates year after year.

No firm votes or actions were taken by the board, but they allowed Vice President of Physical Facilities and Public Safety for Purdue, Jay Wasson, to speak on behalf of the future plans for addressing this issue.

"Back in 2018," Wasson said, "we released the Giant Leaps Master Plan, part of that plan included looking at potential future housing needs and identifying the areas of campus that would be appropriate to develop those types of facilities. Over the last few months, we've been updating the housing and dining portions of that plan, considering the fact that we have built two new residence halls and acquired the Aspire Apartments complex.

"And so, we looked again at those sites to see which ones continue to make sense for future housing developments, which sites could be redeveloped over time to more modernized housing and we also identified a couple new sites that we had not previously considered that may be appropriate for housing."

Those potential new developments include further redevelopment of the existing Meredith Hall as well as property between the main campus and the Student Life facilities.

Wasson further explained that he and his department will continue to work with the Physical Facilities Committee, the board and the new Action Council on student housing. The Action Council, formed by Chiang in January, was created to place a stronger focus on student housing and overall student wellness.

At the April trustees meeting, a public presentation will be held about the findings from the freshly looked-over Master Plan as well as the general next steps Purdue will be taking in any future housing developments.

Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mchristopherson@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue announces $300M toward renaming business school after Daniels