As Purdue University closed in on a secret deal shrouded in non-disclosure agreements and stealth meetings since November, President Mitch Daniels called faculty members of the University Senate, deans and a handful of academic administrators to Fowler Hall Thursday morning.
There, Daniels offered the courtesy of a one-hour heads up, outlining for professors how Purdue trustees were about to agree to take over Kaplan University, a for-profit, nationwide college aimed at distance learning.
The move, Daniels promised, would transform the university’s role in higher education by reaching a much different student than the ones who typically roam the West Lafayette campus and who wouldn’t otherwise be able to earn a degree bearing the Purdue name.
By all accounts, when Daniels was done, no hands went up.
“Silent,” said David Sanders, University Senate chairman. “Not one question. Well … so many questions. But right then? None. I mean, where do you start?”
And there are a ton of unanswered questions, asked out loud or not – starting with something this basic: What’s this Purdue/Kaplan hybrid going to be called? “TBD,” Daniels said. For now, Purdue is referring to it as New University.
But on Thursday morning, as faculty and others were trying to sort questions they didn’t think they’d know they’d need to ask until just then, trustees were meeting at the Dauch Alumni Center to vote during a special meeting. They hailed their own foresight and good fortune, saying the university’s due diligence, done with business-grade confidentiality, had turned up no reason to say no. “Squeaky clean,” as Trustee Michael Klipsch put it.
Pending further review from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and others, Purdue will pick up Kaplan University for a dollar, convert it from for-profit to nonprofit, and brand it as a public institution that is self-sustaining and without need of state support. The Purdue/Kaplan blend would take its place in a Purdue hierarchy that is topped by the main campus in West Lafayette and flanked by regional campuses, Purdue Fort Wayne and Purdue Northwest.