Purdue Student Government Forum March 3, 2011

>> I would like to take the opportunity
to welcome everyone tonight.
My name, for those of you who don't know me, is Brad Krites.
I'm the President of the Undergraduate Student Government
and we're excited to have this opportunity for students tonight
to interact with this panel, this impressive panel that is
so graciously joined us in the front row.
I would like to introduce them so that you know who is here.
But first I want to just kind of go
over a couple housekeeping type agenda items.
I wanted to let you know I felt like it was in all fairness
to let you know that we are recording tonight.
There will be a video and audio recording of tonight and it's
for the hope that those who were unable to make it due
to evening exams or whatever the circumstance may be,
have an opportunity to get some of the same answers
and information that you guys receive tonight.
So, I asked that when we open it up to the question
and answer session you work with me as we have this microphone
for you and that you try to project your voice well enough
so that it's able to be picked up and so that the video turns
out as good as it get.
So with that aside I'd first like to introduce a couple
of the students who are with us.
We have our student trustee and the board
of trustees Tyler Teykl.
We have the Student Commissioner on the Indiana Commissioner
for Higher Education Keith Hansen
and from the university we're joined
by the President France Cordova.
[ Applause ]
>> We're joined by the Executive Vice President for Business
and Finance and Treasurer Al Diaz.
[ Applause ]
>> We're joined by the provost, Tim Sands.
[ Applause ]
>> We're joined by Senior Vice President for Business Services
and Assistant Treasurer Jim Almond.
[ Applause ]
>> And Director of Physical and Capital Planning Ken Sandel.
[ Applause ]
>> I want to-- we also have with us the President
of the Graduate Student Government Andy Robinson
and we have a quite strong grad presence here which is great
because I think it speaks to the nature of this event and that is
that all students regardless of semester classification
or even undergrad versus grad versus professional
versus doctorate do take a stake in this university
and are very passionate about Purdue and I think
that this is an incredible opportunity for us
to really engage in a good dialogue with the university
and ask any questions, get any information that will be useful
to us and take an opportunity to make sure
that the student voice is heard in all of this process.
So, I would first like to introduce President Cordova
to start out the night.
We will-- the first half of tonight will be presentations
to kind of show you where we've been and where we're going
and give you some facts and hopefully enable you to be able
to ask informed questions during the second half
and then obviously the second half will be your opportunity
to really engage in the dialogue.
So without further ado, President Cordova.
[ Applause ]
>> Good evening everyone.
Let's see if I can get this on.
It's really great to see you here and so many of you here.
Okay, can everybody here me?
All right, good, good.
Well, first of all, this is just a great university
when on Tuesday night you can go
to an outstanding basketball game and watch us eek
out a real important victory against Illinois and say goodbye
to a couple of superb seniors and then on Wednesday night,
you can go to the Blue Man Concert and watch balls flying
around the audience and see a former student trustee dragged
up into the front to do an act with the Blue Man.
And then on Thursday night, be with the student forum.
I mean that is just what an amazing week.
And actually, that's really the reason where we're all here
and you all are so interested in this conversation is
because it's about keeping Purdue amazing.
Several of us have been at and around the Sate House all day.
In fact we just drove back from Indianapolis.
We talked with some of our state senators including the head
of the State Budget Committee, Senator Luke Kenley
and we talked with some
of our commissioners including the Commissioner Teresa Lubbers,
the head of the Indiana Commission on Higher Education
about the same subject
that we're gonna be talking about today.
And running through the theme of it all is how
to not only maintain Purdue's excellence but make sure
that it can become even better and we all want that.
It adds value to your degree.
Years from now when you look back at this experience
and you look at what Purdue has become, at that time,
you'll be really proud that you contributed towards taking
Purdue to the next level.
So before I just introduce how we're gonna talk
and give you some background on the subject before we open it
up for Q&A, I do want to make a couple of announcements.
In between our meetings at the State House and our meetings
with the Commission, we stopped
by he women's basketball game today.
Purdue was playing IU at Conseco Fieldhouse,
it was the first game and we played it
against Indiana, IU, and we won.
So, yes.
[ Applause ]
>> So for those of you who can turn on with any
of your devises, tomorrow we'll be playing Penn State
at 11:30 a.m. Another, and completely a world away
over in Egypt, a Purdue alumnus,
Purdue's civil engineering graduate Dr. Essam Sharaf has
been named the Prime Minister of Egypt.
So that's impressive.
That's called launching tomorrow's leaders, right?
[ Applause ]
>> All right.
Well, let me also take this opportunity to thank Brad
and to thank Andy for just providing superb leadership
for the students.
I meet with them regularly, in fact yesterday was kind
of our monthly tag up day and we have separate meetings and we go
through a lot of student issues
and you should just be very proud of their efforts
of being thoroughly engaged in the things that are important
to you and extracting a lot of meaningful things
from the administration which is what it's all about.
Over the last year, we've been engaged
in something called the biennial budget appropriations process.
So what does that mean?
That means like unlike some states
where they have an annual appropriation process,
we have one every 2 years and that,
and it sets the budget including the tuition
and fees for the next 2 years.
And actually, that's-- you know, it has an up and a downside.
The upside is that it's just once every 2 years you go
through all this and the downside,
since it's once every 2 years, this got to be really important
and count because whatever happens is gonna last
for 2 years.
So it's an important process.
In my remarks and at the end of our treasurer's remarks,
I'll just talk a little bit about how we have to look ahead
at kind of a longer course of looking at what kind of funding
and revenues sources are out there because this budget,
biennial budget process, is a pretty grueling one
and as you'll see from some of the presentation material,
the state has kind of fixed resources
and if we're truly gonna become an even better institution
and provide more opportunities for students going forward,
then we're gonna have to look at new revenue sources.
So I've so far testified 3 times in front
of the State Legislature this year and we have another one
to look forward to in another week or two.
So let me introduce Al Diaz, your treasurer who's gonna come
up here and give you as abbreviated background
as we're able to, to get the general framework
of the budget landscape and then as I said, I'll come up
and say a few remarks but we want to save the majority
of the time and we'll stay here all night or almost all night.
We'll stay here as long as you will to answer your questions.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
[ Noise ]
>> Well, thank you France and can everybody see the--
okay, great, that's terrific.
And for those of you that, you know, might be interested in any
of these charts, I don't know
if when the video is done you'll be able
to see them on the video.
But all of these charts are posted on the budget website
as part of the president's forum presentation.
There may be one that isn't on that but I think
for the most part they're on that.
And so you don't need to take notes.
Just kind of sit back and relax and if you want us to go back
to anything, we can do that.
So let me start out-- we are-- doesn't seem to be-- okay.
A little primer on the Purdue budget.
So what you're looking at is a pi chart that shows a totality
of 2.2 billion dollars which is the full system,
full budget from all fund sources
and the West Lafayette portion
of that all fund sources again is 1.88 billion dollars.
The rest of it is the regional campuses.
I won't be focusing
on the regional campuses beyond this point not
because it isn't important but because I think most
of you are interested in the West Lafayette budget
and because the parameters
that affect the budget elements are different
at the regional centers than they are at West Lafayette.
So this is an eye test and so let me point out just a couple
of salient features here.
The first is that this is the total of the revenue sources
for Fiscal Year '11 which is the year
that we're in, Fiscal Year 10-11.
And so these takes the 1.8 billion dollars that we talked
about earlier and it breaks it up into its component parts.
50 percent of the 1.8 billion dollars is what we call the
general fund.
The general fund is the portion of the budget that is devoted
to the education mission of the university.
The rest of it is also very important but to one degree
or another is not available to achieve that mission.
So, for instance, 26 percent is shown here as restricted funds.
Restricted funds typically come from sources where the use
of the funds is determined by the giver of the fund.
So our federal grants gifts and donations are in that category.
Also we have in the blue, self-supporting auxiliary fund.
So this is largely athletics and housing and food services
and in this case, there's a transaction that takes place
that has nothing to do with the mission of--
the teaching mission of the university
but where resources are conveyed or exchanged in exchange
for some physical good or in the case
of athletics attending a game.
And then the balance of the half
that isn't the general fund is student aid.
These are budgeted student aid funds that come
from the federal government or come from the state
and obviously are available only
for supporting the students indirectly
and so the general fund is what we'll focus
on for just another couple of charts.
So the general fund comes
from three sources principally, or three areas.
One is from the state, the state provides us 27 percent
of our general funds in the form of an operating appropriation.
That are funds that are used
to operate the university physically
and as a physical system and pay people.
The state funds for debt financing which comprise only
about 3 percent also come from the state and what that is,
is the payment on debt that's associated
with building buildings or what have you,
typically building buildings.
What you can see is that two thirds of the general fund comes
from student tuition and fees and/or almost two thirds.
And the balance of it, 10 percent, we call other income.
Other income includes the biggest portion of other income
and remember, 10 percent would mean that's
about 90 million dollars.
About 60 million dollars of that is indirect cost recovery
from grants so we get a grant from the federal government,
it comes in two pieces, a direct piece
that supports the activities, pays salaries and procures goods
and services and other piece,
that's the indirect cause that's associated
with the university support of that activity.
And so about two thirds of the other income is
that indirect cost recovery.
The balance of it is from a variety of sources.
Some of it is from the endowment and interest on funds
that we hold on a day-to-day basis.
But in-- for all intents of purposes, other than 10 percent
of the general fund, the balance of it comes
from either the state or students
with the largest element coming from the students.
So this is a history of our appropriation
for the past 10 years or so and what you can see is that,
and this not adjusted for inflation.
This is simply the nominal numbers.
What you can see is that today, the governor's recommendation,
the recommended budget that went to the legislature is
within 2 million dollars of what the budget was in 2003 and '04.
Now that's not withstanding the fact that the CPI,
that's the consumer price index, has decreased our buying power
over that same period by about 20 percent.
If you look at what's called the higher education price index
which is the package of goods and services
that are more associated with university operations,
that deflator is about 30 percent.
And so what that means is
that that 230 million dollars today is worth about 20
to 30 percent less than it was back in 2003 and '04.
And so that's what the history has been.
And so recognizing that we would be going
into a budget cycle this time
that would probably not provide us with anymore funds
that we had this year and this year our appropriation
from the state is at 241 million dollars,
that's what this indicates.
We started planning over a year ago, in fact,
a year and a half ago now, November of 2009,
we started planning around the premise
that we wouldn't be getting anymore
than the 241 million dollars and we wanted to come
up with a strategy that would allow us
to operate the university through the next biennium
with that 241 million dollars without increasing tuition
and so that's what we did.
We identified the reductions we would have to make in the budget
in order to operate on 241 million dollars
for this coming biennium without increasing tuition.
And this chart gives you an indication, again, an iChart,
but it gives you an indication
of what the actions are that we have planned.
You can see on the left hand column the things
that were already underway to deal with the reductions
that we encountered in the previous biennium.
So the current year is actually lower than previous year.
There was an 8 percent reduction in the--
from the last biennium to this and that was accommodated
by budget actions but also by a student fee increase
of 5 percent for instate students and 6 percent
for out of state students.
And so that's what we did then.
What we have now is a plan
that would reduce our operating budget for the next biennium
by 67 and a half million dollars and as a contingency
against future or further reductions,
we had identified the fact that if we went beyond that point,
we might need to increase tuition and fees.
And what this down at the right hand corner indicates is
that a 1 percent change in tuition and fees and that's
about 4.8 million dollars.
About 5 million dollars per 1 percent
of tuition and fee increase.
So one of the questions is,
so what does the university spend my money on
and this is designed to indicate that.
Now, what we focused on here is the allocations
that have been made over the course of the past 10 years.
Since 2002, we have allocated 380 million dollars.
Now what does that mean?
That means that back in 2002, our budget--
our operating budget,
the general fund expenditure plan was just
over 500 million dollars.
It now stands at about 400 million dollars more than that,
at 907 million dollars.
>> And this is the list of things
that approximately accounts for what that expenditure plan was
and what you can see is that more than a third of it went
into compensation and benefits increases
for employees 8 percent or about 32 million dollars went
into scholarships.
Another 8 percent has gone into fee remissions and then the rest
of them you can see here.
If you're looking for about a 75 percent break,
you get down through IT, research, new faculty
and utilities and if you take all of that and what's in the--
what isn't in the right hand area, that accounts
for 75 percent of the expenditure.
What you can also see is that you know,
it goes down to the point of saying 1 percent went
into library periodicals.
Many things that are increasing at faster than the rate
of inflation and so, many of these things we had to add money
to continue to be able to purchase and so,
this is the list of the items that we spend the tuition
and fees as well as the state appropriation on.
So I only wanted to talk about one further item and I'll go
on to that right now and it has to do
with repair and rehabilitation.
Now I don't know what many of you think
about the condition of our facilities.
We tend to believe that the facilities are
in pretty good shape for the most part
but we have reached a point where one of the ways
that we renovate facilities that is to bring them back
to current operating standard, one of the ways we do that is
to tear them down and build a new.
And one of the reasons for that is that we don't--
we haven't been able to consistently invest
in what's called repair and rehabilitation.
Now there are various metrics that are used
for how much repair
and rehabilitation ought to be budgeted.
Some of them go as high as one and a half percent
of the current replacement value of the facilities
but it really does depend on the condition of the facilities
and so, we've done an assessment of what the--
a comprehensive assessment of what the condition
of our facilities are to come up with an idea of where we are
with respect to repair and rehabilitation.
Our current-- the current replacement value
of the West Lafayette Academic and Administration buildings,
now this doesn't include the residences
and it doesn't include the facilities for the athletics
but the current replacement value
for West Lafayette's Academic
and Administration buildings is 4.4 billion dollars.
Our deferred R&R backlog, meaning the amount of money
that we know we need to spend on these facilities to keep them
up to current standards is about 430 million dollars.
The annual R&R funding need to keep us from having
that backlog grow any further is 30 million dollars
and the annual university internally supported R&R is 9.1
million dollars.
So there's a significant gap and one of the things
that we're working on now is the fact that the state,
because of the economic conditions, has not been
in a position to help us very much with this and in fact,
what you can see is that over the past five biennia,
the backlog has increased over 100 million dollars and so,
this is just an issue that's in the background.
It's one that we need to address and we'll have some implications
on the way we resolve the budget issues that we have right now.
And so with that, I was gonna stop and turn it back
over to Dr. Cordova who'll talk about not only where we are now
but where we'll be going in the future.
Thank you.
>> Thanks, Al.
[ Applause ]
>> All right.
So where have we been?
Where does it look like we're going as far
as state funding is concerned?
That's shown on this figure here.
So what you're looking at is money
on the Y axis there versus time here.
So this is a couple of decades.
This is all the way since 1990 there.
And the blue line shows the actual
and this has all been adjusted for the consumer price index.
So that's in 2010 dollars.
So the blue line shows the actual operating appropriations
from the state.
And so, you see it really fluctuates, right?
It goes way down and then goes up, and it's all raggedy,
and this is kind of the every 2-year sort of budget engagement
that we're-- that we do.
And you see recently, it's, you know,
it's really taken another zoom down.
And then the red line is just kind of a smooth line
through it showing that for the last 2 decades,
even though it sometimes goes up and sometimes goes down,
it's inexorably just headed downwards at the rate
of about a percent a year.
So we discuss this with the few commissioners that we met
with today, and they agree, and everybody has, you know,
slightly different numbers, depending on whether you throw
in debt service or these scholarships
that the state gives called SASI grants and so forth.
But no one argues that our state funding situation,
looking out into the future, and we see some future there,
is going to the-- all of a sudden, we're gonna end
up with more state funding.
And that's not because the state doesn't love higher education.
It really does.
And in fact, we are and acknowledge that we are
in a better position than a lot of the states around us
and all through the country.
But that there are a lot of pressures
on the state including property tax caps and prisons
and the cost of that but predominantly, Medicaid costs,
and that states have to match the federal contribution
to that, that inexorably drive up the entitled portion
of the budget, and drive down its capacity
to fund discretionary portions.
And we are discretionary.
And so, then you'll just see the state contribution just
inevitably getting less and less.
So how are we gonna handle that for the future?
Well, every 2 years, we're gonna be at the state house
and we're gonna be asking for Purdue
and the higher education's fair share, and certainly,
K through 12 is, and there are big needs there.
But we realize if we are going to continue
to be a great university and become the university
that we aspire to, which is even greater, is that we are going
to have to look ahead, and we're gonna have to--
you know, remember the wedge
that the treasurer showed you called other revenue
that was 10 percent right now of the general funds,
we're gonna have to expand that wedge, and we're gonna have
to look at how we're gonna get other sources of revenue
in very creative ways, so we have capacity to grow
and become even better.
So could we have the next slide please?
So looking ahead, what are the goals?
We want to sustain [inaudible] in spite of the challenges
that we're faced with the economy.
We want to achieve our goals for excellence and learning
and research and engagement.
We wanna maintain our autonomy of governance,
and I just wanna take a little pause here to talk about that.
There is a proposal from the House Ways and Means Committee
in front of the legislature right now as of a week
or two ago that has a little part of it
that recommends turning over the autonomy on tuition and fees
from the trustees where it presently resides
to ultimately the state budget director.
So this would have the state controlling
where our tuition and fees are.
Now, this hasn't passed or anything.
It's part of the, as I said, the house budget submission.
So the senate has to weigh in with its own budget,
and then there's a period where they compromise, and hopefully,
by April 30th, we'll have the final budget.
But this is a very important consideration,
because I would argue, as would any president
of a great university, that what has kept our universities
in this country great is the autonomy, that's the control,
over the governance of all things to do
with where the university is headed by the board of trustees,
who is, after all, the members are appointed by the governor.
And so, we think that's a very important substory that's going
on right now.
And so, we're in there talking with people,
I'm sure our trustees will weigh into,
but we wanna preserve the trustees' oversight of tuition
and fees and of everything the university does.
>> So that's called autonomy of governance.
They are a governing board.
We have a land-grant mission.
We have for over 140 years as a university.
What does that mean?
That means that everything that we discover here in the way
of new knowledge, we try to take out to the rest of Indiana
so that it can benefit humankind
in whatever ways whether it's agriculture or engineering
or the arts and humanities and we like to think of Purdue
because it is a national university,
actually it's a global university,
as taking that land-grant mission
to become a world grant mission and that's why we talk a lot
about global engagement.
We have a new global policy research institute.
We've talked about experiences for students abroad.
We bring in a lot of students from abroad
because we wanna think of Purdue as being a university really
for the whole country, the whole world
and the benefits flowing in both directions.
So those are our goals in working
out what we think the budget should be in order
to realize those goals and the outcome has to be ultimately
that we wanna position Purdue to be higher in quality,
higher in reputation and higher in impact
and you will be the beneficiaries of that
and hopefully one day you will also contribute
to fostering that.
So what have I asked the whole campus to do?
Well, in my State of the University Address in January,
I pointed out these long term trends and that we have to think
of our budget which is, think of it in terms
of capacity for investment.
We have to think about not in 2-year intervals, get all worked
up every couple of years and fight like cat to sustain it.
But we have to look at it in tenure,
of rolling tenure intervals that looking ahead
and doing some strategic investments
and some experiments here and there and learning and research
and engagement how are we going to bring in more revenue
to the university so we can realize all those goals
that I just listed.
So I have everybody challenged whether they're dining
and food services or athletics or research or philanthropy.
Every unit is challenged with looking at self not
as a cost center that takes in money but as a revenue center
that produces money, how are they all going
to double the revenues that they already have over the next 7
to 10 years and thereby bring in more money,
especially for the endowment which we hope to really build
up from our 1.6 billion dollars to several billion dollars
so we can fund more scholarships, more programs
for students, more faculty endowed positions,
to keep our best faculty and recruit excellent faculty
to come to Purdue in the future.
So this is what the course that we've set ourselves on.
We're hoping by the middle of August to have a plan in front
of the trustees that where all the different units have engaged
in strategically planning for generating revenue
over the next 10 years and then we will be using
that to make investments to realize those goals.
So I hope that gives you some idea of the general--
without going into too much detail--
of the general direction, kind of a summary
of where the budget is and what we use it
for to fund all these things we do and where we're headed
in a long range sense and now I think we have just lots of times
for your particular questions.
We have a lot of backup slides and information
if you ask different sorts of questions to share with you
but we're interested in hearing from you.
You've all come here with something on your minds.
So let's get started.
Thank you very much for your attention
through this introduction.
[ Applause ]
>> So as the president said, we will enter the portion
of the night where we rely on you to participate.
So what I would ask is that if you have a question,
just kind of signal me and I'll come to you.
Why don't you just for the sake of all of us having an idea
of who's here maybe say your name and where are you
from in terms of this university and maybe where you're
from in terms of the US so we can know whether you're
in state or out of state.
Here's a question.
>> Good evening.
How are you?
Christopher Colosio [phonetic]
from Political Science graduate student.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> I'm out of state.
I'm from Michigan.
I got my undergrad at Michigan State.
There's been a lot of concern of recent for TAs and RAs.
We realize that the state budget is the way that it is
and appropriations are in the state that they are.
But I was wondering if you had any comments
or you could give us any indication
about what's gonna happen with the number of RAs and TAs
across the department.
[ Inaudible Discussion ]
>> It's on.
Okay. So I'm going to bring up our provost to prepare
to answer that question.
So Tim Sands.
>> The RA and TA budgets are not controlled centrally.
So the RA budget is a result of, primarily, of the money
that we bring in for research awards,
which are at a record high, we're at 418 million dollars
for the West Lafayette Campus this year,
28 percent increase over last year.
The TA budget issue is also locally controlled.
That's something that your college would control.
That said, we have challenged each college to participate
in our plan to save the 67 million dollars that you saw
from Treasurer Diaz's slide.
And they will be contributing, we guess,
somewhere around 20 million.
That was our charge to them.
So they've put together plans for the next biennium,
and they're just plans at this point.
So it's really premature for anyone at this point,
including the deans, to comment on what the impact might be.
But we're very concerned about it, and that's why we have
to look carefully at all aspects of the budget to make sure
that we don't end up sacrificing the quality of the delivery
of instruction, teaching
and learning mission of the university.
So it's a little bit-- I'm--
this may sound I'm dancing around your question,
but I don't know, it's something
that we're really concerned with, and the deans are working
on those budgets right now.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Good evening, President Cordova.
My name is Jackson Troxville [phonetic] from the College
of Ag in Northwestern Indiana, small town of La Crosse.
My question to you is what ideas do you have to grow
that 10 percent sector of the other
for funding of Purdue University.
>> Right. Thank you.
My slide had some ideas on that.
Well, one, kind of simple obvious one is philanthropy,
okay, that we now-- a few years ago,
we had a campaign for Purdue.
It produced capacity in Discovery Park--
to grow Discovery Park, new faculty positions about 300
of those, and some other things,
where we didn't increase the investment very much
as in scholarships.
That was one area which is very relevant
to the student experience.
And so, I actually have used money because I realized
that we just weren't competitive when I came here a few years ago
with our peer institutions and the scholarship regime.
So we've taken money out of the general funds
to supplement the scholarship money that we have
in philanthropy, and we simply have
to raise the philanthropic dollars, that's get our donors
to want to give to scholarships and put a lot
of it in the endowment.
'Cause see, the difference between an endowment
and spending the money right now, just think of it
as a bank account, you're putting it in there
where you just spend the interest and save the principle.
So it pays for all time into the future.
And we haven't had a focus on increasing the endowment,
and we haven't had a focus on the item called scholarships.
So now, we do.
We spend a lot more money now, something like, what,
40 million more out of the general fund than we did just
over the past couple of years.
And, you know, I hope to really grow it.
So I've challenged the development,
that's what it's called, the group that raises money
from gifts, philanthropy,
to raise our 200 million dollar a year annual level from alumni
and friends to 400 million dollars a year.
That's their goal over the next 7 to 10 years.
And they actually have a plan to do it.
They brought in a consultant, they reviewed our database
of alumni and their potential, and they think we can do it.
What we really need to do is make sure we make the arguments
in front of them that this is a big need, that maybe we don't
so much need a building, but we need the money for scholarships,
we need it for student success programs,
changes up in the classroom whether they are IT changes
and all that.
So it's kind of a culture change,
but it's also a fundraising change.
And so, we have a campaign
that is being planned in a quiet phase.
You'll hear a lot more about it over the next few months.
>> That's one way but also increasing other budgets.
Athletics has some potential upside with the expansion
of teams, we just included Nebraska.
We'll get some more money from that.
We have as Big Ten Network contracts and all.
People-- there seems to be no limit to what people will pay
to watch athletics and so, we--
Morgan Burke, the Athletics Director is planning a plan
for what needs to be reinvested in athletics
and what he can return.
For example, he has offered to return 12 million dollars
over 6 years that will be accumulated by the expansion
with Nebraska and turn it over into a center
for student excellence and leadership for students and so,
that's the kind of thinking we're gonna get everybody to do.
Housing and dining is now giving a million dollars a year
to scholarships from the money that they raise.
So when you eat your next meal in the dining courts,
you can think you're helping somebody's scholarship
to get raised.
So we've got a lot of ideas
and that's why I challenged everybody with thinking
of some more revenue opportunities.
IT represents huge opportunity as well.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Oh, okay.
This is not working or?
>> Yeah.
>> And then so if you could maybe just repeat whatever
question is asked so that it-- go ahead.
[ Inaudible Remarks ]
>> Oh yes, this is a great time to bring
up Ken Sandel who's the head of all that.
Yes?
[ Laughter ]
>> We continually evaluate what the needs are
and you're exactly right, there's a number
of new facilities going up.
When we approach the-- looking at whether we build new
or we renovate, we look at are we filling a gap
or are we looking at what's obsolete
that we need to look at.
So Al mentioned that we had just done a pretty extensive review
of our facilities and what that did was point
to what our priorities need to be.
We have, and Al showed on the slide,
about a 30-million dollar need on an annual basis
and that's what would keep the deferred problem from growing.
When we have about 10 million dollars
and that's what we fund currently
without any state support, that really allows us
to truly take care of what is our safety needs
and the building envelopes, the roofs, the masonry,
the structure, the windows, the doors and so forth.
That's the level at which we can invest and we invest all
across campus to take care of the safety
and those type of needs.
We are looking right now at how do we work with the state
to fund that additional amount of R&R that would allow us
to then touch the things that you see the most, the interiors,
the climate that's in the buildings, the HVAC units
and so forth, the mechanical, the electrical systems.
That's what the next wave of funding would allow us to do.
We invest all across campus in all of our facilities
because as Al mentioned, there's
about 4.4 billion dollars replacement values
so we have a large plant.
After that, the next funding goes to laboratories
and classrooms and that's when we can--
that's what you would see the most and bring those
up to current standards.
Does that address your question?
>> Was Nathan-- were you asking about new buildings as well?
>> Yeah, [simultaneous talking] are there any new building--
>> Yeah, sure about the student success corridor and the--
>> Yeah, there's two main focus right now.
There's the Life and Health Science Quad, so when you think
of Lilly Hall in that particular quad, there's a part
of that building that we've renovated and part
of the building that we're gonna tear down and replace.
So in the Life and Health Science Quad, in that area,
there's a Health and Human Science building,
there's a Drug Discovery building.
We've asked the state for an Animal Science building and so,
there's also a focus on the student success quarter.
Dr. Cordova mentioned the CSEL or the Center
for Student Excellence and Leadership.
That's a facility that we're planning that is gonna be right
in the front door of the Corec right along Third Street.
So there is that facility,
there's also some other facilities
that are planned along there for student projects,
facilities and so forth.
So a lot of investment along that and of renovation
of the Corec is a very large investment there.
>> Does that answer your question Nathan?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. A lot of the building work is paid
for through private contributions, okay?
And so the state like take the new Health
and Human Sciences facility which is like number one
on our list for the state.
We're asking the state for only 16 million dollars for that
but the building cost 54 million dollars so all the rest
of the money is coming from other sources,
a combination of sources.
[ Inaudible Question ]
>> Right. Yeah.
[ Inaudible Question ]
>> Yeah, like Lilly.
A portion-- part of Lily Hall, yeah.
So yeah, that would be a good example.
[ Inaudible Question ]
>> I think on that one it's mostly from the state
and it's number one on the cap-- the 10-year capital plan,
the Animal Sciences building.
Yeah.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> From the previous plan from last year.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> 20 million in gifts can assess, yeah.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> We have-- do we have a kind of our building plan
on the website too on the budget link?
We could do that if the students are interested
in seeing what's gonna--
you know the student success corridor.
What's gonna be torn down?
What's gonna be built up?
What the priority is?
We'd be happy to put something together so that you can set--
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Okay, we'll put that as an action.
Brad, you have to call him.
I don't want to choose.
>> Hi, good evening President.
My name is Lu Chi [phonetic]
and my major is mechanical engineering.
I'm from China and I'm now president
of Purdue Chinese Student and Scholar Association.
My question is, speaking of the scholarship,
I noticed that a lot of scholarships are only open
for the master students.
I mean you stated this as permanent residence.
So but Purdue has 40 percent of international students, okay.
[ Inaudible Remarks ]
>> No. International students, I mean.
Yeah but the scholarships-- scholar chances--
>> Right. Okay, so let me answer that.
The portion of the scholarship funding, remember I said
that a lot of it comes out at the general fund,
that's state money and so we really can't use
that to fund international students.
We made that agreement in order to do this, all right.
So we are committed to raising money from private sources
for the international students including our
international alumni.
So I go to China twice a year.
I'm going on April and I lose no opportunity to meet with parents
and alumni and tell them that students have scholarship needs
and we love the students from their country, from China
and ask them to think about giving to a scholarship fund.
But as you know much better than I, this is the whole idea
of fundraising for higher education
for scholarships is new kind of thinking.
There's not a long history that there is in this country,
especially at private institutions in this country
of raising money for scholarships.
So we're working on it but we just can't use the state funds
for international students and that's where we have a majority
of funds including a lot of federal scholarship funds
like Pell Grant Funds, the SASI Funds
which are independent source from the state
and our own general funds.
So that's the problem we have
but we understand your situation.
>> Thanks.
>> Hi, I'm Sequoia Murray [phonetic].
I'm in the school of chemical engineering.
I'm from Northern Indiana so I'm in state.
My question is kind of an extension of the buildings.
I live in Brownstone which is PRF is my leasing office
and I notice that when I resigned my lease,
there's a paragraph in there that was highlighted,
that was never highlighted before that I had to initial
by that said, that Purdue can choose to take this land
at any time throughout the year and I have 30 days to moved out.
And so I'm--
>> I think it's only 28 now.
>> So--
>> Just kidding.
>> I'm wondering--
[ Laughter ]
>> Sorry.
>> Sorry, I just couldn't resist it.
[ Laughter ]
>> I'm just wondering if that's something that would happen
in the middle of October where I'm in midterm.
>> I'm gonna let Ken answer
that because I think I know why it's happened.
>> That specifically relates to some of the development
that we are doing a long the Third Street corridor,
the Brownstone you're talking about are right
on Russell, Third and Russell.
There will be more lead time than that.
They have to do that contractually just to--
because there is that clause in there and they are
at least highlighting it for you.
One of the thoughts were that as we look at the CSEL the Center
for Student Excellence and Leadership development there
and a little of growth and maybe some student housing there,
what could they utilize that the PRF property for to complement
that that would enhance that student corridor
or that we're calling the student success corridor.
So we have indicated as a university to PRF
that that would be-- that's a target area.
So they are looking at what type
of development that they could do.
These things have a long, long time.
They-- we plan them and it takes years to do some of that
but they have to position themselves so that they're fair
to the people living there that if something were
to move quicker, they're at least notifying you.
But we know that's a few years out.
But usually, they'll let it go through the contract period
and then they won't renew and then they'll take care of it.
So I think it's just they're cautious.
>> But the plan is that there are certain areas on campus
that are older that would be better to, you know,
going back to Nathan's question to take them down
and build a newer facility.
So that is an area, the reason you see that clause is
that it is an area earmarked for eventually coming down.
So you shouldn't plan to be 50 years old
and still living there.
But we also will-- you know I think Ken is saying
that we will respect that, you know,
that students need some time to move and it's not going
to be 30 days, okay, either.
So, I mean usually it does take, you know, 2 or 3 years
in order to-- so you'd be notified that in that,
you know there's a plan and then a couple of years,
this is what the plan looks like.
Okay, so don't lose any sleep for that, please.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Hi I'm Andrew Martin from Decatur, Illinois and I'm going
into civil and environmental engineering.
I know that as part of the student success corridor,
HPN and ENAD are slated for destruction.
Is there any way to save them perhaps
as a student organization?
>> Ken. You're up.
>> Well, when we look at the whole student success corridor,
one of the things that we've begun talking about is
that section of campus about ENAD and the HPN as the--
I'd assume it's the north power plant is what you're
talking about.
We have looked at those.
The saving of the power plant is not possible.
The boilers that are inside are connected
to the outer structure.
So if we were to do anything to remove the guts of the building,
the entire sides just collapse in.
The insides are connected to the structure of the facility.
So the north power plant is impossible to save,
it's also very expensive to take down.
ENAD is one of those things that that is a prime area
for development, and one of the things
that we're considering is library classroom type
of options, things that would directly impact the students.
We always investigate what the options are to save any facility
to reuse, the sustainability aspect, so it's always something
that is considered and we always take those things into account.
That is a longer range plan.
So you will see a lot
of development along Third Street before you will see any
development at that particular location.
>> I think you can tell by now that Ken is--
he is really our capital projects fellow and so
if you have any questions, you can just e-mail Ken Sandel,
S-A-N-D-E-L, and he can--
I mean, he could still answer them tonight but I mean
in the future if you're worried-- if you're worried.
He is very busy making plans for.
You know, we have a master plan for the campus
and I think that's online somewhere on the website
and so you can look at that and you can see what the idea is.
We have a campus that's a little bit different
than some others instead
of spreading everything out for 10 miles.
We want kind of a dense course
so that you have easy walking distance between your buildings
and where you work out and where you dine and where you sleep
and so it'll look like a denser community with a big green belt
around it but we also have a road plan to, you know,
get more cars off the roads and have bicycle paths.
None of these things happened overnight but it's good to,
you know, if you're sensitive to your environment
and you wanna find out what's happening, there are ways--
there are definitely ways to do that but we hope
that whatever we do,
the physical plant is an improvement rather than,
you know, than taking something away, okay.
So you can get involved.
I know some of you are on planning groups like four
of these different student centers.
I know Brad is very, very involved
in helping to plan facilities.
So others of you who are interested can offer to do that.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> I'm David Fuller.
I'm a chemical engineer but I'm also primarily involved
in army ROTC here and so I'm wondering
if there's any particular considerations at this point
for the armory because the armory,
if you've been inside recently, it has multiple issues.
We'd recently had to have navy army ROTC stop doing PT
because of leak issues on the floor.
So I just don't know if there's any primary considerations
for revitalizing the armory.
Yeah. Sorry about that.
>> I can honestly say it's on the list and the issues
that you see inside of that facility and with
that facility are part of the deferred problem.
So, we look at what can we afford to do
and how does it address, so safety and structures to keep.
We're gonna-- what we're doing right now is we're keeping the
weather out and we need more resources in order to, you know,
get in and invest in the interiors and to upgrade
that facility and the resources just aren't presently there.
So we know all about those concerns and it's one
of the facilities that is identified.
It's on our list of deferred situations.
We just need the funding in order to address it.
If something breaks, we will get in and fix it.
If leak occurs, not to go out
and start a leak or anything but--
[ Laughter ]
>> Another example is Elliott.
You'll see just today fences all around Elliott
because we've had leaking roofs, we've had little fires,
we've had, you know, the smoke the other night
and of course Elliott is used a lot by students
to take their exams and to enjoy concerts and the like
and commencement and everything, and so,
we're just taking some precious resources
and we just said it's urgent.
We'd love to do a total renovation
that cost a fortune of Elliott.
We can't but we are spending a few million dollars just trying
to hit some very important safety issues but all
of these things that you're mentioning are part
of what's called R&R and that's really stressed.
We used to get more money from the state to do that
and we are just getting less and less money and so that's part
of why we're anxious about our funding situation is
that R&R is one of the most heavily impacted areas.
There's other things like, you know, the PMO people
who are doing the rehearsals in Eliot.
We decided it was not a good situation for them
and so Mr. Bailey and his wife stepped up
and gave us 8 million dollars for a new facility for them.
So that's another solution that is helping in some places
to address the R&R problem with our wonderful alumni.
So on the armory, it'd just be great if we, you know,
you students had a group of alumni that you could
or just passionate about the programs there 'cause we
completely agree it could use some attention
and they could come forward and, you know,
raise the money to fix it.
That gets moved up in the cue for sure.
>> I have a question.
We offer the opportunities to submit questions anonymously
and online for those who couldn't be there
and I thought this would be a good one
that would interest everyone.
The question is that-- so if we allow ourselves to assume
that there will be a decrease in state funding
and if we hypothetically couldn't raise tuition or fees,
what would we lose or what would the impacts to campus be?
>> Well, I'm going to turn it over to Provost Sands
about a lot of the papers, the thinking on this came
out of the colleges and just with the charge
that we gave them for looking at 3 percent cuts for each
of the next 2 years, what would be the impact to those?
We saw the beginning of what happened there
and one thing is you're coming up to him to kind
of carry on the conversation.
One impact I'll point out, we've already suffered this past year
which is instead of-- usually,
we hire about 130 professors a year
and this just directly matches the turnover rate
of professors either retiring or going elsewhere and, you know,
that's all about keeping our faculty-student ratio
at a good rate and making sure we have classroom sizes
that are not too big and you have the mentors that you need.
Well, this past year, we hired only 49, so that was one third
of the usual number and the deans tell us if we keep
that up, then, you know, our rankings will go down.
We'll have less professors, bigger classroom sizes and all,
so it's not a good situation.
>> I think if that were to come
to pass then it certainly would impact the programs
that were allowed or be able to offer the diversity
of the programs because the number one consideration is
to keep the value of your degree as high as possible and not
to let that deteriorate.
But I think if we were constrained to that degree,
it would impact at least in a short term class sizes.
It would limit as you said the hiring of faculty.
We would have to shrink the number of faculty, probably
and you can't do that quickly
and we would be looking seriously at programs
that might have to be terminated in a long run.
Of course that process is a very long process.
It's not something you can do over night.
Certainly looking at duplication and becoming more efficient
but we think we've been through already in exercise.
It has identified about as much as we can do without getting
down into the meat and the bones, so to speak.
So, it would be a difficult situation.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Well, so-- so, yeah.
We've talked about doing more with less
and obviously reduction of redundancies is the easiest way
to do that and you say you've looked at everything.
Currently, computer science
and computer engineering have a 90 percent overlap
in the research areas of the faculty there.
We teach a number of the same classes.
A proposal that I know all
of you have seen has been put forth actually since,
I guess 2008.
Merging those two and reducing that redundancy would save 3
to 4 million annually once the merger is done.
That is the money that could be used for a lot of other programs
or may not, you know, have to be cut from other programs.
I have yet to hear any reasons against this,
why this proposal keeps getting tabled.
They don't have to deal
with politics [inaudible] deans and whatnot.
I mean here we're interested in the academics
and that actually makes a stronger department
and it saves us all money
and I'm really curious are there any academic
or financial reasons that that proposal keeps getting tabled.
>> Well, it really hasn't been tabled in the sense of--
we haven't given up on it.
I became provost 11 months ago and that was one
of the first things that hit my desk and we've been engaged
in continuous discussions.
As you know the former head of computer science has a blog.
So if you wanna go read, you can read about what I told him,
what he's heard from the deans.
We had an open forum with the computer science faculty
where Dean Jamieson, dean of engineering, and Dean Roberts,
dean of science, addressed the entire faculty
of computer science.
It was an interesting discussion.
There are a lot of strong feelings on both sides
and those are the kind of discussions that would have
to continue and will continue at some level.
We're not gonna table those things.
The problem we have right now is that in that particular case
and I'm still learning about it.
Matter of fact, computer science is going
through an external review coming up in the next week.
Yeah.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> So we weren't gonna do anything before that and as far
as what we might do
in the future it will depend a little bit on what we learn
from that external review.
But also, we have to take into account the views not just
from computer science but also from computer or electrical
and computer engineering.
There's not unanimity there.
In fact there are very strong feelings
that what you just said is not right.
But there are other views that yes, there's overlap.
The key feature though that I'm gonna be looking for is provost
and this is a little bit difficult
because the deans all report to me
and that's why it really does fall unto the lap
of the provost.
The deans themselves although I have
to tell you they're very collaborative, a great group
of people, they work together extremely well
but there are some things that do fall
into the provost office just because I'm responsible
for the academic program overall.
So the thing that I will be looking for primarily is what is
in the best interest of the students.
Now the faculty, of course we're concerned with what's
in the best interest of the faculty
but the faculty don't have the boundaries
that the students often see
and we do have administrative boundaries
but you know how do we save money in terms of the faculty.
Well, we have to reduce the total number of faculty.
And that's the kind of consolidation we will get
where we've saved money.
But if you look at what the faculty do they may work
in similar areas.
They actually collaborate.
A lot of the computer science faculty have joint appointments
in electrical and computer engineering.
So I think they would argue
that that's not the way to save money there.
So I look at academic organization as a, you know,
potential for saving money but really the reason to do it is
to better the options for the students
and to give them a more flexibility and a higher value
of their degree and that doesn't necessarily save money.
So I would argue that one has to do a careful analysis there
that the reason you do programatic review
and restructuring isn't to save money.
You do it to make the university better
and I will give an example of one that was very bold
that started before I became provost
and that was the creation of the College of Health
and Human Sciences which took 9 departments and schools
from 3 different colleges
and put them together into one new college.
And that was not without pain but the 9 units
that went together all decided as units that they wanted
to join because they saw the synergies
that could come from that.
And that's the kind of environment you want
when you do an academic reorganization,
you want all the units to recognize that this is something
that is in their benefit.
They may not see it right away and I don't know
since I wasn't involved in--
President Cordova through that knows the history of it
and it was the former provost Woodson who's coordinated
the reorganization.
So we know how to do those things.
I would argue that was a tougher one
than the computer science ECE issue.
And the other thing that I would argue about that particular one
and so it is much-- it goes much beyond the computer science
and ECE.
We've got computer
or information technology related departments
in the college of technology, we've got the spread--
there's something like that in virtually every college.
And to do that whole thing right I think we have
to look at the whole picture.
But you raise a great point and it's not an easy issue
and we're gonna be on it
but I don't think it's gonna save money in the short run.
It may not even save money in the long run
but it could make us better if we do it right.
It is-- go ahead, sorry.
>> One thing just right now you should be very proud
that both units are just superb.
And you know the computer science department has some
of the world experts in it and of course getting
that big 25 million dollar grant on science of information,
you know fabulous and ECE of course is one
of our premier departments, exception,
the top few in the country.
And so it is an evolving thing and that we understand
and we're looking forward to this external review too.
There's nothing like a little external [inaudible]
on something that brings out new thinking.
Thank you for your question.
It's important in the overall context
of academic program reviews and the provost just leading
that university, why, because the trustees are also very
interested in the big question that you asked which is,
are there efficiencies and improvements to be realized
in looking at all the academic programs of the universities.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
[ Noise ]
>> Hi I'm Nikki Ritchie [phonetic].
I'm a PhD student in mechanical engineering and my question is
about the engineering the differential fees.
Now, I'm a grad student.
I have a research assistantship and although my tuition and part
of my fees are remised,
the other part are not including the engineering
differential fees.
So just to give a perspective, I give almost two
of my paychecks back to Purdue to pay for fees.
And I'm just curious what do those fees do for me
since I am giving back two of my paychecks.
>> Okay. That's a fair question.
And again Tim I'd like you to address the differential fee.
But I was-- it is good to remind the graduate students especially
those who are new that 2 years ago we have a situation
and you have special graduate fee
and then we made the commitment when I came here to take
that fee down to zero over 4 years.
And so we're right year 2 of that,
and so that fee is being reduced.
So we are sensitive
to the issues the graduate student thinks.
>> Well, I can add maybe a little bit more to that.
We recognize that issue and we're in the process of looking
at all those differential fees more carefully
and that one thing that we were looking at is does it make sense
to charge the same differential fee for graduate students
as it does undergrads.
It could be larger or could be smaller, but does it make sense
to have it tied together.
Because the benefits are different,
I mean one of the benefits , the differential feed
by the way does go back to the college which is something that,
at least for the undergraduate portion, I'm not sure about how
that works with the graduate, same thing.
So all the differential fee unlike the tuition
which comes back to the general fund and is redistributed
out to the colleges, a good portion of differential fee
that you pay does go back to the college and they have a plan
for how they spend it.
To be honest I don't know the details
of the engineering differential fee plan but they spend it
on priorities for engineering.
So it does go back directly.
It could be faculty salaries, for example.
That's something that I believe the differential fee pays for.
In engineering could be expanded or better laboratories
so I don't have the details
but if you email me I can look into that.
[ Inaudible Question ]
>> The question is why don't we wave the differential fee
for graduate students.
I don't know.
I will look into that and try and understand that better.
I can say that compared to our peers we mainly look at Illinois
and Michigan because they're both highly ranked
engineering schools.
Our tuition fees are quite a bit lower than Illinois
and Michigan, considerably lower, even in engineering.
So I think, but your question is a little different, it has to do
with remission so let's-- I will look into that.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
[ Inaudible Question ]
>> This might be Jim.
>> Yeah I think that's before my time
so we'll bring up Jim Almond, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
>> I'm not sure exactly what the circumstances are there.
But when a graduate student participates
in a research project then there's typically a fee remit
charge that is assessed to the research project
and I'm just not knowing the particular situation.
So and that's pretty standard on the research projects
that are funded externally.
>> It's quarter after 8 so we will just,
we'll take a couple ask questions.
I noticed there's a gentleman in the back who's had his hand
up since the beginning.
>> Did you want, did you have a followup question?
>> I don't have a followup question.
I just got like a brand new one.
>> Oh, okay.
[ Laughter ]
>> [Inaudible] Okay, let me just say some
of the graduate student questions in particular.
We have a wonderful dean of the graduate school, Mark Smith,
who used to be an ECE, still is an ECE professor.
And you can make a lot of progress
by bringing him particular issues
and having him do the first triage on some
of those issues 'cause he meets regularly with the provost
and with me and that's the only way
as your student leaders will tell you to make a lot
of progress on these issues that might be buried pretty deep
within budgets and what one faculty does but another faculty
in different college doesn't do
or doesn't feel they have the right to.
So please you know, continue to work with Mark Smith,
with Dean Smith and with Andy here on some of these.
>> Add a quick comment that we are working closely
with the dean of engineering also, Leah Jamieson,
and we've been meeting almost everyday to talk
about these very issues that you're raising
over the last week or so.
So, if you have issues like that, talk to Dean Jamieson
as well because she is very sensitive to that.
I know she has some focus groups that have been dealing
with these exact issues.
And we've been communicating almost daily on them.
>> So, we'll take the question in the back first
and then we'll take your question, okay.
>> I have a couple of quick questions and comments.
My name is Paul McPherson [phonetic].
I'm a graduate student in the college
of technology from Southern Ohio.
I did my undergraduate at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.
They're known for one of the largest endowments
for private schools in the nation.
My first question is in regards to TA-ships and RA-ships
and the fact that is there oversight of--
we're talking about budget and how to reduce the costs based
on our budget but are there any oversight
over what professors do, how often they're
in the classroom versus their TA.
Having been a TA for two and a half years I know that I'm
in the classroom more than the professor.
And I know that in the college of technology there are a lot
of professors that see them that tend to use their TAs more
than themselves to go to class.
Now, some of these professors are making 50, 60, 70,
80 thousand dollars a year.
The students are paying to learn from the professors not
from the grad students.
So my question is what kind of oversight is there
and how often the professors in the classroom?
And the second, second question I have is in regards
to the master plan for construction.
I know, I saw on the website that the construction company
that Purdue uses is out of Pennsylvania.
Has there been any consideration to use a local company
and use the talent that you have and the students
on Purdue's campus to rebuild
and restructure some of the buildings?
I know up in Berea when they went
to develop a sustainability plan they used a lot of the students
on campus and hired the students for 10 or 20 hours a week
and the students were actually building new facilities
and implementing new technologies into buildings.
So, is there a sustainability plan for the campus
and has it been considered to use the talent that we
so treasure here at Purdue to assist in that venture.
>> Okay. So you had three questions really
so I'll let Tim do the-- Sands do the oversight question
and then Ken Sandel can do the contracting question
about the state versus instate, that's a very simple response
and then Al can do the sustainability question.
>> In terms of the oversight the primary oversight is
through the dean.
The dean has control to a large extent over the way
that the faculty spend their time so,
that's where it would start.
To be honest I don't know exactly where we stand
on that issue except for that I know
that we've decreased the number of TAs over the last, what,
8 or 9 years ever since I've been here pretty steadily,
so that brings more faculty into the classroom
but there's a very wide range from college to college
and program to program so I would first ask you
and I'm not dumping this whole thing off on you but--
because I'll look into it as well.
But I would first ask you to have a chat
with the department head and also the dean
if that doesn't satisfy your interest.
And we will be looking at that.
We do actually-- we're, frankly, we're ranked base on things
like that as how much time does the faculty spend in the class?
How many classes are taught by?
Or how much time the instruction is directly with faculty?
How small the classes are?
So we do pay attention to it globally.
>> Just a comment to that.
I've been to every department meeting per--
at the beginning of each semester and that's been one
of the big feud among the professors is some professors
are dedicated to the teaching and basically require themselves
to be there whereas some professors just push the
teaching onto the TAs.
And I know that that's a big feud among some
of the professors.
>> Well, I can tell you--
>> It's a feud, your knew dean of the college
of technology can address with you 'cause we are--
>> No, it is an important point and I think the, the--
I think the, one thing that you have to keep in mind to
and this gets back to a question or a point
that I was just making that the colleges have very different
histories and they essentially, if you go back 10 or 20 years,
they operate it almost independently.
The college of technology, you go back 10 years or so,
the main impetus or the main focus
of that college was undergraduate teaching
instruction, undergraduate degree production.
It's in the midst of changing.
They're bringing in a research program that's growing
fairly steadily.
They do more in engagement, they do more in commercialization.
So it's a much different college than it was 10 years ago
and so I look at that compared to some other colleges
where most of the attention goes to research,
maybe degree production.
Some colleges like college of liberal arts and college
of science, a lot of their effort goes
into teaching foundation courses for other majors.
So, there's so much variability.
It's hard for me to say anything generally.
>> Let Ken answer the--
>> I think there's about three questions buried in there
but the first, the first one related to contracting.
I know when we have a construction company we are
subject to public works.
We publicly bid those whoever is the lowest and best bid.
We don't really differentiate on the best side, it's the lowest,
lowest bid unless there is some reason that would cause us
to reject, we go with the lowest bid.
So who we hire on the contractor side of things is not up to us.
We're-- we have to hire whoever the lowest bid is.
On the architects and engineering side of things
which is kind of to your point on the master plan
and that specifically
in the master plan we partnered an east coast firm
who is very experienced with campus master plans,
primarily around the areas of students and student programming
and so forth, so we paired them with Scholer
which is a local firm who have a lot of experience
with architectural drawings and so forth and the buildup
of our master plans overtime.
So that was purposeful in that we wanted
to get additional insight but pair it up with somebody
who is very familiar with us and so I think it's a [inaudible]
who you may assuming you were looking at the master plan
but that's who it was, pair it with Scholer locally.
The other thing-- your last point was taking advantage
of the talent we have at Purdue.
We have done some of that.
I'll admit we haven't done as much of that
as we probably should.
Mackey Arena is probably a great example of that
in that Mackey was a project that a student group did take on
and for what was designed originally as a--
or conceived as a separate facility in tearing
down Mackey was actually as a result
of several student groups actually got them
on the path right where they are of saving the bowl and expanding
at that current site which just renewed that location
for years to come, so.
But I'll agree we probably could do a little bit more of reaching
out to the various groups here at Purdue.
>> Ken didn't mention it but during the course
of this activity with sustaining new synergies, he did employ,
I think it was 6 graduate students,
it was 8 graduate students from [inaudible] in fact
to do some research and help with identifying,
do benchmarking and help with identifying approaches
for more efficiencies.
With regard to having fact, excuse me,
students actively involved
in performing these projects we've seen some evidence
and supported some things that were experimental
in nature in that regard.
But in terms of any operational activities we haven't really
pursued that.
But frankly, I think through physical facilities we may wanna
do that in the future.
So I'll talk to Vice President McMains
about employing more students in active roles
in facilities largely associated with sustainability
which is I think an area where there's some energy that comes
from the student body.
So, yeah.
>> I know [inaudible] announced their sustainability plan.
>> Right.
>> That was a way for them to really increase the donations
from their alumni because that was [inaudible] now
so that's why [inaudible] sustainability plan is
that maybe a way to generate more income and partnership
with large corporations and alumni on--
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Yeah, and I think I--
President Cordova was just reminding me
that we have seen evidence of that already,
the Gatewood Building was donated or the donation
that we got specifically was tied to making
that building a lead building.
And so you're absolutely right, I think that there are alumni
out there that would wanna participate in some way
in the sustainability activity.
I think one of the things that we're trying to concentrate
on more in the future is more active faculty involvement
and I think that will give us a better connection to students.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Thank you.
Alright, I'm Clarence [inaudible],
I came from [inaudible] Indiana which is instate of course
and I'm an earth and atmospheric sciences major.
I wanna talk about the Makers, All campaign,
I have a question about that.
Is the Makers, All campaign a good idea
to use part year biennium budget plan and where
and what resources did you use to spend on this program?
>> Great question Clarence.
Let me, I just happen to notice in the back
of the room our vice president for marketing media
and she is charge of Makers, All.
She's a troublemaker.
[ Laughter ]
>> Oh boy, that's a set up, isn't it?
The funds that are used for the Makers, All campaign
and all the marketing we do here is from the operating budget
from our general fund and every year a percentage
of that general fund is allocated to marketing activity.
It's an insy-insy bit, it's about 750,000 dollars.
Some of you who know my story know that I came
from the corporate world and I ran budgets in excess
of 100 million dollars just for marketing,
not for the company overall.
So when we're talking about what to do with 750,000 dollars,
we have to be extremely creative in getting out our message.
So both the Reflections campaign which was the campaign
that we ran prior to Makers, All and Makers,
All draws from the same bucket of funds.
It's strictly from my marketing budget and then what I have
to do is make decisions about if we spend here what do we not
spend on.
Did that cover all of it?
>> I think.
>> Okay, are you an idea maker?
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> You should also talk about a couple of the--
you know a very significant national awards
that you've gotten for this Makers, All campaign.
Because in the branding world, you know, there are brands
that really tank changes in brands you know
and you could mention a couple of examples of those.
And there are-- like Dartmouth had a D Plus campaign.
>> Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, yeah.
>> Okay, sorry, D Plus
but anyway you might wanna say a couple of words.
>> Thank you.
We've actually done extremely well
with the Makers, All campaign.
Just last weekend, we won 3 ADDY's
which are advertising awards called ADDY's, 3 ADDY's locally
and then our ad agency [inaudible] which assist us
in building out the campaign submitted,
we can't submit the same materials
to different competitions.
So they submitted some of the materials and we submitted some,
they actually won five.
What's interesting is they're building
out their business development brochure based strictly
on Purdue's Makers, All campaign.
So that means it's a glossy magazine about 15 pages
and they're mailing it out to perspective clients to say hey,
look at the cool work we did at Purdue, look at the results
that we were able to get here and try to use
that to drive business with other colleges.
We've also gotten a lot of recognition
from a group called the EMG, Educational Marketing Group.
They award every year what's called an International
Brand Master.
They selected 7 colleges to be semi-finalist in this
and then reduce the pool down to 3 finalists
and we were in the final 3.
We actually ended up getting second for that.
And again, it's based not only on Makers, All but really
on a lot of the other marketing programs
that we've been running here, so.
>> Could you say a couple of words about why we do marketing
and how the brand affects our reputational ranking
and our recognition nationally?
>> Sure, so a key piece of telling
out story is really making sure
that people understand what's the value proposition of Purdue.
I like to use the phrase what is it
that makes Purdue better, different, special.
Because if we don't stand for something that differentiates us
from every other college out there,
suddenly your degree is not worth the same amount
or it has the same value of that of any other institution.
So we're constantly figuring out what are those stories
that we can tell, what are those messages that we can deliver
about student success, about faculty research,
about commercialization, discovery,
innovation that happens here that will help build
that national reputation and that national energy
around this is an institution that really is better,
different, special from all those other places.
And part of telling that story is making sure
that prospective students understand that.
So you think back to when you are coming to college
as freshmen, as undergraduates, or those of you
who are graduate students in deciding to come here.
You were inundated with all sorts of literature, right.
We wanna make sure that that literature that you're looking
at tells the story about Purdue
in the most compelling way possible
so that we win your vote, right.
If you're the student that we want here,
we want you to come to the dance with us.
>> Just one followup question with that.
One, what was-- what did we--
what opportunities or other market campaigns did you forgo
in order for the Makers, All campaign
which I'm actually a fan
and I thought it was a good campaign myself
but that's personal opinion.
And then two--
>> You have good judgment.
[ Laughter ]
>> I thought it was good too.
>> What are the possible financial benefits of it?
Is there any way that it would bring
in additional revenue besides just additional student tuition?
>> Okay, great question.
So the first point, why did we forgo in choosing Makers, All?
So in the branding world what really happens
and I know it's late, you'll get me going and I won't shut up
but you essentially build a brand strategy.
And in building that brand strategy then you figure
out what are the creative ways that I can deliver
against that strategy.
So when we did our research, the brand platform
for Purdue is catalyst for transformation.
Well, a lot of different schools can say that, right.
So we need to figure out what's a way that we can say
that creatively that we feel is most resonant
with the population that we're trying to reach
at this point in time.
We were presented by our agency, we usually form a network out
and they come back with 3 different concepts.
And we felt like this particular concept was the clear winner.
I at this point don't even remember what the other 2
competing concepts were but in our professional judgment
as marketers, we saw this as something
that was clearly differentiating.
One of the things I really like about Makers,
All and I know there was controversy
[inaudible] boilermakers.
Just for the record know, Pete know,
we're not doing away with boilermakers.
[ Laughter ]
>> It's that sacred, we're keeping it,
this is additive not reductive, right.
So we're just-- what I love is that nobody else can play
with that word make the way we can.
What we do moves the world forward, makes a difference.
We own that word make.
It's in our genes as boilermakers, let's take it
and play with that ever which way we can.
And I--
[ Applause ]
[ Inaudible Remarks ]
>> You didn't know they were saving the entertainment
for the end, did you?
[ Laughter ]
>> And I forgot the second part of your question.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Well, one is just building awareness and reputation, right.
The second is the more effective your-- so what--
our bottom line business is getting people in seats, right.
Good people like you, gifted students like you,
that's who we want here.
So our goal is to figure out how can we get you here
by spending the least amount of money to get you here.
We got to tell our story, right.
Nobody just markets a product without putting out literature,
outing out ads, using social media, whatever.
So our return is really figuring out through our direct mail,
through our advertising, what is it that's getting people
to respond that's hooking them to say, yeah, I wanna look
at you and oh by golly I wanna come visit
and then I wanna come to school here.
So we measure response rates, we measure return rates,
we measure acceptance rates
and we're constantly tweaking our materials to figure out is
that material delivering the best return possible.
So that's a literal financial interpretation of marketing.
And of course then there's the whole piece
of just building a story and building a reputation
which is much more subjective to do because we want
to get out impressions.
The more eyeballs that see information
about your institution, the more people understand it,
the more people understand, the more likely you are to be
in their consideration set or to be
in their parents' consideration set they've had.
So it's getting the message out in a way that's compelling
to increase those expressions as well.
And it looks like Provost Sands wants to add to that.
>> Yeah, maybe I could just another dimension
or two as a researcher.
When I was director of the Birck Nanotechnology Center the last
few years, one of the-- what we wanted to be and this is true
for the Purdue as a whole is the most influential university
or the most influential program across the country.
And part of that is getting the word out there
and why do you wanna be the most influential,
well you wanna be the first one that the US government
or a company thinks about in terms of bringing into a project
because that brings more revenue for research,
that's something that's really critical to a lot of what we do.
So I've watched Eminem, Terry's operation changed the way
that we get our word out especially
with respect to research.
When I first started as Birck director in 2006,
we weren't getting anything out there.
And after a few years we now saw placements, I don't know what--
how much has the placements gone up in the last couple of years,
just tremendously, I don't know the number but--
>> More than 50 percent, Chris is in the back--
[ Inaudible Remark ]
[ Laughter ]
>> Well they've gone up a lot and they went
up from almost nothing, at least in my area, to very substantial.
And that just directly feeds our reputation.
It makes it easier to get research grants,
it makes it easier to work with companies and it's global,
it's not just national.
>> One example, Clarence, you said you were
in Earth and Space Science?
>> Earth and Atmospheric.
>> Atmospheric sciences.
So Jay Melosh in your--
one of the faculty members has gotten incredible media.
He is probably the biggest--
>> Certainly one of the biggest--
>> Circulated people because of marketing media,
has really gotten that research work he's doing on impacts
and you know to the whole world.
So very well known.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> So are there followup questions for Terry?
I see you, yeah.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Welcome.
>> Well my question was with that focusing
on showing the university,
do you have any focus internationally 'cause the
Makers, All, it goes very well in the United States but I mean,
I'm from a country that speaks Spanish.
So, is there any focus on other parts
than just the United States for the university?
>> Yeah, that's a really great question.
And yes, there is but not to the degree that we need them to be.
One of the things we need to do in marketing is to make sure
that we understand what resonates with the audience
that we're trying to reach and that the materials
that we're creating have the same kind
of impact in another culture.
In order to do that we need to do a lot of market research
and a lot of testing within those customer segments
and within those cultures.
And we have not done a lot of that at this point.
What we try to do is use our news service
and our news releases in those countries to do a lot
of the marketing leg work for us in terms of building awareness.
Where I'd love to be able to go and this gets back to the whole,
you know, we're kinda going full circle
with the discussion tonight,
it gets to really a question of funding.
And can we afford to build out the rich body of insight
that we need and create materials
in another language relevant to other cultures to be able to--
are we gonna get back to the question about return,
are we going to be able to draw the numbers to justify that.
But it's a great question, great point.
We're very interested in proceeding with that.
>> I have a budget-related question that was submitted
and I think that it will be
of particular interest to all of you.
The question was given what we anticipate from the state,
do we have an idea of what the impacts to tuition
or fees might look like, do we know if it--
I mean can we say half a percent, can we say one
and a half percent or is there any confidence in that
at this point, or is that a weighting game?
>> Well, Carol [laughter].
We don't wanna dive too deep.
We've been talking quietly with the people
that I mentioned earlier with our state senators
and with the Commission on Higher Education
of what we're thinking about if this then that
and what we would need to recover and be able to invest
in the needs that we've described whether it's R&R.
We have a lot of discussion here about facilities or our research
and its support, media and marketing,
the classroom experience, academics, scholarships and all.
And so I think we know we're gently, you know, waiting there.
>> We don't have any idea what--
well, we don't have the final appropriation number of course.
And there are all these different budgets out there
from the governor's budget to the commission's budget
to now the House Ways and Means committee budget,
they're all different numbers.
And so I think that they understand some
of the difference makers, Terry, understand where--
what kind of numbers we're thinking about in order
to meet all our goals but we were not--
we don't wanna advertise them
because we don't really know the final numbers.
But on the other hand we promised no surprises
to all our legislators and the commission.
And so we promised we would have this transparent dialogue.
And so we are doing that but we're just doing that at kind
of a quiet level now until we have more information
on what the final number is.
And of course ultimately the trustees weigh
in on what the tuition and fees should be.
So they're the decision makers, okay.
Yes, we got a lot of questions all of a sudden here.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> It's quarter till 9.
I don't know.
You guys are very busy people.
Is it something-- should-- I was going to offer at the end
and I'm sure that the graduate student government would offer
the same that questions or concerns
that were unable to be voiced tonight.
We, I think, we each have an email address that we would love
to give you to be able to share those concerns
and we would hopefully be able
to continue the dialogue offline.
We had a-- we had the room reserved in this schedule from 7
to 8 and your guys is a great participation
and your thoughtful questions but it's 45 minutes over and so
at the risk of keeping you--
>> Is it still free?
>> It's still free.
It's no problem.
[ Laughter ]
>> So as long--
>> There are still cookies.
>> There are still cookies.
Should we--
[ Inaudible Remarks ]
>> I guess I need--
>> Good try, Brad.
Well, what if we say that 9 is also--
we got to get everybody back studying
in their residences by 9.
>> My name is Steve Kemble [phonetic].
I'm a PhD student in the department of forestry
and natural resources and as a graduate student I know I'm not
alone in being worried about the continuing rise in healthcare.
And we would like to hear assurances from you
that Purdue will continue
to subsidize our graduate student health insurance,
at least at the current rate, or preferably at a higher rate.
[ Laughter ]
>> Okay, either Al or Jim, which of you would
like to take that question.
Okay, Al, and also to mention the big healthcare study
we have.
Yeah, okay.
>> All right.
Let me assure you that it hasn't escaped us
that the fastest growing part of our budget is healthcare.
And so we have taken an initiative
to have a blue ribbon, a faculty blue ribbon committee
that will be reporting out within days.
In fact the provost and I will be meeting
with them I think next week to hear their first report.
But, and so we're anxious to address all of the issues.
Now as you know there's a difference
between the way the graduate students' healthcare program
and the university's healthcare program is conducted.
We're self insured as a university.
The graduate student healthcare program is funded
through an insurance program.
We are in the process of bidding that and I can't
at this point tell you what the outcome is going to be
but we're anxiously and actively pursuing not only the
university's healthcare program but also the graduate students.
And I'm hopeful that within days we'll be able
to tell you what the outcome of that process is.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Well, all I can tell you
in that regard is we'll review it the same way we do the other
healthcare program and hopefully be in a position to do that.
I cannot guarantee that at this point.
But I also can't tell you that it's gonna do anything else
because we just don't know what the cost is gonna be.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Yes. Yeah.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Yeah. And John gave me a preliminary report in terms
of the status of the program.
But I think it's-- literally within days we ought
to know better where we are.
>> Hi, Joe Hallmark [phonetic],
I'm a junior in the college of ag.
I have a question kind of in a broader sense,
President Cordova, regarding your slide, that out layer goal
as an institution, how do we measure our performance,
those outcomes of quality, reputation and impact
and how do we compare to other institutions,
land grant universities across this country?
>> That's a great question.
We do it in a variety of ways.
There are surveys, reputational rankings, there's--
you know there must be dozens of them
but there are some prime ones that we and our trustees look
at like US News and World Reports
which has both undergraduate and graduate rankings.
There are world rankings in the Times of London,
Shanghai World Rankings.
There are rankings like the Wall Street Journal had a wonderful
ranking, a survey of 800 corporate recruiters this fall
and Purdue came out number 4 in that.
US News and World Reports, we're the only big 10 university
in the last 2 years to go up at all and we passed up,
we went 10 position places higher among all privates
and publics, position places.
And so we are ranked now number 18 nationally among public
research universities.
We have a goal.
We'd like to be ranked in the top 15 of all publics,
in the top 50 of all publics and privates.
We're very close.
We're 18-56, we got to be 15-50 within that.
And so that's one type of rankings
but we actually have interesting and we can make sure
that it's readily accessible on the web
but every December we report board of trustees meeting,
it's an open meeting on our strategic plan
and we have a long serious--
your student trustee will tell you it is long--
of metrics, okay, that rank us in all different kinds
of categories from facilities and how well we're doing
on budgets to you know, reputational academic programs,
numbers of departments that are in the top tier
in the country and so on.
And so that we keep a very close eye on that.
I personally believe that rankings do matter even
if inherently they're biased towards a private university
'cause they can spend more money per students or you know smaller
versus larger, et cetera.
I still think that if you take the ensemble of rankings
that that can tell you something about how well you're doing
and where you need to focus more effort.
And whether we like it or not, there are people way--
far away from the university, prospective students and faculty
and donors that actually look at that
and take some measure of your university.
There are many other things that you can't rank obviously.
How do you rank the value of getting Nobel Prize
in chemistry, you know, a couple of months ago
and 2 World Food prize winners within the last 3 years?
There are-- you know how do you rank
that we have a wonderfully happy campus
where the students treat each other with great respect
and participate in everything, a forum like this?
I mean how many big 10 universities right now have a
collection of great students, graduate students,
undergraduate students who are meeting to discuss, you know,
the status and the future of their university.
Where does that go on a ranking?
So there are a lot of important things that you know
about that make you committed to the institution and add value,
all the clubs and organizations you have
and what your student leadership is doing
and those kinds of things.
But we do try to keep a handle also
on the things you can measure.
>> What is Purdue doing to make sure
that professors choose less expensive textbooks and--
>> Well, that's a great question.
>> -- like-- 'cause the cost of textbooks is rising definitely.
>> Yeah, well absolutely.
>> And not like kind of waste our money
with textbook we don't use.
>> Well, my understanding
but maybe your student leadership can tell you too
because a couple of student body presidents ago,
[inaudible], worked on this issue.
And getting your teachers to give you the names
of the text they were using and that's ahead of time
so you could go on to Amazon.com or some other source
and be able to get that material.
And I assume that's still going on, is it?
>> Yeah, Vice Provost Whittaker, he commissioned a committee
to go look into that textbook issue.
And we've drafted textbook best practices for the university.
We don't-- we can't necessarily do a policy
because of some faculty issues with a strict policy.
But we are putting out a best practices document to send
to the faculty and also we're working on a textbook exchange
that will hopefully be going up by the end of the semester
if not by the beginning of next fall.
So we are working on that issue
and it's been a year-long process that we've been working
on textbook issue and hopefully, come next fall you'll be able
to see some benefits from that committee.
>> Thank you Jamie.
Jamie Steiner, Vice President of the Undergraduate Student Body.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Hi, my name is Therese, I'm an out-of-state student
in engineering and with respect to tuition,
how much consideration do you put in for out of state
versus instate tuition.
Last time it rose it's 5 percent for everyone, that's a lot more
for out of state than instate.
>> Sure.
>> Maybe variable percentages in the future if necessary.
>> Yeah, we're thinking deeply about that.
I'll ask Provost Sands to say a couple of comments.
We didn't show you but we have the data
on showing where's Purdue with respect to the big 10
for both instate and out-of-state students.
For instate students we're near the bottom relatively speaking
for tuition and fees.
Some universities are nearly double what we are
for instate fees.
For out-of-state fees we're right in the middle which means
that our market advantage is just not,
you know it's not there.
If we got higher then we'd start losing some students.
So that's a consideration.
We also know that the out-of-state students are
really, are paying at least if not more than their fair share
of the cost of a Purdue education
as the state funding is going down.
So we're very sensitive to that
and we're gonna be taking a close look at it but part
of it is that we are state-funded institution,
our legislators have to agree when we do have a recommendation
from the commission on which Keith sets and Keith Hansen here
that was introduced to you earlier,
is the student commissioner and I know
that it would be important although they're really thinking
about the Indiana students, it's important
that what considerations we have
for out-of-state students are appreciated by the commission
so we have the latitude to exercise on that thinking.
But maybe Tim you wanna add a couple of things or is that--
>> Well, I think you've covered it.
>> Okay, all right.
>> Okay well--
>> Just one more question.
>> One more.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> I'm Nick Robinson.
I'm a senior in public health from Fort Wayne, Indiana.
My question, this isn't on.
Okay, my question is you talked about wanting
to use research commercialization
to help fund some of the shortfalls.
What specific initiatives are you guys implementing in order
to increase that yield, but not only that,
how are you encouraging professors to research in areas
that we can then commercialize and help fill the back.
Well, I know Leslie Geddes biomed brought in some
like 120 million dollars in revenue to the university.
Are we working to encourage professors to, you know,
kind of not match that but to maximize their contribution?
>> All right.
Well, my challenge is not to talk all night on this.
Thank you for bringing this up.
It's a very exciting area.
It fits right in with our strategic goal
which is called discovery to delivery.
Actually, we have much more creative talent among the
faculty than we are presently able to invest
in to take their discoveries to commercialization.
And our faculty have told us that and asked us to come
up with some new models that do invest in that
because right now they patent their research,
sometimes they get a license on it.
The university gets very small revenue from it
when you give it away at that very early stage.
And so they pointed out that they would love
to go the full range if we could find the money to invest
in what is called in the commercial world,
the valley of death, which is the whole development cycle
of taking your research and doing a prototype and investing
in it until you really can get a company to want to buy it
or create your own startup around it.
So, in some areas, the area you mentioned in particular
in biomedical engineering, Leslie Geddes and the rest
of the folks, they're fantastic.
They're just great.
We have the [inaudible] institute, some of you may know
about it at Discovery Park.
They select with a lot of careful review
of what the market opportunities are,
individual faculty projects.
They're funding about eight of them including people
like Graham Cooks in chemistry, a number of others,
Alyssa Panitch in biomed engineering.
And they are doing that cycle for them.
But they're limited to biomedical devices only, okay,
that's the area, the sweet spot
that [inaudible] is funding us for that.
There are lots of other areas on the campus, in nanotechnology,
IT, energy, healthcare, you name it.
And so we now have a committee.
We just started it about a few weeks ago that our VP
for research and the head
of the Purdue Research Foundation put together
comprising a lot of faculty talent.
And we're putting together model
for how do we get the moneys together 'cause we're not gonna
take it out of general funds.
How do we get the moneys together to invest in that?
And one is gonna be the moneys
that already spin off the Purdue Research Foundation.
But another one is our alumni who are in the world
of venture capital and commercialization.
They very much want to invest in us.
That's why I have it on my list.
I think it's a huge opportunity that we have
under exploited at Purdue.
And you're gonna be seeing a lot of progress on this
and that's all gonna be to the benefit of our students
because they're gonna be involved in this
and just get more opportunities from it.
Very exciting new area.
It also ties to the new center we started in the Silicon Valley
to bring more venture capital to Purdue
and invest in our faculty.
So I think we-- we better--
>> Great, yes.
>> But I'll be here for a little bit.
So if you have questions and I think some
of our administrators will stay too.
>> Oh, great.
>> Just to talk individually with people.
>> Great. Well, just to close, one, thank you to the students
for coming and then help me thank the
incredible administrators--
[ Applause ]
>> I wanna say that this is why I love student government,
why I've gotten involved on campus.
I get to have these types of conversations all year.
And this is a great opportunity that we were able
to broaden the input phase.
And so I appreciate all of you coming out
and sharing your thoughts.
And I encourage you that if you have thoughts or opinions
or questions in the future, to get a hold
of the undergraduate student government.
If you just email studentgovernment@purdue.edu,
it comes straight to me.
And how can they get in touch
with the graduate student government?
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Arobinson, Andy Robinson and he will be able
to take your issue on in terms of if you're a graduate student.
So thank you for coming out tonight.
I think there's coffee, I think there's cookies,
you probably need it but I appreciate it.
>> Thank you Brad.
[ Applause ]
>> Good job.