A Message From President Daniels
November 2019
Dear Alumni and Friends,
What a fall we’ve experienced at Purdue! Homecoming Week brought the culmination of a year of compelling 150th anniversary events: a gathering of our astronauts, the launch of a sports science engineering center and collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, and thousands in Elliott Hall of Music to hear from former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, one of our nation’s great citizens and diplomats. That’s not all, of course — we saw an exciting Homecoming football victory over Maryland, another over Nebraska, and more outstanding halftime performances from our "All-American" Marching Band. I’m leaving out a host of events that I know many of you were here to attend, but let me say that I’m ever grateful to each and every Boilermaker, including all of you, who helped make our events and celebrations such a success.
Over the past year, we’ve seen more than 50,000 attend events that featured speakers on varied important topics and more than half a million who watched these events online via livestream. We’ve told the stories of Purdue alumni who are making an impact on those around them, and stories of Purdue researchers who are changing or will soon change the world with their discoveries. We’ve wrapped up the biggest fundraising campaign in our history with more than 200,000 donors. And we continue to set records in graduation rates, enrollment and the academic profile of our student body.
If there is a more exciting and innovative place to be in higher education right now, I don’t know where it is. Our faculty, staff and students have new ideas and announce new knowledge nearly every day, and our colleagues and others are taking note. I told you last month about our latest ranking as the sixth most innovative institution in the country (and tops in the Big Ten).
This month brings more validation that what we are doing is being recognized around the world with a Wall Street Journal report that we are the No. 6 institution globally for startup companies generated from university-licensed technologies; only MIT and Stanford produced more among U.S. institutions.
Just this week, Purdue received the 2019 Innovation & Economic Prosperity Place award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The award, recognizing innovative projects and programs in economic engagement, acknowledges the impact Purdue is having on growth in our community and state: the $120 million State Street Redevelopment Project in partnership with the city of West Lafayette; and the more than $1 billion of development in the Discovery Park District, a growing “Live, Work, Play and Learn” area that has already attracted Rolls-Royce, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and Saab, as well as the Aspire living community and the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration; and the multiple high-tech startup companies opening in Purdue Research Park locations that helped spark the largest wage gain in the nation in Tippecanoe County in 2018.
Vital and exciting work continues in Purdue’s buildings and labs. Among recent discoveries: we have scientists who are part of a multidisciplinary, multi-institution effort to map the human body on a cellular level; another who is studying whether FDA-approved drugs can treat antibiotic-resistant infections; others who have created a platform focused on finding new medication options for people dealing with mental illnesses; and some who are researching how intelligent systems might adapt to human skill levels.
In addition, our student success teams continue to work on ensuring that our students are getting the highest-quality education we can provide — the Office of the Provost has launched what they are calling a road map for transformative undergraduate education with the goal to move undergraduate teaching and learning to new levels of excellence and impact over the next decade. Our Board of Trustees heard about this initiative last month — you can read about it here. I hope you’ll also take a few minutes to read about the groundbreaking Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program developed through our College of Liberal Arts, which was featured in two articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education: here and here.
I know you all are as proud as I am to be part of this great university. I will leave you with a few more links that I think you’ll want to see and share:
Photo gallery of Homecoming weekend events
Photo gallery of astronaut reunion
A video recap of the year of 150th anniversary events
Boiler Up and Hail Purdue!
Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
President