To Alumni: FY23 Year-End Message
June 28, 2023
Dear Boilermakers,
As a new fiscal year starts this week here in West Lafayette, we are thankful for the tremendous work by colleagues and students in striving toward Excellence at Scale at Purdue. In particular, we have had three exciting developments in recent months: At the February meeting of the Board of Trustees, the Daniels School of Business was officially launched. At the April meeting, “Purdue Computes” kicked off, including a university-wide Institute of Physical AI. At the special meeting in June, Purdue University in Indianapolis, Purdue’s first comprehensive urban campus, was created to allow all departments in West Lafayette to offer unique opportunities in the capital city, concluding the IUPUI dissolution process started by President Emeritus Mitch Daniels 10 months ago. These three initiatives compound the momentum of “Purdue’s Next Moves” from April 2021: PARI/national security research, digital agriculture, equity task force, and transformative education 2.0.
Back in early January, the Action Council on Student Housing and Wellbeing was formed. Since then, while holding tuition frozen, the new housing project at 3rd Street and McCormick Road was approved and resources were added to Counseling and Psychological Services. The graduate student stipend minima have been increased again and Presidential Doctoral Excellence Awards created. In January, and then in March and in May again, a suite of 12 incentive and recognition policies was introduced to help maximize faculty’s academic and research productivity. And our faculty and students continue to elevate Purdue, e.g., two colleges (Agriculture, Engineering) and patents received are now all ranked among the top four in the U.S., and our university is the only one in a recent global ranking of innovative companies and nonprofits. In the 2023-24 QS global top-100 universities list released just now, Purdue is ranked #27 in the country and top-10 among public universities in the U.S.
Purdue is, indeed, internationally recognized as a leader in talents and in innovation, including at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima last month for the U.S.-Japan semiconductors alliance. Purdue is also bringing its unique contributions, from the C-SPAN archive to Small Modular Reactor expertise, to the nation’s capital. And, as I resume my 92-county visits this week, we always stand strong in Purdue’s commitment to creating prosperity in Greater Lafayette, supporting broadband in the region, and growing the workforce, jobs, and innovation along America’s Hard Tech Corridor.
Back on our campus, we continue to invest in Purdue’s people and places: from the largest faculty hiring season (with the College of Liberal Arts leading the number of recruits) and “Bravo+” for staff recognition unveiled today, to over $1.3 billion of 23 physical facility projects (across student life, academics, research, athletics and infrastructure) that are completed, ongoing, or under planning this year. We deeply appreciate the increased appropriations from our state legislature, another record year of philanthropic support at over $600M from alumni and friends, and revenue growth through research funding, online learning, and entrepreneurial success.
Students throughout the country are voting with their feet. This undergraduate admissions season saw yet another record of about 72,500 applications. While our enrollment growth is at a much slower pace, we did celebrate the largest spring commencement last month, with 9,976 degrees conferred in the Elliott Hall of Music. Reading each Boilermaker’s name, individually and one by one, is always a highlight that reminds us of the uplifting power of excellent, public higher learning.
We say “Boiler Up” each day because of what we create for tomorrow. The Purdue future is a future of relentless hope and endless possibilities.
Mung Chiang
President
Roscoe H. George Distinguished P