October 14, 2005
Purdue to connect with Lebanon in community visit
|
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University leaders, who are traveling the state to meet and learn from its residents, will be in Lebanon on Thursday (Oct. 20) to visit businesses and community members.
President Martin C. Jischke and other university officials will visit Witham Health Services Hospital, Lebanon High School, Hendrickson Suspension and the Lebanon Business Park, as well as other locations.
Victor L. Lechtenberg, Purdue's vice provost for engagement, said he welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with business and community leaders.
"We learn so much from these visits," Lechtenberg said. "Purdue has made a commitment to enhance economic development, boost education and expand community service. To accomplish this mission, we need to exchange ideas with the people of Indiana in communities like Lebanon."
This is the fifth year Jischke and university leaders have conducted daylong visits to Indiana communities. More than 50 previous stops have ranged from Gary to Jasper and from South Bend to New Albany. Future visits are planned for Lafayette, Plymouth, Fort Wayne, Hamilton County, Hancock County, Elkhart and New Albany.
Several activities are scheduled for the Lebanon visit:
• 10:15 a.m. — Tour Lebanon Witham Health Services Hospital, 2605 N. Lebanon St. The hospital recently completed a food service project with Purdue's Healthcare Technical Assistance Program, which studied the current food service system and proposed changes to make room service more cost-effective, efficient and pleasing to patients. The team also prepared a guide, which included questionnaires for patients and staff, a graph of food service staff responsibilities, suggestions on implementation strategies and discussion of additional staff resources. The team also created a database that can be used by food service management to track meal information.
• 11:45 a.m. — Lunch with representatives from the Community Visioning Committee, the Economic Development Board, the Boone County Council and the Lebanon City Council in the Witham dining room. Jischke will discuss how Purdue can collaborate with the greater Lebanon community on economic development and other projects.
• 1:15 p.m. — Visit Lebanon High School, 510 Essex Drive. Ralph Walker, Lebanon School Corp. superintendent, and teacher Byron Ernest will discuss the school's agriculture program.
• 2:30 p.m. — Visit Lebanon Business Park, Indiana 32. Jischke will meet with Lebanon Mayor Jim Acton and Boone County Economic Development Corp. members to discuss a proposed certified technology park for that area.
• 3 p.m. — Tour Hendrickson Suspension, 180 N. Mount Zion Road. Hendrickson Suspension supplies truck, tractor and trailer air suspensions, auxiliary lift axle systems, steel leaf springs and bumpers for the heavy-duty transportation industry. Its products support every major North American heavy-duty truck and trailer producer, as well as many manufacturers in Europe, Australia, Mexico, Japan and Latin America. Hendrickson Suspension Systems was the first to develop an air ride suspension system, called INTRAXX, that integrates suspension, axles and brakes. The company also is working with Purdue's Technical Assistance Program, which connects companies with Purdue resources and assists them in implementing state-of-the art technologies. The Purdue program is helping the Hendrickson Suspension develop improved packaging and returnable containers.
Jischke, who came to Purdue in August 2000, is the university's 10th president. He previously served for nine years as president of Iowa State University, another land-grant institution. His experience in higher education also includes 17 years as professor and dean at the University of Oklahoma and five years at the University of Missouri-Rolla.
Jischke was the founding president of the Global Consortium of Higher Education and Research for Agriculture. He served as chairman and board member of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and as a board member of the American Council on Education, National Merit Scholarship Corp., and the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities. In October, he will serve as chairman of the board of directors of the Association of American Universities, which represents the top 62 research universities in North America, and also is the current chair of the Big 10 Council of Presidents and Chancellors. Jischke also is on the board of the American Council on Competitiveness and the national board of Campus Compact, an organization of university presidents and college deans that helps students learn about citizenship through community-service opportunities.
After receiving his doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968, Jischke joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma's School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. During his 17 years at Oklahoma, he served in multiple capacities. He became director of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering in 1977. He served as dean of the College of Engineering from 1981 to 1986, and he was named the university's interim president in 1985.
Writer: Marydell Forbes, (765) 496-7704, mforbes@purdue.edu
Sources: Victor L. Lechtenberg, (765) 494-9095, vll@purdue.edu
David Petritz, Cooperative Extension Service director, (765) 494-8489, dpetritz@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Related Web sites:
Purdue Office of Enagagement
To the News Service home page