Purdue to seek strategic plan input from Crawfordsville residents

Martin C. Jischke

"We've received valuable information and promising ideas during previous community visits," Jischke said. "Now, it's time to discuss what's in store for the future. The board of trustees and I look forward to receiving input from Crawfordsville residents as we set new goals and consider Purdue's future role in our state."

Jischke and other university officials also will visit Nucor Steel, Pace Dairy, RR Donnelly Publishing and the Dan Gwin and Donya Lester farm. The strategic plan input will be sought specifically during a luncheon at the Montgomery County 4-H Fairgrounds community building. Ideas also can be submitted through a new strategic plan Web site.

Victor L. Lechtenberg, the university's vice provost for engagement, said Purdue welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with business and community leaders.

"These visits bring communities' ambitions and goals into focus," Lechtenberg said. "Purdue wants to serve as an economic development partner to Crawfordsville so that its businesses can gain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. We look forward to learning how the residents of Crawfordsville envision that partnership."

This is the sixth year Jischke and university leaders have conducted daylong visits to Indiana communities. More than 50 previous stops have included communities like Gary, Jasper, South Bend and Lebanon. Future visits are planned for Valparaiso; Anderson; Hancock County; the southwest region, including Evansville; and Johnson County, including Franklin and Greenwood.

Several activities are scheduled for the Crawforsdville visit:

• 9:15 a.m. — Tour Nucor Steel, Crawfordsville, 4537 S. Nucor Road. Nucor Steel, the largest steel producer in the United States, produces as much as 1.8 million tons of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and galvanized steel products each year. It serves a broad range of customers, including service centers and pipe and tube manufacturers along with construction, mining and electrical contractors. Approximately 750 people are employed at the Crawfordsville facility. Nucor Steel also has plants in Alabama, South Carolina and Arkansas.

• 11 a.m. — Tour Pace Dairy Foods, 800 Englewood Drive, Crawfordsville. Pace Dairy, which employs 325 people, manufactures cheese products. One of 41 Kroger plants, it helped to produce more than 10 million American cheese food singles sold by Kroger last year. Pace Dairy is working with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center on an advanced manufacturing training program. A total of 135 employees will receive certificates of continuous improvement upon the completion of the 55-day program. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center is administered by Purdue's Technical Assistance Program, which connects companies with Purdue resources and assists them in implementing state-of-the-art technologies.

• 12:15 p.m. — Attend lunch and a community forum with community leaders and elected officials at the Montgomery County 4-H Fairgrounds community building, 400 Parke Ave., Crawfordsville. Jischke will invite questions and comments after a brief presentation on the implementation of the current strategic plan, which will conclude on June 30. All input is welcome, but Jischke has suggested five topics for the Crawfordsville session:

• How has Purdue benefited Crawforsdville, and what needs might be unmet?

• How can the university partner at the county level to accomplish even more?

• What do businesses, citizens and young people in Crawfordsville need from a major research university?

• What does Purdue need from Crawfordsville to help it accomplish mutual goals?

• How can Purdue improve its learning environment to better prepare students for the future?

The strategic plan initiatives of discovery, learning and engagement are funded through the $1.5 billion Campaign for Purdue, which has raised $1.433 billion to date.

• 1:45 p.m. — Visit RR Donnelley publishing, 600 W. State Road 32, Crawfordsville. RR Donnelley, which employs 3,000 people at two facilities in Crawfordsville, provides offset printing and binding services. It specializes in the production of catalogs, inserts, magazines, books, directories, and financial and computer documentation. Books are produced in Crawfordsville, at which the publisher established its first facility outside of Chicago in 1921. RR Donnelley owns more than 100 facilities in 19 countries. Purdue's Technical Assistance Program has worked with the publisher on four projects in Crawfordsville. The most recent project involved workstation design.

• 3:30 p.m. — Tour the Dan Gwin and Donya Lester farm, 9346 N. 100 W., Linden. The high-tech, specialty crop farm works with the Purdue College of Agriculture on research and educational programs. Gwin and Lester also have served as volunteer peer counselors for Purdue's Breaking New Ground Resource Center, which assists disabled farmers. Lester also is the executive secretary of Purdue's Ag Alumni Association. Gwin is a life member of the Purdue Alumni Association and member of the John Purdue Club. He received a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from Purdue in 1980.

Jischke, who came to Purdue in August 2000, is the university's 10th president. He currently serves as chairman of the Association of American Universities, which represents the top 62 research universities in North America, and is the current chair of the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors. He also serves on President George W. Bush's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Jischke serves 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. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce honored Jischke in November with its Volunteer of the Year Award.

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.

He previously served for nine years as president of Iowa State University, another land-grant institution. Jischke's 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. During his tenure at Oklahoma, he served in multiple capacities. He became director of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering in 1977. He also served as dean of the College of Engineering from 1981 to 1986, and was named the university's interim president in 1985.

Writer: Marydell Forbes, (765) 496-7704, mforbes@purdue.edu

Sources: Martin C. Jischke, (765) 494-2098

Victor L. Lechtenberg, (765) 494-9095, vll@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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