As you may know, I am leading Purdue’s next steps in acquiring Kaplan University and transitioning that institution into what we are currently calling Purdue NewU.

Some of you have taken part in recent focus groups and listening sessions, and for that I offer sincere thanks. We want your ideas and your questions as we move forward on this important initiative to expand Purdue’s land-grant mission to reach those adult learners with some college who do not have the opportunity to attend a traditional college or university.

Please watch coming issues of Purdue Today, in which I will answer questions and provide updates on a regular basis.

What follows is a short update of our work thus far:

* Listening sessions have been conducted with several groups of faculty and staff at West Lafayette as well as at Purdue Fort Wayne. The questions from those sessions, as well as other questions received, have been compiled and will be part of our regular Purdue Today updates.

* Three faculty focus groups at West Lafayette were conducted on June 2 as part of the process to identify a name for NewU. In addition, a short survey was sent to the campus on June 9 as part of the qualitative stage of the research.

* I, along with President Daniels and soon-to-be Interim Provost Jay Akridge, visited a Kaplan campus in Des Moines and the administrative offices in Chicago. Besides a tour of facilities, town halls were held for faculty and staff on site, as well as via a virtual town hall. Kaplan’s faculty members were overwhelmingly positive about the acquisition, but, as you might expect, did have questions about NewU’s fit into the Purdue system, our current online presence and offerings, and autonomy in program oversight and development. The most encouraging thing I took away from the session was their desire to develop relationships with Purdue faculty, and that is a process I strongly want to encourage as we move forward.

* An open discussion session was part of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education agenda on June 8. The discussion covered overviews of the legal structure, Kaplan University, academic aspects and financial transactions. The commission will consider Purdue’s acquisition proposal for approval in its August meeting. Here is a link to President Daniels’ presentation to ICHE. Here is a link to the Lafayette Journal and Courier’s coverage of the ICHE session.

* The NewU Board of Trustees held its first meeting in June, and, among its initial actions was the decision to provide a significant tuition discount to Indiana resident students, which will take effect immediately, and to make a discount available to Purdue employees (free tuition for benefits-eligible staff) and their families upon closing of the acquisition. More information is available here.

As always, I welcome your input as we move forward.

Thank you,