Time capsule letter from President Daniels

The following letter from President Mitch Daniels will be included in the time capsule being dedicated as part of the University's celebration of the Purdue Bell Tower's 25th birthday on Oct. 14, 2020.

Dear members of the Purdue community,

I write to you as we mark the 25^th birthday of the Purdue Bell Tower, a campus icon and a symbol of our great institution’s persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — of our dedication to remembering our past while striving to achieve even more by going “one brick higher” as we work to build a better world.

Ordinarily, a 25^th birthday might not call for a letter to the future from the university president and its students, or a new time capsule to be opened by those who we expect will celebrate this tower’s 100^th birthday in 2095. This birthday, however, coincides with the most unique year in our 151-year history. You will no doubt have read in your history lessons about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, about the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and the disruption to the lives and livelihoods of millions more. I hope you also will have read or heard stories of the year 2020 at Purdue University, and about the dedicated faculty, staff and students who collectively and collaboratively found innovative solutions to ensure the continuity and even expansion of our learning, discovery and engagement missions.

Within the time capsule you are opening you will see some of the material artifacts of our efforts: a COVID-19 test kit, which was provided to all students before their arrival on campus for fall semester; a wellness kit, including Purdue-branded face masks, a thermometer and hand wipes; a copy of our full Protect Purdue Plan and Protect Purdue Pledge, which we believe enabled us to prepare and adapt to the changing circumstances and to understand each of our roles in protecting ourselves, each other and our campus. We have great hope that advances in medical science will long since have eliminated the need for any such items. We place them here so you might know more about what your predecessors experienced in the year 2020.

Before the disruption of the pandemic, there were already many questions being asked about the future of higher education: What is its true value? Is there a need for residential campuses? How can we provide an affordable, accessible, world-class education for learners no matter where they are and throughout their lives? 

Our university is answering those questions better than most. At Purdue now 20 years into the 21^st century, we’ve identified affordability and accessibility, transformative education, world-changing research, and leadership in the science, technology, engineering and math disciplines as our focus. Our students and our faculty are among the most innovative in the world (in fact, we’ve just been named the fifth most innovative university in the U.S.). We’ve held tuition and fees to the same levels for eight and soon to be nine years, helped our students reduce their debt loads, and provided opportunities for them to shorten their time to degree through initiatives designed by our outstanding faculty and staff. Our research enterprise has grown to record levels, and those discoveries are the basis for new businesses, boosting the economy and impacting citizens around the world. In addition, we’ve expanded our land-grant mission beyond the residential campus in West Lafayette to online degrees and curriculum via Purdue Global and Purdue Online, where learners from around the world can have access to our high quality faculty and programs.

Those of us who are stewards of Purdue in 2020 believe that with continued focus on innovative solutions and the right reforms, higher education will remain valuable, and that this capsule will be opened by young people pursuing learning and personal growth at a place called Purdue.

Whoever you are, thank you for taking the time to read this missive from the past. I wish you all the best, and on behalf of the Purdue community of 2020, I wish a happy 100^th birthday to our Purdue Bell Tower.

Sincerely,

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
President