September 29, 2006
Purdue University President Martin C. Jischke made these remarks Friday (Sept. 29) during a meeting of the board of trustees at the Purdue Calumet campus.
President Jischke's comments to the board of trustees
Welcome to the first board of trustees meeting in this new academic year.
My special welcome to two new members of the board: JoAnn Brouillette and Susan Butler.
People have often heard me say that this is the best board of trustees I have ever had the pleasure of working with. It is a board focused on what is best for our university, our students and our state. There is a wonderful spirit of cooperation as we work to build Purdue in the great tradition of "one brick higher."
We are delighted to have JoAnn and Susan join in this exciting work.
We are enjoying this visit to Calumet, and all of us are taking advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the campus. Board committee meetings were held here yesterday. Thanks to Chancellor Cohen and everyone here in Calumet for your hospitality.
Our Calumet campus just this month celebrated its 60th anniversary! It was created to serve the needs of post-World War II northwest Indiana.
Today, Purdue Calumet is a key player in the economic development of this region. From educating the work force to using its missions for learning, discovery and engagement to improve the quality of life for everyone in northwest Indiana, Purdue Calumet is a key player in the future of this community.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone on this campus for the outstanding work you are doing.
We have launched a very exciting year for Purdue, systemwide.
This fall we are holding two weeks of very special celebrations on our West Lafayette campus. One will be the days leading up to the President’s Council Annual Weekend on Oct. 27. The other was held during the week before Homecoming, which was last Saturday.
We had a lot to celebrate.
We dedicated a new $25 million Biomedical Engineering Building, a $20 million Lawson Computer Science Building and a $2 million Linda and William Fleischhauer Radiation Therapy Facility in our School of Veterinary Medicine, the only facility of its kind in our state. We announced a number of new endowed chairs for our faculty and other major gifts. And we broke ground on a $10 million Learning Center in Discovery Park.
Not a bad week!
And last Wednesday in Indianapolis, we announced a $1 million partnership with the Anthem BlueCross and BlueShield Foundation for our Purdue-Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering.
We are moving rapidly on our strategic plans, which are now in their sixth and final year.
Our Campaign for Purdue, which is helping to support these plans, is due to end June 30, 2007. We have raised $1.43 billion toward our $1.5 billion goal.
You will remember that our original goal was $1.3 billion and we long ago passed that mark.
Our friends, alumni and corporate partners are helping us to transform our university. Thanks to everyone who is making this possible.
What is taking place at Purdue today is nothing short of the creation of a new model for higher education in the 21st century.
As our current strategic plans enter the sixth and final year, we are already beginning to look toward what comes next. We are holding visits in communities around the state seeking input from people about what they want from Purdue.
We started in Lafayette. On Wednesday we were in Indianapolis. Our next meeting is in Crawfordsville.
Purdue is Indiana's land-grant university, created to use our missions for learning, discovery and engagement to help the people and economy of our state.
Our current plans have been remarkably successful, and you will hear a complete update on our progress at your November meeting. The question now is: Where should we go from here?
We have received valuable information and promising ideas during our community visits. They have been very productive.
The final plans will emerge after extensive input from around the state and from all of our campuses. It will be a plan approved by board of trustees, supporting your vision for the future.
This is a very exciting process.
One of the focuses of our current plans and surely a focus of new plans that will be drafted is diversity.
Diversity is essential to our learning environment. We are making solid progress in diversity. And it is being recognized.
The Hispanic Business magazine has named our College of Engineering the top engineering college outside the U.S. Southwest for Hispanic students and the second best in the nation.
Hispanic Business in this month's education diversity report cited the vitality of Purdue's chapter of the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers, the array of mentoring and tutoring programs offered by Purdue's Minority Engineering Program, and the growth of the university's Latino Cultural Center.
The center just celebrated the grand opening of its new location, which includes space for meetings and cultural events, a computer lab, a Latino-themed library, a kitchen, and indoor and outdoor recreational areas.
Since 2000, Purdue has doubled the number of minority students entering the freshman engineering program. The number of Hispanics enrolling as a percentage of the entire class has more than tripled in the same time span.
I'd like to point out that the only university ranked ahead of Purdue by the magazine was the University of Texas El Paso. Texas El Paso is adjacent to Juarez, Mexico. Of course, El Paso is one of our football team's popular winter headquarters!
Congratulations to everyone who is advancing our important work in diversity.
Finally, congratulations to Professor John Sullivan of our West Lafayette campus.
John is a professor of aeronautical engineering. He is also director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing in Purdue's Discovery Park.
John has been named to the NASA Advisory Council. This council is an internal panel that provides advice to NASA administrator Mike Griffin. The advice focuses on the space agency's ongoing operations and plans. John's term on the council is for two years.
John served as head of Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics from 1993-98 and was director of the Aerospace Sciences Laboratory from 1983-95. He has an extensive record of academic publications and possesses industrial and consulting experience with NASA, Boeing Commercial Aircraft Co., the Office of Naval Research and General Electric Company.
Under his leadership our Center for Advanced Manufacturing has been active throughout the state helping Indiana industry advance in high technology production and products.
NASA has selected an excellent person for this important work. We are very fortunate to have such outstanding people on our faculty.
We are off to a great start. We hope this great start, which includes a 4-0 record for our football team, continues tomorrow in South Bend.
I will be there cheering. Go Boilers!
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