A quote from Mitch Daniels Letter to Purdue Alumni...

[PU52Chevy]

WHAT WE ASPIRE NOT TO BE

Higher education's crises in 2014 were not solely of the financial variety. Events at far too many schools reflected a bankruptcy not of material resources but of values.


Headlined by the truly awful case of one major university, the sacrifice of academic integrity on the altar of Division I athletics reached a new low. Phony courses, phony grades, falsified homework, all enabled and managed for decades in plain view of scores of faculty and administrators - one well-known university generated the most attention, but everyone knows that these offenses are far from unique.


Every Boilermaker can be proud of an athletic program that insists on high standards of conduct, operates without subsidy from either student tuition dollars or the taxpayers, and upholds the ideals of genuine amateur college sports: real students, taking real courses, earning honest grades. We must never take this record for granted, and will continue to exercise all the vigilance we can design to guard against its ever being tarnished.


So have patience and be proud of who we are......

Purdue will get back to the Rose Bowl and higher someday and when we do, it will be doing it the right way.......

Boiler Up!

 

[JohnnyDoeBoiler]

In a nutshell....

Don't be pissed off that the thing that brands Purdue University the most effectively and can bring in more dollars for our university was left to the

for so long it may never get back to respectability, the way most of out alumni want it to be.

Let's ignore numbers and figures from Butler's rise to prominence on the national stage of college basketball and an increase

in branding, sales, and college entrance applications from a broader range of students who never considered Butler as simply

a model that doesn't truly work. Or maybe we could look at how Ohio State has used their athletic teams to build the largest

alumni base in the country which in turn leads to higher donations and higher revenue for schools and athletic departments to

work with. So please, don't be upset that we as administrators play the 'holier than thou' card and place ourselves above

everyone else who is 'successful' at sports because we failed to properly find a model in today's environment to be

competitive.

***I have actually liked having Mitch at the helm of Purdue to get some of the fluff away from Purdue and get things in order on the academic side...and that's coming from a high school teacher who didn't like him while he was the governor. This smells of playing the card that Purdue is better than any one else and seems like a cop out. If you are going to play this card, request to be admitted into the Ivy League (since so many people seem to claim that Purdue is just like the Ivy League schools) and quit making excuses.

 

[PU52Chevy]

Purdue=Private Big Ten School...I like the sound of that.

I for one would love for Purdue to go Private like Duke has.....................

Education first then focus on other things such as sports etc.................


I am proud of my Purdue Degree and whatever happens in sports is icing on the cake for me.

I support them if they are good or bad and appreciate the effort and commitment all the academic and athletic students give daily at Purdue while attending Purdue and after graduation.

Proud to be a Boilermaker.

 

[JohnnyDoeBoiler]

Re: Purdue=Private Big Ten School...I like the sound of that.

I am not saying I don't support Purdue, even when they are bad...but the excuses are pathetic. Either own up to the fact that we are bad because of a poor approach to the model that had changed since the 1990's or make a move to support your current model.

 

[nat100]

There is a big difference between a university making a commitment to improving its athletic standing and doing what UNC did. This quote from the letter is nothing more than a defense of the status quo.

 

[JohnnyDoeBoiler]

I agree Nat, but I personally just feel this is a way for Morgan Burke to come out and say....'hey, don't be mad at us for playing by the rules and not being successful. Those other institutions are cheating and that's why they are successful.' Simply put, it isn't true.

Posted the following on the basketball board as well:

I'm sick and tired of the excuses from EVERYONE in the Athletic Department and the University as to why the major sporting teams can't compete. Either suck it up, admit you made a mistake with a model that CLEARLY hasn't worked long term, and move on...OR quit making excuses that clearly show a lack of effort (probably like a lot of things) and join the Ivy League.

It's funny that Stanford clearly seems to be able to retain their academic prowess and still field competitive teams in the major sports while also running their budget at or near the break even point.

Stanford 2008: Revenue Generated: 76,661,466
Expenses Generated: 75,127,232
---------------------------------------------------
+ 1,534,234

Purdue 2008: Revenue Generated: 64,253,784
Expenses Generated: 59,217,169
--------------------------------------------------
+ 5,036,615

Now, these numbers are from 2008, but that still comes a year after economic downturn and represents a time when MBB, WBB, and FB were a much more competitive lot than they are now. You are telling me with a PROFIT of 5 million dollars, you can't find a place to reinvest that money into projects, coaching salaries, recruiting budgets, branding, etc., for the athletic department to invest into the long term success of ALL programs and the university? Come on now, most of us who are Boilermaker fans went to the university and have our degrees. Stop treating us like the village idiots that IU mostly has.

This post was edited on 1/14 1:21 PM by JohnnyDoeBoiler

 

[BoilerGrad02]

Last Friday evening I listened to his interview on the local NPR station. I kept mentioning the student athlete's GPA because "No one else will mention it", referring to other outlets that cover Purdue sports. I remember wondering to myself, why should Burke, Painter and Hazell get credit for the player's GPA when it's the players and professors that are the reason for it? I suppose you could argue that the coaches considered academics when recruiting but that's minimal at best.

I'm disappointed that Daniels seems to have changed his tune in regards to accountability and performance standards. It was something I agreed with him on while he was governor but apparently those things only apply to government employees making 40k a year not ADs making 500k or coaches making 2 million +.

Burke is starting to make more and more excuses for his department. I can't help but wonder how he would have reacted to one of his subordinates come up with excuses why earnings were declining and profit margins shrinking year after year when he was in the private sector.
This post was edited on 1/14 1:52 PM by BoilerGrad02

 

[boiler17]

Agree,

Saying we arent UNC doesnt address Purdue.

I also dont understand why they are so anti funding atheletics through tuition. Isnt what most universities charge per student a couple hundred and they get free/discounted tickets in return?

If affordability and reasonableness are really at the heart of what you want, wouldnt you attack text book prices, and unneeded expenses like having huge buildings where only 30% of classrooms are being used at any given point in time and building more on top of it? Theres a ton of details there I dont know, but it doesnt seem like the university is hurting for money anywhere but athletics.

Does tuition go toward stuff like plays and university concerts? I think it does, and dont see a difference.

 

[boiler17]

Originally posted by BoilerGrad02:
Last Friday evening I listened to his interview on the local NPR station. I kept mentioning the student athlete's GPA because "No one else will mention it", Referring to other outlets that cover Purdue sports. I remember wonder to myself, why should Burke, Painter and Hazell get credit for the player's GPA when it's the players and professors that are the reason for it? I suppose you could argue that the coaches considered academics when recruiting but that's minimal at best.

I'm disappointed that Daniels seems to have changed his tune in regards to accountability and performance standards. It was something I agreed with him on while he was governor but apparently those things only apply to government employees making 40k a year not ADs making 500k or coaches making 2 million +.

Burke is starting to make more and more excuses for his department. I can't help but wonder how he would have reacted to one of his subordinates come up with excuses why earnings were declining and profit margins shrinking year after year when he was in the private sector.

Right, the defensiveness there is telling to me of where their mindset is at competitively right now.

If he would just own it and say I need to do better, or point to an actual limiting factor, I wouldnt have a problem with that.

 

[SunnyFL24]

WOW! The alumni donations ought to start poring in on that note. Loved him as a governor, but is clearly dropping the ball here on our athletic front. I guess when we are getting our azzes waxed on Saturday afternoons I should just be thankful were doing it the right way....................

 

[FullMoonFever]

This guy.

Mitch Daniels. He's a politician. Good luck with that. Met him once.
At the Purdue-Western Michigan game this year, or was it last year?
(read: Albert Camus inference)

Sucks to be us.

Next.

 

[BoilerStutz]

Mitch Daniels gave Burke a bonus for overseeing the worst year in the history of major sports at Purdue. What more do you need to know? It does, indeed, stink to be us.

 

[Tommaker]

Re: Purdue=Private Big Ten School...I like the sound of that.

Can't remember if I've posted this before, but the scuttlebutt is Cordoba tried to take the University private. The state legislature would have none of it.

 

[Tommaker]

Indiana isn't California.

 

[boiler17]

Originally posted by SunnyFL24:
WOW! The alumni donations ought to start poring in on that note. Loved him as a governor, but is clearly dropping the ball here on our athletic front. I guess when we are getting our azzes waxed on Saturday afternoons I should just be thankful were doing it the right way....................

Exactly.

Apologize, identify some ways that you and the AD can take improve, get people excited.

Im surprised he didnt end with "And we could totally do the phony courses. You guys would never know, so that means you should give us more money!"

Its weird too cause the entire statement is focused on athletics. Not sure what they think is good/worth communicating about that message.
This post was edited on 1/14 6:10 PM by boiler17

 

[Minnesota_Boiler]

Re: Purdue=Private Big Ten School...I like the sound of that.

Wow! I never heard this before. What could be the incentive for doing this? Tom, do you have any insight to explain what advantage or benefit Purdue might gain by going private?

 

[Tommaker]

Re: Purdue=Private Big Ten School...I like the sound of that.

As the first land grant school in the state (and I just learned a month or so ago IU was offered, but declined) and as a state funded school we have a link with the Indiana Legislature. As such, we have to play by "their rules" since we recieve X amount of funding.

The long and short of it is since the state government has been on a pretty steady decline in funding higher education in the state, the idea was make it a private university since it wouldn't cost us that much annually and then you can get around some of the rules that have hamstrung Purdue, the biggest being what you can offer a degree in.

From the start, the state divided Law and Medicine for IU (in terms of big ticket majors) and Engineering ?? for Purdue. As I understand it, they didn't want the state Universities to compete, they wanted them to compliment. The problem, long term, is what unltimately brings in the $$.

About ten years ago, at a Purdue Alumni luncheon I asked the guy who was in charge of the last big Cash Grab for Purdue (100 million?) what kind of an impact, if any, not having a school of Law or Medicine had on gift giving. He said, without hesitation, "About 25 million a year."

He knew the numbers.

Forbes backs that up. Out of the top ten earning professions, the top 5 are in the medical field. There will be those that say "Yeah, but that's graduate school, people tend to donate to their undergraduate." Fair enough. But I'm also willing to bet both the med and law schools draw a significant portion of their graduate students from the Undergrads who attended that University.

Here's something to chew on. I believe we are the largest University in the states, if not the world, that doesn't have a school of Law or Medicine.

So if you ask why they wanted to go private, I'd say that's a pretty good reason. And I suspect they probably laid it out to the Universities strengths; a school of Law that focused on manufacturing, internet (computer) and international law, and a school of Medicine that focused on robotics, internal and genetic.

There was a small blurb recently that IU will now be offering Engineering courses (somebody figured out that philosophy and music degrees probably aren;t going to be the job generators here in state and beyond). I was outraged. Here's a violation of how the two Universities were supposed to be set up, and nobody is screaming about it? meanwhile, I've been told there's now an IU School of Medicine building now on the Purdue campus. Can anyone confirm or deny?

TWH

PS If you look up "starting salaries" , Purdue does pretty good. I think the school of Engineering is up to $63K starting salary, average. But anyone who works in the field knows they start high and tend to stay there. I'm guessing that a lot of the big donations come from folks who are closer to the end of their careers (that have had increasing returns the longer they work) so they have more to give.

This post was edited on 1/15 12:17 PM by Tommaker

This post was edited on 1/15 12:25 PM by Tommaker

 

[Minnesota_Boiler]

Re: Purdue=Private Big Ten School...I like the sound of that.

Really good analysis. I can't begin to count the number of times that I've talked to people outside of Indiana who have the perception that Purdue is a private university and that it's located somewhere in the east. Thanks, Tom!

 

[boilermaker75]

Re: Purdue=Private Big Ten School...I like the sound of that.

Originally posted by Tommaker:


There was a small blurb recently that IU will now be offering Engineering courses (somebody figured out that philosophy and music degrees probably aren;t going to be the job generators here in state and beyond). I was outraged. Here's a violation of how the two Universities were supposed to be set up, and nobody is screaming about it? meanwhile, I've been told there's now an IU School of Medicine building now on the Purdue campus. Can anyone confirm or deny?

There have always been 32 first and second year IU med students on Purdue's campus. The blurb you saw was expanding it to 48 because of a new facility in Lyles-Porter Hall. About half-way down in the linked article.

Lyles-Porter Hall

 

[boiler17]

Originally posted by BoilerStutz:
Mitch Daniels gave Burke a bonus for overseeing the worst year in the history of major sports at Purdue. What more do you need to know? It does, indeed, stink to be us.

Stutz are you talking the 50k planned increase in his contract or something related to the directors cup?

It urks me when people talk about the 50k raise or site what Haz is guaranteed per year like its a direct result of performance.