Just caught part of Purdue president Mitch Daniels' monthly interview with WBAA radio here on campus and managed to record it. Here are Daniels' responses to two questions from WBAA news director Stan Jastrzebski about the topic of football.
http://wbaa.org/people/stan-jastrzebski-0
On how much discontent he's hearing ...
"Of course we're hearing from folks whether they're donors or just fans. I go to all the games and I'm out in the crowd, down in the end zone and places, asking people. Of course you hear folks that are hoping we'll become more competitive and obviously I do, too. You can look for us to continue to demonstrate our commitment to athletics and football specifically, but I'll just end the answer where I often start: I'm really proud of the athletic program that we have. It's a high-integrity program, sets high standards, then enforces them. Our student-athletes are real student-athletes, taking real classes and getting honest grades and that's so (important). And by the way, we don’t tax the students of this university or the citizens of this state, for that matter, to finance athletics, which there are people who think that's just fine (to do). I happen to think it's admirable that at Purdue, our athletic program has found a way to pay for itself."
On Darrell Hazell …
"I don't have much to say about this, beyond the fact that it's the athletic director's job to make coaching evaluations and in most cases, decisions. I will say I think Darrell Hazell is a tremendously admirable person and he's representing this university very well. He's only two-and-a-half years in, which means he's only had one-and-a-half years to recruit, and that's of course very central to long-term success. There's constant evaluation by Morgan Burke and his team of all the coaches we have and many have been replaced just since I've been here by them. They're performance-based over there, too, but we'll leave that decision-making where it ought to be right now."
(Note: It was unclear whether Daniels misspoke about the 'one-and-a-half years to recruit' comment or whether he's interpreting things some other way.)
http://wbaa.org/people/stan-jastrzebski-0
On how much discontent he's hearing ...
"Of course we're hearing from folks whether they're donors or just fans. I go to all the games and I'm out in the crowd, down in the end zone and places, asking people. Of course you hear folks that are hoping we'll become more competitive and obviously I do, too. You can look for us to continue to demonstrate our commitment to athletics and football specifically, but I'll just end the answer where I often start: I'm really proud of the athletic program that we have. It's a high-integrity program, sets high standards, then enforces them. Our student-athletes are real student-athletes, taking real classes and getting honest grades and that's so (important). And by the way, we don’t tax the students of this university or the citizens of this state, for that matter, to finance athletics, which there are people who think that's just fine (to do). I happen to think it's admirable that at Purdue, our athletic program has found a way to pay for itself."
On Darrell Hazell …
"I don't have much to say about this, beyond the fact that it's the athletic director's job to make coaching evaluations and in most cases, decisions. I will say I think Darrell Hazell is a tremendously admirable person and he's representing this university very well. He's only two-and-a-half years in, which means he's only had one-and-a-half years to recruit, and that's of course very central to long-term success. There's constant evaluation by Morgan Burke and his team of all the coaches we have and many have been replaced just since I've been here by them. They're performance-based over there, too, but we'll leave that decision-making where it ought to be right now."
(Note: It was unclear whether Daniels misspoke about the 'one-and-a-half years to recruit' comment or whether he's interpreting things some other way.)
