Purdue's new president visits IPFW

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Former governor Mitch Daniels visited IPFW Thursday for the first time in his new role as Purdue University's president.

To a crowd of about a hundred IPFW staff and students, Daniels addressed questions and concerns.

"I want to understand how Purdue as a whole can support [IPFW] better. There's been disagreements in the past [about how that was done] and I'm trying to understand what those are and see if we can improve them a little bit," Daniels said.

Many of the questions surrounded higher education funding. Daniels, who just served as Indiana's governor for the last eight years, said he's always supported appropriating money for post-high school education . But, he added it's important to make sure every dollar is well-spent.

IPFW freshman Matthew Danielson's concern was keeping college costs affordable, but at the same time not scarifying the quality of the degree.

Daniels agreed reputation is important to maintain, but he's also open to the idea of the regional campuses getting a little more independence from the leaders at Purdue and IU.

A proposed bill in the statehouse would give campuses like IPFW more freedom, like seeking new degree programs and communicating with the board of directors without going through their oversight university.

"One principle that's in everyone's interest, frankly, is if we're going to confer degrees with Purdue or Indiana University, the world's got to know they live up to the standards associated with that brand. As long as that is protected, and I think it's the case today and it can be protected in the future, then I'm in favor of taking the process out of higher education. My gosh, there's a lot of hoops people jump through," Daniels said.

With only one out of every five college students nationally the "traditional" student right out of high school, Daniels said IPFW serves an important role in Indiana's higher education opportunities.

"We've got to have a diversity of offerings because students in search of better lives have an infinite variety of situations they're dealing with," he said.

IPFW recorded Daniels' forum and it will be replayed Friday, February 1 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., Saturday, February 2 at 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 3 at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Comcast channel 5 and FiOS channel 30.