Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana, is now president of Purdue, a soft landing for a politician with no academic bona fides. He has continued his assault on the academic integrity of the university by arranging the purchase of online “Kaplan University,” a for-profit business built on test prep.
The University Senate passed a resolution opposing this move, and Daniels said they felt bad about being left out of the decision-making process. Purdue paid $1 for the flailing online business.
Read about the deal in the Washington Post here:
Read today’s Politico education edition for more on this story.
Text of Faculty Senate resolution:
To: From:
Subject: Disposition:
Whereas,
Senate Document 16-19 4 May 2017
Purdue University Senate
Senators Alan Beck, Tithi Bhattacharya, Evelyn Blackwood, Elena Coda, Cheryl Cooky, Alan Friedman, Alberto Rodriguez, and Laurel Weldon
Resolution on the Purdue Purchase of Kaplan University University Senate for Discussion & Approval
Faculty governance and faculty control of curriculum are the lifeblood of any healthy University.
As, unfortunately, the unique nature of the announced purchase by Purdue of Kaplan University resulted in a violation of both of those central tenets.
1. No input was sought through regular faculty governance before this decision was made.
2. No assessment of the impact on the academic quality of Purdue, now or in the future, was made.
3. No transparency was demonstrated in this process.
4. No impact study has been taken of effects on faculty, curriculum, students and staff at Purdue.
5. Faculty governance and academic freedom at what will become the “New University” is not assured by the Purdue agreement with Kaplan.
6. The Faculty has already requested, in writing, that the administration use the Senate’s Academic Organization Committee when considering any re-structuring of programs or the creation of new ones at any campus.
Be it resolved that
Based on these violations of both common sense educational practice and respect for the Purdue faculty, we call on the President and Board of Trustees to include faculty in all aspects of decision-making regarding the proposed “New University” and to rescind any decisions, to the degree possible, made without faculty input.
Sponsors:
Alan Beck, Tithi Bhattacharya, Evelyn Blackwood, Elena Coda, Cheryl Cooky, Alan Friedman, Alberto Rodriguez, Laurel Weldon
In the Politico report this morning, you will also learn there about the Trump administration’s efforts to tamp down the fears that Trump was preparing to cut off capital funding of HBCUs, in grounds of “equal opportunity” (no favoritism based on race), which he seemed to imply in a recent signing statement.
Watch for Betsy DeVos’s commencement address at historically black Bethune-Cookman University in Florida on Wednesday. Undoubtedly she will praise the virtues of school choice since that is her only thought.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The age of the autocrats/dictators has arrived. Daniels is not the only fascist in the United States in a position of power who is ignoring the democratic process and plowing further toward a theocratic autocracy.
Lloyd,
Another great comment. It’s sickening.
Wishful thinking: The greedy deformers go away together on an TEENY island overcome by global warming devoid of sustenance and they fight over rocks.
I have the perfect little island. Bikini Atoll where the U.S. tested atomic bombs between 1946 – 1958.
Ignoring the democratic process is a feature of neoliberalism which is found in both parties these days. Furthermore, autocracy need not be theocratic. Look at how Rahm runs Chicago as just one example.
The evidence supports that the autocratic billionaires that fund neos and the fundamentalist Christians have joined forces with a common goal, to destroy democracy.
There’s a word for this, what is it…oh, yes, “sordid.”
Here is why Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana, is now president of Purdue, “a soft landing for a politician with no academic bona fides”.
[Purdue Exponent] Daniels has no comment on conflict of interest issue
During Thursday’s Q & A session with the media, Gov. Mitch Daniels declined to respond when asked about the ethics of being approved by trustees he has previously appointed….
Hundreds of comments via social media, as well as a petition against Daniel’s appointment citing conflict of interest, made it clear some remain unsatisfied.
By Thursday night at 11:30 p.m., 534 people had signed a petition on Change.org to “Eliminate Governor Mitch Daniels from Consideration for Purdue President.” The petition began on Monday. Of the three reasons for the petition, two of them focus on Daniels prior connections to the Board of Trustees…
http://www.purdueexponent.org/campus/article_94017752-3cb7-567d-aaff-dc9ca89520ca.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
Our current climate ignores the notion of “conflict of interest.” Too many politicians serve in order to feather their own nests, and the most egregious example is the president and his clan. We need more explicit rules of behavior for so called public servants. As a teacher, I was prohibited from any paid tutoring job for any students that attended our district due to conflict of interest. We need better clear lines of conduct for public employees with a clear list of sanctions for those that violate the rules.
Trustees and Daniels, without Higher Education bonafides, act on the Machiavellian principle of the ends justify the means, a perspective often applied in business and politics. Academe is process oriented and collaborative in which faculty study proposals affecting curriculum and faculty and provide valuable input and make decisions from an academic perspective. Perhaps Trustees and Daniels think they are applying principles that should be in force in academe (i.e., Machiavellian) and they are merely providing new ways of doing academic business. They err in believing they are so omniscient that they could/should single-handedly upend centuries of academic traditions.
Thanks for checking in. I notice that there are only eight faculty sponsors of the Resolution. Maybe that is typical, but i do wonder if faculty are just going along to get along.
Nicely put, Professor Haring, and thank you.
Four of the 10 Trustees are connected to the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Often, state and regional chambers are linked to the Koch’s ALEC. Two of the Trustees were appointed by Pence.
As Lloyd implies, its increasingly difficult to ignore the U.S. as an oligarchy. There was a time when a university was the community within the university not, the richest 0.1% making corrosive decisions from the board.
Apparently Her Nibs (DeVos) is scheduled to speak in Utah on Friday. But we can’t find any other information about when she is speaking, or to whom. I would picket if I knew when she would actually be there.