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Comment by dehrmann | Hacker News Reader

Interesting side note: before becoming president of Purdue, Daniels was governor of Indiana. His successor in that job was Mike Pence. Daniels was also a rising star in the GOP, so he's a competent politician who got closer than most to actually dealing with international relations.

He's also run Purdue differently than most administrators. He famously froze tuition, and he's using the name for an online school Purdue bought.

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He froze (in state) tuition because the school is completely bankrolled by wealthy Chinese sending their kids to school. Every luxury car driving around town has a foreign student at the wheel.

It’s more complicated than that. They held the line on costs, which let them maintain the freeze, which increased enrollment and alum donations and made investments beyond low-hanging fruit possible. They claim not to have changed their mix of in-state. Daniels is a legitimate tightwad so it’s in character for him to take cost control seriously.

It’s about time politicians and school administrators start taking control of costs and tuition. We shouldn’t call them tightwads for it.

He severely cut staff benefits as part of the belt tightening.

He was governor during the financial crisis wasn't it? Sounds like it was necessary measures since Indiana can't finance debt per its own constitution.

He slashed benefits after becoming president. The Chinese mana is only for the people at top.

Why are communist Chinese even admitted at all? Many Americans have tried and failed at admission and now have to settle for some lesser education or none at all. What are they teaching people who are forbidden to learn? Why should they tolerate people returning with systemic resentment? I see no return on this investment -- none at all.

> before becoming president of Purdue, Daniels was governor of Indiana. His successor in that job was Mike Pence. Daniels was also a rising star in the GOP, so he's a competent politician who got closer than most to actually dealing with international relations.

How is the governor of Indiana closer to dealing with international relations? I suspect the president of Purdue does it more, given the international nature of academia. How does Mike Pence affect Daniels' experience?

> he's using the name for an online school Purdue bought

Is that good?

It wasn't good. During his tenure, he had the university create a deal with Kaplan to brand Kaplan University as Purdue Global and get the Indiana legisture to pass a sweetheart law for it. The result is that Purdue's name as a very good engineering school is mud.

https://tcf.org/content/commentary/purdue-global-got-irs-sta...

Really?

Its programs are among the top in the nation.

https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/FactsFigures/Ran....

The previous comment is probably saying the online school students are diluting the overall quality of the Perdue student pool in engineering.

> How is the governor of Indiana closer to dealing with international relations?

Close in the sense that his successor as Indiana Governor was Mike Pence. I almost want to say the only reason Daniels wasn't in that spot was timing.

I don't think what someone's successor does has any impact. My successor in my old apartment became a brilliant chef; does that help my cooking?

> and he's using the name for an online school Purdue bought.

I've read this several times but not sure what it means - what "name"?

I read it as: he bought an online school, and started calling it "Purdue" to cash in on the school's reputation.

Hmm. Purdue bought a school and “cashed in” on their own reputation? Still confused… :)

I was trying to avoid passing judgment, but...

They bought an online school (Kaplan University), then renamed it to Purdue University Global. It's one of the worst schools in the country. The only reason to do that is to cash in on the Purdue brand, and it will likely dilute it over time.

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