Purdue U. President Has Kept Tuition Under $10,000 for 7 Years

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels promised to keep tuition under $10,000. Now, seven years later, Daniels has kept his promise and is speaking out about the rising cost of tuition around the country.

According to a report by the Atlantic, former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has accomplished something unusual in the world of higher education. Daniels, who became the president of Purdue University in 2013, has accomplished his goal of freezing annual tuition at below $10,000.

When asked how he was able to keep tuition low in an era of quarter-million-dollar undergraduate programs, he pointed the finger at bad decisions made by other institutions.

“I always say it’s easier to explain what we didn’t do,” Daniels said. “We didn’t try to get more money from the state. We didn’t shift from full-time faculty and fill the ranks with cheaper, part-time adjunct faculty. We haven’t driven up our percentage of international or out-of-state students,” who pay more than in-staters. Each of these measures has been taken up by other public universities, even as most have increased their in-state tuition.”

Daniels doesn’t take his promise to keep tuition under $10,000 lightly. At one point, Daniels noticed that Purdue had advertised annual tuition costs at $10,002. Daniels quickly convened a meeting of Purdue’s board of trustees and had the tuition figure moved back to $9,992.

“One day I’m looking at one of those college guides, and it said, ‘Tuition and fees: $10,002.’ I called up our people and said, ‘Lookit here, there’s a mistake. You got the wrong number.’ They said, ‘That’s not a mistake.’ I said, ‘Yes, it is. Believe me. I know.’ They went back and checked and they said, ‘No, that’s the right figure.’

“It just bugged me to death. Does Walmart have a special and price it at $10.02? I found out what happened. There’s a second installment on a preexisting gym fee that got tacked on. Ten dollars plus $9,992 equals $10,002.

However, Purdue University is not without its issues. Breitbart News reported in October that Purdue faculty members have staged an ongoing protest against the installation of a Chick-fil-A location on campus due to the franchise’s Christian values.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more campus trends.