Education

Most Purdue students studying on the West Lafayette campus won’t pay more for their education next year. In fact, administrators say thousands will pay less.

The Board of Trustees Executive Committee approved freezing tuition and most fees. The plan also includes a reduction in the campus meal plan and fees for summer internships and co-ops.

President Mitch Daniels says those two things add up to $3.5 million dollars and are just as important as tuition costs.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels talks about the FY14 proposed general fund budget, which includes a freeze on tuition.

He credits the increase in funding from the General Assembly on Purdue doing well on the performance-based metrics the state uses to partly fund higher education. The state also is giving Purdue $50 million to build the Active Learning Center, which is designed to make classes more collaborative, instead of strictly lectures.

Daniels also talks about the academic profile of the incoming class for fall of 2013.

The Executive Committee of the Purdue Board of Trustees is accepting public comment on the proposed general fund budget. The hearing Wednesday includes comments on the proposed tuition freeze and student fees.

President Mitch Daniels says by holding tuition steady and decreasing the cost of a meal plan, some Boilermakers will pay less.

"I'm very excited about this. I don't know how many universities in the country will be able to say that students are attending in fall of '13 for less money than they attended in the spring '13, but we're one."

Several Mintonye Elementary school students are being treated for injuries after the bus they were on crashed on Interstate 65. It happened around 2 p.m. Thursday near Zionsville.

Tippecanoe School Corporation Superintendent Scott Hanback says five students and seven adults were on the bus, returning from a field trip.

He says the students are enrolled in the Greater Lafayette Area Special Services (GLASS) program and have some type of disability. The bus involved is owned by the Lafayette School Corporation, which administers the GLASS program.