Purdue University has named former Indiana commerce secretary Dan Hasler to assist in the launch of its Indianapolis campus.
Earlier this year, Indiana University and Purdue University announced they would be splitting up IUPUI into two separate campuses. Purdue President Mitch Daniels said he wanted a bigger, more visible presence for Purdue in Indianapolis.
Dan Hasler says the focus is on ironing out logistics in the early days of the transition.
“But in the end, our goal is to have a much more significant footprint for Purdue University in Indianapolis to the benefit of students in Central Indiana that would like to have a world-class Purdue education,” Hasler said.
Of the roughly 27,000 students at IUPUI, some 24,000 are getting degrees through Indiana University.
Hasler says Purdue plans to expand its share of those students - getting degrees in engineering, technology, and computer science.
The split will eventually lead to a separate brick-and-mortar campus, but Hasler said it’s not clear what the timeline on that will look like.
“All of this needs to be worked out and will be worked out in the coming months,” he said. “Clearly that is the intent of both IU and Purdue to have separate and distinct branded college/university experiences for their undergrads.”
According to Purdue, Hasler’s role will include helping the university to create opportunities with Indianapolis-based companies and exploring a possible joint venture with IU’s School of Medicine for a research institute.
“Indianapolis should be a top ten tech hub in the United States,” he said. “It can be a top ten technology hub in the United States if we can continue to keep these folks here and excited about the city and collaborating with the industry that is already here. That’s the big ‘what’s in it for all of us’ message, I think, in all of this.”
