Purdue University officials say one of the benefits of an expansion into Indianapolis will be more space for students.
IUPUI is set to split into Purdue University Indianapolis and Indiana University Indianapolis starting in July of 2024.
At Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus, there have been growing concerns that student enrollment has outpaced housing stock in the city.
“We’re done expanding. I don’t think we can expand anymore in West Lafayette because of the concerns you’re seeing,” said Dan Hasler, a former Indiana commerce secretary who held several roles at Purdue University before returning to overssee the launch of the Indianapolis campus. “We’re basically full. The unfortunate thing is we’re not accepting a lot of really well-qualified students because of that.”
Hassler and Indiana University officials spoke about their visions for separate operations in Indianapolis during a luncheon hosted by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute.
Hasler said he’s hopeful that students will see an opportunity to attend Purdue within Indianapolis — offering some relief to housing in West Lafayette. Purdue is aiming to enroll between 800 and 1,000 students enrolled at Purdue University in Indianapolis.
While speaking with reporters, Hasler was asked whether Indiana University’s $ 111 million dollar investment in the microelectronics sector was a concern. Previously, Purdue has led in both investments in semiconductor manufacturing and attracting outside companies to West Lafayette.
Hasler said the two universities are not competing against one another.
“Our competition is MIT, Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, California. Those are the people we’re competing for faculty and talent and economic development with,” he said.
Hasler said the more investments coming to Purdue and Indiana University — the better.
“I think we’ll see more opportunities to collaborate with companies, I think we’ll see more opportunities to collaborate with each other because we’re both getting better at complementary things and sometimes the same thing,” he said.
