Purdue Board Approves Tuition Freeze, Construction
The tuition and fee recommendations will now go to the Executive Committee for a May 31 public hearing
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Purdue University Board of Trustees has approved the previously-announced tuition freeze for the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years, as well as the university’s 2020 operating budget. Purdue says the total cost of attending the university’s West Lafayette campus will continue to be less than it was in 2012.
The board also approved the fee schedule for both years with general fees being held steady, except for flight program fees, which will increase by 3 percent in 2020 and 5.6 percent in 2021. Purdue says tuition and fees at Purdue University Northwest and Purdue University Fort Wayne will follow the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s recommended increase of up to 1.65 percent each year of the biennium.
Two major construction projects on the West Lafayette campus also received board approval.
The first phase of the $80 million Engineering and Polytechnic Gateway project is expected to begin in the spring of 2020. The two-phase project aims to replace the current Nuclear Engineering Building and Michael Golden Laboratories with new facilities serving the College of Engineering and Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
The 145,000-square-foot Phase 1 facility will be named Dudley Hall in recognition of alumni Bill and Marty Dudley. Purdue says it will also serve as a gateway to the academic campus and help accommodate increased enrollment in the College of Engineering and Purdue Polytechnic. The project is expected to be complete by the 2022-23 academic year.
Also slated to begin in spring 2020 is the $108 million Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital, which will feature hospital facilities for equine, small animal and farm animal patients. The project is expected to be complete in December 2021.
Additionally, the Purdue Board of Trustees approved the establishment of a new Department of Public Health as part of the university’s realignment of the College of Health and Human Sciences. The department will combine the undergraduate public health and the Master of Public Health programs. The department will be led by Richard Mattes, distinguished professor of nutrition science at Purdue.
The university’s Department of Consumer Science will also become a division of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Purdue says the College of Health and Human Sciences will continue to have six departments and three schools.
"We are proposing these changes to serve our students even better by bringing the right faculty experts together to help these programs thrive and flourish," said Marion Underwood, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. "This realignment will provide great teaching, research resources and experiences for our students in Public Health, Consumer Science, and Hospitality and Tourism Management."