Purdue board approves business school construction, tuition freeze
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The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday approved construction of the $168 million building that will house the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business. The board also endorsed another tuition freeze through the 2025-26 academic year.
Purdue first detailed plans for the new business school in September 2022, which included doubling the size of the current Krannert Building.
A 164,000-square-foot building will now be constructed adjacent to the existing building and will also be connected to Jerry S. Rawls Hall. All three buildings will be utilized by the Daniels School.
The new building will include flexible space to support academic instruction and conferences, Purdue said. It will also feature modern teaching and research labs for financial trading, data visualization, behavioral research and experiential learning.
The facility will also have three large general-purpose classrooms, one of which will accommodate 500 students with the other two accommodating 250 students each.
“With its striking transparent exterior, the building will draw students, faculty, alumni and visitors to campus inside to see what’s happening,” said Jim Bullard, who was named the inaugural Dr. Samuel R. Allen Dean of the Daniels School in July. ““More importantly, it is a student-centered building. It will provide learning environments and study spaces at the cutting edge of business school facilities.”
When complete, the new facility will be the second-largest classroom building on the West Lafayette campus.
The project will also include renovations to the Krannert Building, and the nearby Krannert Center for Executive Education and Research and the Wesley Foundation facilities will be demolished.
Construction is slated to begin in July 2024 and be complete by April 2027.
During its Friday meeting, the board also endorsed a request from President Mung Chiang for the university’s 13th consecutive freeze on tuition. The freeze must be formally approved by the board in late spring 2025, per state statute, the university said.
Once approved, base undergraduate tuition at Purdue will remain at $9,992 per year for Indiana residents and $28,794 for out-of-state students through 2025-26.
“Purdue continues to lead affordability and student access by offering higher education at the highest proven value,” Chiang said in a news release. “Each year we evaluate the financial condition of the university, and we continue to grow the 62% part of the annual operating budget that is outside of undergraduate tuition.”
Purdue has not had a tuition increase since 2012. However, the board did approve a tiered increase in housing rates for the 2024-25 academic year.
The university said for over 83% of the rooms in Purdue residences, including those with the highest demand, the average increase will be less than $29 per month.