Purdue Northwest chancellor to step down in 2024
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Purdue University is planning to form a search advisory committee to find a new chancellor for Purdue Northwest. The university says Chancellor Thomas Keon, who has served in the role since 2016, will complete his term in June 2024.
Keon was named chancellor following the merger of Purdue Calumet and Purdue North Central into Purdue Northwest. He previously served as chancellor of Purdue Calumet.
“It has been my honor and privilege to serve as the Chancellor of Purdue University Northwest these past 12 years,” Keon said in a letter on the university’s website. “As you may know, the Purdue University system has a policy limiting how long one can serve in leadership positions. I have appreciated and enjoyed serving Purdue Northwest, its students, faculty, staff, and community and I will continue to do so for the next year and beyond.”
Keon was the subject of controversy in late 2022 after he was formally reprimanded over his mocking of Asian languages during a commencement ceremony on Dec. 10. In an open letter, the faculty senate of Purdue Northwest demanded Keon’s resignation.
Keon apologized for the remark just days later.
In a statement issued over the weekend, faculty senate chairman Thomas Roach said the Purdue Board of Trustees elected to extend Keon’s contract for another year despite calls for Keon to resign.
This decision by a privileged few to protect one of their own further alienates members of our minority communities. I hope it is clear to everyone that the board’s decision in no way reflects the wishes of the majority of faculty on the Purdue campuses.
The Purdue Board of Trustees continues to make decisions that run contrary to the needs and values of the university and that violate the precedents of university governance. This board bailed out a failing on-line degree business and incorporated it into the Purdue system, diluting the prestige of the Purdue name. They circumvented faculty authority by dictating curriculum requirements throughout the system. They hired a Purdue President without a public search and without formal participation from faculty. They are refusing to answer questions and to justify their actions regarding the public insult to the Asian community at the December graduation in Hammond, and they have ignored the no-confidence vote on Chancellor Thomas Keon from the Purdue University Northwest faculty and the calls for his removal coming from the Purdue University Northwest, Purdue University Ft. Wayne, and Purdue University West Lafayette senates.
This is an activist board of trustees that was assembled in a highly partisan political environment and is acting without respect for the values, goals, and traditions of the university. Many of them were appointed or reappointed by former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels; they then in turn appointed Daniels president of the university when his term was up as governor. I call for an investigation of the appropriateness of their public actions and for an audit of the Purdue Endowment funds. This board has demonstrated repeatedly that it is accountable to no one. We need to set parameters for their authority and to find out what they are doing behind closed doors with over three and a half billion dollars in university resources.
Purdue said the search committee will be announced at the end of the current academic year. It will be chaired by Purdue Trustee Malcom DeKryger.