Apr 23, 2018, 12:44 PM
(from Inside Higher Ed) A high-profile multiyear tuition freeze, which began in 2013 and is slated to continue through 2020, has catapulted Purdue University to the top of many observers’ lists of well-managed public universities, casting President Mitch Daniels as a budget cutter without peer. Daniels said much of the trimming has been hidden from view. He used a butcher’s metaphor, noting, “The fat is marbled through the animal -- you look in vain for too many great big strokes. There may be a few -- the health-care plan was one -- but mainly it’s the accumulation of small economies."
Tuition freezes are often derided as short-term budgeting gimmicks that ultimately force institutions to raise tuition or severely trim offerings. For five years now, Purdue seems to have largely avoided the first fate. Whether it escapes future cutbacks is an open question.
Holding tuition flat since 2013 has raised the land-grant university’s profile and helped it grow: undergraduate applications and enrollment, graduation rates and several other key indicators have risen, in a few cases to record levels. Since Daniels arrived, enrollment on its flagship West Lafayette campus has grown to 41,573, up about 7 percent since 2013.
But the move has also led Purdue to focus more on serving students from outside Indiana and pushed academic departments to consider difficult cuts. The former leader of the faculty senate said the freeze has contributed to tightened revenue for instruction, pitting department against department. It has also pressured instructors to eliminate small classes that hew closely to students’ interests.
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