WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — As campus began filling back up before the start of the 2024-25 school year, Purdue University President Mung Chiang spent his morning assisting student volunteers and families with moving students into their respective university residence assignments.
The annual tradition for Chiang of helping students move into their dorms was one he said he looks forward to each year. But Chiang said if you ask him what's on his mind amid a "turbulent time" in higher education, he thinks of three words.
"One is 'excited' about the positive momentum we have," Chiang said. "Two is 'proud.' I am proud to be a Boilermaker today. And three is 'hopeful': hopeful that 'one brick higher' is going to get even more exciting for all of us, and we all can contribute. We all have a critical role to play in that hope that we make together and share."
In a roundtable discussion with local media on Monday afternoon, here's what Chiang had to say about news across Purdue's campuses, both in West Lafayette and in Indianapolis.
What is the timeline for SK hynix's chips facility?
In light of recent news of SK hynix's $450 million in grant funding and potential $500 million loan from the U.S. Department of Commerce to build an advanced packaging fabrication and research and development facility for AI products in the Purdue Research Park, Chiang said SK hynix has declared it would reach steady operational capacity in 2028.
When construction on that new facility will begin, however, is still in the air. As Chiang compared the facility's construction to that of new dormitories for students, it isn't something that will happen overnight.
"I don't know whether they're going to start something already in operation in 2027. But to do that, as you know, just like building student dorms, I wish they could be built overnight. Well, it takes two or three years," Chiang said. "So for that to happen, basically, we are already at the stage of discussing the details with them, along with the city and the county of construction."
What support is going toward student housing?
Chiang said he understands that Purdue's student housing found itself in a "crunch time" this summer after announcing it overadmitted for the 2024-25 freshman class, causing the university to propose alternative housing assignments to students at a discounted rate in an effort to manage the additional 1,600 students.
Although the university tried to reduce the number of admitted students to its current freshman class, Chiang pointed to the the acceptance deadline being pushed back to May 15 in light of the struggles with FAFSA applications.
Typically, May 1 is the acceptance deadline for new students, but the two-week window of abnormality caused the surge in new admits for the school year. Chiang said enough returning students with contracts to live in university residences accepted the incentive offers to live elsewhere that Purdue was successfully able to house and accommodate the current freshman class.
But looking at next year, Chiang said housing woes should ease.
"Going forward, I'll say these three things are going to help us tremendously coming up. One is that the board of trustees approved our recommendation last year to build two new student dorms," Chiang said. "The first one will be available next year, so next summer. Then one year out, we will have the second one. So, together, they will provide about 1,900 new beds.
"Two is that we have an Indianapolis campus that ceremonially opened on June 27 and officially opened on July 1. That is a transformational thing for Purdue, because we've never had, with our own autonomy, an operation and an urban, comprehensive campus until this past month. One of the many things we can do in an urban setting includes this ability to have more students. We are building and master-leasing at least four facilities for student housing in Indianapolis already, and there is a much bigger market in such an urban setting as well for private placement.
"The third is this coming season, we are going to further and significantly reduce the admissions rate for the incoming undergraduate class, not because as a land grant institution we somehow want to enhance the selectivity for the wrong reasons, but simply because this city of West Lafayette and this campus are not built for the kind of enrollment that we have today."
How did Purdue settle on the recent price change for City Bus passes?
Purdue went back to the drawing board with City Bus this summer, after City Bus announced in April it would no longer offer free off-campus rides to students and Purdue employees in the coming school year.
After announcing City Bus would offer Purdue rider passes for $99 per semester, Purdue announced in a news release it would cover $74 of each of those passes. Rides on Purdue's campus through City Bus' campus loops systems will remain free to riders.
Chiang said didn't come into the agreement looking for a set dollar amount to pay, but the university decided that amount would be what it could pay this year. Chiang explained that $99 price tag for a bus pass each semester will not be going away, but the university is actively exploring ways it can assist in the long term.
How are operations for Purdue in Indianapolis going?
Kicking off its first semester, Chiang said Purdue's Indianapolis campus currently has 800 new students enrolled at the undergraduate level.
Looking ahead at the Indianapolis campus' future with housing, Chiang said trustees approved the construction of a new "academic success building," which will hold both student housing and serve as a community engagement area.
Chiang said the university's hope will be for students attending Purdue's West Lafayette campus to find interest in attending its Indianapolis campus at different points in their academic career.
"I want to highlight that it's not just the students who are starting in Indianapolis; it's also the students who might conclude their Purdue education in Indianapolis," Chiang said. "You can start as a student in West Lafayette and enjoy your first and second year here, and then maybe in your junior or senior year you say, 'I'm going to do a study abroad.' But instead of, say, going to Germany to do learning and working for six months, maybe I'll go to Indianapolis."
Purdue spokesperson Trevor Peters said the Purdue in Indianapolis campus currently has 90 professors and 90 teaching assistants staffed, with 82 of the professors being Indianapolis-based.
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal and Courier. She can be reached via email at jellison@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ellison_writes.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: 4 things we learned from a conversation with Purdue's Mung Chiang
