The purdue board of trustees comprised entirely of folks that Mich Daniels, the Republican Governor of Indiana, who briefly flirted with running for President of the us last year, appointed or re-appointed, this week appointed Mich Daniels to be Purdue University's next president.

Mitch is famous for liking to ride a Harley among other things and has no academic leadership credentials whatever other than an undergrad degree from Purdue and two years of law school. Apparently the trustees feel that the university needs someone who will run it more as a business, although it is already run as a business in very many ways.

I am not certain what the exact amount is but Purdues annual budget is in the neighborhood of a billion dollars a year with about 100,000 students in all its campuses. It employs about 17,000 here in West Lafayette at present.

The academic community is pretty upset about it, especially after what he has led in the secondary education system here.

It is possible that the academic part of Purdue might need some shaking up, I really don't know.

Many folks think Mitch might be gone if he has the opportunity to run for president in four years. He is a few months younger than myself at age 63.

He is the person someone here described as "Who was that old guy?" after he made a key speech a year or so ago on an important political occasion (was it the rebuttal to the state of the union?)

Local people are expecting a lot more cuts in staff and budget. I expect more outsourcing and less staff performed work.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.