PNW diplomas to stay same, name of chancellor to be added
Purdue’s Board of Trustees have decided to withdraw the proposal to change diplomas to reflect the campus that they were earned at, but will add the signature of the campus chancellor, according to an announcement by SGA citing confirmation from Chancellor Thomas Keon on Oct. 11.
The confirmation followed an announcement earlier in the day at the Purdue Fort Wayne campus during their open discussion on the topic. Chancellor of PFW, Ronald Elsenbaumer, told the students that Mitch Daniels, Purdue President, had called to inform him that the proposal had been withdrawn.
The proposed change, which was announced to PNW students on Sept. 28, prompted student protests and online petitions on both the Northwest campuses and the Fort Wayne campus.
Keon has not commented publicly on the Board of Trustees decision.
The decision on the proposal was slated to be announced tomorrow, Oct. 12, at the Board of Trustees meeting. Keon and members of SGA have both said previously that they would be in attendance to propose pushing the possible change to 2023. SGA also advocated in a Board of Trustees letter sent on Oct. 7 for changes only to be made to the Purdue Global diplomas.
Lisa Coy • Oct 12, 2018 at 10:21 am
A promise made is a promise kept. When we were looking at Purdue Northwest, we were told unequivocally that there would be no difference in the type of diploma my daughter would receive. To unilaterally make this large of a change is wrong. If changes are to be made, start them with the incoming freshman, but you should and must honor what you promised to the young men and women for the classes of 2019-2022. I believe that this decision would only harm the enrollment at the satellite schools going forward-which would be a shame.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you would like to discuss this further. I’m glad to see that this has been withdrawn, and any further discussions about unilateral changes should be more thoroughly vetted going forward.
Lisa Coy
Isabel Gonzales • Oct 12, 2018 at 9:41 am
I don’t think the diploma change is necessary. There are kids coming here from Lafayette to take classes that they don’t offer, vise versa. I also don’t think it’s necessary because I chose to go to Purdue to get a Purdue degree. I feel the diploma will decrease the amount of students that will attend here and also degrade PNW overall.