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March/April 2016 – BizVoice/Indiana Chamber
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take the leadership they have. That particular
experiment, it could have importance
elsewhere on this campus as a demonstration
to other faculty that you ought to be thinking
about the same things too.
I put up two prizes two years ago now
to try and spur new innovation here on the
campus. One of them was to come up with
the best competency program. The College
of Technology was that winner. My whole
hope was by giving birth to these new
experiments, we might see some emulation
elsewhere. Hasn’t been much of that so I
have to keep working on that.
BV:
Can competency-based
education and what I will call the
traditional diploma system, can they
work together or is it a transition from
one to the other?
Daniels
:
I don’t know. I think they can
work together. I’d be surprised if a
competency model just swept all before it
and everything went in that direction. There
may be some disciplines that remain better
suited to what we’ve been accustomed to. I
would expect it to evolve and move from one
field to the next. I think it’s at least as
probable that the world moves to some
alternative way of certifying the readiness of
people and that may happen much more
swiftly than higher ed changing within itself.
BV:
Affordability: Where are we at
– are we getting to a better place?
Daniels: We better because people are
more and more skeptical of these enormous
costs – these price levels. Here at Purdue,
we’ve held tuition flat; we’re in the third
year now. It will be zero increase again next
year; we don’t know anything beyond that.
Room and board is cheaper than it was when
I got here. Brought it down in two steps; still
working on that. And, of course, we’re
working hard to raise scholarship money.
It’s still not inexpensive to go here. I
think it’s important to remember – and I
never talk about affordability without taking
about value – a good college education, the
kind we think we are providing here at
Purdue, is worth every penny and more. The
student absolutely will reap the benefits, not
just in that first or second job but throughout
his or her life. So yes, we wanted to get off
the price escalator, to help our students’ families
with the cost here and now, but we have to
reinvest everything we can in strengthening
the academic offering. I always say the
numerator matters most. The value, the
quality of what we’re doing – if it’s high, the
price is clearly justified. But if not, it’s not.
BV:
Income share agreements (a
new financing method; see Page 30).
What is the most difficult part of that
innovative concept?
Daniels: We’re going to find out. Like
so many other things, until you go to market,
you don’t know. It may prove to be difficult
to reach a market; there may not be much
demand; it may be too different. Maybe not a
lot of students will take an interest in it. Or
there will be demand but maybe someone has
overestimated the supply, dollars, investors
who would like to participate. I’m less
worried about that.
As soon as we started talking about it,
we began hearing from people all over the
place who have been looking for somewhere
where this concept could get tried. Or there
could be mechanical issues that haven’t been
carefully enough foreseen in the enforcement
of these contracts over time. Or in the
consumer protections that we think have
been built in, but there may be flaws in that –
we’ll see. The first test is going to be, as with
any new product: Are there consumers? Are
there customers in sufficient numbers to
make the whole thing work?
BV:
You said the Purdue Polytechnic
High School hopefully helps fill the
need for more diversity. Does income
share cater to a specific need or is it a
little broader than that?
Daniels: I wish I knew. The answer to so
many questions is we’ll tell you after the
window opens. What kind of students will be
interested? In what kind of students will
investors be interested? It’s certainly
tempting to think and hope that maybe low-
income students would rather not go into
debt but rather shift the risk from themselves
to an investor, and leave Purdue with no debt
or very little debt but with a contract to share
a fraction of the earnings they are about to
start collecting. I can certainly see it working
that way, but we won’t know until we know.
It’s purely voluntary. The market will tell us.
BV:
Are you having as much fun as
you thought you would?
Daniels: I didn’t know what to expect.
“Businesses have been using the
college diploma as a signal that a
student is smart and somehow
prepared and ready to be productive.
Increasingly, young people are
showing up with a diploma who can’t
do much or don’t want to work or
aren’t proving able.”
Yes, I’m having fun. It’s hard not to have fun
when you get to hang out with smart people
and young people all day. That is just not a
bad deal at this point in the game. It’s fun
because of the great place this is, the great
people who populate it. I’m very proud of
our mission. I’ve said to friends – who said,
Gosh they were surprised I wound up doing
this – Well, I was surprised too. The reason I
finally agreed to it was because I couldn’t
think of a job, except maybe the one I was
leaving, where if a person did a good job, he
could do more for Indiana.
If Purdue performs really well, we not
only turn out outstanding talent, both
indigenous and increasingly students who come
here from somewhere else and we find (them)
settling in Indiana – brain gain style. We’re
spinning off 25-plus companies a year. We
were 16th in the world in patents last year;
we’re probably headed for the top 10 this
year. We’ve really got that engine working
now. That’s fun. That’s very satisfying to see
these brilliant people coming up with ideas,
going out and trying them, hopefully some
will grow up and hire a lot of Hoosiers. It’s a
24/7 job. It’s got its headaches, but anything
worthwhile does. I just feel very fortunate to
be here.