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The Purdue University Board of Trustees will convene Thursday to vote on the university's next president -- which sources, including Indiana Public Media, have reported will be Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
At some universities, professors have objected to the appointments of non-academics to presidential post. But faculty leaders at Purdue are open to the idea. Joseph Camp, secretary of faculties for the university's Faculty Senate, said Daniels' political background would not affect his ability to be president: "I don't know if there's anything in his background that will either qualify or disqualify him to be president, so what I have to do is maintain an open mind, and like everyone else, I'm curious to see how this all works out."
Another member of the senate, Vice Chair David Williams, shared his view. Williams wrote in an e-mail that although "considerable voice" has been given to the next president being an academic, he sees the importance of having a president who can harness entrepreneurship at the university to attract funding. "Mitch Daniels has been successful in the business world, and in the political world. He could very well be the right person, at the right time, coming into the right environment. I find that prospect exciting," he wrote.
