Next a conversation with Purdue University president and former indiana governor mitch daniels. Thats followed by a debate on geneticallymodified foods and a look at how bees are being used today by the military. Next a conversation with Purdue University president mitch daniels. The fomer indiana governor and budget director spoke with viewers as part of our special series on universities in the big ten conference. This is about 45 minutes. Sgl this week we continue our series with University President s in conjunction with the cspan buss Big Ten College tour. This morning the cspan bus is on the campus of Purdue University and West Lafayette, louisiana. Now joining us from purdues campus is its president mitch daniels, the former governor of indiana. Thanks for being with us this morning. Welcome to purdue. Thank you so much. Sorry i cant be there in person. Want to start out rather broadly and just ask you to name, what do you think the greatest challen challenges are facing Higher Education right now . To prove that the value we have always associate d with a College Degree is still there and that its worth the money that colleges and universities are charging for it. Here at purdue, we talk about Higher Education at the highest proven value. That may sound obvious, thats the way we buy Everything Else in life. We look at quality compared to the price we pay. Thats not whats been going on in Higher Education. Higher charges for diplomas that are of more and more suspect quality. So as entirely understandable and appropriate students and families are beginning to look much more carefully at the costs they are being asked to pay and starting to ask the right questions about what am i u getting for that. Here at purdue, we take that very seriously. Were working on both the reduction of cost and improving of the quality that we know are graduates have always received from a rigorous Purdue Education. I want to get back to college costs, but lets talk about purdue a little bit. You have frozen tuition for 19 months after 36 years of increases. What did you cut or freeze to make sure students have that sort of break or that freeze . Its true that we have frozen it for the year that just passed, the year we are in now. That freeze will continue at least a third year. And thats simply was a way of, number one, saying to ourselves and our students that we really take seriously the importance of a students income level being able to access purdues education if he or she is up to our standards. Having drawn that line for ourse ourselves, we accommodated in hundreds of ways. We gathered suggestions from staff and faculty on campus. Up to this point, its not proven difficult. We have not done anything that i consider particularly transformative. We are glad we have been able to make that improvement. Two consecutive costs in the room and board and some action we took this fall on the next expense item which is textbooks. Thats definitely a big concern of anyone in school right now. I do want to ask you about the larger picture though. Why is it that the cost of College Tuition continues to rise so rapidly and particularly continues to outpace the rate of inflation . Not just the rate of inflation, but the rate of even health care. There are multiple causes, but part of it is simply colleges raise costs because they could. First of all, the government was flooding the market with grants and loans. Colleges found they could pocket that money and raise their costs to students and their families typically werent much better off as a consequence. Until recently, the market was as the economists would say inelastic and universities found they can raise prices and not only did customers so to speak, those buy iing the product not move somewhere else, but they assumed a more Expensive School meant somehow a better school. Nobody had proof around to know if that was true or not. All that was in the mix, but it needed a change. It is changing, i think, rather quickly now here at purdue. We embrace that change. And hope to be on the front edge of it. Our guest is mitch daniels. Hes the president of Purdue University as well as the former governor of indiana. This morning if youd like to call in and join our conversations for students, the number is 2025853880. For parents, 2025853881. Educators, 2025853882. And indiana residents, 2025853883. First caller this morning is john in louisiana. He is a purdue graduate. Go right ahead, john. Caller yes, i graduated from Purdue University in 1966 so im coming up on my 50year anniversary. I was just looking at your numbers on your tuition, and i remember when i was there it was 149, i believe, every semester for the tuition. You could have room and board and i lived in the Residence Hall there is until i went into a fraternity for less than 1,000 a year. I think it was 700. I managed to make it through by just working. I didnt take out any loans or anything like that. Its just interesting when you see what people have to pay. But my question would be, are they getting more for that money now . I got. A bachelors degree. I spent 28 years in the air force. Had a wonderful career flying airplanes. Im just wondering what are those students today getting that i didnt get when i u went there paying less than 1,000 a year to go to the school. Youre asking exact lit right u question. One that didnt get asked much until recently. The great equation of life really is value. We seek it in everything we do, everything we buy. The equation, of course, is quality over cost. So were working on the cost in ways i describe. In higher ed, at least at purdue, we accept the responsibility to prove the value of our product. We teamed up last year with the Gallop Organization and produced the index. Its the largest single survey ever taken. It will be taken at least another four years of college graduates. For the first time, we have real rigorous measurements of how they are doing in life. Not just in terms of their paycheck, but in terms of their wellbeing and health and so forth. And we believe its part of our job to know how our graduates are doing, what people are getting for the experience of a Purdue Education and to try to learn how we can make that quality higher and higher over time. So not surprising, i hope boilermakers stack up very well compared to other graduates. Our job is to drive the quality up, keep the cost down. Next well go to dan in West Lafayette and is a parent. Caller good morning, mitch. The benefit of having one of the problems of keeping the tuition the same year after year after year is the fact that the money for your basic staff, your clerical and boot staff and service staff, they have had a substantial raise in five years. But cost of parking has increased greater the amount of raises that these folks have had. What plan do you have to bring these longterm employees that have been there 25, 30 years up into the real income brackets they ought to be at . Well, we hope to do better. There were raises this year. We expect well continue to do that. Try to at least people help keep up. I have to tell you, our first responsibility is to the students who come here and their participants and family. Were not an employment bureau. As much as we love those who work here and want to support them. Our first job is to try to be effective and efficient in everything we do. And that will continue to be priority one. But i personally favor those dollars we can apply to a higher personnel cost being ko concentrated those at the lower income levels. But there are all kinds of competing priorities. The need to attract and keep the best faculty in the world, that sort of thing. Youre raising a really good point, dan. One that we think about a lot. Our job, really, is to reconcile all these priorities and always keep students first. I promise i wont go too far into the political weeds. Before you came to purdue, you were governor of indiana for eight years. Im curious what you have learned from being a University President and your feelings on Higher Education policy . I am probably learning more than anybody on this campus. Theres no short answer to that. But i guess i have learned what i always suspected that todays students at least here at purdue are incredibly purposeful, highly u motivated and very, very smart and well prepared. Or they wouldnt have gotten here in the first place. So were completely dedicated to their success in life. As i said earlier to delivering that at a price they can afford that a student at any income level can afford. And then monitoring their success later so we can be better tomorrow than today. Elwood, indiana, james is on the line and he is a parent. Caller good morning, i have a question relating to the relationship between purdue and iupui. My daughter went to purdue for an engineering introduction as a high school senior. When she mentioned going to iupui for engineering, she was told not to go to a Community College. That seems like a disconnect because purdue used to be very, very well known. But you dont see purdue banners anymore. What happened . Right, james, well, first of all, youre quite right u. Indiana university, Purdue University at indianapolis is not a Community College. We have one of those. Its a full fledged university. A lot of Research Happens there. Its a combined and unique joipt venture, so to speak, between or two big ten universities. I dont know who told your daughter that or called it that, but that was erroneous and misleading. We do recognize that Indiana University has the Supervisory Authority at iupui, but i have heard a number of complaints lately that the visibility of purdues very extensive offerings there has become harder to spot and well raise that with our friends from iu. A question from twitter now. Whats driving tuition increases more, availability of cheap loans, lack of supply or slashes in state funding . I think they all played some sort of role. Here in indiana, this state is in the top quarter in terms of sustain i sustaining of higher ed spending over recent years. Plus here in indiana, we have one of the top few Student Support that a student grants for programs anymore. But there are places where higher ed spending has been cut by astonishingastonishing perce. There are bigger issues. The caller mentions the effect of all the money thats flooded in through grants and loans. Thats been documented to be playing a part. Theres also been a socalled arms race to provide nonacademic offerings. Who can build the biggest climbing wall. I believe thats probably run its course. Were in favor of great facilities, good food, what have i learned . I generally start with the food. College food is supposed to be terrible and all the same, but its unbelievably good and varied right now. So bringing some sort of moderation to some of that nonacademic core spending is an essential part of an answer. Next caller is in greenwood, indiana. Jim is on the line. Caller hi, mitch. Hi, jim. Caller im a tour guide at the state house. You were always very friendly with the visitors. Now that youre at purdue, i still talk to people and i guess youre the same way with folks up there. I had a father from california who came to purdue and just casually stopped by your office. You were not in, but he said you followed up and called him back. And a lot of the students seem to be meeting with you personally. How do you find time to meet all these people on a oneonone basis . Well, jim, i made it a priority. I did in the last job when i felt that i worked for everybody in the state and they deserved a chance to see their employee, so to speak. Its really about learning, how to do the job well. Somebody asked me to make a new years resolution when i first got here. I said, okay, i want to meet 5,000 students face to face this year. I know i surpassed that by some number. I have dinner a lot with students in the evenings that are not otherwise occupied. Go to the gym several days a week and anywhere i can run into them. Its fun, of course, its really a wonderful aspect of the job like this to be able to get to know so many young people, but its really about learning whats on their minds, whats going on in their lives, how this university can do the best job of preparing them in life. So i just i have always considered it part and parcel of any job i had. You have to mark off enough time to make sure youre going it. Lets go to austin, texas, where laura is on the line and shes a parent. Caller hello, thank you for taking my call. I want to ask a question thats probably going to be a little bit of a curve. Right now, the university of texas violates federal Immigration Law by allowing Illegal Immigrants slots at the university. Im wondering what Purdue University does to follow the law and make sure educational slots chrks are a limited resource, only go to legal residents and u. S. Citizens . I mean, education is expensive. And in this country, if you dont have an education, you are not going to succeed or not succeed easily. And even if if you have an. Education, i have four degrees and im unemployed. I cant find a job. Im worried for my son. I want to make sure that other universities take this seriously. Those slots should be going to u. S. Citizens and legal residents. And i hope that purdue takes federal Immigration Laws seriously enough to make sure that that happens. Id like your comments on that. Thank you, sir. Yeah, want to thank you, laura. We do take our legal obligations in this area u and every area very seriously and do everything we know how to make sure that nothing no mistakes are being made and nothing is slipping through at any point. I have to tell you, however, that a significant percentage of the students on our campus are international students. They are here fully legally of course. We consider this in the global world our students will lead and are about to enter. We consider this a valuable part of their education. We try to keep it in a reasonable proportion, but a student coming to Purdue University is going to meet people from virtually every country on earth. Can be a very enriching part of the academic offering. So these decisions, as we see them, are not one dimensional, but they do start with abiding by the law. Earlier this year purdue announced the creation of a competency Degree Program that lets students progress at their own rate as they master skills. I was wondering if you could talk about why thats so important and what kind of students youre hoping to target with that particular offering. Were still living in Higher Education with vestiges of the system thats been around literally for a millennium. Many people believe that if higher ed is going to prove its value and continue to justify in an internet world young people picking up moving for three or four or five years and spending a lot of money to do it, were going to have to divide u better ways. For some disciplines, it doesnt make sense to work on the old calendar, lock everybody into two semesters to four years. If a student can prove that they have mastered a given subject matter, they ought to be able to move ahead now and take an exam then. So our entire college of technology is transforming itself to operate on that basis. Students who are smart enough and diligent enough will be able to do two things. One, move through at their own rate and possibly more quickly than before. Two, demonstrate along the way proven competences. No employer will have to guess what that grade in a certain subject meant. The student will have demonstrated mastery of a specific skill or topic and the employ employer, if they want, can go look at the test or the project that proved it. I have to tell you, simultaneously, we have another endeavor going. On here to change those Degree Programs that can be to three years. And the pioneering school, im happy to tell you, was the school of communications. Here at purdue among the alums were very proud of is founded the cspan. We all have benefitted for decades. Hes a boilermaker. And how fitting that the school that he allowed us to name after him was the first to step forward, five of our Communications Majors so far, can now be completed in three years if the student is ready to put in a little extra time, a little extra work in the summer. Related to the points you just made, i take it then you dont believe that its Still Necessary for a student to go to college for four years . In some cases, it is. We have one of the finest engineering schools on the planet. It will be there are a few who manage, but most of those degrees are going to take four years. Often here in that field of study is coupled with a Work Experience. The index tells us it can be one of the most valuable parts of a College Education is to have some sort of an internment or extensive Work Experience in the area of study. So there are plenty of degrees here that will take and should take at least four years. But there are others, which again with a little extra work in a semester or two, possibly some work done over the summer, Online Education offers a lot of new possibilities here, can be finished in less than four years. If we can do that, two good things happen. One, the student and their family gets a Higher Education at a lower price