It's not often that a college football half-time show pays tribute to a university's president, but that's precisely what the Purdue All American marching band did during the half-time show of the Purdue versus Notre Dame game this weekend in West Lafayette. As the band spelled out "Mitch" on the field, Purdue President Mitch Daniels rode his Harley-Davidson motorcycle onto the field. This weekend marked the grand opening of the U.S. 231 bypass around West Lafayette that was financed by former Gov. Daniels' Major Moves program that made $3.8 billion in transportation spending available from the 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road.
I'm waiting for Daniels to sell
ReplyDeletesewn-on adspace onto Purdue's basketball and football uniforms. That way they will look like Nascar and Indy 500 drivers with names such as Toyota, CVS, BP, Pfizer and Monsanto adorning their jerseys so that Purdue's players will look like billboards.
An absolutely shameful display from the bunch of rule-followers that is the Purdue student body.
ReplyDeleteAt Indiana's flagship school, IU, that manner of obsequiousness would be laughed out of the room.
Purdue isn't known for disciplines that encourage independent thought.
Oops how could I forget one of his former employers - Lilly - buying a uniform ad? They'd get a 15% discount for their jersey ad above the waist,
ReplyDeletebut only 5% if below the knees.
College marching bands honor the university president all the time. If they like the president.
ReplyDeleteKim Jong Un would be proud:
ReplyDelete"As the band spelled out 'Mitch' on the field, Purdue President Mitch Daniels rode his Harley-Davidson motorcycle onto the field."
Ditto, Lugar Towers.
Anonymous, if they did that then they could get rid of TV Advertisments, TV ads, and keep the clock running.
ReplyDeleteMake two 45 minute continuous running halves and the game would be over in 2 hours..... instead of the ridiculous 3.5 hours it takes to play American helmet football.
I am for it!!!
Disclaimer..... I am a real football fan who enjoys watching a sport where something is acutally happening (game play) all the time. No timeouts and the thing takes 2 hours to play. I went to the WC qualifier between USA and Mexico last week, and the crowd and the game were more exciting than anything on the gridiron could be.
To be fair. Those of us who earned a philosophy degree at Purdue, and many others, are quite capable of independent and critical reasoning. Many of us are disgusted at this display, and many of us have written carefully-reasoned appeals to the board who appointed Daniels as the president of the university.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you say about what Purdue is known for, you presume you yourself know all that Purdue is known for. Did you know anything about the spectacular philosophy program and world-class scholars it turns out? A failure in logic.
Please refrain from sweeping generalizations and ill-conceived conclusions from such a small sample size. People can reason and disagree with you. People can reason well and disagree with you.
A marching band following the rules of the show does not entail all of Purdue's student body is made up of rule-followers. Indeed, the term "rule followers' is so vague as to be meaningless, though clearly you mean it negatively. People who drive safely are all rule-followers, too, but this isn't what you mean, is it?
Mitch Daniels' rightwing ideology hurt many families, and destroyed the hopes of children. He has made Indiana the Mississippi of the Midwest. He is a pig, and has assumed his rightful place as Lord of Purdue.
ReplyDeleteI usually come around here to observe, not comment. However, after seeing a few of the comments here, I feel I should comment. I attended Purdue in the second half off the 2000's. I was in high school when Daniels was first elected. The fact that we ran a $1 billion surplus while much of the country was running deficits should say something.
ReplyDeleteI spoke with a friend last night whom I met my senior year who (at the time) was a PhD student. He was on one of the vetting boards for the outside consultant that was called in to do the cutting under Cordova. Cordova shot the idea down. It's no secret (just look at The Exponent each fall or spring when they run their salary guide) that there are many redundant positions within the West Lafayette campus, worthless majors and departments that should either be consolidated or should just not exist.
IU as a flagship school for the state? Really? Please. It's not just that I went to Purdue, it's the facts that speak for themselves. Look at the Bob Kravitz article from the IndyStar several years back. The only thing IU excels in is partying.
Maybe Daniels can clean up what Jischke and others failed to or maybe not. Time will tell.
Visitor makes some salient points. Low light, behind curtain operating of state run universities has given us an overpriced system of academic devaluation; overcompensation, inflated resumes, socially engineered / substandard curricula.
ReplyDeleteWhatever disagreements there are with his other policies; Mitch pressed the reset button on education in Indiana.