 Greetings everybody. Many many times over the last year I've said I'll bet you have what a shame that we're doing this virtually and not in person but there's rarely been a time I've meant it as emphatically as I do now because Ordinarily we would be in Naples, Florida enjoying the annual Boilermaker weekend down there I know many of you watching would have been there and those who haven't before I hope you'll join us Let's say next year when We're back to our normal schedule But in lieu of that opportunity I've been asked to give you an update on the campus Life at Purdue during this very eventful last year And I'll endeavor to do that now as I would if we were together down there in the sunshine The only place to start and thinking about the calendar year 2020 at Purdue or any other school is that how we operated during the COVID pandemic and of course the starting point is that unlike many schools we did operate we were there in the fall with a Largely residential experience at least as much as any school our size So let me just tell you a little bit about that sort of that situation and how we dealt with it Here's a summary of the most important tactic among many that we employed our testing and tracing a System which took all summer to devise and was constantly Upgraded and enhanced during the fall, but here are just some basic results. We Tested every student had to submit a negative test before arriving that meant we found some COVID-positive students and intercepted them before they could come to campus and enter And in fact anyone else and then during the semester as you see here We administered well over a hundred thousand tests anyone with symptoms was asked to come in right away And then we did what we called surveillance testing Taking a sample of roughly 10% of the student and staff population Each week you'll see here that we had relatively modest rates of positivity the Plus in semester tests means those who did test positive The most important thing and the thing we watched the most closely was the severity I asked our medical team to devise a six point Or six level scale because one thing that would have caused us to reverse field and and Close the campus would have been if we had any meaningful number of students or staff becoming very seriously ill That did not happen as you'll see here over 80% of our students and Well over two-thirds of our staff had only the very mildest cases and we had almost none that required Significant attention or hospitalization maybe the most important factor among many that allowed us to operate in the fall was the behavior of faculty staff and especially students each of us took the Purdue pledge which you see here and Committed to practice the sort of behaviors that would protect Each individual But also everyone around him or her and of course the institution itself and our ability to Continue operations. I just can't say enough especially about our young people and the way in which they Complied with the inconveniences and the impositions of this pledge It was really something to see and anybody who worries about the character or quality or commitment to others of Today's young people at least the young Boilermakers Can can look at the record of last fall and feel and feel very good about it the Way we taught had to change of course first thing was that any faculty member Who was in the vulnerable category that is above a certain age or had certain a pre-existing health conditions we didn't want in the classroom and So that led to many of our courses having to be converted to an online format Many others were taught in a hybrid way meaning maybe one in-person meeting a week and the others online And but 70% of our courses involved at least some in-person Encounters and experience and this included many of our lab courses which as a very STEM oriented university these days means almost every student So this was not the residential experience that our students Expected or have experienced at other times But it was as good as we could do we thought consistent with the safety of the community and it was a higher percentage than any school in our class that were in our size category that we're aware of Here's just a partial list of the actions. We took steps We took the investments we made to make Purdue safe from in the fall. I won't enumerate them all I simply want to illustrate that we were Determined to leave nothing to chance and leave no dollar unspent that might make our classrooms and other spaces A little bit more secure for all. I do want to single out the top line on this Chart our student ambassadors well over a hundred of them Putting in many many hours Encouraging that their fellow students to abide by the pledge handing out masks of someone forgot one Both modeling and urging good behavior. They were really an important factor in Generating that terrific student compliance. I talked about now. Let's talk about Purdue today Since we were alive and kicking off all what what was going on? What did we look like the first thing? I want to mention is that for the first time in our history Purdue University now serves over a hundred thousand students This is partially due to the growth of the West Lafayette campus and also the addition three years ago of Purdue Global about which I'll say a little bit more but over a hundred thousand People are now benefiting from Purdue education in its various forms Here's our undergraduate enrollment at West Lafayette a Record total even in the COVID year. You'll see that some of these students Opted for the online only a version of our of our fall curriculum about half of that 4400 were international students most of whom could not get here would have come to campus but could not get here because of travel restrictions so Something like 8% of our student body chose the course of online But all the rest wanted the residential experience and came here even knowing it wouldn't be quite what it has been or Will be in the future We have enrolled a record number of Hoosier students during the last few years You'll see that that number was declining and very much as a part of our strategic purpose to While maintaining Purdue standards Make a Purdue education available to as many students who could meet those standards as wanted it You'll see that we've seen a lot of growth and that included Students from our home state who still represent a majority of the undergrads on campus and here you see the fact that we had brought up dramatically during The last several years the number of Hoosiers that we have offered admission to West Lafayette an Indiana student who applies here hasn't A better than 70% chance of being accepted and a better than 90% chance of being accepted to one of our campuses One of our two regionals as an option if they're not we don't believe quite ready for West Lafayette Our students are still succeeding as I know All of you I have in life and here you'll see that about 95% of our recent graduates were employed within six months or at least pursuing further education within six months of leaving and Earning salaries that are very very competitive with graduates of other schools We've been working very hard to further diversify the student body at West Lafayette. This is not easy for a school Like ours any school in the country. We all are working Dilligently to do this, but we've had a lot of growth. You'll see here growth in numbers of URM students. You'll see a doubling of the number total number of minority students on campus and Even higher increases in the most recent classes like our freshmen and we're doing a lot to try to do better than this but the gains are Noteworthy and encouraging One of the most direct things we have done is start our own high schools I hope you're aware of this by now our first of what are now three Purdue Polytechnic high schools in inner cities in Indiana to Indianapolis one in South Bend Is in its fourth year and so the first graduates are emerging you'll see here that We've been it been able to admit 48 students We hope they'll all come we have raised enough money to Make certain that economics does not become the last barrier after they have proven themselves academically ready for a Purdue education and While these numbers is just the first year while these numbers are Only as big as they are I will tell you that if these students if two-thirds of these students Say yes to our offer and we hope we'll do better than that it will double the number of Young people we've been able to recruit from the entire Indianapolis public school system During most recent years and it will double the number of black students that we've been able to attract So it's a great start and when we have three schools up and operating if we can achieve numbers like this We will make a very substantial difference having built our own pipeline When the pool of minority students and low-income students is so distressingly small otherwise I Talked about Purdue global or online university. It's growing very smartly. It is more than paying its bills and and Offers the promise of further growth in the future It's very important to remember the difference between Purdue global and the rest of our campuses As you'll see here It is almost two-thirds female It is mainly working adults the average age is well over 30 and It is really aimed at one of the most important target audiences in America Everyone now realizes and that is people who didn't complete college the first time most of the students who kind of Purdue global Made a start at college but didn't get through and came out if anything with some debt And our goal is to help them get to a much better place in life And that's what the record shows happens for those who do succeed You know that we've tried very hard to make Purdue a As affordable and accessible as we can We've now pledged not just this coming year but the year after that tuition will once again be held constant and here you see some ways of Expressing that that today's freshmen were in elementary school the last time Purdue raised tuition and we have kept the Indiana tuition level below $10,000 if we had raised prices at the average rate That has gone on elsewhere in the Big Ten. This would have been the outcome you see that the annual difference right now for an Indiana student is Over $1,300 so $5,000 over the course of a four-year degree Those students from out of state Are saving of course even more and you'll see that we lowered We've lowered room and board rates while they have increased substantially at other Schools the total savings for an Indiana student now come to essentially the cost of a year's tuition Or as the bottom of the slide says four years at the price of three Here's what's been going on elsewhere with regard to room and board Some other schools have begun to moderate their tuition increases a couple have even held them constant for a year or two But many of the same ones raised other fees such as room and board we haven't as I said We've brought them down just slightly and you'll see that room and board at Purdue is now the least expensive In the Big Ten a big change from a little while ago for Resident students that is Indiana students living on campus is less Expensive now to attend Purdue than it was ten years ago same for out of state students And you'll see the widening gap between us and the average cost at another Big Ten school and Here's what's happened to debt not surprisingly when you hold the price down debt has declined with it and We're very very pleased with this reduction across the entire student body. We sometimes calculate by the way that a A family that families collectively have saved over a billion dollars Compared to what would have happened if we had risen along with the rest of the The rest of our competition Here is the default rate for boiler makers Far below that of other public universities and as the box at the bottom points out well over half of that small percentage that Are not making their payments are those who did not graduate if you graduated from Purdue There's almost zero chance that you will not be paying back or able to pay back your student loans on time one of the major Strategic decisions we made several years ago was to become even stronger at the STEM disciplines at which Purdue has always excelled Which were always part of our land-grant assignment And which are so central to the success of individuals and our overall society in this information High-tech age, and so you'll see that The percent of undergrads in one or another of the STEM disciplines has risen very sharply It's we're now probably fourth in America behind two of the UC California schools and Georgia Tech In in terms of the percentage of our students studying science or technology We have really worked hard to become as we call it entrepreneur you encouraging any faculty member any student for that matter with an idea to pursue it patented if that is appropriate and and to start or try to start an enterprise based on it and We have become one of the top universities in the world in all these categories and The number of startups here has exceeded that at almost every school in the country. I think we've been second behind a Stanford ahead of lesser-known places like Harvard And MIT in most recent years. I want to say just a few words about another mission that We believe is important to Purdue's future, but for that matter our to the future of our surrounding neighborhoods neighborhoods in the Greater Tippecanoe County area and really the whole state of Indiana and that is to make of our school And in its environment a more dynamic and vibrant and economically successful place that will allow us to attract even better faculty even better students and to contribute to the prosperity of Our surrounding community So the west side of campus in 2014 already a lot of changes that happen including the bypass that you'll you'll see that was built by the state of Indiana and and under a previous governor But it's the investments. We've made since then that have made the most difference those of you who haven't been to campus I think would be very very surprised by What you'll find when you do get here The Discovery Park District project Which began with our Narrowing of State Street our beautification of State Street and turning State Street really into just another campus Boulevard and not the State Highway that it was during our whole previous history was a first step a trigger here, but you'll see that many great companies have have come to locate here in Either our pre-existing research parks or the new Discovery Park District, which sits along state and airport roads and out around the airport and then Finally And I could offer more illustrations than this. We do believe we see an unmistakable Enhancement of the great reputation Purdue's always had nationally That one always has to take some of these ratings with a little salt But the accumulation of them I think is makes for a pattern. That's that is pretty clear That we are not only Indiana's flagship university, but one of America's and And growing I believe in stature and reputation All the time again this year we had record applications even in this COVID year when they are down nationally and a and by far a record Applications from young people from the other 49 states. I think evidence that once again that the renown of your university is is strong and and improving so There's a quick tour through The university that we are I'll just say that The era ahead we all know will be a different one We're thinking very very hard about what a post COVID world will look like in terms of how you operate a university like this How many students and what kind will choose to come whether they will be looking for a full four years on campus or some? blend of online and remote and maybe Internships co-op experiential as we say education along the way so we take Some heart from the progress of the last few years, but we know it is absolutely no guarantee Of success in the future. We're thinking right now about ways to make Purdue as well suited to the 2020s as we think it has been over over the last few years and thinking about what investments will make that more likely So there's a quick tour. I Hope it was of some use. I hope even more that I'll be able to make a similar presentation to you in person In Naples next year. Thanks for watching boiler up