Purdue enacts new strategic plan

WEST LAFAYETTE – Purdue University will focus on increasing retention and graduation rates under a strategic plan taking shape under new President France Cordova.\nCordova will also form work groups of students, faculty, staff and community members to advise steps on student experience, campus design, interdisciplinary research, and quality of life for faculty and staff.\nCordova expects the strategic plan to be presented to the trustees by May.\n“We need a stronger focus on student success,” she told school trustees Friday.\nShe also named more research funding as one of the plan’s top goals.\n“Our aspiration is for Purdue to be a top-rank global research institution,” she said.\nPurdue’s previous plan lasted seven years and ended this summer with the retirement of Cordova’s predecessor, Martin Jischke.\nTrustees heard a presentation on retention and graduation rates. Several thought Purdue needed to be more selective to strengthen its academic reputation.\n“We’re letting in kids that don’t make it,” trustee William Oesterle said.\nThe school has a six-year graduation rate of 70.7 percent for students enrolled in 2001. The average for the peer schools that Purdue compares itself with is 80.9 percent.\nPurdue’s one-year retention rate is 84.8 percent, while peer schools kept 92.2 percent of their students.