Tag: Purdue

  • Purdue fails its own test on institutional neutrality

    Purdue fails its own test on institutional neutrality

    In June 2024, the Purdue University Board of Trustees boldly declared that Purdue does not take sides on the leading, and often contentious, issues of the day. Quoting the University of Chicago’s 1967 Kalven Report, the board affirmed that, true to the principles of “institutional neutrality,” the university is host to dissidents and critics but “it is not itself the critic.”

    That is, until the critics say something the university doesn’t like. 

    In Purdue’s case, all it took was for the independent student newspaper The Exponent to publish an editorial announcing it would remove the names and images of pro-Palestinian activists from its website over concerns that the federal government would use them in its efforts targeting what the government called “pro-jihadist” speech. Purdue’s administration then went on the offensive. Citing “institutional neutrality,” the university told the publication, run by Purdue students since 1889, to stop using the name “Purdue” in its URL. Purdue also said it would stop circulating the newspaper and end preferential parking for its staff. 

    Shake-up at the top: UChicago, Claremont, Purdue all drop in 2024 College Free Speech Rankings

    In this year’s College Free Speech Rankings, Purdue University, University of Chicago, and Claremont McKenna all lost their elite top 10 status.


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    But the Kalven Report’s appropriate, self-imposed limitations apply strictly to the university’s own speech. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the speech of students, student groups, or independent student publications.

    Demanding that the paper drop the name “Purdue” from its web address makes a mockery of the phrase “institutional neutrality.” The Kalven Report, which Purdue professes to follow, warned:

    The university is a community … which cannot take collective action on the issues of the day without endangering the conditions for its existence and effectiveness. There is no mechanism by which it can reach a collective position without inhibiting that full freedom of dissent on which it thrives.

    In other words, the mere act of taking an official position on an issue may stifle dissent because anyone who disagrees is now not only disagreeing with the position, but with the university itself. That ends up undermining the primary reason for the university’s existence in the first place. The idea is for the university to avoid offering its own opinions in order to give community members space to freely offer theirs. That includes publications like The Exponent, which may report or editorialize in a way that favors certain viewpoints. 

    There’s little prospect of Exponent readers confusing the publication’s takes with  official university doctrine, as Purdue apparently worries will happen when it says the paper “should not associate its own speech with the University.” A quick visit to the “About Us” section of the paper’s website reveals that The Exponent makes it perfectly clear that it’s “independent of the university” and “jurisdictionally and financially” separate from Purdue. 

    In its bizarre attempt to invoke “institutionality neutrality” to change the newspaper’s URL, Purdue is also ignoring trademark law. As the paper’s staff notes: 

    The university asked for The Purdue Exponent to no longer use the word “Purdue” for all commercial uses, even though the Purdue Student Publishing Foundation has a trademark on the name “The Purdue Exponent” [registered with Indiana’s Secretary of State’s office] until 2029.

    The Foundation currently uses “Purdue Exponent” for the paper’s URL and not the paper’s masthead. Even so, if Indiana’s trademark examiners thought that there was any likelihood of readers confusing The Exponent’s works with official university publications, it would have never approved the publication’s trademark application. Along similar lines, no one (we hope) sees the name of Purdue University College Republicans or Purdue College Democrats and assumes that, because “Purdue” is in the name, either student group speaks for the school. In scenarios like these, the only confused party is Purdue. 

    Purdue should be applauded for committing to Kalven principles. But it makes a mockery of said principles by censoring student journalism.

    Not all free speech advocates agree that Purdue’s actions undermine institutional neutrality. In a recent blog post, Heterodox Academy Director of Research Alex Arnold argues, “By ending its special relationship with, and consequent subsidies for, The Exponent, Purdue has chosen to treat it like any other self-described independent student news organization.” He adds, “Granting of special privileges and perks to The Exponent may further give the impression that it is, in fact, a news agency of Purdue, and even speaks in some way for the university.” 

    But it’s extremely doubtful that, unless Exponent staff writers are forced to use metered street parking instead of university spaces, readers will be unable to tell the difference between an op-ed and a university press release. And while it’s dubious that Purdue only circulating one paper implies Purdue’s endorsement of all the contents of said paper (including potentially conflicting op-eds), the university’s fixation on the paper’s URL is especially irrational. 

    Purdue’s overreaction and misapplication of its professed principles risk jeopardizing the progress made by dozens of other higher education institutions that have committed to institutional neutrality. According to FIRE’s latest tally, 32 colleges or systems of schools have formally committed to not take positions on social and political issues unless those issues “threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry.” 

    The University of North Carolina system, Vanderbilt, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and, of course, the University of Chicago have all adopted official positions on institutional neutrality, and we’re leading the fight to get more institutions on board.

    Critics have argued that neutrality is impossible because everything is political, from school calendars to core curricula. By that logic, even declining to make political statements — or deter potentially-biased student reporting — is a political act. But this merely serves as a rhetorical trap designed to justify disposing of neutrality altogether. 

    The truth is that it’s simply not the place of the university to comment on the issues of the day, like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or changes to Medicaid, that aren’t related to the institution’s educational mission. Misapplying institutional neutrality opens the door to even more blatant violations of this time-tested principle. 

    Institutions that have adopted institutional neutrality pay close attention to how the others enforce neutrality, and one school’s overzealous application can translate to harmful practices across the board. In this politically fraught time, it is more important than ever for universities to give students and faculty the space they need to make their voices heard. Purdue should be applauded for committing to Kalven principles. But it makes a mockery of said principles by censoring student journalism. FIRE hopes other universities will practice what they preach and stay true to institutional neutrality. 

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  • Purdue Cuts Off Student Paper Citing Institutional Neutrality

    Purdue Cuts Off Student Paper Citing Institutional Neutrality

    Purdue University has ended a long-standing partnership with its independent student newspaper, The Purdue Exponent, and will no longer distribute papers, give student journalists free parking passes or allow them to use the word “Purdue” for commercial purposes.

    The Purdue Student Publishing Foundation board (PSPF), the nonprofit group that oversees The Exponent—the largest collegiate newspaper in Indiana—said the changes came without warning.

    On May 30, PSPF received an email from Purdue’s Office of Legal Counsel notifying the group that their contract had expired more than a decade ago and the university would not participate in newspaper distribution or give the students exclusive access to newspaper racks on campus.

    In addition, the message said, the university will not enter into a new contract for facility use with the paper to remain consistent with the administration’s stated policy on institutional neutrality.

    According to a statement from the university, it is not consistent “with principles of freedom of expression, institutional neutrality and fairness to provide the services and accommodations described in the letter to one media organization but not others.”

    The Exponent is the only student newspaper, though Purdue also has two student news channels, FastTrack News and BoilerTV.

    Legal counsel also asked The Exponent to keep “Purdue” off the masthead and out of the paper’s URL because “The Foundation should not associate its own speech with the University.” PSPF says it has a trademark on “The Purdue Exponent” until 2029.

    PSPF and Purdue have held distribution agreements since 1975, in which Exponent staff would drop papers off at various locations across campus and staff would then place them on newspaper racks.

    In 2014, the Exponent delivered the university a new contract to renew the agreement for the next five years, according to paper staff. The contract was never signed, but the terms of the agreement continued until Monday, June 2.

    Now, The Exponent is permitted to distribute papers themselves and have nonexclusive access to newspaper stands on campus, according to the university; students said they don’t have early access to many of the buildings the way staff do.

    “Purdue’s moves are unacceptable and represent not only a distortion of trademark law but a betrayal of the university’s First Amendment obligations to uphold free expression,” Dominic Coletti, a student press program officer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The Exponent. “Breaking long-standing practice to hinder student journalism is not a sign of institutional neutrality; it is a sign of institutional cowardice.”



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  • Higher education postcard: Purdue University

    Higher education postcard: Purdue University

    Greetings from Indiana!

    In 1862 the United States passed the first of a series of laws – known as the Morrill Land-Grant Acts – which allowed states to sell federally owned land to fund the creation of colleges. These colleges – known now as land-grant universities – form a large chunk of the US higher education system. And its important to note – as America tries to forget its history – that the land sold to fund them was often bought, granted by or stolen from Native American tribes.

    The state of Indiana decided in 1865 to take advantage of the act, and a process to decide where and how to spend the money began. The state could have chosen a couple of existing institutions, but in 1869 was swayed by proposals from Tippecanoe County which included pledges of $200,000 (about worth $4.6 million today) and 100 acres of land. And so Purdue University, named after the benefactor who had pledged the lion’s share of the $200,000, was established in West Lafayette, on the Wabash River.

    Purdue developed into a university focusing on engineering and agricultural subjects. This was under the guidance of Emerson E White, president of Purdue from 1876 to 1883. He sought to differentiate Purdue from the “classical” American universities, and the syllabus reflected this. Humanities and social sciences were not prohibited, but were not prioritised. He sought also to ban fraternities from campus, and when the Indiana state legislature required the university to allow fraternities, he resigned. But it was too late, and that year Purdue received no state grant.

    Purdue became a leading institution for research into steam traction on the railways. By the 1890s it owned several locomotives, and a railway dynamometer which enabled research. There was a local railroad – the Monon railroad – which operated works near Purdue. In 1891 the Purdue football team (gridiron, not association or union or league) beat neighbours Wabash College 44–0; there were suggestions that the team had included some ringers – boilermakers from the Monon works. Which led to the nickname Boilermakers, given to the university’s sports teams.

    (Its a bit of a tradition in American universities for their teams to have nicknames; a little like the now sometimes quaint nicknames used for football teams in Britain. A few still have local meaning, but other than journalists looking for copy, do many people still call their team by its nickname? Answers in the chat, please. But in America they are still used, it seems.)

    Purdue became the first US university to have its own airport, in 1934, and introduce credit bearing courses in learning to fly. Amelia Earhart was an instructor for those courses, and a career counsellor for women students. Her round-the-world flight attempt in 1937, in which she disappeared, used an aeroplane funded by Purdue’s research foundation.

    Purdue scientists discovered properties of the element germanium which enabled the invention of transistors. Transistors were fundamental to the development of electronics and computing. Transistors themselves were invented at Bell Laboratories but without germanium semiconducting crystals, which the Purdue team produced, transistors would not have operated quickly enough.

    In 2017 Purdue University bought Kaplan, the early online university, and transformed it into Purdue University Global.

    The card – here’s a jigsaw – shows the Boilermaker Special, Purdue’s official mascot. The Boilermaker was introduced in 1940, paid for by alumni and members of the Purdue Reamer Club, a student club formed as an alternative to the fraternity societies. The first vehicle comprised a body made by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, mounted on a Studebaker chassis. The card shows the third Boilermaker Special, which was in service from 1960 to 1993. It was made by General Motors, on a bus chassis. The current Boilermaker Special is the eighth; a ninth is expected to be in service from this summer.

    The card was posted in February 1973 to a couple in Washington DC:

    Came out here yesterday to let M.G. take a look at Purdue…

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