Fox Cities News

The Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership and the Whitburn Center for Governance and Policy Research at UW Oshkosh will hold a moderated discussion on Wednesday, Sept. 25, with former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Jr., who served ten years as Purdue University president.

Governor Daniels will discuss the future of higher education, his experiences in public service, and the state of civic engagement in our current moment.

The event runs from 5-7 p.m. and takes place in Reeve Union, 748 Algoma Blvd., on the UWO campus. The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided. The discussion will be moderated by Public Administration Professor and Whitburn Center Director Michael Ford.

“Governor Daniels has had a remarkable career in public service, government, health care, and higher education,” Ford said. “We are excited to bring his insights on leadership, service, and the future of higher education to the UWO community.”

Mitchell Daniels Jr. served as a two-term governor of Indiana from 2004 to 2012 and as the 12th president of Purdue University from 2013 to 2022. He currently serves as a distinguished scholar and senior adviser at the Liberty Fund. He was elected governor in his first bid for any elected office and then re-elected with more votes than any candidate in the state’s history.

At Purdue, Daniels prioritized student affordability and reinvestment in the university’s strengths. He ended 36 straight years of rising prices by freezing tuition and mandatory fees at 2012 levels for all students. The freeze is still in place today. As a result, the total cost of attendance is lower today than in 2012. Even without adjusting for inflation, aggregate student borrowing has declined by 37%.

Prior to becoming governor, Daniels served as chief of staff to Senator Richard Lugar, senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan, and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. He also was the CEO of the Hudson Institute and had an 11-year career as an executive at Eli Lilly and Company.

Daniels earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a law degree from Georgetown University. He is the author of three books and a contributing columnist in The Washington Post.

He and his wife Cheri have four daughters and eight grandchildren.

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