Daniels-Purdue work flap raises questions

(Lafayette) Journal and Courier

Imagine the first time Purdue University’s new president offers up a notion about how to shave a few bucks from a departmental budget, trailed by an undercutting jab: Yeah, what about your $380,000 office makeover?

No wonder Mitch Daniels, incoming Purdue president and current Indiana governor, last week issued a testy statement about the work being done during down time in the president’s office at Hovde Hall.

A noted fiscal conservative, Daniels has inspired all sorts of trepidation and anticipation about the sort of cost-cutting ideas he might bring to West Lafayette when he shows up in January, when his term ends in the governor’s office.

So after a story appeared in the Journal & Courier — and then in papers around the state — about the president’s office renovations, Daniels tried to set the record straight about his priorities.

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