Final vote on Purdue-Kaplan deal will be in secret Thursday

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Thursday will be a pivotal day for Purdue and its pending – not to mention controversial – deal to buy for-profit Kaplan University.

That morning, in a Chicago hotel, 19 Higher Learning Commission trustees are scheduled to make the final call about whether the rebranded online Purdue Global is up to accreditation standards.

But Purdue, Kaplan and critics of the deal will have to wait up to two weeks to know how the Higher Learning Commission decides, said Steve Kauffman, a spokesman for the commission, which oversees the accreditation process for more than 1,000 colleges and universities in 19 states.

There will be no open hearing or additional public discussion Thursday, Kauffman said. The Higher Learning Commission spent several days on the West Lafayette campus in October interviewing Purdue and Kaplan officials and holding forums for students, faculty and alumni.

On Thursday, Kauffman said, the Higher Learning Commission trustees will go behind closed doors at the O’Hare Hilton Hotel to consider that information, along with written comments collected since Purdue and Kaplan University first announced the deal in April 2017. No Purdue or Kaplan officials will be part of the meeting.

Kauffman called the procedure standard when the commission considers accreditation, which weighs a program’s quality and is necessary if a school wants to qualify for federal funding, including student loans. He said the trustees will consider a number of other accreditation renewals that day.

The Higher Learning Commission’s blessing would be the third, and final, regulatory step necessary before Kaplan University may start operating as Purdue Global. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education and the U.S. Department of Education approved the deal in 2017.

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This week, Purdue President Mitch Daniels said the university was making plans anticipating that Purdue Global will be a go. Alberto Rodriguez, chairman of the faculty-dominated University Senate, said Monday that he planned to be in Chicago to deliver petitions and make one final plea against the deal during a public comment portion of the meeting, before the Higher Learning Commission trustees adjourn to a confidential executive session.

Here’s the backdrop.

THE PURDUE-KAPLAN DEAL: Daniels and Purdue’s trustees announced the deal on April 27, 2017, after what they said was five months of negotiations and due diligence done in privacy and with nondisclosure agreements, to satisfy federal trade laws. According to the deal, Purdue would pick up Kaplan University for a dollar, convert it from for-profit to nonprofit, and brand it as a public benefit corporation that is self-sustaining and without need of state support. The Purdue-Kaplan blend would take its place in a Purdue hierarchy topped by the flagship campus in West Lafayette and flanked by regional campuses, Purdue Fort Wayne and Purdue Northwest. Kaplan would continue to operate the online university, which has 32,000 students, more than 2,400 faculty members and 15 campuses.

MITCH DANIELS' CASE: Daniels has justified the deal as an expansion of Purdue’s mission as a land grant university. He said Purdue will be in a position to put its name and reputation behind courses aimed at the sort of non-traditional students – often older, with families, with jobs or just out of the military – that aren’t in a position to come to a campus like the one in West Lafayette. Daniels also has touted the purchase as a way for Purdue to get instant access to Kaplan’s online reach and a prime way to offer courses from Purdue’s existing catalog.

THE BLOWBACK: Purdue faculty greeted news of the Kaplan deal with icy silence when Daniels and trustees gave them an initial overview an hour ahead of announcing it publicly in April. Things haven’t exactly warmed up since among faculty who say they were left out of a decision about academics that should have included them on a campus guided by the principles of shared governance. In May, the University Senate took what amounted to a vote of no-confidence for the deal. More than 300 faculty members signed a petition, sent to the Higher Learning Commission, protesting the deal over concerns of academic freedom and credentials for Kaplan faculty and the potential compromise of Purdue’s degrees and reputation, among others. Many of those concerns came up again during University’s Senate’s monthly Q&A time between faculty at Daniels.

Faculty also haven’t missed chances to point out that Purdue Global – as a nonprofit institution rather than a public one – will not be covered by Indiana’s open records and open meetings law. A provision quietly inserted into the state’s two-year budget in April specifies that, as well. Daniels has promised that Purdue Global will be as transparent as possible, with a board made up of five Purdue trustees and one from Kaplan. This week, faculty on the University Senate told Daniels they still had their doubts when Purdue Global administrators weren’t compelled by state law.

Off-campus, Purdue has been ripped for signing on with a big player in the world of for-profit colleges. In a Jan. 30 letter to the Higher Learning Commission, Yan Cao, a fellow with The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, claimed that Daniels had glossed over the risks of low graduation rates and the predatory nature of for-profit universities.

Daniels has dismissed those claims and defended Kaplan University’s business practices, pointing to letters sent to the Higher Learning Commission in support, including from Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and Barack Obama's undersecretary of education from 2014-17.

THE NAME: “NewU” was a placeholder for the Purdue-Kaplan deal until mid-January, when trustees rolled out the Purdue Global name. The U.S. Department of Education’s approval was contingent on the word Purdue being in the new university’s name. The Higher Learning Commission also asked for a name before Thursday’s meeting. Purdue Global beat out dozens of other entries – including Purdue Edge, Purdue Quest, Purdue United and Purdue 360 – after months of testing with Purdue and Kaplan students and faculty, as well as potential employers.

TUITION: In June, Purdue announced Kaplan University discounts for Indiana residents – bringing the price to $220 per credit hour, a savings of 45 percent off the quarterly credit hour price – starting with Kaplan’s academic term in summer 2017. Daniels put the savings into context of someone coming to Purdue to get a degree: A bachelor’s through Purdue Global would cost an Indiana resident $39,600 compared to $80,088 at the West Lafayette campus, once room and board were taken into account. Purdue tuition for Indiana residents is just under $10,000 a year.

WHAT'S NEXT: If accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, Purdue Global could be ready to go in four to six weeks, according to Frank Dooley, a Purdue vice provost who has been working to prep the academic side of the Kaplan deal.

“We’ll move as quickly as we can from there,” Dooley said.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.