WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue President Mitch Daniels, bemoaning the civics literacy of American university students, including those on the West Lafayette campus, on Monday pushed faculty to help come up with a test to guarantee students who graduate can at least pass the same test given to newly naturalized citizens.

“It’s hardly a new issue,” Daniels told the University Senate, a faculty-heavy body that represents various academic departments at Purdue.

“You can make the argument, ‘Shouldn’t this have already been dealt with before students got here?’” Daniels said after his discussion with the University Senate. “As I told the Senate today, yes, it should have. I’d make the argument that it should be solved by middle school.”

Daniels said he didn’t know of other universities with a similar graduation requirement, but he said he was interested in at least knowing students at Purdue had basic knowledge about the American system. Daniels suggested that incoming freshmen would be told about the test the day they arrived on campus for Boiler Gold Rush – the university’s orientation program – and then they would be allowed to take the test any time, whether the next day or four years later, all the way up to the day before graduation.

He said if done right, the test would be over in five or 10 minutes.

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Daniels asked professors to help him come up with an appropriate test and process and to do it “sooner rather than later.”

“We would like to be able certify that in addition to the other positive accomplishments here at Purdue, you are leaving with this fundamental understanding,” Daniels said. “I think it would be becoming of our institution. And I think it would be a worthy contribution to our individual students.”

Faculty members pressed him about what a test might mean if it wasn’t backed by Purdue putting more academic muscle to history and other humanities requirements. There were questions about whether the test Daniels wants to give should be an admissions requirement instead of a graduation task. And several professors discussed whether international students should be held to the same standard.

“I agree there needs to be more work done in the high schools,” said Chris Erickson, an associate professor at Purdue Fort Wayne.

“My question is, to what extent do you think these students will actually learn from taking a 10-minute, multiple-choice exam?” Erickson asked Daniels. “These kinds of questions and ideas should be taken in classes, where faculty are teaching these ideas. Just requiring what seems to be a multiple-choice exam, I don’t see how that moves us in the right direction.”

Robyn Malo, an English professor on the West Lafayette campus, asked Daniels: “Is a test the best way to ensure prolonged civic engagement over the course of a lifetime? I’d have to brainstorm, I don’t know what other ways there are.”

Daniels he “could easily be persuaded” to require more history and humanities courses for a Purdue degree. But he said there wasn’t much momentum on that, even though Purdue’s core curriculum gave what he called a wide berth to either test out of humanities requirements or take courses unrelated to history, great literature or other civics-related subjects. Daniels said he troubled by polls and studies that suggested civics knowledge was lacking, citing similar laments by former President Barack Obama, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s iCivics project and a handful of academic surveys.

“I’m certainly open to larger, grander approaches,” Daniels said. “I’d settle for knowing that our students could even do what’s suggested here.”

The naturalization test, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, includes a packet of 100 civics questions. Of those, candidates for citizenship get 10 of those questions on their tests. Answering six of the 10 questions correctly is needed to pass.

Among the questions on the test:

► What is the supreme law of the land? (A: The Constitution.)

► The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words? (A: We the people.)

► How many amendments does the Constitution have? (A: 27.)

► We elect a U.S. senator for how many years? (A: Six.)

The Indiana Senate is considering Senate Bill 132, which would mandate a similar test for Indiana high school students to graduate. To earn a Core 40 diploma, Indiana high school students must have two credits in history and one in U.S. government.

“If people in positions like ours don’t do anything about it, somebody may do something and tell us what to do about it,” Daniels said. “For my money, that might not lead to the best outcome.”

Daniels said he was open to working with faculty to sort through their questions.

“If not this,” Daniels said of the naturalization test as a template, “something that gets at the same goal.”

Daniels would need the blessing from faculty, in this case the University Senate, because the test would amount to a qualification for graduation.

Aaron Banks, Purdue’s student body president, said he backed Daniels’ idea.

“I think that this would serve as a much-needed refresher for some students regarding civics,” Banks, a senior majoring in industrial engeineering, said. “Personally, I have not taken any civics courses since senior year of high school, and honestly, if I didn't stay up to date with current events in U.S. politics, I'm afraid a lot of that knowledge would be lost.”

Was he taken aback by Daniels’ assessment of his generation of Purdue students?

“I think that given the data he presented today during the faculty Senate meeting, it is fair to conclude that the general student doesn't have a deep knowledge of civics, especially considering that a lot of students go through their entire academic career at Purdue without taking a course in the subject,” Banks said.

Natalie Carroll, University Senate chairwoman, said she thought faculty members were receptive to the idea on Monday.

Carroll said she hoped the Senate could work with Daniels to consider a civics test fairly quickly, though she and Daniels set no timetable Monday. She also said there wasn’t a guarantee that the Senate would go along. She said there would need to be answers about what would amount to a passing grade, how many times a student would be allowed to fail the test before passing and what would happen to students who couldn’t pass it.

“People seem to be generally supportive when they first hear it,” Carroll said. “But you have people get to talking about whether it really is a good idea – and if it is a good idea, how to make that happen – and then you get some questions.”

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