Editor's Note: This article was originally published by The Exponent, Purdue West Lafayette's student publication.
By Duncan Ways (Columnist)
Last week Purdue faculty wrote a letter calling for Provost Patrick Wolfe’s resignation. The letter presented a slurry of justified condemnations and concerns mixed all together with rage as a binding agent.
I’m with the faculty. I hate to see the things they list at my university — everything from a lack of deans to losing large government grants to overall discrimination, censorship, and secrecy.
But what most Boilermakers may not realize is that Wolfe and the complaints are simply a symptom of a larger issue.
Wolfe is a fall guy.
If he resigns, the machine will keep on running. The gears will keep on turning. Boilermakers will continue to be ground up in the cogs that keep on ticking in the Chiang Administration.
The FEAR Administration — Fuck Everything And Run
Purdue President Mung Chiang has been leading an administration with one goal and method in mind — survive through compliance.
Chiang has served as Purdue’s president since 2023 and in the span of three years, what has he or his able-bodied administration done for Purdue?
He certainly has not made the university a safer space for international students. In the letter condemning Wolfe, Purdue faculty call out the discrimination of prospective students based on their nationality. This decision to not allow prospective graduate students from “adversarial” countries to attend this university was an administrative move to try and survive under the Trump presidency.
Chiang’s predecessor, Mitch Daniels, directly challenged intimidation concerning international students. During Daniels' presidency, when China was censoring Chinese students studying on U.S. campuses by having other Chinese students rat on them, he shot back. He emailed students and faculty telling the Boilermaker community that students “seeking to deny (freedom of inquiry and expression) rights to others, let alone to collude with foreign governments in repressing them, will need to pursue their education elsewhere.”
Daniels’ challenged a whole government. I could not imagine Chiang directly challenging my next-door neighbor.
Chiang himself was an international student in the U.S., he should understand how his actions, or rather inactions, could negatively affect students who are in the same place he was only 30 years ago.
The most this man’s collegiate administration has directly contributed to Boilermaker history is trying to find Amelia Earhart’s plane. Yeah remember when that made all the national news and he said we were going to send people there to bring it back to Purdue… Wasn’t that like forever ago? What happened?
An expedition was supposed to leave in the fall but they didn’t get the proper permits from the Kiribati government — you know, the country which owns the island.
Speaking more on Chiang, what happened to his personality? I mean there is not a lot to go off of here. Purdue, his kids, and ice cream is all that comes to mind, but even still it has been a hot second since Chiang has mentioned his love of the dairy delight.
And you know what, I miss the ice cream. As a student, I don’t know who he is, I don’t know his genuine likes, dislikes, quirks, or any discernible personality traits. I miss being able to connect with the man behind the suit, behind the pageantry of representing our university.
Now don’t get me wrong I don’t think Chiang has put Purdue in a complete nosedive, but he has done little more than just stand like an action figure waiting to be moved. When push comes to shove all Chiang is able to do is move out of the way — he’s a better revolving door than president.
But see here’s the thing that upsets me. Chiang was different once.
In 2024, when changes to Indiana’s high school graduation requirements were proposed within the state’s legislature, our GOAT Chiang was there. He wrote a letter to state education officials telling them the proposed changes simply wouldn’t cut it. He told them point-blank, “not all students will attend college.”
And they listened.
After Chiang called out their proposal as not meeting Purdue’s high school curriculum standards in math, science, and social studies, Indiana’s legislature drafted another proposal. This proposal met the standards of both Purdue and Indiana University ensuring Hoosiers wouldn’t lack the skills required for college.
Could he have been a little quicker with it? Sure! But the important thing is our president stood up for our university, my university. That’s the president I want. And knowing Chiang has that ability only has made the rest of his time as Purdue’s President a disappointment.
Darling, you got to let me know
Put it simply in my ideal gold and black world where we crushed IU in our most recent game of basketball and we had the Gochujang chicken sandwich every day at Windsor, Mung Chiang would either step down or step up.
Stepping down from his role as Purdue’s president would hopefully set forward the agent of change needed to help pull our beloved university from going down a path Boilermakers won’t be proud of. But we could only hope that essentially the same Board of Trustees who chose Chiang wouldn’t pick another laissez-faire figurehead to operate an organization which affects millions. This is the worst of the two options.
Chiang, you could choose to step up. Continue to be our president. Lead the Boilermaker community to a brighter future by not being afraid to stand up for what you believe in. Reevaluate where the university administration’s focus should lie. Renew efforts on supporting students and faculty though staying true to the higher standards that are black and gold values. Redouble attempts on making your administration more open to criticism and cooperation which begins with increasing transparency.
Mr. President, put your foot down when you are being asked to compromise on your values. If you aren’t putting your foot down, you are licking the boots of those who ask you to be worse than yourself.
A word of advice to sign off.
You better pray that when you go to lick the boot, your “benefactor” doesn't kick you in your face.
I want you to do what’s best for Purdue. I know you want to do what’s best for Purdue. I know this may seem like a hit-piece or a hook out of left field — I just want your attention. Boilermakers just want your attention. Listen to us, please. We’ll love you. Make us proud. If you want to talk to this Boilermaker one-on-one to discuss this, Purdue, or anything else, please do. I’m at opinions@purdueexponent.org.
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