Donor Takes Back $1 Million Gift to Purdue Over Mitch Daniels

A former dean at Purdue University has withdrawn a pledge of $1 million to the school in protest of the Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels' appointment to be the school's next president

A former dean at Purdue University has withdrawn a pledge of $1 million to the school in protest of the Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels' appointment to be their next president, according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier. The man who could have been Romney's running mate has agreed to take over as president next January when his final term as governor ends, but more than a few Boilermakers are upset that a non-academic with a history of slashing state education budgets will now be in charge of their beloved university. Marilyn Haring, a former dean of the College of Education for 10 years, said the hiring was "a travesty and insult to academics" when she wrote to the school to inform them that she was canceling the sizable gift she planned to leave in her will. Students are also planning to protest Daniels' appointment with a rally this Saturday.

The chairman of the Board of Trustees isn't worried, however. He told Weddle that the reaction from other donors has been 10-to-1 in favor of Daniels and that new donations from "very prominent people" will far outweigh any money lost by the anti-Mitch camp.