'You’ll see Purdue banners going up': Senior Vice Provost of Purdue University in Indianapolis on the launch of a new campus

David Umulis is the senior vice provost for Purdue in Indianapolis, which officially opens its doors on July 1.

WFYI’s Ben Thorp sat down with Umulis to discuss how he’ll lead Purdue in Indianapolis through its split with Indiana University, as IUPUI officially becomes two.

Ben Thorp: A big part of your role as I understand it will be overseeing this split between Indiana University and Purdue University here in Indianapolis, with the official separation beginning here in July of this year. What changes might students and the public kind of notice around the city?

David Umulis: Sure, well, first, if you look across the street, you'll see Purdue banners going up. This is fully Purdue's presence in Indianapolis. And you'll see the banner say Purdue University, that is an extension of West Lafayette, which is the critical thing, which means we're going to have more Purdue students here, that's just part of the beginning of what we're going to be doing as an extension of this campus.

Thorp: I think it's fair to say that Indiana University's footprint here in Indianapolis, especially around IUPUI campus, felt more visible before this split. Maybe you can talk about how will Purdue work to stand out after this separation.

Umulis: First, we want to stand out by the focus of the quality of our programs and the educational experiences that our students are going to have. We're starting with programs in engineering, computer science, and polytech.

And these are programs that as STEM education that we've developed over the years, we will have 28 acres just to the north here, where we have future plans to grow the heartbeat of Purdue University in Indianapolis.

We have other partners and other discussions that are ongoing for other areas throughout the city, we really want to be woven into the fabric of the city and not just be in one location with a heartbeat in one location. But we'll have academic programs, Master's degree programs that are participating in close proximity with corporate partners throughout the city.

Thorp: You know, you're mentioning kind of the science and technology programs, I've noticed that both IU Indianapolis and Purdue in Indianapolis will be working to expand science and technology program offerings. And it feels like there might be some overlap there. How is what Purdue and IU offer here in Indianapolis going to be different?

Umulis: We really come, approach the problem with different backgrounds and bring different strengths. So we will have some overlap in some degrees. But competition is healthy. And I think the city will benefit from this.

And also, I think we want to raise, we both have the same goals in mind about raising the status and the quality of the workforce that we can give to the city and that the city can lean on. We do it in different ways. We'll have areas where we compete, and areas where we're going to be mutually reinforcing.

Thorp: You know, Purdue feels like a bigger and bigger player in Indiana's economic development plans, especially with the planning around this hard tech corridor that Purdue President Mung Chiang has described. What role will Purdue in Indianapolis play in some of these broader economic development plans that the state is beginning to kind of reveal to us?

Umulis: So the two bookends to the heart tech corridor we have West Lafayette, a lot of programs that make a lot of sense in that physical location, whether that be chip fabs or hypersonics research. We have this as the other bookend of the hard tech corridor.

We have other local partners that are right down the street from us now that we're really eager to partner with. Companies here that have been here and are critical for the state including Eli Lilly, Roche, Elanco, and several others that we are eager to continue to support with the students that we graduate.

Importantly, in the middle is a really interesting, innovative investment called the LEAP district in Lebanon for high-tech manufacturing that is just about exactly between Purdue West Lafayette and Indianapolis and will be a growing center for the high-tech manufacturing of the future.

So we want to provide the workforce that will fill those positions, that will raise the status of what the companies are doing in this state, keeping talent here to make the economic development here thrive.

Thorp: David, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.

Umulis: Absolutely. Thank you, Ben.

Contact WBAA/WFYI reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org.