I’ve been thinking a lot lately about excellence and what it means to be excellent. Different people define excellence differently, and I have yet to come across a method to measure excellence. Is it something tangible or a feeling? I think it is both, and I think we are experiencing excellence in the Polytechnic Institute but are often too modest to brag about it.
Examples of our excellence include:
- The Purdue University Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center (SMIC) funded by the Department of Energy and led by Ragu Athinarayanan, professor of engineering technology.
- Faculty continually prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow through development of forward-looking majors like UX Design, Human Resource Development, Unmanned Aerial Systems, and Data Analytics, Technologies and Applications.
- The Purdue Cyber Apprenticeship Program (PCAP) funded by the Department of Labor and led by Marcus Rogers, assistant dean for cybersecurity initiatives and professor of computer and information technology.
- The professional flight program boasts a new and expanded fleet of Piper instructional aircraft as well as state-of-the art jet simulators, including a Hawker 900XP full-motion, Level D flight simulator and Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 simulators.
- In fall 2021, we welcomed our largest-ever class of new beginners (996) and achieved our fifth consecutive year of record-breaking undergraduate enrollment (4,460).
- Since the launch of the first Purdue Polytechnic High School in 2017, there are now three PPHS locations, serving more than 850 students and still growing.
- We are the third-largest college at Purdue and have the third-highest number of underrepresented minority and Black undergraduate students of all colleges at Purdue University.
- The Polytechnic’s Exceptional Teacher Framework focuses on four levels of teaching development – the path to becoming an exceptional teacher – and will include events, training and awards all geared toward the persistent improvement of faculty teaching skills. Our first cohort is running now and looks extremely successful.
This list doesn’t begin to scratch the surface, but hopefully it gives you an idea of the breadth and depth of our excellence in the Polytechnic Institute. The thing about excellence is that it is like standing on sand — the ground beneath you is always shifting. There is always someone with their sights set on what you are doing. The question becomes, “What’s next?” How do we leverage our excellence to go further?
I posit that the next phase in our pursuit of excellence is achieved through diversity, equity and inclusion. We’ve worked on the foundation for this phase for some time, and the pieces thus far include the hiring of Levon Esters, associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion and faculty affairs, and creating the inclusion, diversity, equity and advocacy (IDEA) steering committee and working groups. We’re elevating diversity, equity and inclusion as important values. We’re changing our culture and expectations for our college around diversity, equity and inclusion by focusing on relationships, connections, and belonging. I believe this is what’s next on our continuous journey toward excellence.