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IN laws, legislation affecting higher education

Purdue’s vice president for public affairs thinks the university fared well during this year’s session of the General Assembly.

Julie Griffith says her office tracked a lot of legislation that affected the university. Those range from a public access bill dealing with open meetings and inspection of public records to the so-called “credit creep” measure capping most bachelor’s degrees at 120 credit hours.

Griffith says Purdue and other universities will continue to work on those bills signed into law and those likely to come back next year.

"Obviously, there are a lot of challenges ahead of us. I don't think anyone in the administration or faculty thinks otherwise. I think we all understand we have challenges. We also have a lot of opportunities. We also have an opportunity to not only react to those reforms, but shape them going forward."

One of those challenges is the so-called “reaching higher, achieving more” plan, which aims at doubling the number of degrees conferred in 13-years.

"You know when you talk about the increase in degree production, when you talk about 60% of our population having a degree of one sort or another, I think it's difficult to achieve. You have to set the bar high. You don't want to set it low, but the devil is in the details. How do you get there?"

She says Purdue is receiving recognition from the Midwest Education Compact for its trimester plan. The move to a year-round schedule was announced earlier this year as a way to bring down college costs and speed up the time it takes to complete a degree.

Griffith says the next session of the Indiana General Assembly will be interesting. After this year's election, roughly 40 members of the House will have two-years or less experience as a state lawmaker.

"That's a tremendous turnover, something we've not seen in a long, long time. So, our challenge is not just to get to know those people, but more importantly, for them to get to know [Purdue]. And what Purdue is, what we're about, our value to the state. I think it's a challenge, but I also think it's an opportunity."

She says from the election through the first few weeks of the 2013 session, she plans to meet with the new lawmakers.