Purdue is changing administrators for employee health insurance. The Board of Trustees approved a three year, $4.95 million contract with Anthem. It takes affect January 1, 2014, and is expected to save the university $7.5 million annually, system-wide.
Vice President for Human Resources Luis Lewin says Anthem has a more extensive network of providers with better negotiated network prices. Cigna is the university’s current health plan administrator.
The trustees also approved the purchase of a new supercomputer. The $4.3 million cluster-type is from Hewlett-Packard and will be named Conte.
It’s designed to help satisfy increased demand for computing capability from researchers dealing with nanotechnology, high-energy physics, and climate simulation, among other things.
The money to buy the system is coming from general fund dollars. However, officials expect to recover approximately $2 million in user fees – most of which will come from grant money.
Purdue softball will have a new stadium to match the baseball team’s new facility. It will be part of the second phase development of the Northwest Athletics site. The $13 million project will include related site work and infrastructure.
The stadium will seat up to 1,000 people, but will be able to expand in order to host NCAA post-season competition. The facility will include a press box, scoreboard, locker-rooms, restrooms, concessions and meeting rooms.