WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP/WDRB) -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels will become the next president of Purdue University when he leaves office in January.
Purdue University officials introduced Daniels as the school's new leader Thursday following a vote by the board of trustees.
The 63-year-old Daniels will succeed France Cordova. She is stepping down next month after five years at Purdue's helm.
Daniels has served two terms as governor and is barred by state law from seeking a third term.
The former budget director under President George W. Bush had been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate but dashed GOP hopes last year when he said he wouldn't enter the race because of family considerations. He has also been suggested as a running mate for presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney but said repeatedly he wasn't interested.
Daniels said Thursday, "I have not made a life in the academy, but I have spent my life reading, admiring, and attempting to learn from those who do. I am not a scholar in the sciences, but I am as avid a student of their advances as a lay person can be, and have taken every step I could think of to elevate the scientific disciplines in the eyes of our citizens and in the educational paths of our young people."
He continued, "I am troubled but persuaded by the many who assert that American higher education is now challenged to modernize its traditional practices and to reconfirm its value to students and society. Perhaps Purdue, a premier community of problem-solvers, can lead in this transition and the innovations that will shape it."
Purdue Board of Trustees Chairman Keith Krach said in a news release, "Gov. Mitch Daniels will continue to raise the global profile of Purdue. He's committed to the success of our land-grant institution, he's an advocate for economic progress through innovative research and he's made Indiana the state to watch for the last several years."
Daniels said Thursday that his first priority would be to learn from the faculty and earn their trust. He said he wants to collaborate with them to further Purdue's research and education missions.
"No institution of any kind means more to Indiana today or tomorrow as Purdue University. It educates at the highest level the engineers, scientists, agricultural experts and information technologists on whom our state and national success disproportionately depend," Daniels said.
He continued, "Its research gives rise to the innovative new goods, services and companies on which American and Hoosier prosperity must be built. I can conceive of no other assignment in which a person has the chance to contribute more to building the kind of Indiana of which we dream."
