Board of Trustees meet for the first time in 2012

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - It was a busy week for Purdue's board of trustees.
    
The board worked on filling the University's top job and approved renovations to the student fitness and wellness center.

The Purdue Research Foundation said its annual spending for research has doubled to $600 million since 2007, saying this is an effort to to increase economic development for the state of Indiana and increase revenue for Purdue.

Purdue's Information Technology Department is trying to increase its revenue for the university. IT Vice President, Gerry McCartney, announced to the board new plans to add Navistar,  a truck design company, to Purdue's cluster, or computer system.

"We just this week were able to sign a deal with them. we'll start with providing them with high performance computing services to support their Lyle office in Illinois," McCartney.

The board approved landscaping renovations for the Co-Rec. Including a new 400 space parking lot where the current baseball field is located. The board gave the nod to spend $500,000 to renovate the interior of the student fitness and wellness center.  That sum is part of the 98-million budgeted for Co-Rec improvements.
Chairman of the board, Keith Krach said all renovations will be well worth the cost in the long run for Purdue and its students.

"It's mind, body, and spirit when it comes to education. But it's also going to be a great recruiting tool when we go after the best students we could possibly find here at Purdue," said Krach.