With Indiana hemorrhaging revenue during the Great Recession, Gov. Mitch Daniels targeted higher education to help fill the gap — including nearly $30 million in state cuts at Purdue University, the Associated Press reports. On Thursday, trustees there unanimously approved him as the school’s 12th president. Students, faculty members and legislators wondered how the governor would transition to a new job with such starkly different duties — particularly considering he still has six months left in his old one. Daniels said it will involve a lot of listening. The former White House budget director and Eli Lilly executive has a Princeton bachelor’s degree and Georgetown law degree but virtually no experience working in academia.
“I don’t even know what I don’t know yet. All I know is there’s a lot I don’t know,” he told about 100 students at an afternoon gathering on campus…