Lead Story

Renovations of athletic facilities are self-funded, necessary to be prominent

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series on the financial structure of Purdue’s athletic department.

At a time when the academic arm of Purdue is deferring facility renovations and improvements, the athletic department is surging forward with improvements to all of its facilities, culminating in the renovation of Mackey Arena.

Part one of this series iterated the reasons the athletic department is able to do this: It is a separate financial enterprise that shares no money with the academic side of the University. Though in a down economy, the questions appear to be how and why the renovations are taking place now.