The line has been drawn down Michigan Street on the west side of downtown Indianapolis.
On one side, there’s an Indiana University Indianapolis sign; on the other, a large “PURDUE” sign in gold lettering.
It’s a visual representation of the IUPUI split. Last July, IU Indianapolis and Purdue University in Indianapolis separated into two institutions after more than 50 years together.
For most IU students, the split was largely background noise. IU Indianapolis kept nearly all the students, the buildings and the logo in the separation.
“It honestly didn’t really affect me,” one IU Indy student told Mirror Indy.
Purdue students, on the other hand, had to adjust to new Purdue systems, professors and resources. Last year’s first-year students showed up on move-in day to a campus that consisted of buildings leased from IU with Purdue signs on the outside.
“But what are you gonna do?” a student at Purdue in Indy said. “I think IU owns the campus.”
In the past year, Purdue broke ground on its first new building, which will have dorms, classrooms, labs and community space.
New this fall is an official Purdue student center, located in former office space on Indiana Avenue.
Now, the university has big goals to enroll 15,000 students and have 16 buildings in Indianapolis over the next 50 years.
And, while IU doesn’t face the same challenge of building up a campus from scratch, officials have been working to create a new identity for IU Indianapolis since the split. The university’s planning some new construction of its own, including a STEM classroom building, a biosciences lab and a new sports arena.
Mirror Indy went on campus and spoke to 10 Purdue and IU Indianapolis students shortly after classes began to see how the last year had gone and how students are feeling about starting the second school year following the split.
Here’s what some of them said:
Kaleb Bacztub
Kaleb Bacztub wanted to go to Purdue because of its reputation, but IUPUI offered him more scholarship money.
So, when IUPUI announced the two universities were going to separate, Bacztub, 19, told Mirror Indy he “saw it as a positive.”
But the IUPUI split caused some challenges, especially with his class schedule.
Because Bacztub is working to complete both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cybersecurity in four years, he needs to take a specific set of classes each semester to graduate on time. But some of the classes he needed were no longer offered because of the split.
He ended up having to take some of his classes at Ivy Tech and some online classes through Purdue Global, now available to him as a Purdue student.
Bacztub, now in his third year, found the constant hype around the IUPUI split to be a distraction from his main goal — completing college.
“No matter what happens, we are going to get a degree,” Bacztub said, “Logistically, behind the scenes, things can change, but we’re going to get a piece of paper at the end of the day.”
Hiba Soomro
Hiba Soomro saw the IUPUI split as an opportunity to expand her horizons.
She’s part of a small program — biomedical engineering — and also commutes to campus. Last year, when the new freshmen turned up on campus, she was excited to meet new people.
“It’s more exciting to see new faces,” Soomro, a junior, said.
In line with that passion, she’s excited to get more involved on the Indy campus this year. Soomro, 20, has plans to volunteer at Purdue’s audiology lab near campus at 16 Tech and join the Biomedical Engineering Society, which has students from both campuses.
And to set the tone for the year, Soomro signed up to be a leader for Boiler Gold Rush in Indy, Purdue’s orientation program.
“I think that really helped a lot,” she said, “to feel more like part of the community at Purdue.”
Cyrus Gonzalez
Cyrus Gonzalez, a first-year at Purdue in Indianapolis, chose the school because of its motorsports engineering major.
“I’ve always liked cars,” Gonzalez said, “and I’ve always liked to work with my hands.”
But Gonzalez, 18, had barely heard about IUPUI before arriving on campus from Madison, Wisconsin, in mid-August. When he rolled up for orientation, he was surprised to see students in IU T-shirts milling around. He has an IU student ID card — for the dining hall — and an IU email.
“I kind of thought it was like a smaller campus,” the 18-year-old said. “But by the time I got here, I learned that we basically shared more than half the buildings with IU Indianapolis.”
Still, this unconventional arrangement doesn’t bother Gonzalez.
His dorm, North Hall, houses both IU and Purdue students. Outside on the quads, he’s joined pickup volleyball games only to discover that he’s playing with a group of students from IU.
“There’s definitely that collaboration where they work together for those group activities,” Gonzalez said. “There’s no ‘just Purdue’ or ‘just IU Indianapolis.’”
Trey Jones
Trey Jones, a first-year at IU Indy, was vaguely aware of IUPUI as a high school student. But he didn’t have much information about how or why the split was happening.
Being on campus now, Jones said he still doesn’t know much about it, aside from it being “a messy divorce that’s still going on,” though Purdue and IU officials have both said the split is amicable.
But that doesn’t make much difference to him. An Indy native, he chose the city campus because of its proximity to local companies where he could find internships.
Jones, 18, is excited about a new program that emerged out of IU Indy’s efforts to establish itself as a career-focused university, called Business Plus. The program connects IU business students with internships at local companies.
And, the program starts as early as freshman year. Jones already submitted his resume, and if he’s accepted, will get to start interning as soon as next semester.
“I thought that was a really nice opportunity,” he said.
Annalise Hernandez
Like many IU students, Annalise Hernandez barely noticed when the split happened last year.
The 20-year-old senior commutes from Pendleton, so she’s only on campus a couple days a week. All of her classes were in the same buildings as always, and she didn’t venture over to the Purdue side much.
“It honestly didn’t really affect me,” Hernandez said.
Kehinde Oyewole
After two years, Kehinde Oyewole thought she’d finally gotten the hang of college.
Then, the split became official last fall, and it caused all sorts of issues she hadn’t anticipated.
Some of her credits didn’t transfer from IUPUI to Purdue, so she was faced with having to push back her graduation date. There were issues with her financial aid. And, her counselor was in West Lafayette.
“I was expecting it,” said Oyewole, now a 21-year-old Purdue senior, “but when it actually happened, it was kind of rough.”
A year later, though, things are looking up. Oyewole’s on track to graduate with her degree in mechanical engineering next December. She has an internship with a local company, and she’s excited to finish her last few semesters of college.
“I’m making the best of it,” she said.
Alex Brackee
Coming out of the military, Alex Brackee came to Purdue in Indianapolis last fall trying to adjust.
That turned out to be harder than he thought, with Purdue as much in transition as he was.
Brackee, 25, generally knew how to navigate campus. But he felt for first-years who were getting an unconventional college experience.
“It’s a little awkward, especially for brand-new students who are expecting to go to Purdue, and they show up and they need an IU everything,” the Purdue junior said. “But what are you gonna do? I think IU owns the campus.”
In his role as a teaching assistant, Brackee’s noticed another split side effect — there are now more freshmen and sophomores than juniors and seniors, who had previously attended IUPUI.
Fall 2025 enrollment data hasn’t been published yet, but in 2024, nearly a third of undergraduate students in Indianapolis were first-years, according to Purdue data.
Though that’s a win for Purdue, Brackee said it’s posed some challenges for professors. He said it’s been hard for them to find enough juniors and seniors to be teaching assistants for entry-level classes.
“The infrastructure is not quite there yet,” Brackee said.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, on most social media @clairerafford or on Signal 317-759-0429.
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