When first-year student Ana Reyes Osorio heads to class at Purdue in Indianapolis, she’s paying close attention to the doors she enters through.
Many of the buildings where she attends class have two — one labeled Indiana University, the other Purdue University.
During orientation one student leader issued her a warning — always go through the Purdue doors, or else you won’t graduate.
“There’s tons of people, and everyone’s funneling through one set of doors because I think we’re just really stubborn,” Osorio, 19, told Mirror Indy. “Most of these facilities aren’t ours, but I think we just claim it, which is the funniest part.”
These types of superstitions are part of the culture on many college campuses. But in some ways, this hesitation to touch the IU doors is symbolic of how the IUPUI split is continuing to affect students at Purdue in Indianapolis and IU Indianapolis, even for first-years.
Formerly IUPUI, the two colleges split in 2024 to become Indiana University Indianapolis and Purdue University in Indianapolis. IU kept most of the students, academic programs and buildings in the split. Meanwhile, Purdue took the engineering and computer science programs and leased space in some buildings from IU to hold classes.
Since 2024, Purdue has expanded by adding new academic programs, including in construction, hospitality and business. Interim Purdue President Mitch Daniels told media in July that the university should double its Indianapolis student population by 2031.
Purdue’s first new building in Indianapolis — a combination of classrooms, housing and student leisure space the university is calling the Academic Success Building — is scheduled to open next spring. There are plans for a second new building in the works. Over the last two years, Purdue’s also been acquiring properties on and around Indiana Avenue, near where it’s building up its new campus.
But though much has changed, IU and Purdue still functionally share a campus, and for many students, the remnants of divorce are still everywhere.
The Indy name game
When IU first-year student Nada Abbar toured IU Indianapolis, she knew she wanted to go to school there.
“I was like, ‘This is the type of campus I want to be on,’” Abbar, 19, said. “It has the amenities. It has everything nice, clean, organized. I can tell that the professors are as good as the school looks.”
But when Abbar went to apply, she got all the way through the application process and was accepted to the University of Indianapolis on the south side before realizing it wasn’t the college she’d toured. (The University of Indianapolis is suing IU, citing name confusion.)
Add Purdue and IUPUI into the mix, and it was even more confusing. While Abbar eventually figured out that IU Indianapolis and IUPUI were the same school, it took a good amount of Internet sleuthing.
“Everyone needs to change their name immediately, by tomorrow,” Abbar said.
For Khushi Shah, another IU first-year, those confusions were a bit easier to navigate. She’d come to campus many times over the years, for dance and for her summer research program. So when the split occurred, she picked up on what was happening.
“I knew that there was some tensions going on with Purdue, and it was just easier to have it as a split campus,” Shah said.
Now, though, as a student, she’s actually enjoying the perks of the double campus life. Shah’s studying biomedical sciences, and she’s gotten to meet people from both Purdue’s engineering program and IU’s medicine departments.
She also lives in the same dorm as many of the Purdue students, and they eat meals in the same area.
“It’s been good,” she said. “We talk about our different campus lives.”
Purdue students still adjusting
For Purdue senior Luke Meyer, the aftereffects of the split are “still unpleasant.”
Meyer, a computer science major, had just finished his first year at then-IUPUI when the two schools split. Originally from Greensburg, about an hour southeast of Indianapolis, he came to IUPUI because it was “cheap and got me what I needed.”
Get the backstory
But when the split happened, Meyer’s college experience changed in ways he didn’t expect.
While Purdue technically kept IUPUI’s computer science program in the split, IU also created its own computer science program and hired many former IUPUI professors. For Meyer, that meant he wasn’t able to take classes with his favorite professor anymore, who joined IU Indianapolis.
Plus, he spent much of the last two years trying to access the Purdue Wi-Fi network. He finally figured it out, in time for his last semester of college.
“That was really unfortunate,” he said.
Despite the unconventional setup, new Purdue students like Osorio are making it work.
Originally from northern Virginia, Osorio came to Indianapolis because of Purdue’s motorsports engineering program. She’s excited to eventually start taking classes close to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — where the program is headquartered — thanks to Purdue’s partnership with race car manufacturer Dallara.
As for the downtown campus, Osorio said she’s noticed Purdue making a real effort to grow its footprint, especially with the impending completion of the Academic Success Building next year.
“They’re really working on making their own presence,” she said.
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Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, at 317-759-0249 or on most social media @clairerafford.
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