Report: Ex-Purdue Chancellor’s Forced Retirement Bungled

Michael WartellWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A newly released report that Purdue University had fought to keep secret concluded that school officials bungled the forced retirement of Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne’s former chancellor, causing his departure to turn into an “ugly situation.”

Former IPFW Chancellor Michael Wartell was forced to retire in 2011 at age 65 under a mandatory retirement age policy.

Wartell sued Purdue, which oversees the 13,000-student Fort Wayne campus, in federal and Tippecanoe County court in 2013, claiming discrimination and harassment by the university under then-Purdue President France Cordova.

He also alleged that Cordova, who recommended in May 2011 that the school’s trustees let Wartell’s contract expire, had a wish to fill more administrative positions with women.

Wartell was replaced in 2012 by Vicky Carwein, who was 64 when she became chancellor and still holds that post.

A recent settlement of Wartell’s federal lawsuit resulted in the release of a report attorney John Trimble had prepared for Purdue on Wartell’s forced retirement. The university spent more than $150,000 trying to prevent the release of that 2012 report.

A copy of the report released Friday shows Trimble found that Wartell’s allegations of discrimination were unfounded after interviewing Wartell, Cordova, trustees and witnesses, and reviewing nearly 250 pages of evidence.