Jeannie (P’61) and Jim Chaney, the Purdue College of Pharmacy’s most generous donors, have made history by pledging $6 million and funding the first-ever termed deanship at the University.

Matt Folk, vice president for university advancement and alumni engagement and president and CEO of the Purdue for Life Foundation, updated the Purdue Board of Trustees on fundraising for the fiscal year ending June 30. Giving to Purdue has already hit an all-time high of $533.1 million.

The Purdue Board of Trustees announced its unanimous election of Mung Chiang, currently the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering and executive vice president for strategic initiatives at Purdue, as the University’s next president. Chiang will replace current president Mitch Daniels effective Jan. 1, 2023. Daniels has served since January 2013.

Thanks to an unexpected bequest of $8.5 million from fellow faculty member John Capaldi, Philip Low, Purdue University’s Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has funding to support more than 40 years’ worth of cancer research.

The ninth annual Purdue Day of Giving, held April 27, invited donors to power the university’s next giant leap—and they responded with a resounding $68.2 million in contributions, far outstripping last year’s total and setting a record for most dollars raised for higher education through a single-day campaign.