Records show Purdue spent $150K fighting release of report

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) – Documents released by Purdue University show it spent more than $150,000 fighting to keep secret a report on the forced retirement of Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne’s former chancellor.

The Journal Gazette reports that records released Tuesday show Purdue spent about $19,000 to prepare its report on Michael Wartell, but it then cost the school more than $153,000 over 18 months fighting to keep it from the public, the media and Wartell’s attorneys.

Purdue released the documents nearly six months after The Journal Gazette requested information on how much Purdue spent fighting the report’s disclosure.

The documents were released within 24 hours of a court filing showing Purdue and Wartell have settled his federal lawsuit over his forced retirement in 2011 at age 65. That settlement’s terms have not been disclosed.