In a digital-age fulfillment of its mission as a land-grant college, Purdue University has acquired the for-profit, mainly online Kaplan University. Purdue’s board of trustees voted Thursday on a deal that would make Kaplan a public university, affiliated with Purdue and dedicated to extending educational options to non-traditional adult students.

“Certainly this is a first,” Purdue president Mitch Daniels, former Republican governor of Indiana and director of the White House Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD Thursday. It’s an unusual move for a public university, but not out of character for Purdue—through their “back a boiler” income share agreement, for instance, students receive funding in exchange for a cut of what they earn for a certain number of years after graduation. Looking toward the uncertain future of online education, “We had to do something different,” he said.