From Tri-State to Indiana's Third World University?

The Other Trine: 9,123 Graduate Students, Millions Spent on Recruiting — and Questions Indiana Deserves Answered

ANGOLA, Ind. — Most Hoosiers know Trine University, formerly “Tri-State” as a small private university in northeast Indiana, with an attractive Angola campus, engineering programs, business and accounting, athletics and tri-state roots stretching back to 1884.

But federal higher-education records reveal another side of Trine that deserves considerably more public attention.

The U.S. Department of Education maintains a separate IPEDS reporting entity called Trine University-Regional/Non-Traditional Campuses. Federal enrollment data associated with that operation show something remarkable: 9,123 graduate students and 745 undergraduates in 2024-25.

Just three years earlier, the regional/nontraditional operation reported only 984 graduate students. Wow what an increase...that's not normal is it? That means graduate enrollment increased more than ninefold in three years.

Even more striking is who makes up much of this enormous graduate population of students from outside the three states it first started its mission educating.

In the preceding federal reporting period, 7,657 of 7,786 graduate students were classified as nonresident aliens — approximately 98.3 percent.

There is nothing inherently improper about educating international students. American universities have welcomed them for generations, and international education can benefit students, universities and the communities surrounding them.

But when a relatively small Indiana university develops a graduate operation of this size and composition in only a few years, Hoosiers are entitled to ask a simple question: What exactly is going on at Trine?

From 984 Graduate Students to More Than 9,000

The speed of the growth is difficult to ignore.

Federal-derived enrollment data show 194 graduate students in Trine's expanded regional/nontraditional operation in 2015-16. That increased to 342, then 343, 349, 468 and 707 over subsequent years.

By 2021-22, there were 984. Then something changed dramatically. Graduate enrollment jumped to 3,874 in 2022-23, then 7,786 in 2023-24 and finally 9,123 in 2024-25.

That's not ordinary university growth. It is an institutional transformation.

Trine's own numbers confirm the larger international expansion. For fall 2025, the university reported 13,661 students overall, including 8,442 graduate students. Trine says 88 percent of students in its College of Graduate and Professional Studies are international.

Trine has openly celebrated its enrollment boom. In 2024, President Earl D. Brooks II said the university continued to “shatter enrollment records.”

It certainly has. The question is how those records were shattered — and what role outside international recruiters played in making it happen.

Follow the Recruiting Money

That question leads to Gurukul Overseas Inc.

n investigation by LayoffHedge, citing Trine University's federal Form 990 tax filings, reports that Trine paid Gurukul Overseas approximately $1.17 million for recruitment in fiscal 2022, $7.06 million in fiscal 2023 and $7.96 million in fiscal 2025.

If those Form 990 figures are accurately characterized, the three years alone amount to approximately: $16.2 million. That is a staggering amount of recruiting money for an institution that most Indiana residents probably still think of primarily as a small university in Angola.

The payments themselves do not establish anything improper. Universities routinely spend money recruiting students.

But $16 million deserves an explanation.

What services did Trine receive for that money?

Was Gurukul paid a flat fee, commissions based on enrollment or some other compensation?

How many students did Gurukul recruit?

How much was effectively paid per enrolled student?

What percentage of Trine's international graduate population came through Gurukul?

Who negotiated and approved the contracts?

And what oversight does Trine's Board of Trustees exercise over international recruiting expenditures of this magnitude?

Those aren't accusations. They're basic questions. And lastly, will these students vote?

The Vishnu Undyala Question

There is another relationship requiring explanation.

Trine University's own September 2024 press release identifies Vishnu Undyala as its “director of international graduate student recruitment.”

Meanwhile, the LayoffHedge investigation reports that Trine's approved international recruiting-agent materials identified Gurukul Overseas as an India recruiting agency and listed Undyala as its contact.

Gurukul's relationship with Trine isn't merely historical. Trine's own international graduate application system displays Gurukul Overseas, and Trine has identified Gurukul as a sponsor of its International Night events, including in 2026.

That does not establish misconduct or a prohibited conflict of interest.

Current Florida corporate records for Gurukul Overseas Inc. identify Rupa Cheruku as president and Kavitha Tatikonda and Sravanthi Kortha as directors. Undyala is not listed among the company's officers or directors in that record.

But the overlapping relationships still warrant straightforward answers.

What exactly is Undyala's employment relationship with Trine?

What was or is his relationship with Gurukul?

Was he simultaneously acting for Trine and serving as the recruiting company's contact?

If so, how was that arrangement structured and supervised?

And did Undyala have any role in negotiating, recommending, administering or approving Trine's contracts or payments involving Gurukul?

Again, there may be perfectly reasonable answers.

Trine should provide them.

Where Did $16 Million Appear?

Another allegation circulating about Trine requires more caution.

LayoffHedge says the Gurukul payments aren't separately identified by name in years of Trine's audited financial statements.

That does not establish concealment.

Audited financial statements ordinarily group expenditures into accounting categories. They aren't check registers listing every company receiving university money. A large payment can therefore be properly accounted for without the vendor's name appearing in the published financial statements.

The important question isn't whether the words “Gurukul Overseas” appeared in an audit.

The question is whether every payment was properly classified, reported and disclosed wherever federal tax law, nonprofit law, accounting standards and Trine's own governance policies required it.

Trine could resolve that question quickly by explaining how the recruiting expenditures were accounted for and by making the relevant contracts available.

Transparency would be far more persuasive than speculation from either Trine's defenders or its critics.

Trine's Finances Were Growing Too

The enrollment explosion coincided with extraordinary financial growth.

IRS-derived nonprofit records show Trine reported approximately $211.6 million in revenue in fiscal 2024, compared with about $151 million in expenses.

That left approximately $60.7 million more revenue than expenses.

Program-service revenue accounted for approximately $193.5 million, or more than 91 percent of Trine's total revenue.

And the growth continued.

For fiscal 2025, Trine reported approximately $232.8 million in revenue, $159.4 million in expenses and roughly $73.4 million in excess revenue over expenses.

Those aren't the financial numbers most Hoosiers would associate with a sleepy little private university in Angola.

Trine has become a very substantial enterprise. Its transparency should grow along with it.

This Isn't Simply an Online-University Story

There is another important detail.

Federal-derived data indicate that among the 9,123 graduate students in the regional/nontraditional operation during 2024-25, only about 440 were exclusively distance-education students.

About 8,273 took some but not all courses through distance education, while another 410 weren't enrolled in distance education.

That makes this substantially different from a university simply signing up thousands of people overseas for online degrees.

Trine operates education centers outside Angola, including facilities serving international graduate students. Its Detroit Education Center alone was serving nearly 5,200 students when Trine announced its expansion in September 2024.

That brings the federal student-visa system into the discussion.

The Immigration Question Cannot Be Ignored

International students legally studying in the United States commonly attend universities under F-1 student visas, and schools participating in that system maintain student information through the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.

Trine itself has advertised university positions involving F-1 compliance and SEVIS responsibilities.

Again, that is normal for a university enrolling international students.

But there is nothing normal about graduate enrollment increasing from fewer than 1,000 students to more than 9,000 in three years.

When an institution's graduate operation becomes overwhelmingly international, immigration compliance, educational quality and student outcomes become central questions rather than administrative footnotes.

How many of these students are physically studying in the United States?

How many are participating in Curricular Practical Training or Optional Practical Training?

How much classroom instruction must they attend in person?

What percentage graduate?

What percentage leave Trine before completing their degrees?

Where are the regional students actually living?

What are their employment outcomes?

How frequently does Trine audit its recruiting agents?

What safeguards prevent recruiters from making representations about visas, employment or immigration benefits that Trine itself wouldn't make?

And, perhaps most importantly, is the driving purpose of this extraordinary expansion primarily education — or enrollment? Or a money grab? What is the real agenda?

That is a fair question for any university experiencing growth on this scale.

Trine Should Open the Books

Nothing uncovered by the Hoosier Enquirer establishes immigration fraud, accounting misconduct or illegal recruiting by Trine University, Gurukul Overseas, Vishnu Undyala or Trine's international students.

Those distinctions matter.

But avoiding unsupported accusations does not mean avoiding difficult questions.

The documented numbers themselves demand scrutiny.

A regional/nontraditional university operation went from 984 graduate students to 9,123 in three years.

Its graduate enrollment was overwhelmingly classified as nonresident in the federal data.

Trine itself says 88 percent of its College of Graduate and Professional Studies population is international.

An outside investigation, citing Trine's federal tax filings, reports approximately $16.2 million in recruiting payments to Gurukul Overseas across three fiscal years.

Trine publicly identifies Vishnu Undyala as its director of international graduate student recruitment, while the investigation says he also appeared as Gurukul's contact in university recruiting-agent materials.

Meanwhile, Trine's annual revenue has climbed above $230 million.

Perhaps Trine has good answers for all of this.

If so, the university should provide them.

HE believes Trine should disclose its contracts with Gurukul and other major international recruiting agencies; explain how recruiters are compensated; disclose how many students each major agent has recruited; explain Undyala's relationship with Gurukul; provide international graduate retention and completion rates; explain its oversight of recruiters; and disclose how much tuition revenue is generated by its international graduate programs.

Trine should also explain why its regional/nontraditional operation is separately identified in federal higher-education reporting and help students, alumni and the Indiana public understand how that operation relates financially and academically to the university they know in Angola.

International students aren't the problem. International education isn't the problem. Growth isn't the problem.

The issue is whether extraordinary growth, millions of dollars in recruiting expenditures and an overwhelmingly international graduate operation have been accompanied by extraordinary transparency.

So far, the numbers have grown much faster than the public's understanding of them.

Trine has built something enormous.

Now Trine should explain how it works, why and how many foreign students is enough?