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For all the justified complaining on this board about Valpo's outdated basketball facilities, there appears to be very weak support in raising the $12,000 crowdfunding request for ARC basketball facilitiy improvements.  What gives? 

I hope that the wiser and calmer heads at Valpo are looking into alternatives to the sale of significant pieces of the Brauer collection to fund dorm improvements.  Such alternatives could include (1) scaling back the possible improvements to the dorms to the absolute essential fixes thereby reducing the potential cost, (2) selling a partial ownership interest in the art, much like they did for Fisk University's Georgia O'Keeffe's collection, (3) developing an alternate funding scheme not requiring the sale of art such as a short term loan from the recently enlarged endowment to be replenished with a longer term fund raising campaign, (4) raising funds through leases of unused buildings (ie, old law building) and/or land.  I'm sure there are numerous other funding options that could be considered. Senior management at Valpo familiar with the interworking of the University, its supporters and its financial resources should develop more acceptable funding alternatives.

It's a shame that Padilla and the Board did not foresee the negative consequences that a proposed sale of art would create.  After all, this is not the first time a university proposed to do this.  The record of public backlash resulting when such actions have been proposed or implemented has been available for all to see.  Just do a google search for "college art museum sales".  It's greatly disappointing that Padilla's proposal has caused so much negative publicity.  A creative solution could partially mitigate the damage this planned action has caused.

 " The details on Bradley led me to peruse the Bradley U. website and get a sense of how they landed that huge $100 million commitment.  No luck on that front yet."

Probably the reason you can't find reference to $100 million commitment is that the referenced building was $10 million, not $100 million. 

Please try to keep the political labeling out of the discussion.

If you are referring to OP, I believe he passed away in 1975.

Here's some current advice from the medical community for young people:

Young people should get vaccinated to avoid the long-term consequences of Covid-19, the director of the National Institutes of Health said Wednesday,
its"one critical way to prevent long Covid is to prevent Covid itself," NIH director Dr. Francis Collins said at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing. "Even for young people who consider their risk of severe Covid to be low, the long-term consequences can be quite serious. So long Covid represents one more reason to encourage everyone age 16 and over to get vaccinated as quickly as possible."

From An Earlier Comment:  The 18 - 29 age group accounts 0.0037% of all Covid deaths in this country. I will give President Trump credit for operation warp speed, but let's face it, no one really knows whether there will be any long-term negative effects from the vaccine. I believe a valid argument can be made that the potential risks to college-age students getting the vaccine outweigh the potential risk of contracting the virus, which for the vast majority of young people results in mild and transient symptoms.

Another hasty and unnecessary decision by the University.

Response:  Do you know what the longterm effects is of getting Covid and recovering is?  Such an infection has not been studied long enough to determine if there are any long term negative effects, even to a small minority.  Vaccines have been administered and studied for many years including their general mechanisms of action even though the specific ones for Covid may be relatively new.  I would rather go with the preponderance of the medical community that proclaims them worth the risk rather than an outlier group that raises doubt but with little or no credible evidence.  And by the way, President Trump had little or no significant contribution to the speed of vaccine development that has been substantiated by anything credible that I have heard about.  Give credit to the scientists and researchers (many non-US) where credit is due.

Here's one for consideration - the Valpo tundra thunder!  All the old timers remember and braved the tundra.  "Thunder" pays homage to Valpo's great meteorology academics and alumni (and nasty weather).  Just a thought.

This probably should be posted elsewhere but it seems there are a lot of interested readers and posters regarding the Mascot name brouhaha here.  So now the fun begins, finding a new name.  I was recently in Amarillo, Texas and heard a news story about their baseball team - the sod poodles!  Below is a link on how they arrived at that name for their minor league baseball team:

https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/its-official-amarillos-new-minor-league-baseball-team-name-is-the-sod-poodles/

It's quite entertaining.  Why can't Valpo have a fun Mascot name?  Does it have to be so serious?  Anyway,  I hope the process of finding a name will be light hearted and fun.  It's interesting reading about some of the proposed names. 

There really is no benefit to politicize the decision the university made to retire the crusader mascot.  Too many of today's critical issues are politicized to the detriment of appreciating others views.  That is the current problem with much of today's discourse where complicated subjects are simplified to either right or left (conservative or liberal) thinking.  For example complex issues such as environmental protection, energy use, health care, or economic disparity have been overly politicized making finding solutions more difficult.

I don't see retiring a term that some people find distasteful as a right or left issue.  What ever happened to the simple act of respecting the feelings of others even if you personally don't feel the same or understand why they find it objectionable?  Name changes happen all the time.  One of the previous posts here listed numerous sports team/mascot name changes. It doesn't have to be viewed as a right or left issue.

I can't understand why some commenters in this forum take such a dark view of the University and the recent decision to retire the crusader mascot and moniker.  The university has been able to conduct in person classes during the Covid pandemic when many education institutions went completely online and thus lost the value of on-campus activities.  I would contend that this has not been a small accomplishment for Valpo.  Furthermore, the university has raised over $250 million in endowment and operating funds that will enhance the future sustainability of the university. The university's physical plant is in the best shape it has been in since I graduated from Valpo in the 1970's with modern and refurbished facilities for most critical functions such as library, union, science, arts, religion, business, nursing, engineering, marketing/recruiting, some housing and the vacant law buildings waiting for repurposing.  Yes, there are still needed areas for physical improvements in areas such as athletics, some academics and more modern housing.  New academic programs have been added and undersubscribed programs trimmed.  Academic achievements of individual students seem to be as prevalent as ever and I sense that Valpo's academic reputation is as strong as ever. 

The school must adjust to the times and moving away from a minor aspect of its identity (a mascot and nickname) that some people find offensive doesn't bother me considering all the other positive aspects of the university's accomplishments and mission.  The university, as do most colleges, has plenty of challenges to recruit new students so removing characterizations that some people find offensive (no matter how justified) probably makes good sense.

I never got that excited either way for or against the crusader mascot.  In the survey, I suggested that they stress the positive aspects of crusading for something such as truth, justice or some worthwhile cause and get rid of the goofy looking image.  Obviously, there are those that see it as a negative symbol.  If some hate groups use the term for their newsletter, that's just the more reason to find something else.  Those that mention that they will withdraw their support for the university because of this decision, I would think that their support is based on a weak justification.  There are many more positive attributes of the university and its mission that will live on and are worthy of support.  Such a change in the mascot is really low on the scale of priorities.

I can't help but to think that continuing to look may ultimately be the best for Valpo.  Obviously the search team felt so.  All those who have input into the decision (selection committee, head hunters, board of directors, faculty, administration, students and staff) will have a better understanding of the possible candidates that are available, their strengths as well as their weaknesses.  I would expect that their expectations of the candidates will be sharpened and become more realistic.  The perfect candidate that meets everyone's expectations is probably not out there, let alone willing to apply.  So it will be a matter of finding the strongest candidate that currently can meet the most critical job requirements or can quickly adapt to them.  Maybe the current virus crisis has focused the job requirements in a slightly different direction than was originally spelled out.  Don't know this for certain but just speculating.  Nevertheless, I can't see that looking more is a negative situation, it just means the selection committee needs to do more work to find the most ideal candidate currently available.

Very impressive improvement over the previous web site campus tour.  Really shows off the up-to-date physical plant that covers most of the campus and also includes energetic shots of students.   I hope it will have much success in Valpo's improved recruitment efforts.  Great job.

Unfortunately, on paper at least, the three institutions currently employing the three gentlemen interviewing for the Valpo president's position are not terribly impressive.  I would hope that Valpo's future president would have experience at an institution to which Valpo would aspire to emulate.  I don't see this as the case.  While all three institutions are solid, they appear to be "middle of the road" academically and in reputation.  Obviously the search team and professional recruiting firm see valuable attributes in the three candidates brought forward and hopefully a clear winning candidate will emerge from the selection process. I just don't see us saying "wow, let's hire that person because the college where they have worked has many impressive characteristics that Valpo could adopt". 

Does anyone know who the second and third candidates are?  The second candidate should be interviewing today and tomorrow.  Inquiring minds want to know!

Was anything said during Homecoming regarding the campaign and the latest total raised?  It seems like the amount has been stuck on $218 million for a long time.  I would have expected an updated total to be posted around Homecoming time and perhaps some news. The PR efforts of Valpo to generate enthusiasm and buzz are anemic (at least from my perspective.)  Yes, the President is going to retire but the University still has to function and friends and alumni are interested in the future plans and vision of the University.  The news feed is anemic.

While closing the law school was a bitter pill to swallow and a blow to VU's reputation, I believe that it was the right thing to do.  Small law schools without stellar credentials are struggling as evidenced by other school closures.  Somewhere I saw a list of the significant salaries some of the law professors were getting and it is not hard to believe that the VU school was not making money and maybe even had to be subsidized.  The fate of the law school was was no doubt extensively reviewed by the Board Of Directors and the decision was ultimately theirs.  I have confidence in their decision making ability in this situation.  Times change and VU needs to adapt.  This is a case where VU moved on to focus their energy and limited resources in educational areas that are needed and where they can hopefully be successful against their competition.  I agree with others on this forum that feel STEM subjects should be further enhanced.

Was there an update on this campaign given at Homecoming?  It seems that all the air has been let out of the campaign.  The Forever Valpo webpages haven't been updated in a very long time and I haven't seen any news of significant donations.  What's happening?  The lack of information is somewhat discouraging.

Here's a detailed accounting of the Law School situation published in March.  I don't think this was brought to the attention of members of this forum.

https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/46463-valpo-deans-resignation-latest-of-troubled-law-schools-woes

Here's MTSU's announcement from their university web site.  Pretty much the same information as above.  Hopefully, if this goes through VU will get something positive in addition to removing what apparently was a financially struggling program.  I would imagine that there are numerous Valpo alumni that will be sorry to see the Law School go.

http://mtsunews.com/mtsu-valparaiso-law-school-talks/

Look at some of the postings re: Proud to be Valpo.  Here's the exact quote:

There has been great momentum behind Forever Valpo: The Campaign for Our Future since its launch. Thanks to the support of Valpo donors, Forever Valpo has raised nearly $180 million! Take a look back at the video that kicked off The Campaign. https://t.co/KLJk3I91le

The latest news indicates that they have raised nearly 180 million.  This information was in one of the Proud to be Valpo postings.  Curious as to how much the Proud to be Valpo day brought in.  As I remember from last year, the University is somewhat slow to publish the results.  Don't know all that is involved in coming up with the total.

From this article in the August 13, 2017 Post Tribune, it sounds like the natatorium will be at Valparaiso High School.

"Heavilin Elementary School, at 2450 Heavilin Road, is $17 million. The school corporation's other eight elementary schools, as well as Valparaiso High School,
are in various phases of expansion and renovation.

The work at Cooks Corners and Memorial schools will be complete by Christmas, Frataccia said, with the remainder of the elementary schools done by July 2018.

The high school will nearly be complete by July 2018, with work starting on a new natatorium there in the spring and likely complete for the 2019-2020 school year, he said."

If you want to see where Valpo's programs and the university as a whole compares to other Lutheran colleges and universities, check out this web site:

best-lutheran-colleges.com/