President Heckler interview tonight!!

[vu72]

For those of you interested in hearing President Heckler's views on the current state of Valpo, turn into WVUR tonight at 5:30 to hear his interview.  It will be podcast for later listening.

Here is the website:  http://www-ret.valpo.edu/student/wvur/

Others who might find another interview fun and interesting can listen to the podcast of a lengthy interview with JoBe Cerny at the same site.  JoBe is one of Valpo's more famous graduates who was the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy as well as the guy who did the Cheer laundry detergent ads in the 90's.  He is well known throughout the industry and has a well established recording studio in Chicago where he was part of Second City for some time.  Oh, and he was also well known as my roommate for a couple of years at the Phi Psi house!   

[okinawatyphoon]

Thanks for the reminder, 72. I am anxious to hear what he says!

[agibson]

For those of you interested in hearing President Heckler's views on the current state of Valpo, turn into WVUR tonight at 5:30 to hear his interview.  It will be podcast for later listening.

Are they going to webcast, or will I need to look for a radio?

The webcast is normally only for athletics, right?

[vu72]

Don't think it will be webcast as their website says athletics only for webcasts.  Darn, I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow to listen!

[valporun]

There might be a link on the Valpo main page closer to the start of the interview. There is a podcast on WVUR's site talking with ESPN broadcaster/Valpo alum Adam Amin about his trek up the step ladder of the broadcasting world. I heard it a few weeks ago. Definitely worth a listen.

[KL31NY]

The Pres. Heckler interview tonight is on 95.1 FM WVUR and valpo.edu/wvur, start time 5:30 PM CST. Yes, agibson, the webcast is normally reserved for sports, but we also have been putting major interviews such as these live online. So be sure to tune in, and stick around for some Valpo WBB vs. IPFW if you'd like.

I was also going to plug the Amin interview once I saw the topic title, but thanks for it ahead of time valporun. Even as a decent friend of Adam's, I learned some new things about him, especially that little rut he was in post-Valpo. If anyone wants to find it, the Amin podcast is near the bottom of the "Sports" page, naturally.

[78crusader]

Missed the interview. If anyone caught it and would like to provide a summary of the highlights, I'd sure appreciate it.

Paul

[KL31NY]

The interview has been podcasted and you can check the 3-part interview online at valpo.edu/wvur

[78crusader]

Listened to part one of the interview.  Good news is that VU will build a field house on the hospital site.  Surprising news: McIntyre stays.

Paul

[valporun]

78, I did like having a residential area within campus, like McIntyre is. I could honestly see Valpo making that entire street either graduate or married student housing. It could even be housing for senior level undergrads who want something that has space, but isn't an apartment.

The elevated track sounds like a drawback. I'd rather have a full 6-8 lane 200 meter track that Valpo could use for indoor meets for both the university's benefit, and area high schools could host invitationals on it too, another way for the university or the track program to get some extra funding.

[KL31NY]

The elevated track sounds like a drawback. I'd rather have a full 6-8 lane 200 meter track that Valpo could use for indoor meets for both the university's benefit, and area high schools could host invitationals on it too, another way for the university or the track program to get some extra funding.

I haven't listened to the interview myself to know the context, but I agree with you 100%. Our track programs have not routinely had the same caliber facilities and resources as other schools, let alone a true home track for indoor or outdoor meets. A full track would add revenue to the school and maybe some extra pride in being a VU runner.

[valporun]

KL, President Heckler was discussing the fieldhouse concept that would be going into the space where Porter Memorial currently sits. It will be awhile before construction starts because of all the demolition requirements, but rather than an elevated track, like is currently in the ARC, I'd rather have a competitive use track for the track teams to use for practice and competitions, that could also be leased out for area high schools to host track meets on. With the outside income from rental use of the facility for high school track meets, the fieldhouse could see a nice income base that might help pay the bills on the facility quicker, and possibly provide a nice nest egg for future facility upgrades or equipment needs. Heck, with the intramural basketball courts, AAU programs could rent the place during the summer for tournaments with round-robin/play-in rounds having games in both the ARC and the fieldhouse, with the championship games/sessions taking place in the ARC to allow for the "Our team played it's way to playing in the same arena as Bryce Drew played his college games" excitement to come from many of the athletes.

[vu72]

valporun, I like your thinking on the concept and revenue growth opportunities.  There is a local high school here with a six court fieldhouse and elevated track that has been the site of AAU basketball tourneys with over 150 teams present.  That also represents the possibility for additional revenue for local hotels and city.  This type of facility can truly be a joint venture revenue supplier for the University and City.

[crusaderjoe]

I have to qualify my remarks because I listed to part one of the interview only so maybe I am missing something.  But, I have to say that I was disappointed with the President's remarks concerning the plans for the hospital property--not because a fieldhouse is being planned as opposed to a new arena, but because not once during the President's remarks did he state that those athletic improvements were going to be done in order to strengthen VU's athletic teams or to provide its student athletes with adequate places to train in order to remain competitive on a D-I level.  Now that I think about it, I don't recollect him even mentioning the term "student athlete" when talking about the proposed fieldhouse.  Instead, the impression I received was that the focus again was going to be on recreation, intramurals and athletics in general, with an intermixing of the three or even a lean towards recreation and intramurals for the student body as a whole instead of a focus more on varsity University teams.  If true, this is really a FITT mindset part deux (mixing intramurals with varsity athletic improvements), which is a bit ridiculous IMO.

[valporun]

From what I gathered, the fieldhouse would be used by those athletic teams that are not volleyball, basketball, swimming and diving, but could be used by soccer, tennis, baseball, softball, track, and cross country. I mean the first three sports have existing facilities in the ARC, why improve what they are going to call home by putting them in the fieldhouse concept that wouldn't fit what they already have? With recreation and intramurals in the fieldhouse, then intramurals could play basketball and the other indoor competitions over there while there is a men's or women's basketball  or volleyball game at the ARC, and that wouldn't get in the way of practice schedules for those three sports either.

The fieldhouse concept that everyone seems to want isn't the most conceivably smart thing because then we'd have the ARC that would be quite expensive to raze because we have a fieldhouse that would have the same usage concept as the ARC does, the student athletes all trying to fit into the same space as intramurals, only to push intramurals out because of what they need. Other schools have this concept of a separate basketball/volleyball facility from intramurals/track and the other sports, and they know how to work it. It just seems all that most of you on this board want is the fieldhouse to replace the ARC, and have all the amenities to fit what basketball won't consistently fill, which is 10,000 chairback seats with about 1,000 bleacher spaces on both ends for the students.

[valpotx]

It wouldn't be wise for President Heckler to state that they would be building a fieldhouse to solely strengthen D-1 athletics.  If he were to do that, he would be alienating much of the student body that has been asking for a separate space to be able to play intramural sports, when the varsity sports have been taking up much of the more desired court times for years.  Our mission as a university is not to provide the best athletics experience, but rather an overall experience for the student.  Yes, competitive athletics is part of that, but that is achieved in allowing these other sports to have a separate facility in their offseasons to practice away from the ARC.  I believe most fieldhouses have this dual intramural/athletics use, allowing for better usage of the fields/courts.

[crusaderjoe]

It wouldn't be wise for President Heckler to state that they would be building a fieldhouse to solely strengthen D-1 athletics.  If he were to do that, he would be alienating much of the student body that has been asking for a separate space to be able to play intramural sports, when the varsity sports have been taking up much of the more desired court times for years.  Our mission as a university is not to provide the best athletics experience, but rather an overall experience for the student.  Yes, competitive athletics is part of that, but that is achieved in allowing these other sports to have a separate facility in their offseasons to practice away from the ARC.  I believe most fieldhouses have this dual intramural/athletics use, allowing for better usage of the fields/courts.

Whoa, who said anything about building the fieldhouse to solely strengthen athletics?  And who said anything about changing the mission of the university?  Please step back from those points boss--that's not what I was implying.   What I was simply looking for is a change in athletic mindset.  For years, hell, no actually for decades, D-I athletics at VU have been often balled into and lumped in with recreation and intramurals as part and parcel of an overall priority.  That is D-III level thinking.  For once, athletically, I would have liked to have heard about the implementation of a reverse trickledown effect that will take place at VU as it relates to D-I athletics.  That is, when the new fieldhouse is designed and built, it is implemented in such a way that the main mission of the project is to help make VU's athletic teams more competitive, and as part of that process the trickledown effect is that VU students will also have an adequate facility for recreation too.  At Valpo, this athletic mindset is in the reverse.  Trickle down effect instead applies to the University's varsity athletic teams in general.  A reverse trickledown mentality isn't going to change the mission of the university and it's not going to force the University to build the fieldhouse only for its athletic teams.  I mean you do realize that if you build a top quality athletic facility for your varsity athletes to train so that they can be competitive as a priority that by default the overall student body will also have a top facility at their disposal for recreation, right?  Right??? 

[valpotx]

No, that is not completely correct if you want to get technical.  Several schools down here have facilities that can ONLY be utilized by athletes.  This even includes some that have cafeterias solely designated for athletes. 

[crusaderjoe]

Again, I was not implying that the President's remarks should have included a statement to the effect that the fieldhouse was being built for the athlete's use only; rather I was hoping for a change in athletic mindset relative to the purposes of the University's athletic facilities.

[valporun]

No, that is not completely correct if you want to get technical.  Several schools down here have facilities that can ONLY be utilized by athletes.  This even includes some that have cafeterias solely designated for athletes. 

This is probably what it is like at schools like Texas, Kansas, UCLA, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and many others in the big conferences, where they have facilities the students can't use because the donor wants it solely for the athletic team(s) they donated the money for.

[valpotx]

Yes, Texas has such facilities, as well as TCU and Baylor in area.

[FWalum]

Has anyone seen the piece that ESPN did on Nebraska's new basketball facilities?  It was down right sickening that so much money would be spent for this type of non academic activity. Even the toilets have televisions in them with internet access. http://www.thisisnebraska.com/mbb_facilities.php?sport=mbb