How did the City react?

[vu72]

I was looking through about 100 pictures posted on Valpo's Flickr page and wondered about how the City of Valparaiso welcomed the fans from other places and what that experience might have been for outsiders?  Thoughts?

Here's the connection to the flickr site--GREAT photos!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valparaiso_university/

[MattCarter]

The sign downtown next to Orville said Welcome Horizon League Fans

I didn't see anything anywhere else "welcoming" fans or notice even "Go Valpo" stuff

It almost seemed like none were aware or cared it was happening, maybe I am wrong

A few of us tried to meet at Figure 8 and it was closed.  They are normally closed Tuesdays, but if I had a brewery I'd be open for 4k plus basketball fans during spring break.  Stacks seemed to benefit as I couldn't get in the door pre game

[agibson]

I didn't hear about banners around town like last year.  A fair bit of basketball coverage in the local papers (maybe especially _after_ the game?), but no "it's good for the local economy" piece like last year.

I've heard a fair amount of talking up of the team, the tournament, etc. around church, around the YMCA, etc.

I heard that local hotels were pretty full.  [Typo corrected!]

[valpotx]

I didn't hear about banners around town like last year.  A fair bit of basketball coverage in the local papers (maybe especially _after_ the game?), but no "it's good for the local economy" piece like last year.

I've heard a fair amount of talking up of the team, the tournament, etc. around church, around the YMCA, etc.

I heard that local hotels were pretty foul.

Pretty foul?  Please explain.  I wasn't sure if you meant full

[milanmiracle]

I guess I am not too surprised by some of the comments here. It just never seemed like the community got behind Valpo University too much, until the Sweet 16 run. Maybe another run and a "better" conference will help sway the community?

[agibson]

I didn't hear about banners around town like last year.  A fair bit of basketball coverage in the local papers (maybe especially _after_ the game?), but no "it's good for the local economy" piece like last year.

I've heard a fair amount of talking up of the team, the tournament, etc. around church, around the YMCA, etc.

I heard that local hotels were pretty foul.

Pretty foul?  Please explain.  I wasn't sure if you meant full

Whoops!  Typo corrected.  I'm sure they were charming, as always.

I heard they were pretty full.

[Kyle321n]

I saw a couple small signs on the shops on Lincolnway, but not too much. Kind of disappointing.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Pretty foul?  Please explain.  I wasn't sure if you meant full

I think he actually meant "fowl", after the incident in the motel on US 30 a number of years ago.  That guy just got arrested again... :/

[agibson]

I think he actually meant "fowl"

I think I saw the headline you're referring to, but decided not to read past that.

I prefer to think of the days when Strongbow rented rooms to travelers (I think that was once the case).

[LaPorteAveApostle]

I envy you.

[crusaderboy]

I envy you

x2

[talksalot]

The banners were up... along Sturdy Road and around the corner... They only made 10-15 of them last year...and we gave one to Commissioner LeCrone... we intentionally did not date them... but they do say "Men's Basketball"

There was a few day delay on getting them put up... the street department does that... and with a significant snow storm and the huge fire downtown tied up the workers for many hours... not enough time for much else

[truth219]

Those are legit reasons. Shoes pizza had go valpo up

[talksalot]

Wendy's congratulated the Valpo Youth Ice Hockey team for winning the State Title...

[a3uge]

Wendy's congratulated the Valpo Youth Ice Hockey team for winning the State Title...

And there's not even an ice rink within a half hour of Valpo!

[vu72]

This report is really sad.  I thought the mayor was a Valpo grad (law)?  Last year the city had banners hanging all over etc.  Someone in the AD's office is responsible for city/area relations (presumably) and if this wasd mishandled it is one thing, but if a full fledged effort was made and this was the result, I would stop buying anything locally.  The University is a MAJOR employer (probably the largest) and as a result its employees buy a LOT of stuff.

[valpotx]

You would think that the restaurants in area would have some sort of message up, as VU students DO spend money there too...

[milanmiracle]

I've never really understood the indifference the community had towards VU. There's nothing negative, but it's just like VU is kind of...there. I lived (notice past tense) in the region for a long time, and I never really got the sense that the community really cared too terribly much about the goings on at VU. Anybody have any insight? The surrounding communities I somewhat understand, but Valparaiso itself?

[vu72]

I've never really understood the indifference the community had towards VU. There's nothing negative, but it's just like VU is kind of...there. I lived (notice past tense) in the region for a long time, and I never really got the sense that the community really cared too terribly much about the goings on at VU. Anybody have any insight? The surrounding communities I somewhat understand, but Valparaiso itself?

Never having lived there I can only guess.  A couple of things: Until Alan Harre, the President always lived in the President's Home on campus.  Harre and now Mark Heckler choose to live in the community although I'm sure it isn't an "average" home!  The probable sense by the community is that Valpo is somewhat of an "elitist" school.  To some, it probably seems closer to Harvard than Indiana.  Obviously this isn't true, but when your neighbors teach physics or electrical engineering there may be somewhat of a disconnect. The other possibility is the Lutheran identity and those not part of this tradition may seem to back away.  Obviously this didn't stop several posters on this board!

It would be interesting to compare attitudes at other small towns with high academic institutions in their midst.  Perhaps 62 could shed some light on this, having spent a great deal of his time in and around such places--as I understand it.

[wh]

I've never really understood the indifference the community had towards VU. There's nothing negative, but it's just like VU is kind of...there. I lived (notice past tense) in the region for a long time, and I never really got the sense that the community really cared too terribly much about the goings on at VU. Anybody have any insight? The surrounding communities I somewhat understand, but Valparaiso itself?

I've never really understood it, and I live here.  I do know that there's a lot of pride in VHS athletics and always has been.  Believe me, if VHS was hosting some high level event the equivalent of the HL Tourney, there would be a "green" explosion everywhere in town - on story marquees and billboards, shop windows, street light banners, special welcome signs, retail promotions and discounts, etc. 

I think the university bears at least some of the responsibility for the lack of interest from city residents.  It's like in the workplace.  If someone is perpetually slow and disengaged, do we perceive them as lazy, or are we willing to consider that we may not have given them the proper motivation to do a good job.  As this relates to the relationship between the university and the town, I don't think VU has ever done an effective job of "motivating" the residency of Valparaiso. 

[StlVUFan]

I've never really understood the indifference the community had towards VU. There's nothing negative, but it's just like VU is kind of...there. I lived (notice past tense) in the region for a long time, and I never really got the sense that the community really cared too terribly much about the goings on at VU. Anybody have any insight? The surrounding communities I somewhat understand, but Valparaiso itself?

I've never really understood it, and I live here.  I do know that there's a lot of pride in VHS athletics and always has been.  Believe me, if VHS was hosting some high level event the equivalent of the HL Tourney, there would be a "green" explosion everywhere in town - on story marquees and billboards, shop windows, street light banners, special welcome signs, retail promotions and discounts, etc. 

Yeah, if this was the 70's, I was one of those in the community who couldn't care less.  VHS was all-in-all for me.  But today?  I don't get it either.  VU is easily as high profile in the nation as VHS is in the state, I would think.

[agibson]

I don't think VU has ever done an effective job of "motivating" the residency of Valparaiso

I'm sure they could do more.  But, I suppose, I can sympathize with them a little if it seems like they're not making an all out push.

When the university wants attendance at events (athletic, musical, artistic, etc.) then the connection with the town and the region makes a lot of sense, and matters a great deal.

And, of course, there's always a natural connection because most of the faculty and staff, and an out-size number of alumni, live here.

And, Valparaiso is one natural constituency for students and, I suppose, for donors.  There are a lot of Lutherans, a lot of people with VU family connections, etc.

But, it's still only a town of 30,000 people.  How many VHS students, for one example, could possibly attend VU in a given year?  In terms of the overall goals of the university, it's just one piece of a regional, national, and international puzzle.  It's surely the most important town of 30,000 people for VU - but it's still just one town.

I'm a little surprised that the community doesn't more naturally engage with VU.  There are some pretty high quality athletic, artistic, and intellectual offerings - usually at pretty reasonable prices.  I'm surprised that events aren't somewhat better attended - even without a big push from the university.  But, then again, it's only a town of 30,000.

That said, there is a significant amount of community engagement.  Obviously, thousands of fans _do_ come out for basketball games.  Thousands come out for Advent Christmas Vespers, and hundreds (sometimes many hundreds) for musical events.  We have consistently good showings (sometimes in the hundreds) from the community for public talks in physics and astronomy, and open house events at the observatory.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

I'm a little surprised that the community doesn't more naturally engage with VU.

Yeah, it's a two-way street; I was always astounded by the number of people in town that had never even been to campus, since I basically grew up there.

But there used to be more town-gown efforts, like the Choral Society, that have been discontinued (or perhaps replaced by other things and I haven't noticed).

The perpetual struggle.  Unless it's a through-and-through college town (Madison, Ann Arbor, Bloomington, S Bend, Tuscaloosa, etc) pretty much everyone is going to be more HS than whatever U in the town.

[humbleopinion]

All through February and early March, I looked for VU coverage in the Times.  Consistently, stories were relegated to page 2 of the sports section -- often with no accompanying photograph.  Only when we reached the tournament championship did the Times  find room on the front page of the sports section.  Local players playing on other Horizon teams garnered featured stories on the front page of the section, but the editors evidently just didn't think that VU merited better coverage.  And I get the Valpo edition of the paper!

Support from the local press is important for growing the fan base.  The Times is further removed from the Vidette-Messenger each year.

[wh]

All through February and early March, I looked for VU coverage in the Times.  Consistently, stories were relegated to page 2 of the sports section -- often with no accompanying photograph.  Only when we reached the tournament championship did the Times  find room on the front page of the sports section.  Local players playing on other Horizon teams garnered featured stories on the front page of the section, but the editors evidently just didn't think that VU merited better coverage.  And I get the Valpo edition of the paper!

Support from the local press is important for growing the fan base.  The Times is further removed from the Vidette-Messenger each year.

Sometime back I mentioned something similar.  One of our newspaper guys (can't remember who) replied that it is not the job of the newspaper to "gen up" support for VU basketball.  That is the University's responsibility.  So, I guess you could say that they placed the story on page 2 because they think it's only of page 2 importance with their local readership.  It's either a sad statement about VU's importance in the community, or the editor is under estimating the community's interest in VU men's basketball.