Enrollment numbers

[bbtds]

-Someone said "what else can be done to promote STEM?"  I do not think that is the main issue. If the university is making a greater investment in STEM (a great idea), it needs to make hard decisions where not to spend money. Good strategy involves pruning as well as new investment in key areas, otherwise you are likely to not have a revenue stream to support your investment.

It does seem that "Athletics" is a department where hard decisions where NOT to spend money have been made. Unfortunately for recruiting and enrollment I believe most of us feel that has NOT been a wise decision.

[usc4valpo]

The big challenge is figuring out how much cash to place in each bucket to get the most benefit,

[usc4valpo]

Vu84v2 - Baylor is about 30 percent Baptist. 38 percent of the student body are minorities.

[crusader05]

I do think there's also a difference between enrollment numbers being down (which just means that there are not as many students enrolling) and not meeting their target. I don't know if they met it or not but I do know that they said that the wide net strategy was getting them big classes but with retention the numbers dwindled because a percentage of them were just not good fits so the belief was it would be better to have slightly smaller classes that are more likely and able to stay at Valpo.

Last year 60% of universities missed their target goals and I've heard this year is worse so I'd imagine when I heard numbers were down it meant both just down in general as expected and not at the target but I don't know for sure.

[vu84v2]

Vu84v2 - Baylor is about 30 percent Baptist. 38 percent of the student body are minorities.

Interesting...but I think that the following from Baylor's page on Christian Commitment is pretty clear:

During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, prestigious institutions of higher education founded on Christian principles began a relentless retreat from their spiritual heritage. During that time and into the Twenty-first Century, Baylor has remained one of the few to persist in the belief that not only can its Baptist heritage inform a vital approach to life in general, it can also inform the life of the mind specifically.

Baylor continues to hold firm to the conviction that the world needs a preeminent research university that is unambiguously Christian, where such a commitment does not imply a lack of scholarly inquiry, but rather requires scholarship and creative endeavors at the highest levels of quality to complement and inform its teaching and service.

[crusadermoe]

BAYLOR strives to be "Unambiguously Christian.."   Bingo!!   

Valpo seems to be currently quite weak in making that proclamation.   The Baylor statement cites boldly the secular drift that has occurred over the last three centuries plus.  Harvard was founded with explicitly Christian statements.     

As recently as the 1980s and 90s we heard Valparaiso Presidents and leaders say, "Valparaiso is a university under the cross."  Increasingly it seems that Valpo apologizes for that.  And that trend seems to be quickening since the arrival of the current President.  Are we sure that blurring our identity increases applicants and students?

So what is our core identity?   I hear "Faith and Values" sometimes.....Faith in whom or what?....Whose values?  Do we hold Islam equal to Judeo-Christianity even though Islam clearly subordinates other religions by force and denigrates women?  We fool ourselves to blend or equate them.

[VUGrad1314]

Baylor is also going to get left in the dust in the next realignment a clear tier or two lower than the Big XII schools that are lucky enough to escape to the Big 10 or SEC.

[usc4valpo]

When do you think the Big 12 will split? And why would Baylor be left out? Their athletics have been great in the past decade.

Baylor's biggest concern would be if free state tuition is the law in the US. same goes for Valpo and most private schools.

[valpotx]

Why do you feel that any Big 12 schools would leave for the Big 10?  Nebraska was an outlier.

[crusadermoe]

How does commentary on Baylor's athletic conference fit into a thread titled "Enrollment Numbers."?   

We are talking about the strategic plan and mission/identity of Valpo and how that potentially (or not) impacts enrollment.   Baylor is just held up as an example for clarity of mission and its high quality. 

Start another thread for Big 12 conference alignmens ya da ya da etc.

And where do VU enrollment numbers stand to anyone's knowledge?  Heckle should take a bow or otherwise.   

[vu72]

And where do VU enrollment numbers stand to anyone's knowledge?  Heckle should take a bow or otherwise. 

I've been told the freshman class is about 650 and another 150+ transfers in.  This was confirmed by the Times reporter when she wrote


"More than 800 freshman and transfer students and 175 graduate students, some having already attended their first college classes earlier that morning, welcomed the beginning of their Valparaiso University experience in Tuesday afternoon's 91st Annual Opening Convocation at VU's Chapel of the Resurrection."

https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/something-bigger-vu-president-encourages-community-relationships-during-convocation/article_d6790d6a-cc90-5f33-99dd-a2b2cc60970c.html

[vu84v2]

BAYLOR strives to be "Unambiguously Christian.."   Bingo!!   

Valpo seems to be currently quite weak in making that proclamation.   The Baylor statement cites boldly the secular drift that has occurred over the last three centuries plus.  Harvard was founded with explicitly Christian statements.     

As recently as the 1980s and 90s we heard Valparaiso Presidents and leaders say, "Valparaiso is a university under the cross."  Increasingly it seems that Valpo apologizes for that.  And that trend seems to be quickening since the arrival of the current President.  Are we sure that blurring our identity increases applicants and students?

So what is our core identity?   I hear "Faith and Values" sometimes.....Faith in whom or what?....Whose values?  Do we hold Islam equal to Judeo-Christianity even though Islam clearly subordinates other religions by force and denigrates women?  We fool ourselves to blend or equate them.

OK, back to the topic at hand. You seem to embrace "unambiguously Christian". What does that mean? How is a student included if he or she is non-Christian...or are they not welcome? If they are Christian, what if they are not the "right" type of Christian? Who decides what is the right type of Christian (and inherently decides what is not the right type of Christian)?

In regards to Islam, have you ever personally known muslims? Many who make such statements have never had a meaningful conversation, let alone a friendship with a muslim. They just listen to or read their media of choice. My experience with the many muslims that I have had the privilege of knowing is that they have ambitions similar to most Americans and welcome the freedoms and opportunities provided in this country.

[crusader05]

I agree.

When I was a student Valpo's faith life felt very restricted between being Lutheran at the Chapel and Catholic at Saint Ts with little in between.

Now there are numerous faith groups on campus that all work together under a campus ministries umbrella. Where people who are not Lutheran still go to Candlelight and Celebrate.  That, to me, feels like a more warm, inviting and overall Christian environment, than when I was there and Alliance experienced their posters and chalking being destroyed or disfigured and after 9/11 having an open faith service be criticized.

[vu72]

Now there are numerous faith groups on campus that all work together under a campus ministries umbrella. Where people who are not Lutheran still go to Candlelight and Celebrate.  That, to me, feels like a more warm, inviting and overall Christian environment,

I think those who think that some how Valpo has abandoned their faith values, should actually look at Valpo's webpage and explore its faith identity, rather than taking uninformed shots.

Go a head, try it!

https://www.valpo.edu/student-life/faith/

[usc4valpo]

crusadermoe - narrow as it sounds, an athletic conference affiliation may have an effect on enrollment.  And BTW, you started the Baylor discussion.

[crusader05]

Also, you are not going to find a larger national religiously affiliated university that does not make space for inter-faith or no faith activities. Baylor has interfaith prayer times and a Muslim student associations and all of those things. 

[crusadermoe]

Yes, all should be allowed and given every free speech privilege.

But try a clear website statement of where you stand.

And yet I brought up Baylor but in that context.  We are clearly not in their league in athletics/research etc. any more than we are in Notre Dame's.

[crusader05]

What does Baylor do on their website that Valpo doesn't.

[vu84v2]

This is the first message that you get if you click on the link that VU72 posted

FAITH
YOUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY WILL BE ENCOURAGED AND STRENGTHENED NO MATTER YOUR PATH.
As an independent Lutheran institution, faith is in our nature. Whatever your tradition, you will find a caring community that will support you in your spiritual life.

This seems like an appropriate and clear statement of where the university stands.

[vu72]

But try a clear website statement of where you stand.

I asked you to take a look and apparently you chose not to.  Try these statements on for size. 

Our Lutheran Tradition
Universities, like congregations, are continually in the process of realizing their aspirations. Never fully achieved, an institution's expression of its mission and vision capture its core hope and inspire its efforts to meet the challenges and opportunities of the day.

From its inception as a Lutheran university in 1925, Valparaiso University's mission and vision has led it to intentionally and vigorously imbue its students with a sense of vocation that fosters spiritual maturity and significant service in home, job, congregation, community, and the world.

The means through which this life-giving understanding is learned and re-enforced is a rigorous pursuit of academic excellence in an environment that reflects a Lutheran Christian understanding of life, human nature, the church, corporate worship, and the study of the Scripture and theology.

From its Lutheran beginnings, Valparaiso University's grasp of the importance of Christian vocation has been deeply influenced by the dreams and needs of Lutheran clergy and laity and the congregations they serve.

Connection Faith to Life
The distinctive Lutheran character of Valparaiso University is enhanced by the connection of our everyday life to the Christian faith. Many Christians, especially Lutherans, talk about this in terms of "vocation," referring to a variety of worthy paths of life and service in the world, a concept that reaches far beyond "church vocations." Valparaiso University students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators live out across campus and throughout the world this relationship of Christian faith to our daily life. Assisting students to discover and affirm their calling in life is part of the mission of the University community.

As one crosses the campus, several examples of this intersection between faith and life can be discovered. From the engineers designing irrigation systems for remote African villages to nurses exploring elder care, from educators preparing for the classroom to business students assisting local businesses with ethical decisions, from artists preparing for service to the church to worship gatherings, this connection between daily life and faith radiates throughout the campus community.

Our Lutheran Character
Valparaiso University is an independent Lutheran comprehensive university committed to excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Its distinctive heritage, hospitable to the interaction of religious faith and secular learning, provides a solid foundation for an educational community dedicated to serving humanity through the vigorous pursuit of truth and the transmission of knowledge. As a university, we seek to ask humankind's deepest questions with clarity and sharpness and to test answers to those questions by means of research and reason, hypothesis and experiment, imagination and art.

Independent of ecclesiastical control, Valparaiso University maintains close and friendly ties with all the Lutheran churches. Through its various programs and graduates, it supports the efforts of all people to relate to the surrounding culture with a sense of relevance and hope in the face of the culture's ambiguities. On campus, it energizes those activities with the ennobling vision of God's gracious, transforming purpose for the whole creation. Those efforts are nourished by Lutheranism's sense of sacrament: that finite creation and creatures of God can be bearers of God's infinite grace. And those efforts are carried out with a gospel-given sense of freedom to pursue truth and understanding wherever the search may lead. To be a university faithful to the founders' vision, Valparaiso University strives to be a place where fundamental issues are explored from all angles with intellectual rigor, integrity, openness, and respect — a place where faith and learning are held together in lively interaction.

The University's commitments to excellent teaching and learning, to scholarship and service, are informed by the recognition that scholarship, freedom, and faith are ultimately grounded in the gospel's promise of God's unconditioned grace. Likewise, its commitments to justice and to inter-Lutheran, intra-Christian, and interfaith dialogue, in which all members of the University community have an honored part, are shaped by the conviction that all people are equally God's creatures and equally the objects of God's gracious love. Accordingly, the University attracts individuals from all Christian churches and from other religious traditions who are committed to academic excellence and are interested in sympathetic and critical engagement with the Christian intellectual tradition.

The Chapel of the Resurrection at the center of campus symbolizes the University's commitment to sustain a gospel ministry of word and sacrament for the nurturing of faith. Similarly, in an effort to connect faith and life, the University requires all students to engage in intensive study of theology as a part of its general education curriculum so that they have opportunity to reflect on issues of faith and value and to develop a mature and vital understanding of the intersection of Christian thought, faith, and practice. By combining the spirit and methods of the modern university and the perspective and freedom and courage emanating from the Christian tradition, this Lutheran University seeks to produce graduates who are able to bring Christian intellectual and moral life into mutual engagement with the best of contemporary culture and learning, and who thus are able to make their distinctive contribution to humanity.

[NotBryceDrew]

With the recent NWI times article that mentions there being 800 new freshmen and transfer students on campus. That is better then last years 780 number and 50 off the prior years 850 correct? If true we still need acceptance rate and retainment rate but does not seem to be as bad as most of us may have thought.

[vu84v2]

It is hard to tell with just those numbers whether the situation is good or bad. You need to also know what is the average discount rate (which reflects the real price paid by students). Those numbers with a discount rate of 10% would be amazing and with a discount rate of 50% would be awful.

I have no idea on the historic numbers for transfer-in students, but those numbers seem high. I have no problem, of course, if those numbers reflect a new niche that Valpo has found (or if that is just the normal rate).

[78crusader]

VU72 raises good points with his (lengthy) quotes from our website. Not one reference, however, to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.  Hebrews 12:2

Paul

[crusader05]

I don't believe our discount rate has changed so my guess is they are at levels of past years.

I have heard Graduate numbers are up a bit and that Transfers were slightly up while incoming first  years were down so it all seems relatively a wash until we know more about retention from past years.

[vu84v2]

I don't believe our discount rate has changed so my guess is they are at levels of past years.

I have heard Graduate numbers are up a bit and that Transfers were slightly up while incoming first  years were down so it all seems relatively a wash until we know more about retention from past years.

Thank you for the response. The reason that I brought up discount rate is that I have heard of a few private midwestern universities that have dramatically increased their discount rate to keep their attendance numbers, which is obviously not a good sign for those schools. Since they are private, it is difficult to rigorously confirm those discount rates at those schools - but my sources are likely to have a good idea of what is going on.

Great point that you need retention numbers to get the full picture.