Enrollment numbers

[vu84v2]

VUSupport: I have no idea on the validity of your comments - and thus have no way to trust you, but will offer two points from my own experiences (at another university):

-Becoming recognized as an HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) is an unrealistic goal, as the goal is 25% of FTEs (Full Time Equivalents). The university that I am at is far better positioned than Valpo to achieve this and did set this HSI goal a number of years ago, but realized after several years that it was not achievable. The good thing is that it morphed into having programs that increase the likelihood of success for students from underrepresented groups (including Hispanics), as well as first generation college students and students from other higher risk groups. An important point here is that a university needs to invest in programs (additional classes, etc.) to increase the likelihood of success for underrepresented students. My university brings many of these students in over the summer before their Freshman year to focus on areas where they may struggle. This has increased non-White student enrollment and retention, and is a direction far more likely to succeed for a school like Valpo than an unrealistic HSI goal. Note, recommending that Valpo not pursue HSI does not mean that it shouldn't have specific recruitment initiatives for Hispanic students (or students from any other underrepresented groups).
-The error by many private universities on recruitment is that they try to sell the same university focused story to everyone. That dog does not hunt. For a majority of prospective students, you need to sell the college associated with their interests. This means that EVERY prospective student and his or her family are in the building for that college, meeting with faculty and students. The discussion needs to be catered, as much as possible, to each student's interests. If someone is interested in nursing, someone from nursing talks about specific aspects of the program and outcomes of the nursing program, and is able to answer questions on the spot. The college (not just the university) then follows up with all prospective students. Same thing for political science, finance, engineering, etc., etc. You do everything you can to justify why the investment of cost and time is worth it. If Valpo does not do this consistently well across all of its colleges. then it will lose enrollment because (I can tell you firsthand) its stronger competitors are doing this.

[VUSupport]

VU84, Valpo was in good hands a couple of years ago with Stacy Miller and Andrea Welch,  it Valpo failed to retain them. Welch has now made miraculous strides at the institution she's at with achieving enrollment goals and retention. Padilla could have had her, but his arrogance and hiring a familiar friend has been a negative to the success of the university.

Like I said earlier I can go on more, but why waste my energy when it will fall on deaf ears. I've been in many campuses as an administrator but VU has been the most dysfunctional

[vu84v2]

Andrea Welch was at Valpo from mid-2017 to mid-2020, so measures that would be indicative of her performance would be new Freshman and overall undergraduate enrollment for Fall 2018, Fall 2019 and Fall 2020.

Fall 2018: 715 new Freshman, Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 3220.
Fall 2019: 685 new Freshman, Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 3011
Fall 2020: 589 new Freshman, Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 2737

I do not know Andrea, but hope that she is doing well at Hiram. However, while there may be other factors that influence enrollment (including COVID in 2020), this cannot be considered exemplary performance.

Results after she left:
Fall 2021: 563 new Freshman, Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 2522
Fall 2022: 552 new Freshman, Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 2355

This, of course, does not exhibit exemplary performance either. My belief, as I stated in other posts, is that the strategy has been wrong for a long time - that there needs to bre much more emphasis on the quality of each of the colleges combined with much greater engagement between prospective students, their families, and faculty in the college in which they are interested.

[crusader05]

Also Padilla didn't become president until spring of 2021 so not sure how he could have retained her?

[VUSupport]

Welch was in the Retention role before Padilla. She left and when Brian left, Dr Andrea's name was suggested for Padilla to reach out to her because majority of administration and faculty told him. Unfortunately he did not take the advice of A LOT of people already on campus. The strides she made in retention and strategies for that and enrollment were going to make waves but once again Padilla had his own agenda. I'll go in more detail through personal message if you want more. If not, I'm done with this subject because I prefer not to get into a pissing contest

[vu84v2]

She was at Chicago State and, frankly, almost no one gets hired from Chicago State. It is one of the worst performing universities, on basically any metric, in the country. She did make a good move to get out of there.

[VUSupport]

And guess what? Enrollment and net tuition was up at Chicago State when she was there, just like it is at Hiram. Just sayin'

[vu84v2]

She was at Chicago State for one year and three months. Not enough time to really judge performance since any improved metics could easily be idiosyncratic (and Chicago State has historically been so poor that any attention could show improvement). I have nothing against this person - she may well be great at what she does. You're just not providing compelling arguments.

[VUSupport]

2 places she's been at with higher enrollment classes from previous years and higher net tuition isn't a coincidence. Once again I'm not going to get in a pissing contest, but facts are facts. Bart Harvey ain't going to cut it, and neither is Padilla's friend hire. When Ray Brown was at VU, he was grooming Welch. Just ask upper administration about Welch and they'll all tell you the same thing, she pulled people together, had great plans and had amazing traction in retention. Like I said Valpo dropped the ball I'm not bringing her back.

Lastly when they have articles about her in Higher Ed publications touting her as the next rising star in Enrollment, it's just embarrassment to VU. Good luck

[Pgmado]

2 places she's been at with higher enrollment classes from previous years and higher net tuition isn't a coincidence. Once again I'm not going to get in a pissing contest, but facts are facts. Bart Harvey ain't going to cut it, and neither is Padilla's friend hire. When Ray Brown was at VU, he was grooming Welch. Just ask upper administration about Welch and they'll all tell you the same thing, she pulled people together, had great plans and had amazing traction in retention. Like I said Valpo dropped the ball I'm not bringing her back.

Lastly when they have articles about her in Higher Ed publications touting her as the next rising star in Enrollment, it's just embarrassment to VU. Good luck

Just curious, who is Padilla's friend hire?

[VUSupport]

22 maybe your so called view is marred from where your head is up?

[crusader05]

 Support, that seems unnecessarily antagonistic to '22 when you're the one coming in here basically acting like the only way the university can succeed is if they hire this one specific person.

You say you don't want a pissing match but you seem to want to be able to just accuse others and than demand we only engage with your privately when someone at all tries to clarify or challenge your position

[vu72]

OK, VUSupport, so Padilla didn't bring your sister back to campus.  Get over it. There appear to be some very highly respected folks in these roles now. Let's all see how they do.

[valpo95]

Just curious, who is Padilla's friend hire?

Was it Brian O'Rourke?

https://www.valpo.edu/news/?type=post&site=239&id=12323

[NotBryceDrew]

Leaving as there is a new person onboarding for his role

[vu72]

I found this interesting.  A new student announcement:

https://www.pharostribune.com/news/image_202eac9c-ffd3-11ed-aeca-bf2034181f80.html

So with the published cost of attendance at $62,714 and this young lady getting $51,395 in awards, that still makes her net cost $11,319 for probably a valedictorian or other top notch student.  That is scary, to be sure.

[David81]

I found this interesting.  A new student announcement:

https://www.pharostribune.com/news/image_202eac9c-ffd3-11ed-aeca-bf2034181f80.html

So with the published cost of attendance at $62,714 and this young lady getting $51,395 in awards, that still makes her net cost $11,319 for probably a valedictorian or other top notch student.  That is scary, to be sure.

It's why we need to reverse engineer how places like VU -- and I say "places like VU" because VU is hardly alone in this dimension -- went from being relatively affordable back in the day to a point where someone getting $51k in scholarship money must still generate $11k to make it work.

Private non-profit universities do not have to share their deep budget information beyond what it required in the annual non-profit IRS filings, but it sure would be interesting to trace budgets over the past 40 or so years.

P.S. Isn't it odd that news articles touting an outstanding high school student's college plans are running exact financial aid numbers like this? I don't recall that being the case a generation or two ago.

[crusadermoe]

OMG.  Yes, the finances of private higher education are so hard to comprehend and certainly hard to endorse. Rather than trying to slice and dice any of the rising expense issues even though those deserve scrutiny, I point the finger squarely at the parents who enable or encourage huge debt as well and moreso government policy which gives $27,000 in eligible loans over 4 years to an 18-year-old.  The best prospect for a big net tuition chunk is a dumb parent who wants to brag that his kid got into private school X.

As for parents, you can't fix stupid.  Sadly the kids are too young to know that they essentially spending a later inheritance by virtue of the parents spending over $20,000 per year.  The parents are in essence spending their kids' money.  A student can can easily attend a competitive state school (if his school work deserves it) and work just a few years with $20,000 a year in help.  It sounds like a stellar student from Logansport (and/or parents) will pay $11,000.  And of course huge portions of the $50,000 in "scholarships" are just discounts on the VU side.  Crazy.

In terms of government policy, one can debate fairly whether a capable and independent-minded 18 year old without parents cable of helping should be allowed to borrow $27,000 through federal programs.  In a few exceptional cases of high-achieving poor kids you are enabling the true and inspiring "American dream" and dozens of wealthy universities will throw a full ride to you. 

But TWO SCANCALS emanate from current government student loan policy. Student loan defaults are now borne by taxpayers. The college bears no risk in the loan default.  It all goes to you the taxpayer. 

The second part REALLY grates on me. Through a sneaky part of the ObamaCare health care bill. the government is allowed to guarantee all of the default loans.  Loans are now 10% of the U.S. economy. This guarantor role gives politicians precisely the power that Biden is trying to excercise; political bribery.  It woudl be great if politicians were ethical in these decisions as well as in the social security ponzi scheme. 

I am VERY glad to see that the Senate passed a bill with 3 democratic senators votes that stops the Loan Forgiveness bill forgiving $10,000 and again billing the taxpayer. BUT Biden is predicted to veto that bill.  That is a constitutional crisis on congressional powers of the purse and a supreme court decision. Taxpayers' rights are held in the balance until the ruling this month. Particularly scandalous is having workers without college bear the guarantor role ON TOP of paying state income taxes that subsidize their public universities. It's tragically unfair to those people 

Thank you to Joe Manchin, Kristin Synema and Jon Tester.  I find the first two credible senators credible since they blocked the Dems effort to eliminate the filibuster. Ben Franklin said that people get the government they deserve. It's pretty obvious that former Pres. Obama is still puppeteering the White House to transform this country and more aggressively now than he felt able in 2008-2016.  He has enthusiastic backing from the massive Blackrock private equity group which is over 50% funded by the Chinese.  Sadly our non-degreed workers in the economy are now a minority and are being fleeced beyond anything you could imagine. The younger ones will have no social security.

[vu72]

Moe, come on man. Whatever thread we go to you manage to try to turn it into your personal political diatribe.  I've taken your bait more than once but no more.  We are teetering on the edge of having the administrator axe the entire conversation based on his ban on political bantering.

[crusadermoe]

Fair enough. Went too far and I see the moderator point esp. in naming politicians and parties.

All on the board probably already agree that that the easy loans are enabling the cost increases.  Nuff said.

[valpo64]

What about "ENROLLMENT NUMBERS"?  Or have I missed something?

[David81]

Student loans started to dramatically rise and essentially replace grant & scholarship aid as the primary form of financial aid in the early 1980s, and that train has not stopped. This is also when tuition levels started to climb steadily. In the meantime, private lenders and others with skin in the private student loan money pot blocked efforts to allow hopelessly indebted former students and parents (who took out loans to subsidize college for their kids) to discharge their loans in bankruptcy, unlike any other form of major debt.

Does this impact who enrolls at Valparaiso? Definitely. Does it help to explain why some Gen Zers are royally PO'd towards the generations that created this state of affairs? Yup. Will this be easily fixed? Nope, not when it took us over 40 years to get here.

That said, VU is not an outlier when it comes to its tuition & expenses compared to peer schools. Marketing and outreach remain key to bringing in bigger incoming classes.

[crusadermoe]

Yes, thank you, David81.  I know my rant was way too long about the student loan scenario and correlation to Federal govt screwing later generations and all taxpayers generally in how it spends and won't extend social security.

But indeed student loans are fully linked to enrollment trending. 

Aesop wrote many fables. Of course we have all heard the tale of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. I think universities have counted on golden eggs (student loans) and ridden the gravy train upward in tuition stickers too far. They killed the golden goose that was enabling.  As you say, younger grads buried themselves and are resentful. But they blame others when their parents and selves signed what they signed.  I think it is sick that colleges sent to my kids "aid packages" that grouped loans with grants as though the university itself was giving money to them and encouraging them to subtract that loan.  Soft parents didn't want to disappoint them.

[David81]

Yes, thank you, David81.  I know my rant was way too long about the student loan scenario and correlation to Federal govt screwing later generations and all taxpayers generally in how it spends and won't extend social security.

But indeed student loans are fully linked to enrollment trending. 

Aesop wrote many fables. Of course we have all heard the tale of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. I think universities have counted on golden eggs (student loans) and ridden the gravy train upward in tuition stickers too far. They killed the golden goose that was enabling.  As you say, younger grads buried themselves and are resentful. But they blame others when their parents and selves signed what they signed.  I think it is sick that colleges sent to my kids "aid packages" that grouped loans with grants as though the university itself was giving money to them and encouraging them to subtract that loan.  Soft parents didn't want to disappoint them.

One thing I'd love to see is a hard ceiling on how much money someone can borrow to attend an institution of higher education.

Some would claim that it's a call for reducing access to higher ed, but I'd say it's exactly what you were referring to, crusadermoe, about the universities and the student loan gravy train. Cap what students and their parents can borrow, and suddenly schools cannot keep pumping up their tuition.

[vu84v2]

A small, but very important part of enrollment is international students - since a majority of them (unlike US students) pay the full listed price for tuition, room, board, etc. I am not looking to get into a political argument, but a range of things made US universities on the whole less attractive for international students. My suggestion for universities like Valpo is to strategically seek ways to reverse this (by strategic, I mean targeting students from certain regions...for example, focusing on students from Latin/South America could pair well with other university initiatives).