Heckler to Retire: New President Search

[FieldGoodie05]

I realize there are many other concerns besides athletics but is hiring someone with a D3 background really wise when we're trying to establish ourselves in the MVC?

It would make perfect sense that the Valpo board would hire someone with a D3 background as president. This Valpo board just doesn't consider Athletics as very important. It's a minor affliction put on Valpo by Dick Koenig back in the 70's.

We all have a natural tilt towards thinking of the next VU president in terms of athletics....

But I'd question why athletics even comes into play while hiring for that position?  At best it should be deciding factor "25" when breaking a tie.

[crusadermoe]

Typically, athletics would not be in a Top 5 or 10.  But Valpo's national identity is related closely to its basketball achievements.  Yeah, there are many VU programs that are impressive in their niche audiences or regional ones.  But basketball is easily the first thought in people's minds when they hear of Valparaiso.

So I think it is a top 10 issue for interviewing our president nominees.

[bbtds]

Typically, athletics would not be in a Top 5 or 10.  But Valpo's national identity is related closely to its basketball achievements.  Yeah, there are many VU programs that are impressive in their niche audiences or regional ones.  But basketball is easily the first thought in people's minds when they hear of Valparaiso.

So I think it is a top 10 issue for interviewing our president nominees.

If the Valpo board of directors wanted it to be. They do not.

How many schools have been in a position where a school the size of Valpo in a mid-major conference has been to a Sweet Sixteen or higher? How many are known as a basketball school? Not that many.

Yet Valpo's board pretty much rejected the notion that it is known as a basketball school. Valpo, by the board of directors vision, is only an academic school.

[crusadermoe]

Yeah, I think this topic has been bantered around a lot over the last 20 years.  If we had cut corners and hired a Bob Huggans type or something then I would have opted not to leverage it. But the squeaky clean and likable Drew family was the face of the school.   But the ship has sailed as you say.  But they do show the shot every single year in NCAA promos.

Of the three interviewees, I honestly would put my Vegas money on the board selecting Mr. Van Aken. He has a well-rounded resume and a prior Presidency.  The honors college young guy lacks administrative track record and Mr. Farney (who I like) probably does not have the faculty contact history to lead us.   

Thankfully, Troy Aikman...(er Von Aken) also seems to be the one of the three with some college-level athletics leadership in his background.  Honestly, that's a coincidence but a happy one.

[loschwitz]

Here is the Torch article on VanAken's meeting with students.

http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_2504f644-5825-11ea-a86c-db7362b7eafb.html

[Just Sayin]

Here is the Torch article on VanAken's meeting with students.

http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_2504f644-5825-11ea-a86c-db7362b7eafb.html

It's sad where higher education is headed. 

[bbtds]

Here is the Torch article on VanAken's meeting with students.

http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_2504f644-5825-11ea-a86c-db7362b7eafb.html

VanAken has not only served as Elmhurst's president, but also president of Thiel College as well as serving as Athletic Director, Vice President of Finance and Management, Assistant Vice President for Informational Technology and numerous other roles at various schools.

Interesting, Van Aken happen to be an Athletic Director at one of his employee stops. I wonder what that would mean for Mark LaBarbera if Van Aken were chosen as Valpo president. Very interesting!

[VUGrad1314]

Typically, athletics would not be in a Top 5 or 10.  But Valpo's national identity is related closely to its basketball achievements.  Yeah, there are many VU programs that are impressive in their niche audiences or regional ones.  But basketball is easily the first thought in people's minds when they hear of Valparaiso. So I think it is a top 10 issue for interviewing our president nominees.

If the Valpo board of directors wanted it to be. They do not. How many schools have been in a position where a school the size of Valpo in a mid-major conference has been to a Sweet Sixteen or higher? How many are known as a basketball school? Not that many. Yet Valpo's board pretty much rejected the notion that it is known as a basketball school. Valpo, by the board of directors vision, is only an academic school.

Can we vote out these crusty old board members with no vision for the future and get a more energetic group that knows what's up and values athletics as the important marketing tool that it is? Or is that something we have to hope happens as time passes and more pro athletics people are elevated to board positions.

[bbtds]

Can we vote out these crusty old board members with no vision for the future and get a more energetic group that knows what's up and values athletics as the important marketing tool that it is? Or is that something we have to hope happens as time passes and more pro athletics people are elevated to board positions.

The answer is simply "no." It would be up to the new president of Valpo to convince them it's the way to go but in the end the new president might just talk and convince his/her way out of a job.

You see the same view from many posters on this message board. When someone brings up the point that it's reality that Valpo is known as a basketball school the answer is that Athletics at Valpo is not important enough to be considered the determining factor for what type of school Valpo is. We've all seen that answer in posts on this message board many times when we dare to say Valpo is a basketball school.

"Oh, no, it's not"

They just can't get themselves to think that way and it's not something Henry Baker Brown or the Lutherans, who took over Valparaiso University, ever envisioned for this school. It takes a real paradigm shift for many to see it for what it really truly is.

And now come the responses from those who don't believe Valpo is a basketball school.

[VUGrad1314]

I just hate that athletics and academics are seen to have this adversarial relationship. It doesn't have to be that way. And when I say Valpo is a basketball school I mean it in the same way that I would say great universities like Georgetown Davidson Creighton Butler Dayton Xavier Gonzaga St Mary's  Harvard Yale Penn and Princeton Indiana Purdue Kansas are basketball schools. When I say "basketball school" I'm not trying to disparage their academics in any way. I am saying that "basketball" is their front porch, their main marketing tool to the world, the way to get people to learn about how great the academics are. That's the way athletics should be viewed: as a tool to attract students as an investment in their quality of life that of the university as a whole by making it a more vibrant place that's not all study all the time. Nobody's life should be that way. College life should be fun. College life should be enjoyed. And sports are a great way to do that. I'll tell you right now: I had my pick of great schools to go to but I picked Valpo for 3 reasons: 1. It's a small and intimate environment and I wanted a support system 2. The academics are really strong and I knew I would be challenged and get a well-respected degree and 3 (which was as important to me as #2) I wanted good academics AND GOOD ATHLETICS. I wanted to be entertained. I wanted to watch my team have success on the national stage. I wanted to have something to be proud of and to make memories with related to my university experience that endured well beyond my time there. Without athletics-- the quality basketball program especially-- I would have quickly lost touch with the university and many alumni. When I talk to alumni now do you know what we talk about?  Sports. Especially Basketball. The state of the program. The future of the program. The MVC as a whole and mid major basketball. THEN we might touch on the goings on around campus like the new programs that are being added and the old ones going away that I mostly only learn about because of this forum even though I live really close to the university. What is this forum primarily geared towards? You guessed it: ATHLETICS ESPECIALLY BASKETBALL. I'm a Crusader and I always will be but Crusader Athletics namely basketball is a huge reason why that is and why my connection to my school continues to be as strong as it is. To me, athletics but especially basketball and the Valpo experience are one and the same. They cannot be separated. To be a Valpo student is to love and care about basketball. I know I can't be the only alum who feels this way.

[bbtds]

I'm a Crusader and I always will be but Crusader Athletics namely basketball is a huge reason why that is and why my connection to my school continues to be as strong as it is. To me, athletics but especially basketball and the Valpo experience are one and the same. They cannot be separated. To be a Valpo student is to love and care about basketball. I know I can't be the only alum who feels this way.

I would say you are definitely NOT the only Valpo alum  that feels this way but I do believe you are in a minority. Your statement, "To be a Valpo student is to love and care about basketball" is NOT true for the majority of Valpo students and alumni. If it were true the student section would be overflowing every game except on rare occasions. We, the Athletics fanatics want it to be that way but ask your average student at Valpo. It simply is NOT true. It will take another spectacular run to the Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight/Final Four to reengage most of the student body and majority of alumni to back to MBB.

[usc4valpo]

It's too bad the school does not care about basketball after what it has done for the school. In general, if you ask the people about Valparaiso, they will birng up basketball more often than the church choir.

And you can be very successful in academic and athletics - look at Stanford and USC as examples as they excel in both in pretty much all academic and athletic programs.

[crusadermoe]

The Torch article is very poorly written. 

Paragraph 6 describes VanAken's "...self claiming of love for students...."  Paragraph 7 obviously was not edited.  Had it been edited, the editor would have changed "retention" to another word when it was first used.  Perhaps grammar should be mastered before a student "self claims" authority to correct our societal attitudes. 

But at least the top presidential choice criterion was settled.  Troy passed that litmus test by dressing in drag at a prior college. 

[vu84v2]

crusadermoe - I think he said that he attended an event. Good points, however, about the quality of the writing (or lack thereof) in that article.

To some other posts here, I am again going to ask what you would like the University President (and perhaps the Board) to do differently regarding the basketball program. You make some passionate pleas, but I don't get what you actually want them to do. Do you want them to attend basketball games and speak publicly about the value of the program? My guess is that they do this to varying degrees, but could do more. Do you want them to provide more funding? If so, you need to state what that money is for and where that money comes from (this is not the Federal Government - you actually need to balance your budget and be financially sustainable for the future). The plan of record (as best as I can surmise) is a plan to incrementally enhance the ARC over a fairly long period. Does this need to be accelerated and, again, where does that money come from?

Additionally, if you state that the basketball program is a top priority - are you stating that it is a higher priority than: renovations in the College of Business building that is woefully outdated, addressing the lack of space for the College of Nursing, adding facilities common for the growing Health Sciences programs (my understanding is that they just added a cadaver lab), adding Occupational Therapy and then eventually Physical Therapy (this is my understanding of the plan), updating dorms that have not changed much since the 1980s, etc. it is easy to make comments that the board or President need to do something, but that job is really hard because you need to make hard choices. I love Valpo basketball and want them to do well, but if I were sitting in the President's chair it would be hard for me to fund it more aggressively than what seems to be the current plan.

[valpotx]

Like it or not, Gen-Z is all about raising the flag if diversity & inclusion is not a top priority at your school or company.  I can't tell you how many times at our Town Hall meetings (SiriusXM + Pandora) we have someone stand up to ask when our executive leadership will be more inclusive, or 'look like me.'

[Just Sayin]

Like it or not, Gen-Z is all about raising the flag if diversity & inclusion is not a top priority at your school or company.  I can't tell you how many times at our Town Hall meetings (SiriusXM + Pandora) we have someone stand up to ask when our executive leadership will be more inclusive, or 'look like me.'

Madness.

[usc4valpo]

Vu84v2 - the ARC is outdated also. Valpo is getting diluted in what it provides - remove programs that are lacking or not as significant in the long term.

[usc4valpo]

Vu84v2 - the ARC is outdated also. Valpo is getting diluted in what it provides - remove programs that are lacking or not as significant in the long term.

[vu72]

Here's n article from The Torch on the financial state of the University as presented to the Counsel by Susan Scroggins.  It doesn't scream out "MORE FUNDING FOR BASKETBALL".  More likely it screams..."HELP".

http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_fd78a548-5460-11ea-9974-ef3972147944.html

[FWalum]

We talk a lot about how a winning basketball program would positively affect the university in general, well it seems that someone at VU has actually been studying this phenomenon.

https://twitter.com/KinesiologyVu/status/1233406820523413512

Would be interesting to hear and read about their conclusions and how it's methods and processes might be applied.  Hopefully the conclusion was in the positive.

[vu84v2]

I expanded the picture and read the abstract. There is no significant relationship, other than a mild correlation between success with an NCAA tournament appearance and the number of new student applications shortly thereafter.

[valpotx]

Jamie Gutowski earned a PhD?

[VUGrad1314]

I expanded the picture and read the abstract. There is no significant relationship, other than a mild correlation between success with an NCAA tournament appearance and the number of new student applications shortly thereafter.

Well duh... It's not the APPEARANCE that matters It's WINNING. You need to WIN and go on a RUN IN THE TOURNAMENT to realize the benefits. Getting there and getting pounded in the first round does nothing. If that was her research and if that's the depth she went into (only looking at APPEARANCES and not WINS) then this research is worthless data and a waste of time. But keep sticking your thumb in the eye of athletics That's really going to make me want to give to the university guys. Good job.

[VUGrad1314]

Here's n article from The Torch on the financial state of the University as presented to the Counsel by Susan Scroggins.  It doesn't scream out "MORE FUNDING FOR BASKETBALL".  More likely it screams..."HELP". http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_fd78a548-5460-11ea-9974-ef3972147944.html

We're screwed if we don't make at least a sweet 16 run in the next few years aren't we? Forget about the $250million endowment goal we need to continue that drive in perpetuity.

[valpotx]

It doesn't sound like that would be the case, as we've been operating off a $30m loss each year for a few years.  I assume that the endowment drive was to counter the expected $40 to $45m loss.  Does anyone have any information tied to the early 2000s, and if we operated with similar numbers?