Heckler to Retire: New President Search

[crusadermoe]

Indeed your post was well reasoned and well written.  You pinpoint the strategic conundrums for Valpo in being a small to mid-size school but also a true university trying to overlay an honors college and exceptional liberal arts classes. 

The financial deficit constraints and the reality of high tuition discounting in the midwest market add the truly challenging layer.  The only way to advance such a unique place and its balancing act is to raise huge amounts of money.  Not impossible, but a tall order.     

[vu72]

Weird stuff is going on at the University.  Now Julie McGraw, the former Vice President for Student Life is out and and Interim Vice President has been named by the Interim Provost. Soon Valpo will have more Interims than the Trump Administration.

http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_f069742c-1535-11eb-a2bf-4381e09803e1.html

[valpotx]

With any leadership change, there is bound to be some shuffling around.  My CEO retires at the end of this year, and though the new CEO is coming from within SiriusXM + Pandora, there will obviously be realignment as the new CEO views best for the business long-term.

[David81]

Weird stuff is going on at the University.  Now Julie McGraw, the former Vice President for Student Life is out and and Interim Vice President has been named by the Interim Provost. Soon Valpo will have more Interims than the Trump Administration.

http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_f069742c-1535-11eb-a2bf-4381e09803e1.html

The Torch article you linked certainly suggests that her departure was not in the normal course of things. The departure of any senior administrator during an ongoing academic year is unusual. Out of curiosity, I checked online and saw that she had just arrived last year, so maybe the job wasn't a good fit.

That said, part of the new normal for the current higher ed environment is that folks are making decisions outside of their typical cycle. It can be unsettling. For all the valid complaints about how hidebound academe can be, that quality goes along with their resilience and continuity. The pandemic is certainly turning out to be a disruptor that keeps giving.

[crusadermoe]

Statistics continue to flood into stories in the WSJ and elsewhere.   Most are saying that gradual problems in the higher education industry suddenly accelerated and we won't be going back to normal again.

It's a sad day for those of us who enjoyed a full residential experience in our college years and wish all kids could receive it who seek it.  But at this point, the vaccine is the only rescuing factor and it will move slowly as people stay wary of the crowds that make college fun.  Only major money boosts from gifts will help colleges provide that rare environment (if they are not wealthy flagship universities are very well endowed private schools.)   Valpo stands at that apex and hopefully can get through it.