Valpo Strategic Plan

[valpofb16]

That donation is above my pay grade but someone with a pulse could have advised money needed elsewhere

[wh]

From U.S.News & World Report - Two negative student reviews that match up in part with current needs the university is attempting to address:

University in death spiral
7 days ago
LewisSouth Bend
They are cutting a lot of programs and staff because the enrollment is falling. This is despite the acceptance rate being 90+% and the university letting in anybody who can mostly read and do addition. It is very bad, and there is little sense of campus community. Go to a better university.
No, I would not recommend this school to a friend

Was this review helpful to you?
   0   0
Flag this review

DO NOT ATTEND THIS UNIVERSITY
4 months ago
MadelineIndiana
I have had an awful experience at this university, and I would not recommend it to anyone. I have regretted my decision to attend since my first day here. Some explanation: - VU does not care about student safety whatsoever. Anyone with a OneCard is allowed access to ANY dorm on campus. You do not have to swipe to get onto your floor. There are no cameras. This has resulted in crimes that occur in the dorms (voyeurism, theft, etc.) going completely unresolved and continuing to occur with no action or concern taken by the administration. - There is no social life on campus. If you are looking for fun parties, good bar life, etc. DO NOT come here. You won't find it. - There is hardly anything to do in the town. There are good restaurants, a farmer's market, and an ice rink. That is pretty much it. - Classes are not challenging, despite this school continuously claiming to be Ivy League level. What a joke. Since the acceptance rate is in the 90s, the academic standard is extremely low. - The dorms are extremely old and tiny. My bed freshman year was quite literally a pullout couch. Sewage leaked into my room. Things broke constantly. The only positive thing I can say is that the janitorial and maintenance staff were very kind. However, they only cleaned the bathrooms once a week. The university requires students to live on-campus for at least three years to make more money to make up for their declining student population. - The food is horrendous. I am constantly finding hair in my food. I've also found a bee. They only have two options for breakfast almost every single day, which are eggs or yogurt. The food for lunch and dinner is equally inedible. Also, there is only one dining hall and it closes for two hours in the middle of the day which is extremely inconvenient at times. The university also forces on-campus students to buy the most expensive meal plan for the first two years. And they wonder why retention is the lowest it's been in a decade.
No, I would not recommend this school to a friend

[valpopal]

I mentioned in a post three weeks ago that Pres. Padilla strategically had made a mistake in news articles and elsewhere by pitting himself against Richard Brauer and John Ruff, two of the "most beloved and revered" figures on campus. As I said then, in public relations "Padilla will come up short every time." Anyone who now continues that path of discussion by blaming the messengers will also find themselves on the losing end of any argument. Before this issue was public—even as late as the faculty meeting with Padilla on Feb. 15—instead of alienating these two, as well as the newly-hired museum director and most of the campus community, there were various opportunities for attempts at amending the split caused by this decision and working toward a different direction through cooperation and compromise. For some reason, Padilla repeatedly chose confrontation.


Now the NY Times article has been out 48 hours, and I have yet to see a response from Padilla or a conciliatory gesture from the administration. The first rule of public relations is to "be proactive and get out ahead of a story" if possible. As I mentioned here previously, everyone involved knew for weeks this article was coming. The NY Times reporter had been on campus asking questions and gathering information, even obtaining quotes from Padilla's spokesperson. Unfortunately, my understanding is that this is not the end of the line. If the narrative continues without a change in direction, there will be further public relations problems that cannot be avoided.


If you do not get in front of the story, the second rule is to "reply immediately in an amicable manner." A third rule is to "be transparent," which also has been violated. Rule four is to "be prepared for social media backlash." A fifth rule is to "get everyone on board" with compromise. The most important rule is "stop the crisis before it happens and not to cause one."


Nevertheless, as I noted in a past post to 62, I m still hoping this messy process will lead to a compromise solution that could be viewed as a positive outcome and eventually gain some good publicity. My thought and wish is Padilla could be seen as heroic in such a situation. We will see.   

[crusader05]

The Helge Center, the new center is not a bad addition at all. It houses a lot of student programming including one of the most sought after internship programs, called CAPS.

However, it came shortly after the University was trying to raise money for it's newer dorm and got no takers. It's great to have donors to provide this extra elevation to what's offered but when the university is begging for things like basics and donors ignore them for pet projects it creates another dynamic where you now get people claiming the art is what makes Valpo when main facilities are falling apart.

As far as those reviews. I'd grain of salt them. Much like Yelp and other reviews people tend to over exaggerate or or you get general malcontents who overextrapolate normal university issues with a specific issue with their school. (ie most places you go students complain about food, parking, safety, etc).

I can just vouch for the fact that the dorms were horrible in the early 2000s while I was there and it seems amazing that hasn't been rectified at all.

Also, you need to look at actual price vs list price to assess what people are actually paying at Valpo and again, alleging decreasing academic standards when test scores have not moved seem to be more a perception issue than a reality issue.

I agree that the way the anti-art sale movment has been approaching this seems like they want to do ultimate damage to the universities reputation which makes no sense if the goal is to perserve the art. but hey maybe you can run Padilla out on a rail and hope the board finds someone else and turns things around and your blessed art doesn't get sold in a auction to keep the place open.

[valpofb16]

Madeline Indiana is not wrong.

Dorms are 8x16. Roll out beds for freshman, smaller twin beds if in beacon. Outdated showers , no cameras.

One dining hall, core class is a joke which makes it hard to transfer because other Universities don't take it.

There was social life in 2012-2016, but the freshman when I was a senior they cracked down on almost all of it.

Meal plan is outrageous when comparing to other universities. More options for breakfast when I was there.


It's a bad product right now

[mj]

they removed secondary education, how about elementary education? Generally speaking, why would someone spend $55K a year, minus scholarship, to get an elementary education degree and start a teaching career with six figure in debt?  Why try to compete with teachers colleges like Ball St., Illinois State, and UNI?

This is an example of the backwards thinking of Heckler. Why would Valpo get rid of professional degree programs that are making money for the university?

For example, Social Work was proposed to be cut so they could save money by cutting a few professors. But when you looked at the number of students in the program, you realized that it was a net positive. So Heckler was going to technically cut costs...while lowering profits at the same time. 

[crusader05]

The Social Work Departments response to being considered for continuance was a really positive and inspiring response to the situation at hand. They they rallied their alums and students, worked together, and made proposals to increase their valuation to the university while also defending what they already brought. It was the best of what it means to work together. My feed was filled with alums sharing and promoting and engaging and it worked. The Department remains and has joined with Education and is will hopefully be there long in the future. Man programs have been discontinued or considered for discontinuance in the past, including the Nursing school. The Social Work Department is a model of what it means to not just dig their heels in and say that the administration doesn't care about them.

CC is doing the same with calling out to their alums to help them look at what they do now and how they can improve and continue to offer the level of scholarship they do in the future. I have a friend who spent half of homecoming weekend in strategy sessions with other CC alums and faculty to plot out the future of Christ College. Too often programs become stagnant and don't want to change and are resistant to the point they become brittle and break.

[crusadermoe]

It seems to add to the idea (and apparently fact) that Heckler damaged the university badly.  It soundsfrom a long time on this board that the late Alan Harre and his board were  frugal to a fault in refusing to take on debt.  But then when money got really cheap it sounds like Heckler and his board were reckless.

And we have talked about Heckler's tin ear for the VU constituents who were not on board with woke and PC mantras. Now we are reaping the harvest of the finances and tin ear.  Padilla is not a villain here. He is the messenger who is being shot by bringing unwelcome realities to the forefront. But Padilla can step to a new presidency easily because the deck was stacked so heavily against him in all financial measures.  The rest of the school should prepare for that.  The anger against Padilla can be directed at Heckler. How often does a school want to move on from a president (Heckler) so badly and urgently that they hire an interim Pres. with no background before they hire a new one?  Will donors give more? This isn't the Red Cross. I think giving will decrease.

[usc4valpo]

All I am saying is that you cannot be great in everything. If the social work program is strong and sustainable, then keep it strong. My concern is making universal solutions because of a few loud select voices, which happened at Valpo.  The programs that are strong have a right to have their say on the strategy.

[David81]

The student debt crisis has its genesis during the early 1980s, when student loans started to supplant grants and scholarships as a main source of financial aid, and many, many universities started increasing their tuition by fairly big chunks every year. In addition, interest rates on those loans shot up dramatically, especially when student loans became a lucrative business. I and many others saw this occurring before our very eyes. Between my graduation from VU in 1981, and my beginning law school at NYU in 1982, the financial aid landscape had changed in formative ways.

VU's tuition, room & board were dirt cheap when I matriculated. Not so any longer. Is it because faculty are getting paid a lot more? Certainly not. As I explained in an earlier post, faculty salaries at VU -- always substandard -- haven't even kept up with inflation. But do take a look around campus at all the buildings that have been constructed since my time there. Were there donors covering the full costs of those new buildings? Of course not. And look at all the new administrative positions that have been created. Where does their pay come from?

The price tag of a VU education incorporates those developments. And because VU can award only so much scholarship money, and federal/state gift aid doesn't come close to meeting demonstrated need, guess whose student loans are filling the huge gaps? Of course this is going to affect alumni/ae donation rates. Some of us have been saying this about private universities generally for decades as we've witnessed student debt service explode.

[ValpoDiaspora]

The student debt crisis has its genesis during the early 1980s, when student loans started to supplant grants and scholarships as a main source of financial aid, and many, many universities started increasing their tuition by fairly big chunks every year. In addition, interest rates on those loans shot up dramatically, especially when student loans became a lucrative business. I and many others saw this occurring before our very eyes. ... Of course this is going to affect alumni/ae donation rates. Some of us have been saying this about private universities generally for decades as we've witnessed student debt service explode.

David81, I think one of the most innovative models for addressing the student debt crisis is Hope College's 'Hope Forward' give-it-forward model.

Their president is one of those rare birds who is both 1000% focused on making the economics work and 1000% committed to the liberal arts, so his whole presidency is about trying to re-think the economic model of higher ed to cut out the loan middleman and make college accessible again. Basically, the idea is that the college will raise sufficient endowment to give some and then eventually all students their liberal arts educations as a gift, and the students commit to later  give forward to the next generation.
https://hope.edu/hope-forward/
https://hope.edu/offices/president/
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/07/15/hope-college-wants-trade-tuition-donations

I know this 'gift' donation model may sound nutty and unrealistic, but my sense was that Hope was in a much better position than Valpo... I had a chance to visit in Fall 2020, and it seemed morale was super high, their faculty were on a more manageable teaching load, students seemed really committed to a real integration of intellectual inquiry and professional prep, their job offers for humanities asst profs was paying about $10k/yr more than Valpo, the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate had risen over the last two decades to quite high, about 90%, and the yield rate was pretty good around 25% of admitted students.  Moreover, this was the Fall after Covid hit, so it was impressive that not only were they not laying off anybody or cutting salaries... but they were hiring at a time when few schools anywhere in the country were running searches due to Covid.

Will this gift model work? Maybe it'll crash and burn, but I hope not! We really need institutions to strike out bravely like this, to try to find a different way, unless the plan in US Higher Ed is just to put the nation's young adults into indentured debt servitude for life. Not sustainable.

Berea College (founded by abolitionists before the Civil War) is another no-tuition promise school, on a worker-scholar model where the students have jobs around campus and pay no tuition. Berea is always top 5 for 'best value' and often somewhere in the Top 15 for 'national liberal arts colleges', which is pretty incredible given the no-tuition promise. Granted, they already have a huge endowment of $1.5 Billion which helps... but still, very cool what they've been able to do.
https://www.berea.edu/about/history/

So there are institutions out there that are bucking the trend and trying to battle the rising tuition & loan problem.

[valpofb16]

Has anyone brought up selling the University as an entity to Indiana, Purdue or another university with a billion dollar endowment?


Dorms are not the problem at Valpo. They are on of the many problems. And the more I look into this I'm not sure the damage hasn't been done.

The city has never accepted the University as a College in a way you would hope. There is minimal off campus housing, zero effort to build a social atmosphere / bar

Enrollment is right around 2k with a 93% acceptance rate. Dorms will not change the above issues, meal plan, list prices, dated nursing , business buildings , dropped majors.

With enrollment so low. Beacon / Werhenburg / Guild should suffice for now right? Why update Alumni, Brandt, Lenk if they will sit empty?

The rebrand in itself has already taken place alienating many donors/alums.

Very hopeful things can turn around. But it's not looking promising.

This will not be fixed by a good basketball team. And tbf I think firing Lottich and alienating loyal employees would be another dagger.

Valparaiso needs good press. Bring in a firm , find out who are the essential employees, infrastructures , etc. Cut out everything else. Start over.

[David81]

The student debt crisis has its genesis during the early 1980s, when student loans started to supplant grants and scholarships as a main source of financial aid, and many, many universities started increasing their tuition by fairly big chunks every year. In addition, interest rates on those loans shot up dramatically, especially when student loans became a lucrative business. I and many others saw this occurring before our very eyes. ... Of course this is going to affect alumni/ae donation rates. Some of us have been saying this about private universities generally for decades as we've witnessed student debt service explode.

David81, I think one of the most innovative models for addressing the student debt crisis is Hope College's 'Hope Forward' give-it-forward model.

Their president is one of those rare birds who is both 1000% focused on making the economics work and 1000% committed to the liberal arts, so his whole presidency is about trying to re-think the economic model of higher ed to cut out the loan middleman and make college accessible again. Basically, the idea is that the college will raise sufficient endowment to give some and then eventually all students their liberal arts educations as a gift, and the students commit to later  give forward to the next generation.
https://hope.edu/hope-forward/
https://hope.edu/offices/president/
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/07/15/hope-college-wants-trade-tuition-donations

I know this 'gift' donation model may sound nutty and unrealistic, but my sense was that Hope was in a much better position than Valpo... I had a chance to visit in Fall 2020, and it seemed morale was super high, their faculty were on a more manageable teaching load, students seemed really committed to a real integration of intellectual inquiry and professional prep, their job offers for humanities asst profs was paying about $10k/yr more than Valpo, the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate had risen over the last two decades to quite high, about 90%, and the yield rate was pretty good around 25% of admitted students.  Moreover, this was the Fall after Covid hit, so it was impressive that not only were they not laying off anybody or cutting salaries... but they were hiring at a time when few schools anywhere in the country were running searches due to Covid.

Will this gift model work? Maybe it'll crash and burn, but I hope not! We really need institutions to strike out bravely like this, to try to find a different way, unless the plan in US Higher Ed is just to put the nation's young adults into indentured debt servitude for life. Not sustainable.

Berea College (founded by abolitionists before the Civil War) is another no-tuition promise school, on a worker-scholar model where the students have jobs around campus and pay no tuition. Berea is always top 5 for 'best value' and often somewhere in the Top 15 for 'national liberal arts colleges', which is pretty incredible given the no-tuition promise. Granted, they already have a huge endowment of $1.5 Billion which helps... but still, very cool what they've been able to do.
https://www.berea.edu/about/history/

So there are institutions out there that are bucking the trend and trying to battle the rising tuition & loan problem.

The Hope Pay-It-Forward model is an interesting approach with a limited cohort of exceptional students. The wider they expand it, the percentage of those who give back a commensurate amount later is likely to decline. It's just human nature. That said, it's a worthy experiment.

The Berea work-study approach is great, but that $1.5 billion endowment you mentioned is making a tuition-free school possible. Using the standard 4 percent standard, the endowment principal is throwing off some $60 million annually to serve a total enrollment of around 1,500 undergraduates. While I'm sure that the student body's work contribution is meaningful and also creates a grounded culture, the endowment enables the model.

Interestingly, while pre-Lutheran VU did charge modest tuition (when it truly was known as the "Harvard of the Midwest" in the early 1900s), it kept expenses and frills to a minimum and used extensive work-study (e.g., students working on the university farm to grow food for the dining halls) to soften the costs of attending. 

[crusadermoe]

David81, I think you nailed the issue in your March 12 post going back on this page.   

In noting the large new buildings on campus you can summarize by saying Valpo has made itself "house poor." They took on mortgages and second mortgages. Now they can't service the debt in this new level of enrollment competition.  Those were big bets. 

Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams said, "if you build it they will come."  But I don't think he debt-financed the field next to the corn. Building a new arena places a similar bet and financing is no longer an option according to Moody's and the reality of the Art Sale.

All is not lost. The options are just narrowing.

[historyman]

Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams said, "if you build it they will come."  But I don't think he debt-financed the field next to the corn. Building a new arena places a similar bet and financing is no longer an option according to Moody's and the reality of the Art Sale.

Costner's character was also fictional and the story was fictional. Unfortunately Valpo is in a real life situation and the risks are very real.

[ValpoDiaspora]

The Hope Pay-It-Forward model is an interesting approach with a limited cohort of exceptional students. The wider they expand it, the percentage of those who give back a commensurate amount later is likely to decline. It's just human nature. That said, it's a worthy experiment.

True, people might get jaded over time and think their contributions don't matter so much for the future students... It is something that would have to be accounted for.

But I still think the premise of giving to people rather than stuff is a good one. I've never really understood why organizations so often fundraise for buildings... are donors really that insistent on having a shiny wall with their name on it? I actually think most of my Millienial generation would much prefer to give experiences to people, to little brothers and sisters down the line -- assuming their own student experience was indeed so positive as to engender a sense of gratitude and desire for the next generation to have the same too!

Moreover, I think Scroggins is right that when we have received something as as gift, we actually do experience it in a fundamentally different way. I had my undergrad paid for by a uni scholarship, so I then basically walked around for four years marveling that they were so generous to let me be there; total grace. It never crossed my mind to complain whether the food was good enough or the professors turning their grading around fast enough, since it was quite literally a gift to be there at all.... one that I do intend to give forward. I think college students are unhappier today than in past decades when the whole experience was cheaper in the 70s and 80s... precisely *because* today they are paying so much and see themselves as customers paying through the nose. Therefore, they start and go thru their four years in constant awareness and anxiety about the high cost, feeling that such a price ought to have bought not only pristine ensuite glass showers, but also As in all their classes or at least a good GPA degree! So they are in a fundamentally conflictual relationship with the institution from the outset, worried about getting money's worth from institutions they suspect (maybe rightly) are trying to extract as much cash out of them as possible. And it leads to all these other issues, like grade inflation, and the flight of students to high ROI fields in order to retroactively justify the initial up-front cost of college. All these aspects of the defensive customer posture are totally understandable given that students and parents really are paying or taking on so much debt, but the whole dynamic is really really toxic to an actual environment of curiosity, correction, learning, experimentation, etc

So IF it works, a pay-it-forward gift model would do more than address just the loan servicing mess, and it could also perhaps help shift the fundamental relations of institutional financing and teaching & learning back into shared alignment in investment in students. That would make for qualitatively better and happier campus cultures, which is a good in itself and also useful for future alumni donations...

[VULB#62]

To tie into Diaspora's comments about feeling thankful vs. being the customer always monitoring value. Let me jump into my Way-Back Machine and push even beyond the 70s to the early 60s. Aside from your freshman year where you were required to occupy residential hall space unless you were a commuter, Valpo didn't care if you took the room & board plan as long as you paid your tuition and fees. Many of my friends [only male - no self respecting women would live off campus back then 😱] jumped right into close-to-campus apartments as sophs. It was cheaper, but yeah, some of those apartments were real dumps and/or fire traps 😀. But on campus, the meal plan in the dorms with dining rooms was really good, hearty food - definitely worthy of the freshman 15. I get the impression now  that the number of dining facilities has, over time, been reduced.

I cannot speak to the present day residency requirements — FB16 mentioned that now you are required to be in university residences through your junior year.  But if that is the case, dining in those residences should be totally attractive, varied and a real motivator to stay and enjoy the residence experience. Anything else does point more in the direction of  revenue-generating incarceration instead of providing a bountiful university experience.

Hopefully, Padilla's dorm initiative is being done with the latter in mind.

While still sitting in my Way-Back Machine, I will reminisce.  I was a Phi Delt and we took our meals in our annex at the corner of Brown and College. Ma (our cook - I'm absolutely sure that was her real name, had to be) cooked some of the best meals for 40 guys you could imagine. In those days we had a majority of the football and basketball team as brothers, so eating good was an absolute. To this day I can't figure out how she did it. Those evening dinners were part of a great college experience — along with the beer machine in the basement of the main house 😜

[crusader05]

I absolutely do not understand why they went down to only one dining hall. The benefit of living on campus was that you had multiple places to choose from on the plan. Most weren't like, extravagant or anything but there was the ability to be like "what's X having" and also the great waffles at Berg.  Also, it was nice, when the weather sucked, to just run downstairs and grab food.

I'd imagine that having one residence hall makes the cafeteria nature of the food even more difficult to stomach. Maybe they can bring some franchises on to campus to provide options? I did see in Padilla's interview he mentioned a cafeteria in the halls so hopefully they can go back to the usual.

While I agree that to an extent the state of the dorms and facilities etc did not weight much on my mind while I was there I know that things have changed. I have cousins who's children have begun the college search and what they've told me that the academic reputation definitely dictates where people apply but once that is done it can become something as simple as who has the better dorms, or the better facilities or just the shorter walk to where classes are located and a myriad of other things we use to help us make decisions (the biggest factor seems to be money, all things remaining equal)

[valpofb16]

When I attended there were three dining halls in a way.

The Union, good food, lots of seating , expensive

The Cafe , which was quick more of a fast food setting, was replaced with a scannable grab and go place my senior year, logistics and costs (talking $4.50 non pandemic chocolate milk) were the reason many completely stopped going.

The law school cafe, best food on campus, same type pricing the Union. And that shut down I believe as well.

So down to one , unless the you count the money suck grab n go.

And as of junior year that is correct, had to live three years on campus , pay extra for parking.


Meaning as an upperclassmen, you are bare minimum expected to live in a single dorm w/ roommate, on a dry campus, w/ no freedom to your car unless more fees.

Meanwhile at state schools you are able to live in houses, host parents, drive to class , live with a significant other

Honestly the living situation/rules were a big big reason I know people left.

[valpofb16]

All this being said from 2005-2015 with the high enrollment , high ticket sales , high meal prices , and students essentially forced to pay rent and infrastructure. And one non donated new facility.

How did the University come up so empty?

Either

A) few people getting an extremely large take home salary

Or

B) an excessive amount of unnecessary people on payroll

And now they miss the boat again by adding more dorms? How about that money is spent on 7-10 houses to get more juniors off campus

[DejaVU]

On top of this mess is the viral effect of social media. Regardless of how many people genuinely care about this painting, that number is inflated by the AI algorithm. Especially the younger generation that is glued to the screen and gets enraged about the topic "du jour". Not wanting to be sarcastic or unfair but lots of lots of people who feel revolutionary now for the cause of the painting never stepped foot in that museum much less were aware about a particular painting...But if so many "influencers" scream bloody murder then of course they "feel" the same.

Worse of, once a person is invested in a particular cause, it is extremely hard to change his/her mind because the more energy is spent for a cause the more painful is to admit you were (at least partially) wrong or to admit that you did not see the big picture.  Padilla (again a person I do not trust has what it takes to save the ship), should ask people  (Brauer, Ruff, etc...) whether they still want a campus around that precious museum. Do they want a museum without a university or a university without a museum if  the thing hits the fan for real?

[usc4valpo]

Regardng selling the art, would it not be beneficial to get feedback from those not in art media, theatre and creative writing? How about those in STEM, business, meteorology, nursing?

Again, we have to meet the needs of a loud select few.

[valpopal]

In addition to the front page story about the proposed art sale at Inside Higher Ed today, there is a highly critical feature article now in The New Republic by a noted VU alum, especially devastating if the unseemly quote attributed to Padilla by a senior faculty member is accurate.
https://newrepublic.com/article/171163/georgia-okeeffe-rust-red-hills-valparaiso-battle-soul-liberal-arts-college


You can tell the administration is feeling the PR heat and wavering, at least in their language. Originally, Padilla said he "intended to pay for the much needed dorm renovations by using the proceeds from the sale of select paintings from the campus art museum." But the Inside Higher Ed article says Padilla's spokesperson now indicates a final decision has not been made about selling the art. Originally, Padilla also stated the art needed to be sold quickly to have cash by summer. However, Inside Higher Ed quotes the spokesperson remarking "that the university has 'no definitive timeline at this point' for exploring a possible art sale."

[vu84v2]

In addition to the front page story about the proposed art sale at Inside Higher Ed today, there is a highly critical feature article now in The New Republic by a noted VU alum, especially devastating if the unseemly quote attributed to Padilla by a senior faculty member is accurate.
https://newrepublic.com/article/171163/georgia-okeeffe-rust-red-hills-valparaiso-battle-soul-liberal-arts-college


You can tell the administration is feeling the PR heat and wavering, at least in their language. Originally, Padilla said he "intended to pay for the much needed dorm renovations by using the proceeds from the sale of select paintings from the campus art museum." But the Inside Higher Ed article says Padilla's spokesperson now indicates a final decision has not been made about selling the art. Originally, Padilla also stated the art needed to be sold quickly to have cash by summer. However, Inside Higher Ed quotes the spokesperson remarking "that the university has 'no definitive timeline at this point' for exploring a possible art sale."

The noted VU alum seems to be extremely one-sided in his article, but this seems to be the path of people who are arguing against the art sale. The only people who seem to have an opinion that they accept are those who agree with them. Further, a statement by one student that the dorms are acceptable gets taken as sacrosanct. One student! usc4valpo is right...why don't the people who write these articles ask faculty and students from STEM, business and nursing? The faculty senate vote was 13-6....what is the representation of each college on faculty senate? I'll bet that most at-large representatives are from liberal arts. One engineering faculty member on faculty senate spoke at length about how the art sale was the correct strategy - but do you see that in these articles? (No)

I will answer one of my questions above...distribution of faculty senate representatives by college (per Valpo's website). College of Arts and Sciences: 15; Christ College: 1; Business: 2; Engineering: 2; Nursing: 2; Libraries: 1. Furthermore, the governance process dictates that 14 of the 23 representatives come from Arts and Sciences with guaranteed representation from Art/Music, English, Theology/Philosophy.

https://www.valpo.edu/faculty-senate/members-2/

[valpopal]

The faculty senate vote was 13-6....what is the representation of each college on faculty senate?

I will answer one of my questions above...distribution of faculty senate representatives by college (per Valpo's website). College of Arts and Sciences: 15; Christ College: 1; Business: 2; Engineering: 2; Nursing: 2; Libraries: 1. Furthermore, the governance process dictates that 14 of the 23 representatives come from Arts and Sciences with guaranteed representation from Art/Music, English, Theology/Philosophy.

https://www.valpo.edu/faculty-senate/members-2/

Let's be fully accurate in those numbers. Of the 14 representatives from A&S, four are STEM professors (Winquist, Clark, Wolf, and Sullivan). Therefore, the representation is evenly distributed with 10 from professional schools and STEM subjects, plus 8 currently from arts subjects (2 of which are actually at-large senators), and one representative each from the Library and Christ College. The senate chair is also from a science area and the vice chair is from arts. Consequently, the present 22-member voting breakdown is 11 from professional schools or STEM subjects and 11 from the arts (if we include the Library and Christ College as arts). Additionally, the university president and the provost are ex officio members.