Benefits of Valpo being a private institution? What is Valpo known for?

[usc4valpo]

David81 - nice contribution, but the mascots are a product where wokeness by a few loud folks went too far. I take crap from friends and relatives over this and it's embarrassing.

I was in electrical engineering, and overall I though the professors and education were excellent. They cared about education and the student, and the classroom complimented with through lab was very effective. It prepared me for future education and industry well. The senior engineering class selection, where you want courses that are a little more diverse,  was limited because of the school size and an issue that cannot be resolved - but that's OK.

Regarding the Valpo experience, it is kind of in a dome and too much in a dome. The real world is not the Valparaiso University experience and I was in culture shock after graduating and living in LA.

[vu84v2]

Paul - what an incredible post. It is clearly apparent why you are a great journalist and professor! Also, I have lived in Mequon for the past seven years...and I now have something new to think about when I drive past Concordia.

I was in many classes with usc4valpo and fully agree with his assessment of the engineering professors and education. I am still fairly close to the College of Engineering and feel strongly that excellent teaching and professors who care about the students remain its foundation.

[vu72]

At heart, Valpo students are probably not that different from those of you who attended in the mid-late 20th century. They still want to find friends, still are trying to figure out where they fit in the world, are still trying to figure out how to have fun while also setting themselves up to get a good job, and so on!

Being one those people, looking back over my time at Valpo, my fondest memories are of friends, professors and great times!  Things swung drastically from "wild" (keggers on a Wednesday night--$1 for all you could drink) to a fully dry campus with kids being arrested and drapes drawn at Frat houses.  Now, it would seem that the Harre dry policy is at least somewhat different in that there actually is a bar in the Union!

But is that what college should be about?  I'm glad to see all the various options available to Valpo students, even tough these options may provide a negative effect on basketball attendance. The college experience is still four years between high school and the rest of your life. 

When I was at Valpo there never was a volunteer option available or at least I didn't see one.  Today more than 55 hours are logged per student each year — totaling more than 247,000 hours of community outreach and service-learning. So keggers are being replaced by fraternity challenges over which one can raise the most money for their chosen charity. 

Though some here may find this effort to "woke", I think it will leave students much better prepared for life after college than what I experienced.

[ValpoDiaspora]

For sure, the fraternities and sororities do a lot of that... They seemed overall pretty positive and healthy (didn't hear really anything about the toxic hazing sort of stuff ppl worry about), and so they provide a lot of really great positive thick sense of community as well as an orientation towards service.

[David81]

To Diaspora's point, I think it's still possible to have frank conversations in classrooms and raise topics that are seen as controversial, even with the specter of student evaluations being public, along with sillier sites like RateMyProfessor. But knowing that reviews of our performance may be routinely more accessible does add a layer of awareness, especially nowadays with our fraught social/political environment.

For over 25 years, I've taught both Employment Discrimination and Employment Law (which includes a unit on Employment Discrimination) at my current school, and both courses are loaded with potential landmines. In such courses, I think one has to raise and respect different points of view, relate content to actual legal practice, be aware of how you're being perceived, explain what's behind your opinions, and be utterly authentic rather than pedantic or preachy in doing so. As only the 2nd person of color ever tenured at my law school (which opened in 1906), I've had to walk my talk on this many times. (Ironically, the homogeneous campus culture of VU during my student days has offered lessons to draw from.) And while I don't play to the student evaluations, on the whole they've remained very strong. It also helps that (1) I really, really enjoy teaching and have always felt comfortable in a classroom (at least once over the rookie jitters); and (2) teaching in graduate-level setting means, on the whole, dealing with more mature students.

As for VU, I agree with Diaspora that it remains a place where ideas still matter and where students in the professional programs benefit from the liberal arts courses that are part of their distribution requirements. It remains an institution that can help prepare people to live good and meaningful lives, personally, spiritually, and vocationally. Too many colleges and universities are abandoning that more holistic development because of the short-term metrics being used to evaluate "quality."

Against the backdrop of the modern higher ed environment overall, I have become increasingly concerned about how virtually any discussion about difference and diversity is dismissed by some as being "woke," mostly by folks who do not wish to enter these uncomfortable discussions at all -- and by some who wish to excuse or defend horrific behaviors, currently and historically. I have also become increasingly concerned about how some self-identified woke folks are very quick to propose policies that shut down academic freedom and denigrate any point of view that isn't 100 percent on board with them. I've been on the receiving end of both of these extremes and lament the state of our public & academic discourse because of it.

[FWalum]

I was in culture shock after graduating and living in LA.

So would just about all of the "flyover states" population. I think a lot of the families and students VU is going after would consider that a good thing.

Valpo was and still is a tradition for me and my wife. Our parents and many, other older generation family members went to VU. Children from family members have continued to attend. Most recently 3 of my nieces and nephews attended in the past 6 years with the last of the 3 graduating in December, all were very involved in the religous life of the campus. Religion was a big part of why I went to VU, not to become church worker, but to fulfill the calling of the founders of the LUA that stated "the church can not rise higher than the pew". "Christians are supposed to be the salt of the earth. We must have Christian doctors, lawyers and others active as citizens for the sake of our society". Some extended family members were professors and many of my close high school classmates went to VU giving it a very homey feel. I was in a fraternity and also involved in a number of other extra curricular activities.

I loved my time at VU and developed many friendships with classmates and proffessors. The close knit relationships fostered in small classes had an impact even after graduation. I remained active on the Alumni Board, sponsoring VU activities here in Fort Wayne and with VU basketball up until Heckler became president and Homer retired. I am very hopeful after talking with Padilla and the new Assistant Vice President for Mission, Church, and Ministry.

[crusadermoe]

Your dedication is pretty inspiring and the number of linkages are incredible. With Fort Wayne just two hours away and a long history of the church connections to Valpo you mention, is the enrollment of Fort Wayne students rising?

[FWalum]

Your dedication is pretty inspiring and the number of linkages are incredible. With Fort Wayne just two hours away and a long history of the church connections to Valpo you mention, is the enrollment of Fort Wayne students rising?

This is going to sound a little crazy. Valpo has not actively recruited students from Concordia Lutheran High School here in Fort Wayne in quite a few years. My wife and I have both been very involved with CLHS and this has bothered us for some time. In the past two years not one student has gone to Valpo from CLHS. This was the main focus of my conversation with President Padilla. I am working with a representative from VU trying to arrange a meeting time with the administration at CLHS. Padilla assures me that ignoring Lutheran secondary schools is a trend he intends on breaking, recruiting students from Lutheran secondary schools is emphasized in the strategic plan.

[VULB#62]

Valpo has not actively recruited students from Concordia Lutheran High School here in Fort Wayne in quite a few years. My wife and I have both been very involved with CLHS and this has bothered us for some time. In the past two years not one student has gone to Valpo from CLHS. This was the main focus of my conversation with President Padilla. I am working with a representative from VU trying to arrange a meeting time with the administration at CLHS. Padilla assures me that ignoring Lutheran secondary schools is a trend he intends on breaking, recruiting students from Lutheran secondary schools is emphasized in the strategic plan.

FWAlum, I remember a couple of years ago, you said virtually the same thing on another thread. At the time it shocked me — totally illogical. Again, at the time, I asked why every single LHS and Lutheran church in the US, regardless of "affiliation" wasn't bombarded with Valpo literature, and why alums across the country weren't recruited to visit congregations and HSs to promote VU. Never got a good answer. Sure, I understand that the admissions department can't send out their paid reps to every little church or 150 student HS across the country, but if the office would just make the phone calls to arrange visits, alums could be their surrogates. I mean, what LHS guidance counselor would refuse a visit?

[David81]

Valpo has not actively recruited students from Concordia Lutheran High School here in Fort Wayne in quite a few years. My wife and I have both been very involved with CLHS and this has bothered us for some time. In the past two years not one student has gone to Valpo from CLHS. This was the main focus of my conversation with President Padilla. I am working with a representative from VU trying to arrange a meeting time with the administration at CLHS. Padilla assures me that ignoring Lutheran secondary schools is a trend he intends on breaking, recruiting students from Lutheran secondary schools is emphasized in the strategic plan.

FWAlum, I remember a couple of years ago, you said virtually the same thing on another thread. At the time it shocked me — totally illogical. Again, at the time, I asked why every single LHS and Lutheran church in the US, regardless of "affiliation" wasn't bombarded with Valpo literature, and why alums across the country weren't recruited to visit congregations and HSs to promote VU. Never got a good answer. Sure, I understand that the admissions department can't send out their paid reps to every little church or 150 student HS across the country, but if the office would just make the phone calls to arrange visits, alums could be their surrogates. I mean, what LHS guidance counselor would refuse a visit?

I'm stunned to read that VU isn't doing targeted outreach to Lutheran high schools. This is neglecting the proverbial low-hanging fruit, yes?

The "good news," if I may characterize it that way, is that it could be easier than first meets the eye to rebuild undergraduate enrollment, by returning to one of VU's historically significant constituencies.

[78crusader]

Not sure what is more disappointing to me - that no Lutheran kids from Ft. Wayne have come here for several years, or that President Padilla, who has been on campus for over a year and a half, is JUST NOW promising to look into this. He either knew, or should have known, about this within two months of taking office.

Paul

[VULB#62]

Perhaps he did know fairly early in, and perhaps he had already started the wheels in motion, and perhaps this was just the first time it came up in outside discussion. Who knows. But not every issue requires an immediate press conference announcement.

[ValpoDiaspora]

Yes, that's right, I don't think Admissions did/does any targeted outreach to Lutheran high schools.

In the Before Times, there was a staff person in Campus Ministry -- Deb Albers, Dir of Church Relations, not sure if full-time or part-time -- who used to run the Lutheran summer institute programs to bring Lutheran high schoolers to campus. However, she was one of many staff who got laid off in 2020, so she went to work for an optometry school in Illinois.

[vu72]

I have brought up the concept of just one admission counselor focused exclusively on Lutheran High School.  My guess is that the staff is stretched so thin that even one is out of the question. 

Remember, the Padilla is not messing around with getting enrollment up.  The first thing he did was to fire the VP of enrollment the his replacement just left as well. So another brand new AVP is now in place.  The office of church relations is also filled--recently as follows:

Rev. Brian A.F. Beckstrom will join Valparaiso University as assistant vice president for mission, church and ministry effective Jan. 17, 2022. Most recently, Beckstrom has served at Wartburg College as dean of spiritual life and campus pastor.

In his role as assistant vice president for mission, church and ministry, Beckstrom will be responsible for promoting, supporting and advancing the University's Lutheran mission, both internally and externally, including fostering ongoing relationships with various Lutheran denominations and other entities. He will also oversee the administrative management of all programs housed in the Helge Center for Mission and Ministry, including chapel and student ministries, the Allen Scholars program, the Institute of Liturgical Studies and the Institute for Leadership and Service.

[valpotx]

Pgmado, sorry to hear about the chapel breakup story.  On the positive side, I don't feel as bad about all of the trouble we caused you, as we were probably a welcome distraction after that previous year's experience

[historyman]

The Mequon Aband-Don?