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

[Dr. T]

Just curious ... at this point, what are the benefits to VU private? I bring it up since many of the woes stem from a lack of funding, right?

As enrollment continues dwindling, programs are canceled, layoffs ensue, and so forth - the university seems to lack an identity. What is Valpo, in 2023, known as and known for?

I attended Valpo because of the following:

A) Wanting to be known as a "Division 1" athlete. I chose Valpo over D2 & D3 programs. At the time, I thought this distinction would make a tangible difference in my life. In short, I ended up quitting.

B) Wanting to go to Valpo Law School (no longer an option)

C) Wanting to be part of what I thought was a socially conservative-leaning institution.

D) Location. Not only would I be able to attend a school close to home, but that would mean I could be an active alumnus and be proud of the school I attended.

Since graduating from VU, I have attended public post-grad institutions. When I return, the things that made Valpo special aren't there. At the time, I never thought that would be a possibility 15-20 years later. But, alas, I'm disinterested.

Just curious what the benefits are, at this point, of being a private institution. Not that there's anything that can be done about it at this point. I suppose I'm just curious how Valpo basketball fits into the future of this institution. I remain hopeful because of the new administration.

But ... then I think about things like What's Valpo known for? What's "the thing" now? The Drew days are over. The Law School is gone. Most of the faculty I had are no longer there. The mascot changed, so my gear isn't applicable any longer. You get the point.

[tiny707]

Definitely no longer a party school..

[vu72]

I suspect from your post that faith was not part of your decision to attend Valpo.  That's fine.  However it is a part of many students decision whether or not they wear their religion on their sleeve. So there's that, coupled with small classes taught by high level faculty in a college town not known (in the last 40 years) for party time.  So perhaps it has drawn more serious students, in many cases able to have equipment available that isn't found at many smaller institutions--like the Doppler radar, the Solar energy facility, cadaver lab, it's own radio and tv station etc, and, D1 athletics.

[tiny707]

Faith was part of my decision but why not both? I like my Lutheran Holy Water(beer)

[crusadermoe]

You have gone to the heart of the matter...truly to the "heart."  One can write vanilla strategic plan documents all day long with your "head."  But where is the real heartbeat of the school now that connects to its prime alumni?  My sense is that many of the 70s-80s alumni (large enrollment years) view themselves as conservative politically and to some degree view themselves conservative in religious terms. I don't know if "many" is an actual majority, but many were pragmatic 80s kids studied business, engineering, and beer.  In a lot of cases, they were kids of older alumni. 60% were greek. They rode frat and sorority parade floats down Lincolnway to the square. And other aspects of VU also resembled Faber College.  VU graduated over 500 kids per year in that mold. 

Does the current faculty, student population, and campus culture align with those alumni? Heckler's veganism and intense wokeness felt out of step with the beer and brats memories.

[valpotx]

I chose Valpo because of Option A, with academics being a close second.  Vu72, you know what I will say about tying your enrollment wishes to a population metric that is steadily in decline

[usc4valpo]

I went to Valpo because of scholarship money, engineering and university size. I was also a proud member of the engineering and beer crowd which worked hard and played hard. Why Valpo became stringent on alcohol and became parental in nature is beyond me.

[valpofb16]

Student life has been on back burner for a while at the School / within the community

[Dr. T]

VU 72 - interestingly enough - faith was a significant part of why I opted to attend the school. I tried characterizing this in a secular sense by referencing social conservatism. That said, my time there led to a rather substantive questioning of my faith as I had several professors push back on my views. At the time, this opposition (surprising to me) led to rather radical changes in my stances. I look back and am beyond thankful God brought me out of this season of my life and pointed me toward fully committing as a Christ follower.

I only bring this up in reference to your inquiry but glad you asked

[Dr. T]

My identity is not tied to any institution or athletic program. I'm thankful for that because these things are fleeting. I do hope, however, that VU - for its own sake - finds its "heartbeat," ... whatever that may be ... and sticks to it. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. As pointed out by others, the pulse of this university beats on its own. Tag lines, initiatives, slogans, marketing schematics, etc., may try and paint a given portrait of what the university wants others to see it as, but such matters are merely surface-level.

Selfishly, I'd hate to refer to my alma mater as others do when explaining what happened to St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer. When it closed its doors in 2017, it was down to ~1,100 students.

What Valpo was, is, and could / would / should be = the impetus of the question(s) at hand.

Total enrollment is 2964 as of 2022. Down ~600 from 2019. Down over ~1,580 from 2014 (~34.77%). Granted, the law school is a good chunk of that but still ... just sad.

[vu84v2]

What does (or should) Valpo stand for? Great teaching by people who care deeply for students. The faculty at Valpo were this way when I attended and the faculty now (different faculty) are the same way. Frankly, I have been surprised for many years that Valpo doesn't market this to the hilt. Valpo can promote a unique advantage for some students...not "A" students, but "B" students with a lot of potential. For students who want to study engineering, business, nursing, PT, etc., Valpo can offer a path to raise their abilities via support, caring, excellent teaching, etc.

Separately, I should note that I shared some of those beers with usc4valpo when I attended Valpo.

[David81]

I'm going do some thinking out loud here that echoes some of the things I've said over there. It starts with what Valpo is and isn't:

-It values quality undergraduate education, which a lot of universities don't;
-It opens doors for those who work hard -- someone can take a step or two up a ladder with VU;
-It's neither evangelical nor woke, even though at times it may display elements of both;
-It leans right but has more room for different points of view than back in my day (late 70s/early 80s);
-It's neither a liberal arts college nor a professional/technical college;
-It's sorta suburban, but situated between the cornfields, the rust belt, and Chicago;
-It's selective but not elite;
-It's residential, even if many of the dorms kinda suck;
-It's neither a small college nor a large university;
-It's Christian, leaning Lutheran, but much less Synod than it used to be;
-It takes big picture ideas and faith seriously;
-It's small town/small city America, with a lot more going on than years ago, but not quite a classic college town.

One might say it lacks a strong identity, but I think they're wrong. I think the identity may be there, but the school won't embrace it.

I've posted elsewhere that Valpo should pitch itself as a place that embraces both values (liberal arts) and vocation (professional training). It means that both the larger lessons and critical thinking skills developed by the liberal arts and the vocational skills and experience that come with professional training are worth embracing in tandem, not in opposition. The dual focus gives people room to discover themselves personally and vocationally. It avoids having the liberal arts and the professions unnecessarily squaring off against each other. It avoids tiresome, unwinnable arguments over politics and identity. It creates a bigger tent without sacrificing the school's traditional values and core.

This values and vocation theme requires a school that can maintain that precarious balance, and in its own way, VU has been doing that for decades. So it's about building on a strength that has never been fully appreciated.

That's my two cents. Forgive me for my rhetorical excesses.

[usc4valpo]

I never understood all the paranoia over social drinking and why Valpo got so stringent about it.  I also enjoyed those times with vu84v2.

David81, your comments were outstanding. Times change but Valpo needs to figure out their identity. Perhaps a  balance or synergy between different beliefs would help - my feel is that Valpo's loudest voices are on the woke side.

[vu84v2]

David81 - I would characterize the religious side a bit differently. Valpo has strong religious programs for those who wish to use those programs, but students are free not to be involved and welcomes people from all faiths or people who follow no faith. I care deeply for Valpo, but have never aligned with its religious principles.

[crusader05]

It seems some loosening up on alcohol is occurring with the new bar on campus, tailgating areas and beer at sports games. I was definitely cracking down on alcohol while I was there with lots of students getting arrested and parties getting busted. I am unsure what the relationship to alcohol is now though in regards to enforcement. I do know that in general alcohol enforcement goes up and down on all campus and usually related to how people are reacting to greek life. When I was t here we were coming out of the 90s which had seen the increase in hard alcohol binge drinking and there was an attempt to stop some of the more active party times such as spring weekend (does that  even exist now?). I also feel like we are in another down turn on greek life based on some news reports i've seen from bigger schools so maybe that is affected valpo as well?

[vu72]

This values and vocation theme requires a school that can maintain that precarious balance, and in its own way, VU has been doing that for decades. So it's about building on a strength that has never been fully appreciated.

Well said.  Don't know if any of our members have seen the short videos Valpo has produced, but here are two, featuring athletes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiONO0SNJgo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGr_Bbf3l3A

[David81]

I never understood all the paranoia over social drinking and why Valpo got so stringent about it.  I also enjoyed those times with vu84v2.

David81, your comments were outstanding. Times change but Valpo needs to figure out their identity. Perhaps a  balance or synergy between different beliefs would help - my feel is that Valpo's loudest voices are on the woke side.

usc4valpo, I hear you on the woke stuff, because those voices are, well, comparatively unusual for Valpo, but please hear me out on this.

Those most voices might not seem so loud on a campus with a more liberal orientation. However, they're going to stand out at VU. I have long been pro-diversity and pro-civil rights. Though even I have some disagreements with what I'd call a hard woke culture, I understand where the voices are coming from. And, generically speaking, those who perceive themselves as being in a distinct minority (on any part of a social/political spectrum) may well feel a need to be more performative.

I've said this before, but if anyone thinks that those woke voices are suddenly going to turn VU into an Oberlin or a Grinnell or a Macalester, well, that's not going to happen. VU has its center of gravity, and even if it's pushed slightly left, it will remain a moderate to conservative institution in its overall outlook. That said, the current generation of college-age kids is much more receptive to messages of inclusion and openness, and it has been encouraged to speak its mind. So the decibel levels from that end will get loud at times.

We are in an age where the extremes are getting more attention than more moderate points of view. I think we need to work harder on finding common ground where it exists.

[usc4valpo]

Thanks David81 - I just want to find out the morons promoting and pushing the new mascots.

[crusadermoe]

I think USC4Valpo is closer to the reality of today's campus.   Yes, I also went to Valpo in the 70s-80s and as I mentioned it had a conservative bent in the students. 

Fast forward to 2020 or so and a Woke student council president gets a hearing with the board to capitulate to the woke movment.. The board either is also "woke" or it was docile enough to agree.  In either case that one "inmate ran the assylum."  She should have been thanked politely and sent back to class.

[vu72]

I'm just noting that the Lutheran identity is probably totally contradictory and confusing to the average student. Most are pretty allergic to any heavy handed ideology

Not sure where your concern about "heavy handed ideology" comes from.  Valpo requires two semesters of theology. I don't think there is even one class on Lutheranism.

Here is part of what is published on the Chapel webpage.  Doesn't sound heavy handed to me.

Since 1925, when Lutheran clergy and laity arranged to purchase the University, Valpo has enjoyed a long and positive relationship with many congregations, church workers, and laity of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In these latter years, the University is also grateful for its increasing opportunity for collaboration and conversation with congregations, schools and denominational officials of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The University continues to seek out and treasure a broad range of relationship and partnerships with numerous Lutheran organizations, agencies, institutions, and schools, not only within the community of Northwest Indiana but throughout the U.S. and beyond. Distinguished by its Lutheran heritage of scholarship, freedom, and faith, the dreams of these modern founders continue to be fulfilled in the new chapters of Valparaiso University history.

As one crosses the campus, several examples of this intersection between faith and life can be discovered. From the engineers designing irrigation systems for remote African villages to nurses exploring elder care, from educators preparing for the classroom to business students assisting local businesses with ethical decisions, from artists preparing for service to the church to worship gatherings, this connection between daily life and faith radiates throughout the campus community.

[Pgmado]

I've gone back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to post here. As many of you know, I wear a lot of hats around Valpo. Alum. Professor. Reporter. Rarely do they ever combine and it's always been easy for me to separate those roles in my life.

Today I'll come at this post as an alum, and then as a professor. I'll attempt David81's bullet points. (TL:DR: subscribe to TheVictoryBell.com)

-I went to Lutheran schools from PreK-12, not because I'm Lutheran, but because the Milwaukee Public Schools weren't great. My divorced parents wanted to give me some stability in education.

-Because I went to Lutheran schools, I got into Valpo's database early. I had a Valparaiso pennant in my room from the time I was in fifth grade. I didn't know where the school was or really know anything substantial about it, but I liked the color scheme.

-When it came time to picking a school, I went to Concordia Mequon. Not because I was Lutheran, but because they gave me $10,000 off tuition because I told them I'd become a Lutheran High School History teacher.

-The truth is I went to a Methodist church when I was at my Dad's house and occasionally a Lutheran church when I was at my Mom's house. I always felt much more comfortable in the Methodist church. My dad then became a methodist pastor when I was 19. He's since become a UCC pastor.

-Concordia wasn't the right place for me. It was way too Lutheran. There were crosses and Missouri Synod flags in every classroom. It felt like every classroom discussion had to revolve around the church. I took a Public Speaking class that really felt geared toward teachers and pastors. Any other vocation was overlooked. Socially, the school was a bit off for me. I dated a woman for a month before she took me into the Chapel and broke up with me, telling me that she felt like she was going to hell because we made out and we weren't married. I repeat, she broke up with me in the Chapel.

-So, I got out of there.

-I visited Valpo in the spring of my freshman year and fell in love with the place. I loved it was 140 miles from home. Close enough to get back if I needed to, but far enough away that I could live my own life. Three things stood out to me in 1999 when I visited. WVUR (which I eventually joined), fraternities (which I eventually passed on) and Division I athletics.

-Those things got me to Valpo. What caused me to truly fall in love were the people. The diversity of the student body. Not diversity as a buzzword, but Valpo being a place where people from all walks of life gathered. Concordia was a fifth year of high school to me. Sure, there were plenty of people from all across the country, but they were mostly all Lutheran High School kids who had the same experiences that I had. Valpo was different. The basketball team was the perfect reflection of that. I cherished getting to know Lubos Barton, Milo Stovall, Jared Nuness and Greg Tonagel. Four different people with four different backgrounds.

-Another thing that I loved at Valpo was the bubble. We joked about it. The Valpo Bubble. When you came to Valpo, you stayed on campus. I didn't know if our dorms were better or worse than anywhere else because I didn't compare them. It's what we had. Could the food have been better? Sure, but it's what we had. I never left campus unless it was to travel with the basketball team. I never went to downtown Valpo. Merrillville was a treat to see a movie or go to the mall maybe once a month.

-Valpo was home and nothing else mattered. The school prepared me for a good career in broadcast journalism. It wasn't easy to get hired in sports journalism following 9/11. I had a few interviews, but jobs were few and far between. My friends who focused on news got scooped up immediately. I ended up taking a job in Milwaukee at a rock radio station that I landed through some Valpo networking.

-I went to Valpo to have a great social experience during my undergraduate days and to gain experience to enter the work force. I got both. I wouldn't trade my time at Valpo for anything as an undergrad.

-I didn't go to Valpo for the religious connection, although I'm glad it was there. I rarely went to Chapel Break. I went to Celebrate here and there. We didn't talk about God in any of my classes other than Theology, of which we had healthy debate. I had a sports talk radio show my senior year and the guy after me had a Christian rock radio show. I enjoyed there was room for both.

-I had straight classmates, gay classmates, white classmates, black classmates. Classmates who dressed in suits for class. Classmates who dressed in sweats for class. Classmates who dressed in drag for class. There were probably people who would break up with you in the Chapel and there were probably people who would do other things to you in the Chapel.

-I don't know what our "identity" was when I was in undergrad. All I can say is I loved that so many people found a home away from home.

-The draw to Valpo brought me back in 2005 to start teaching and I've been in this role for 18 years. I won't go into as much detail as I did for my undergrad days, but I'll say this. The students today are vastly different than they were in 1999. Social media has rearranged what it means for people, particularly 18-22 year olds, to exist in the world. Everything is a comparable now. Mental health has taken a nose dive for these kids who have a tangible metric for every emotion they feel. The Valpo Bubble burst long ago and it's never coming back. It used to be the biggest thing on campus to go support the basketball team. Now kids can stay back in their dorms and watch their hometown team on television. The internet has made the world a much smaller place and our students feel that every day.

-I ask my students every semester what brought them to Valpo. It's an exercise I do when discussing Public Relations in my Intro to Mass Media course. I started doing this exercise in 2006 and back then about 40 percent of the students would say religion. Then it was 25, then 15, then 5. Then zero. Now, it's not like I'm conducting a scientific survey here, but the religious aspect just isn't what it used to be. We used to tout ourselves as "The National Lutheran University." We would do that at the same time that schools like Concordia would criticize Valpo for being too inclusive, as if taking "we are all brothers and sisters in Christ" and putting it into practice was a bad thing?

-I'll end on that note of thinking. Like I said earlier, I didn't pick Valpo because of religion, but I loved that Valpo was a place where we could all be brothers and sisters in Christ. I struggle when I hear today that people criticize Valpo for being inclusive to all. I don't view being inclusive (or woke as some would say) as a political issue. I view it as a fundamental part of Christ's teaching.

-All that being said, in my role as a professor, it is not my job to tell people what to think. It's my job to get them to think. I'd greatly prefer a classroom with half Democrats and half Republicans over a classroom with all on the left or all on the right. What I'd really enjoy is a classroom full of people who are prepared to learn from one another and are open to accepting more than one point of view. Maybe someday I'll be able to learn why I got dumped in the Chapel.

-Finally to usc4Valpo, think about the role of the mascots. They're not for adults. They're for kids. People complain about the brown and gold color scheme all the time, but for a fifth-grader, I loved the pennant I got in the mail. It was so different than anything else I'd seen that I put it up in my room immediately. You often make cracks that the mascots look like something out of a book you've read to your granddaughter. Sounds like they're doing their job then. If a little kid loves them, then that's the first introduction to Valpo, just like the pennant was to me back in fifth grade. 

[David81]

Thanks David81 - I just want to find out the morons promoting and pushing the new mascots.

Yeah, I understand the mascot rage. 😊

[David81]

Paul (pgmado),

Thank you for sharing your experiences. And your observations across a time span are very enlightening.

You're right about the internet and the digital world changing the experience of higher education. And I'd say it's a profoundly mixed bag. My friends with whom I spent a semester at VU's Cambridge program talk about this a lot. Our experience abroad was enriched by the very fact that we were in a different, foreign place, and couldn't just turn on our phones and talk to family and friends back in the States. It also made the experience more challenging at times, because you couldn't get un-lost by asking Siri, or FaceTime a friend at VU if you were feeling lonely, or suddenly text/call/email home to ask for a bit of money to magically refill a dwindling bank account.

Sorry you got dumped in the Concordia Chapel. I'm glad you weren't struck by lightning or anything like that. And at least it put you on a path toward a place that has become so special to you. I'd like to think that she did you a favor, but the final judgment (pun intended) must be yours.

I'm enjoying this exchange overall.

[VULB#62]

Paul,

Your eloquent summary of how you wound up at Valpo and benefitted from that journey brought back very similar thoughts and emotions.

Just like you coming from a Lutheran HS, I came to Valpo as a Concordia Prep, Bronxville, NY grad.  Yeah, Valpo was Lutheran, but I didn't care about that. I wanted to be able to play college football. This was the 60s — OP Kretzman was prez. 

Like you, I was struck and enriched by the unexpected diversity (defined just like yours) of the campus population, both students and faculty, that I discovered there. It's still a 4 year memory I will never forget, because it seemed every day something special happened, whether in the classroom, dorm, fraternity house, gym, athletic field, in town and even (but rarely  🙄 ) in the chapel (to illustrate: because I was from NY and had a fairly thick Long Island accent, I was picked for a solo in our fraternity's version of "Officer Krupky" from West Side Story at the annual spring greek choral competition that was always held in the chapel).  Do they even do that anymore? 

Like most fraternities, mine had two coke machines in the basement - one for soft drinks and one for beer. Every football and MBB game was heavily attended and exciting. No Bubble back then. Fraternity formals were held as far away as Chicago. Being a truly residential campus, it came alive on weekends.  Dropping off my Saturday date at Scheele by 11pm always involved a massive traffic jam. 11 pm !!!!

And like you, my educational experiences, my ability to think critically and develop a questioning attitude were dominated by discussions of all kinds that have shaped me into the person I am today. After going through the LCMS educational system (5 through 12), I am proud of the fact that, even back then, Valpo gave me the opportunity to think outside a narrowly defined theological box and become my own person.

My conundrum now is that I don't have the foggiest notion of whether those values even fly today. Certainly, the desire to hear and discuss both sides of issues and develop thoughtful opinions from some semblance of analysis doesn't count for much anymore — I wonder if it is at least on life-support on the Valpo campus?

[Dr. T]

Paul,

What a joy it was reading through your post. Respect your vulnerability and transparency. I love that you're cultivating an environment where students are taking agency & gaining mindfulness of embracing the present. In a world that's increasingly interconnected and often driven by what we like to portray as "multitasking" - it's these sorts of cathartic moments in time that can be fostered in a classroom that money, technology, and the frills of social media cannot replicate.