Dual credit is very common. My estimate is that 30-40% of our students start their college career with at least 3 or 6 credit hours from dual credit classes - and they are usually better students. This seems like a good move.
Dual credit announcement is very heartening. We need more wins like this one.
On a less positive note, the second round of Lilly endowment grants is out, and Valpo did not receive one. Someone said on the old board that we went out for it, but surprising to see Notre Dame among recipients while Valpo is out in the cold: removed link
I'm glad that I am not the only one who received that survey email, and when I entered graduating before 2013 (2004), responded with a "what the hell," when it told me that my opinion wasn't being sought. That was a dumb way to alienate alumni that give to the university.
That's a pretty standard survey method. I've had it happen several times after vacations or other experiences. Whatever they're looking for it's specific and they weed people out as they go. I don't know why they couldn't just pull graduation data but maybe it's easier to just blast it out. A disclaimer at the top might have helped though to prevent the frustration.
Can confirm that a good data tool can weed out graduation data, bur I feel as if there would have been equally as much frustration if some grads got a survey and some didn't. In my opinion, the best course of action was to send it to all alums, allow all alums to complete the survey, then weed out the data you want. That action was clearly not taken.
The second round of the Lilly Endowment Grants was announced earlier this month. The grants were awarded to 19 colleges in Indiana and the total contributed was $445 million. The endowment was “designed to encourage Indiana’s colleges and universities to work closely with community stakeholders to envision and jointly undertake significant community development efforts to create more vibrant places in which to live, learn, work and play.”
The list of recipients and the amounts received: Ball State (35m), Earlham College (25m), Indiana State (5.8m), Purdue (25m), Taylor University (30m), Wabash College (25m), DePauw University (32m), Rose-Hulman (30.5m), Notre Dame (30m), Hanover (30m), Grace College (27m), Marion University (25m), Indiana Wesleyan (24.3m), Butler (22.5m), Indiana Institute of Tech. (21m), Trine University (17.2m), Indiana Univ. (16m), Calumet College of St. Joseph (15m), Manchester University (12.1m).
Valparaiso University submitted in both rounds and struck out. How does that happen? Something is definitely wrong here!
I would assume VUs standoffish reputation still precedes them. Until recently, there have been minimal within the local community to reach out and "make friends" for lack of a better term. Lilly Endowment clearly needs more effort to be a community presence than what VU has historically given.
The second round of the Lily Endowment Grants was announced earlier this month. The grants were awarded to 19 colleges in Indiana and the total contributed was $445 million. The endowment was “designed to encourage Indiana’s colleges and universities to work closely with community stakeholders to envision and jointly undertake significant community development efforts to create more vibrant places in which to live, learn, work and play.”
The list of recipients and the amounts received: Ball State (35m), Earlham College (25m), Indiana State (5.8m), Purdue (25m), Taylor University (30m), Wabash College (25m), DePauw University (32m), Rose-Hulman (30.5m), Notre Dame (30m), Hanover (30m), Grace College (27m), Marion University (25m), Indiana Wesleyan (24.3m), Butler (22.5m), Indiana Institute of Tech. (21m), Trine University (17.2m), Indiana Univ. (16m), Calumet College of St. Joseph (15m), Manchester University (12.1m).
Valparaiso University submitted in both rounds and struck out. How does that happen? Something is definitely wrong here!
To grasp how VU might be more effective in this arena of fundraising, it's also important to understand the specific projects/initiatives that were funded by Lilly. I couldn't find a list of first-round grant descriptions, but here's a description of the second round of grants:
Especially given how VU is expressly prioritizing the strengthening of its ties to the NW Indiana community, it's disappointing that the University could not submit a sufficiently compelling proposal to attract this significant level of funding.
It seems all the small fries are getting building grants, while the bigger schools are getting philanthropic grants. Perhaps VU is viewed as a school that would be more suited to submit applications of a philanthropic nature rather than just of a constructive nature.
I am curious to see what the Lily team sees as "community". Efforts by VU in Gary wouldn't have gone unnoticed. Perhaps they do not see Gary as a part of VUs footprint. Ultimately, without the proposal the school submitted, we cannot know for certain.
Especially given how VU is expressly prioritizing the strengthening of its ties to the NW Indiana community, it's disappointing that the University could not submit a sufficiently compelling proposal to attract this significant level of funding.
I can confirm Valparaiso submitted two proposals. Pres. Padilla stated the proposal for the second round was composed after seeing the results of the first round and knowledge of what projects were funded. The fact that VU could not present an acceptable proposal when given two opportunities while the foundation was offering more than $450 million and 19 other colleges in Indiana received an average of nearly $25 million is embarrassing, seems to be a negative reflection on advancement, and should be a call for accountability.
Like I said, unless the details of the proposals are released. It is hard to determine how they did not meet the standards.
My assumption is that they tried to make a proposal to strengthen community connections, but their reputation with the community left a sour taste in the mouth of the endowment board.
The site also makes mention of talks with community leaders and local government as a process to receive this grant. The denial could be on their end as well.
Like I said, unless the details of the proposals are released. It is hard to determine how they did not meet the standards.
As someone who wrote successful academic grant proposals for decades, I can safely say that when a foundation is trying to throw millions of dollars your way, and you have two chances (the second after seeing what proposals were approved in the first round to use for models), and you strike out with the details of your project while every other university in the state receives about $25 million, that is a total screw up, a failure on a major scale.
Where does that at all relate to what I said. If you want to be a negative nelly just say so.
I said that there cannot be effective analysis of why the school failed unless the proposals are released. There are so many factors that could have resulted in a failure here. Speculation leads to nothing when there is not a framework to speculate off of.
What was the proposal. What does the team define as community. What did the community leaders say about the proposal. What community leaders were polled by the foundation over the proposal. Are the community leaders and local government willing to accept philanthropical work. Is the proposal for on campus or for the city.
Also, there are 60 colleges within the state of Indiana with 44 being degree offering.. Only 13 received these grants.
Being a successful proposal writer, did you offer your services to the board on how to formulate an offering?
With so many factors at pay, all I can say is that this is a failure, but as to whose failure or how big of a failure, I cannot be certain.
@rezynezy You are damn right I am going to be "negative nelly" about this screw up. Every in-state competitor university (19 not 13) received grants averaging $25 million, which the university could have had as well. The administration was even given a second chance to submit a proposal after seeing what projects were selected in the first round. At that point, it doesn't matter the proposal details; those submitting the application had successful templates to follow. As someone who has done this work, that is a normal part of the process. Look at all the other universities who were able to do it. Since this is a sports forum, I will compare this to a two-foot putt, a slam dunk, an open net goal, a point after touchdown kick, etc. Yet, the university failed miserably.
