Oh I certainly dont think the bachelor degrees are being marketed effectively. That stems all the way back to when the law school was around. If my memory serves me correctly, VU held the law program on a pedestal. The law program was the precious to their Gollum (I will continue to use this analogy, sue me). They flaunted and flaunted the law program, even when their engineering program and their nursing program is about as quality of a program as Purdue and IUs programs respectively. Heck Basketball games used to have an entire pregame presentation about the law program dating as far back as the early 2010s. There in lies the issue with the law school shuttering. When you put this program on a pedestal, people tend to assume that this program is your identity. The general public was under the impression that the program was "ran into thr ground" which I believe there is some truth to. Even if enrollment has never relied on the law school previously, when that program, which VU marketed as its entire identity practically, people will lose faith in the institution regardless of what other good programs you might offer.
I remember a kid in eight grade. Back when VU used to give campus tours to the local middle schools and high schools. During the QnA he said this, "How are we to trust that you can keep the safety of us as students and our degrees, when you cant even keep your law school open". Needless to say, Valpo schools have not been invited back since to my knowledge. The court of public opinion is brutal, and the mismanagement of the law program is a perfect example of how that court can turn against you even when you have historically never relied on it.
FWIW, I would add a reference to enrollment at Concordia Nebraska (my wife's alma mater).
https://www.cune.edu/news/concordia-nebraska-celebrates-fall-2024-undergraduate-enrollment-numbers
Concordia University, Nebraska today announced that the university welcomed 404 new undergraduate students for the fall 2024 semester. Combined with the university’s 818 returning undergraduate students, current undergraduate enrollment is 1,222, which is 99.3 percent of the enrollment goal the university set for this semester.
“When fall 2022 began, we had 1,124 undergraduate students on campus,” said Concordia Nebraska Associate Vice President of Undergraduate Enrollment Aaron Roberts. “To be at 1,222 students for fall 2024 means we’ve grown by nearly 100 undergraduate students in the last two years. The faith so many families and students have put in our faculty and staff is a blessing beyond words.”
The university also serves 448 full-time and part-time adult learners registered for classes as of Aug. 27, 2024.
“What a joy and honor it is to welcome, serve and equip men and women for lives of learning, service and leadership to Christ in the church and world,” said university President Dr. Bernard Bull. “In a time when some colleges are struggling with declining enrollment, we continue to see strong, even growing, interest in Concordia by prospective students and their families. We are humbled and honored to strive to be a Christ-centered higher education alternative. We do not know how long this trend will persist but thank God for the opportunity to support students and families who hold Christian education and faith formation as a central priority when choosing a college.”
I'm catching up on many of the messages, and it is clear that Valpo has suffered deeper declines in enrollment than many of its peers over the least decade. This year's FAFSA debacle should have been no worse for Valpo than it was for Concordia Nebraska or the other peer schools listed on the previous pages (thanks @vuindiana) . This seems to me like it an excuse for a record decline in enrollment. (Why would Concordia Nebraska see an increase even with the FAFSA problem?)
Elsewhere on this board we have identified the turnover in the enrollment and marketing offices - the turnover does not help, yet if those individuals cannot articulate a compelling vision for why a student should come to Valpo, then they should be replaced. The Law School debacle also has been re-hashed in several places on this board.
What this does (again!) is point back to the utter failure of President Heckler's tenure. He pushed forward an ill-conceived expansion agenda to grow to 6,000 in the face of visible, well-known and entirely foreseeable decline in the college-age population. He oversaw and bears responsibility for the steep decline in the traditional Lutheran core of students coming to VU - although part of that demographic decline, those Lutheran students are going elsewhere to places like Concordia. He oversaw the borrowing of millions of dollars for new buildings (some of which were needed) yet did so without a plan to pay them off. He tapped VUs line of credit (secured by the endowment) to balance budgets without a plan to pay it back, leaving no flexibility for future needs. Although there were secular trends impacting all law schools, Heckler was president (and ultimately responsible) during the law school disintegration and black eye to the university.
I give President Padilla a lot of credit for trying to right the ship. In general, it looks to me like he is taking actions to secure the future of the university.
Elsewhere on this board we have identified the turnover in the enrollment and marketing offices - the turnover does not help, yet if those individuals cannot articulate a compelling vision for why a student should come to Valpo, then they should be replaced. The Law School debacle also has been re-hashed in several places on this board.
What this does (again!) is point back to the utter failure of President Heckler's tenure. He pushed forward an ill-conceived expansion agenda to grow to 6,000 in the face of visible, well-known and entirely foreseeable decline in the college-age population. He oversaw and bears responsibility for the steep decline in the traditional Lutheran core of students coming to VU - although part of that demographic decline, those Lutheran students are going elsewhere to places like Concordia. He oversaw the borrowing of millions of dollars for new buildings (some of which were needed) yet did so without a plan to pay them off. He tapped VUs line of credit (secured by the endowment) to balance budgets without a plan to pay it back, leaving no flexibility for future needs. Although there were secular trends impacting all law schools, Heckler was president (and ultimately responsible) during the law school disintegration and black eye to the university.
I give President Padilla a lot of credit for trying to right the ship. In general, it looks to me like he is taking actions to secure the future of the university.
Exact reason why Padilla's plans for future projects and the funding there of has been (mostly) a really good move. More loans is never the option.
CC's conditions are basically artificial and completely disconnected from the harsher dynamics that everybody else has to face. Since they don't house majors at all, they never have to prove their worth in terms of #s of declared majors or minors. Since a lot of their faculty have the cushy endowed positions, they never have to worry about cuts.
VUIndiana, I believe you said on the old board that you were previously a teacher at Valpo? By my count, CC has exactly two endowed chairs out of ten. 20% is not “a lot,” especially given that another 20% is adjunct/visiting. And those endowments are not cherry-picked by administration; they are gifted by donors - and in the case of CC, both from one donor family in particular with a recognizable Valpo name.
You’re right that CC does not house majors. Their humanities major was cut this summer. The minor is still listed on their website.
@rezynezy - I like the idea of getting alums engaged to support the programs, but I have to say that alumni relations at Valpo have been non responsive and lacking, and certainly not a department deserving of a raise or bonus.
@usc4valpo Alumni relations on the academic side are abysmal and need to change. However, I do commend the athletic department for being much more engaging with the alumni network
So if we have enrollment issues, imagine for a moment being a fellow Lutheran institution, named Wittenberg University (actually a few years older than Valpo established in 1845), located, yes, you guessed it, in Springfield, Ohio. They have, as a result of an unnamed politician or two, new issues beyond our comprehension. God bless them.
Aside from the immediate political memes & heightened emotions, the underlying dynamic of having a growing young immigrant population right there in Springfield could actually be a good thing for Wittenberg.
If the problem for so many colleges in the post-industrial Midwest has been a declining and aging population, then Springfield OH could be lucky outlier in having a bunch of young Haitians trying to build a life in the US. Also, my understanding is that the Haitians who came over in the wake of the earthquakes are legally here - so practically & financially for the uni, that probably means it is pretty straightforward to enroll them and get federal aide and other monies.
Valpo has tried to attract more immigrant and/or first-gen student communities to help with our own enrollment woes, but the problem is it that Valpo is still so geographically offset from where the Asian/Latino/Black/Caribbean populations actually are in Chicago & suburbs closer to Chicago. Since it seems in Ohio the Haitians have actually settled in and around Springfield, I imagine Wittenberg has a better chance of actually serving and enrolling them.
Yes, indeed. Assuming I'm not being politically provocative when I suggest that at least legal immigration has long been part of the lifeblood of America, I heartily endorse what Springfield OH has done, i.e., recognizing their population decline and making a welcoming space for immigrants who wish to make a new start for themselves.
VU and NW Indiana in general could benefit from such an influx.
The pre-Lutheran version of VU under Brown & Kinsey was all about creating educational opportunities for America's burgeoning immigrant population, many of whom would define Chicagoland's ethnic landscape for decades to come. And for several decades, it thrived in that mode. (For more, read the chapters covering that period in Dr. Richard Baepler's excellent history of VU up to 2000, Flame of Faith, Lamp of Learning.)
Let's acknowledge that the Haitian immigrants are in Ohio legally but that is due to a Temporary Protection Status granted to them by the Secretary of Homeland Security in an effort to have their presence not counted alongside the tens of millions of illegal immigrants that have crossed the border. That TPS was to expire in August, but Mayorkas has extended it to February 2026 to raise the numbers of more than 1.5 million (according to AP) by at least another 400,000.
We are all for legal immigration through proper channels, but this is an end-run for political reasons, and its impact on small communities drains local resources in housing, health care, education, law enforcement, parks, transportation, etc. that already have totaled millions of dollars from tax coffers and raised the cost of living in these communities. Such local communities cannot sustain an input equal to 20-25% of the existing population. Additionally, the TPS now covers nearly 20 countries, including places like Venezuela.
If the illegal immigration numbers weren't so large and devastatingly costly to communities, even in larger cities like New York and Chicago, the TPS would not be as much of an issue, especially if the immigrants were not concentrated in small communities. This week's ominous report about illegal immigration by ICE—about 15,000 murderers and 20,000 rapists, and a total of about 500,000 with criminal records, have knowingly been allowed into the country—doesn't help the situation for those of us who support legal avenues of immigration.
The city of Valparaiso has a population of about 35,000. If the government were to add 15,000 immigrants, as in Springfield, needing social services and tax payer assistance in a short 18-month period of time, the result would be damaging to the community. According to NBC, nearby Chicago has spent more than $400 million in the last two years on social services for migrants, and the Illinois state budget tops $2 billion for migrants in 2023-2025. This includes $619 million in the Fiscal Year 2023 state budget, $773 million in the Fiscal Year 2024 state budget, and $629 million in the proposed Fiscal Year 2025 state budget, and does not include local municipal costs.
Let's not get into politics.
