For those of you concerned about Valpo drifting away from its faith based roots--and I understand that many aren't, this recently added piece about the Chapel is very well written and would indicate to me a renewed effort to reemphasize Valpo's roots as we approach the 100th anniversary of the Lutheran acquisition.
https://www.valpo.edu/stories/2024/09/26/a-way-station-of-wonder-a-haven-of-hope-the-chapel/
@vu72, I saw that piece which was shared on some of the social media.
However, I do not see that as much of an effort - the piece is glowing about the Chapel and its place at the center of campus. Still, it is hard for me to see this as any more than continued drift. The article has quite a bit of feel-good about faith and love, yet it is fairly generic: What do I mean? The author did not mention that the motto directly came from the Bible (it mentions details like who made the windows, yet could not somewhere mention the motto is directly from Psalm 36:9?)
More concerning to those of who value Valpo's faith-based roots, there was not mention in the article about Jesus Christ - or the cross at the center of the altar!
Near the end, it does mention the Christus Rex sculpture, yet that is described one of the symbols: As you enter, your focus is directed toward the chancel, the Christus Rex sculpture, and the altar, all symbols of faith and community.
As close as it gets to something biblical is "the redemptive work of God the Son" yet even that is "tell(ing) a story that seems to transcend any faith tradition" :
The narrative I’m referring to, of course, is the creation story. The Chapel’s Munderloh Windows, created by Peter Dohmen Studios, are a visual hymn to the Trinity. The three sections speak to the creative work of God the Father, the redemptive work of God the Son, and the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying gifts, yet they all tell a story that seems to transcend any faith tradition. They seem to tell a story of divine love.
Divine love, symbols of faith and community, and transcending any faith tradition all sound good, yet they miss that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the distinctive message of Christianity: This is what gives us hope, this is what central to the Christian faith, and it is because of what Jesus did that we can love (I John 4:19).
This might sound like blasphemy, but wasnt the point of the rebrand to find different meaning for the Psalm. Everyone knows the faith meaning, but VU is about much more than Lutheranism. Focusing purely on religion and fundamentalism goes against the point of higher education entirely. Higher ED is all about finding new meaning and braving ones own path.
I'm with VU95 in being not too impressed with the article.
I mean, it's always great to have students pondering their own growth, and the Class of '24 author does a fine job of inviting the reader into her own shifting interpretations. As a piece of student writing, it's a nice reflection that shows changing understanding and maturing insight!
But, as heartening testament to the depth of VU's discourses around faith and Christian identity? Not so much.
Honestly, I find the Pastor Jim quote a strange one, where he says he initially thought "In Thy light we see light" was about intellectual enlightenment... huh? Sure, most university mottos tend to emphasize intellectual aspirations - but it takes some pretty active mis-reading to read "Thy" as something other than God unless you're totally unaware it's from a psalm or that psalms are addressed to God. (Of course Pastor Jim is not unaware, since he also mentions the psalm source... so my hunch is Bowen is recounting a pastoral conversation where Pastor Jim was trying to sort of gently bring her along from a weirdly dissociated/rationalist assumption towards the more informed reading she comes to.) But it's telling that the undergrad author sees it as some sort of mysterious puzzle what the 'thy' and the 'light' might be referring to (what, did we think Thy was a reference Pillsbury doughboy?); and it kind of depressed me that the author considers it a "radical reframing" to think about this motto has having something to do with divine love and faith. No, really!?!
To me, it says more about our students' general religious illiteracy and unfamiliarity with Christian texts/concepts that it takes so much corrective revelation to get to an understanding that (not too long ago) a sense of context and basic reading comprehension skills would have yielded.
Even at the end, she seems to think 'In Thy light, we see light' is a metaphor, when I thought (and I'm no Lutheran theologian, so I could have this wrong) y'all's whole shtick was that God's revelation is an actual enabling gift (aka, *not* a metaphorical enlightening, but an actual bestowal of gift/grace, where God enables the eyes to see more rightly or fully into the things of God....) So I'm just left with a sense of this student still trying valiantly to work her way towards a non-secular reading of the motto, working overtime to get even just a glimpse of what the psalm might mean on its own terms or in Christian (Lutheran?) tradition.
Again, I'm not trying to bash this undergrad author who has written an admirably sincere reflection on where she is with all this!
I'm just saying this doesn't seem to me like evidence of depth or nuance of institutional thinking or commitment.
Trying to be all things to all people never works-except for Walmart...either be a Lutheran faith based school and don't apologize or follow the herd
We have several successful business people on the board -cant they help us with marketing etc?
What we are doing is not working
A Psalm to the marketing gods:
'How long, o Marketing Gods? Will you forget us forever?
How long will you hide your ROI from us?
How long must we take counsel in ourselves,
and thirst for the next marketing campaign?
O, say the right thing to make us look good,
So that the enrollments may rush down like Spring showers,
And we shall feel good about ourselves once again.
Selah
Wikipedia’s article on Valparaiso University portrays an institution in serious decline. It devotes an entire section titled “Institutional Decline” to the multiple blunders we know all too well, beginning with a mockery of Heckler’s "most comprehensive and collaborative strategic-planning endeavor in the University’s history" and continuing to the present day. With no ensuing “Recovery” story to offset the negative vibes this and other “reviews” generate, the greatest marketing collateral in the world isn’t going to change anything. It is impossible to “market” your way out of decades of disastrous institutional planning and tactical blunders with no end in sight.
Institutional decline
In 2008, Mark Heckler became Valparaiso University's 18th president. During his initial years in office, Heckler embarked on the "most comprehensive and collaborative strategic-planning endeavor in the University’s history".[14] The plan included goals such as increasing enrollment to 6,000 students, multiple building initiatives, and increased global engagement; however student enrollment never increased as desired, and the university began to face serious financial strain as construction debt servicing and administrative staffing costs grew, while student enrollment faltered at the undergraduate level. At the graduate level, poor rates of law students passing the bar exam led to a drop-off in enrollment and accreditation challenges.
After 2015, Valparaiso University began to struggle with enrollment and retention of students. The student population dropped from 4,544 in the fall of 2015 to 2,939 in the fall of 2022 and the law school was closed in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the university's enrollment and budgetary problems reached an acute point, resulting in the discontinuances of multiple undergraduate programs (secondary education major, theatre major and minor, Chinese minor, French major, Greek and Roman studies major and minor). Due to financial stress, the university also laid off numerous lecturers and more than a dozen other tenure-track faculty in remaining programs and offered a retirement incentive buy-out package to long-term faculty and staff to incentivize voluntary departures. Meanwhile, the student retention rate also fell to 77%.[15]
Amid these enrollment struggles, the university has also faced controversy. In 2021, the Indiana Attorney General's office announced an investigation into the university's Confucius Institute, alleging that it promotes Chinese propaganda.[16]The university closed the institute and denied the allegations.[17] In 2023, the board of directors decided to sell three paintings, including one by Georgia O'Keeffe, from the Brauer Museum of Art to renovate freshman dorms.[18] This raised opposition from the namesake of the museum and protest from some faculty and students about the erosion of the arts.[19] The university announced in early 2024 that 28 additional programs would go into review for discontinuance due to budgetary problems,[20] and embarked on the closure and demolition of additional buildings to reduce utilities costs.[21]Later that year in July, VU confirmed the discontinuance of 30 programs.[22]”
Lord heavens, somebody please add an 'institutional recovery' section.
The silver lining is I'm not sure too many prospectives would be looking at wikipedia for college info when the Google algorithms are more likely to bring up Valpo websites or more obvious college comparison sites like Niche.
Wikipedia is constantly viewed as an inaccurate source of information because of tee open-source nature of the platform.
Wikipedia is constantly viewed as an inaccurate source of information because of tee open-source nature of the platform.
I agree, but you did not point out any inaccuracies in the excerpt quoted by WH.
@valpopal that wasn't my point. The point was that people aren't going to make their decisions on a college based on a Wikipedia article. Wikipedia is open source and anyone can edit. There are issues with taking Wikipedia at its word. See the many renamings of VHS a few days ago. Google uses Wikipedia for some of their location information and thus caused VHS and CPHS to be renamed over the course of a day. The material inside the wiki page may be accurate, it may be inaccurate, but no student is making their college decisions based on the site due to the unreliability.
