@valpopal What's new? When even was the last year when raises of any kind were on the table? 2018? The uni did mostly un-do the 2020 -5% pay cuts, but that still only brought faculty & staff up to slightly below their 2019 salaries.
I am curious. As part of the announcement of no salary increases and greater benefit payments, did Pres Padilla announce that he and others in the senior administration were taking pay cuts (or at least also having their salaries frozen)?
I am curious. As part of the announcement of no salary increases and greater benefit payments, did Pres Padilla announce that he and others in the senior administration were taking pay cuts (or at least also having their salaries frozen)?
Honestly, I don't even care. Less money in his pocket does not translate into more in mine. It was actually naive to expect salary increases. I have more existential expectations/questions. Does this present leadership actually have a plan to save this school? And at what point do they reach the gentleman conclusion that if, after years with no signs of righting the ship, one should step aside and allow a different lead before it is too late?
And on top of it all: it became crystal clear to me that faculty are just expected to follow the orders without question or f*k off.
I am willing to bet that the majority still working here are trapped in one way or another (personal or professional reasons).
I have more existential expectations/questions. Does this present leadership actually have a plan to save this school? And at what point do they reach the gentleman conclusion that if, after years with no signs of righting the ship, one should step aside and allow a different lead before it is too late?
Too late for what? From the start, Padilla said he was nearing the end of his career and wasn't looking for another job after this. If he's in his early 60s (not sure), he probably just needs to run down the clock for another 5 or so years. If the uni closes after that, it's not going to be on his watch.
Younger staff and faculty who will need livable incomes for the next 20+ years, or who are still getting started or raising families, should be concerned about the long-term survival of the university or figuring out a more viable career path elsewhere.
That seems fatalist. But it's real. Valpo made headline higher education industry news on November 10 with its debt crisis. Short term borrowing is maxing out fast.
Too late for what?
I meant too late for the school. If you are a gentleman and realize that you cannot save the school, resign early enough so that another leader has a chance to try something else. Of course, he can always say that nobody can do anything better and/or the school died because people did not follow his lead (he already hints to that kind of thinking by blaming the faculty). Anyway this is rhetorical stuff...I have enough cynicism to not hold my breath.
ion analytics valparaiso university ------ has the full financials
Thing is, amidst this talk of "can VU survive?," I still believe that this university has a viable appeal in terms of enrollment. It doesn't have to win over the masses of applicants. But it has do a better job of finding those young folks who are open to and will benefit from a balanced, smaller scaled college education that is vocationally relevant and values informed, as well as spiritually enriched if they so choose.
Maybe they're among the kids who are watching the deep, extreme divisions of all kinds in this country and now wish to go to a college where there's room for different points of view and where they can get a good start on building their lives and livelihoods.
Perhaps I've got it wrong. Maybe such a sweet spot in the applicant pool simply doesn't exist. But at least in terms of recruiting an additional few hundred students each year out of the countless thousands seeking a place at a 4-year school, I don't think I'm off the mark.
It's not clear whether President Padilla fully understands those qualities about VU. While he certainly grasps the seriousness of VU's financial challenges, I don't know if he has internalized how the core strengths of the institution can still attract a certain bandwidth of young people to come to VU.
@david81 Yeah, I agree there still ought to be a path forward in terms of enrollment.
But I do think something in the offering/pitch has to change, since pitching to a sort of generic middle *isn't* working, as enrollment continues to Fall.
On the one hand, Padilla and the Board apparently think the 'bold change' lies in hacking away at programs, alienating faculty, and renovating dorms, (and maybe the latter can help slow the decline somewhat?)
But on the contrary, I think the really bold shift required is to buck the trend against so much of US higher ed becoming depersonalized and frankly depressing. Across the country, students at mid or low-tier colleges are finding 'the college experience' to be largely procedural and underwhelming... They turn up to classes with distracted profs juggling 4 other sections, to sit next to half-bored peers scrolling thru Amazon during class, while they themselves only half-listen to the conversation because they're scrolling through both Twitter and the pdf that they didn't read for class. Any spark of curiosity they came with is pretty quickly snuffed out by either the relentless pressure towards professionalization they feel from peers, advisors and the world at large (is your LinkedIn as impressive as your roommates?) or the sloth of not being sure any of it matters (if it's all a crap shoot, then I might as well just ask ChatGPT to do my school work for me). While some students still go to lectures and discussions or seek out mentorship and connection with professors, a lot don't... for at the end of the day, they have been habituated into accepting that their education resides in Blackboard posts and the never-ending pings of LMS notifications and retention trackers. And I suspect that a lot of profs who are underpaid and spread too thin honestly AREN'T teaching very well or inspiringly, but turning a lot to Youtube videos or just sending students into lateral discussion (which is sometimes meaningful in making use of flipped classroom etc. but just as often ends up becoming the blind leading the blind in trying to make sense of the material.) US higher ed is a mess, in other words, and its leaving small-name schools like Valpo all the more vulnerable to enrollment failure. Is it any wonder that students either opt for the elite/prestigious institutions where they think they're at least going to get 'high ROI' from the name recognition and networking, or begin question of the value of going to college at all?
A really bold and distinct college would be the private uni that actually invests in delivering an education based in interpersonal and intellectual encounter that really DEMANDS students' attention - quality conversation, rigorous expectations, a sense that something is HAPPENING live that can't just be watched on the video later, a live sense of campus community, etc. Current and prospective students KNOW when the magic is happening or not.
I know of a couple of families whose kids recently looked at VU but decided to go to really unusual/small/newly founded 'classical' school type colleges (Great Books, UK tutor type model experimental institutions) -- not necessarily because they're ideologically conservative (though maybe that's part of it) but actually mainly because these new alternative schools often offer a really small intensive and sometimes even explicitly low-tech or banned-tech learning community, which students hope will really feed the desire for curiosity, real intellectual/thought diversity, analytic rigor, and innovation. I admit have my doubts about these new (sometimes not even accredited) places, but I do have to hand it to them for painting a much more interesting picture of the college experience than Valpo currently does.
People are sick of crappy K-12 education and, unfortunately, they see higher ed delivering more of the same - though to the tune of a $40+k per year pricetag.
The problem is that VU and other forms of higher education have simply become too expensive. The first question a lot of those in my generation tend to ask is "How much is this going to cost me and how much am I going to get out of it". Part of the reason I did not attend VU, or even attend IU or Purdue was over cost. Going to IU Indy was 10k less expensive for the same education as IU or Purdue for my degree path. VU is upwards of 50k a year. Valpo is a nice city, but there really isn't much to do in city limits. Last time I ever heard of a true "College Hang out spot" in Valpo was Buffa Louie's, and Shoes certainly wasn't an adequate replacement for that establishment. A lot of kids factor in that "college experience" into their pricing out of colleges. If a school is more expensive, there is a certain expectation of amenities or attraction that pulls people in. When you try to sell VU to people. You end up having to sell Valpo to people, and in my opinion. Valpo just isn't a hard sell. Chicago is often too far away and too costly for the average student to make a weekend trip to. The dorm requirements of 3 years often leave students without wanting to bring their cars, hence cannot access the various nature preserves (and 1 of 3 national parks within the state). If you don't live here, its really hard to love it enough to want to stay here for 4-6 years.
Take Gonzaga. They are 10k more expensive to attend than VU is, but there are certain perks of attending Gonzaga beyond the education. Basketball and Spokane being 2 of those perks.
Even Butler has perks beyond the education. Access to Indy(for networking) and a great party scene that kids like myself can get behind. As well as Big East basketball. Its perks like these that make that 60k price point more worth it for some.
This is why I liked the dorm renovation and Victory Village projects(If they ever actually happen that is). The Village was supposed to be that "College Hang Out Spot" that would have been a perk of attendance. It is really hard to attract students, at this price point, on strength of diploma alone.
Ultimately, I agree with what VUIndiana said regarding higher ed. The amount of poorly written ChatGPT code blocks I have had to mark kids down for as a TA is disturbing, but that is exactly why universities need something else they can offer students beyond the pen and paper. And Valparaiso isnt a "College Town" its a "Town with a College in it"
@david81 Yeah, I agree there still ought to be a path forward in terms of enrollment.
But I do think something in the offering/pitch has to change, since pitching to a sort of generic middle *isn't* working, as enrollment continues to Fall.
On the one hand, Padilla and the Board apparently think the 'bold change' lies in hacking away at programs, alienating faculty, and renovating dorms, (and maybe the latter can help slow the decline somewhat?)
But on the contrary, I think the really bold shift required is to buck the trend against so much of US higher ed becoming depersonalized and frankly depressing. Across the country, students at mid or low-tier colleges are finding 'the college experience' to be largely procedural and underwhelming... They turn up to classes with distracted profs juggling 4 other sections, to sit next to half-bored peers scrolling thru Amazon during class, while they themselves only half-listen to the conversation because they're scrolling through both Twitter and the pdf that they didn't read for class. Any spark of curiosity they came with is pretty quickly snuffed out by either the relentless pressure towards professionalization they feel from peers, advisors and the world at large (is your LinkedIn as impressive as your roommates?) or the sloth of not being sure any of it matters (if it's all a crap shoot, then I might as well just ask ChatGPT to do my school work for me). While some students still go to lectures and discussions or seek out mentorship and connection with professors, a lot don't... for at the end of the day, they have been habituated into accepting that their education resides in Blackboard posts and the never-ending pings of LMS notifications and retention trackers. And I suspect that a lot of profs who are underpaid and spread too thin honestly AREN'T teaching very well or inspiringly, but turning a lot to Youtube videos or just sending students into lateral discussion (which is sometimes meaningful in making use of flipped classroom etc. but just as often ends up becoming the blind leading the blind in trying to make sense of the material.) US higher ed is a mess, in other words, and its leaving small-name schools like Valpo all the more vulnerable to enrollment failure. Is it any wonder that students either opt for the elite/prestigious institutions where they think they're at least going to get 'high ROI' from the name recognition and networking, or begin question of the value of going to college at all?
A really bold and distinct college would be the private uni that actually invests in delivering an education based in interpersonal and intellectual encounter that really DEMANDS students' attention - quality conversation, rigorous expectations, a sense that something is HAPPENING live that can't just be watched on the video later, a live sense of campus community, etc. Current and prospective students KNOW when the magic is happening or not.
I know of a couple of families whose kids recently looked at VU but decided to go to really unusual/small/newly founded 'classical' school type colleges (Great Books, UK tutor type model experimental institutions) -- not necessarily because they're ideologically conservative (though maybe that's part of it) but actually mainly because these new alternative schools often offer a really small intensive and sometimes even explicitly low-tech or banned-tech learning community, which students hope will really feed the desire for curiosity, real intellectual/thought diversity, analytic rigor, and innovation. I admit have my doubts about these new (sometimes not even accredited) places, but I do have to hand it to them for painting a much more interesting picture of the college experience than Valpo currently does.
People are sick of crappy K-12 education and, unfortunately, they see higher ed delivering more of the same - though to the tune of a $40+k per year pricetag.
VUIndiana, thanks for your response, especially the parts that I bolded above.
Yes, that's a big part of what VU at least used to be able to deliver, i.e., a more personalized 4-year college education. Now, it wasn't a Cambridge-style tutorial, or a Great Books-type program with tiny classes, but one could get some of those qualities by judiciously choosing professors and courses. Of course, Christ College has had many of those elements as its norm, but well outside of CC it was also possible to take smaller, advanced courses and seminars across the colleges and the curriculum where an enterprising student could get to know a faculty member and work on projects more independently.
And here's where I see the social class issues coming into play, because as you noted, the depersonalized approach to a 4-yr degree is disproportionately coming at schools outside of the elite ranks.
Some of us experienced a Valpo education when it had that more personal quality, and it opened doors to opportunities that were not necessarily foreseeable when we matriculated as first-year undergraduates. I don't know to what degree the VU that allowed working class and lower middle class kids to start taking steps up the ladder still exists, but this was among its most valuable roles (not its exclusive one, to be sure) back then.
VU cannot, and should not try to, go back to those days of yore. But perhaps it can reclaim a similar role, among others, in a sort of contrarian way compared to the directions being taken by peer institutions.
I think our dialog on VU enrollment goes down two separate tracks. Best to keep them separate.
1) Headwinds that face higher education generally - out of our control
2) Given that is a reality, what is Valpo's ability to segment its prospects strategically and execute the contacts? It has been suggested that a core target is students graduating from Lutheran High schools. We don't know the facts of current outreach. At this point, we can just say that it just seems wise, if all other factors are equal.
I know I have made this known here before, but VU used to have a local outreach program that sponsored 2 tours of campus within the VCS community. You got 1 tour in 5th grade, and another tour in 8th grade. That program was seeming stopped when one of my peers decided to make comments about the law school during the open QnA. To my knowledge, TJMS was then banned from the campus, and VCS stopped receiving their slate of tours.
IF you want to look at numbers, NWI simply doesn't have a stronghold of practicing Lutherans. NWIs greatest connection is with the catholic church(likely through the Diocese of Gary). Catholicism is on the rise in Porter and Lake counties, with Lake county boasting over 100k confirmed Catholics in 2020 when the Religion Census does their data. You have to appeal to your local area, and VU is a Lutheran "Fish out of Water". Yes. FT. Wayne does have a large Lutheran contingent, and VU likely does have some form of outreach, but that outreach only extends to the packets students get in the mail rather than face to face conversations with staff. However, Valpo did attend the Fort Wayne College Fair in 2023, which is hosted at Purdue Ft. Wayne. From my research, this college fair did not take place in 2024 or there is just no record of it online I could find. The major issue with the Lutherans, or other prospective students outside NWI, is that these students ae not going to be commuters, and with VUs dorm situation compared to price, there is little to sway opinion considering the bad publicity in recent years. Gen Z looks at that stuff. If you are charging 50k a year, and your dorms still don't have central AC, that is a problem. Others have also outlined that fact here.
There was just recently an entire fifth grade year from one of the valpo elementary schools on campus for a tour and a basketball game. I've also checked with people I know in the school system. Valpo is present including having people come on to the high school to speak. They also host regional college fairs. You have made this broad statement that all of these tours have been stopped from one comment by a middle schooler which sounds massively like rumor and conjecture than anything resembling the truth.
There was just recently an entire fifth grade year from one of the valpo elementary schools on campus for a tour and a basketball game. I've also checked with people I know in the school system. Valpo is present including having people come on to the high school to speak. They also host regional college fairs. You have made this broad statement that all of these tours have been stopped from one comment by a middle schooler which sounds massively like rumor and conjecture than anything resembling the truth.
Then they have since allowed VCS to return. I remember for many years that wasn't the case. I am no longer close to the school system so I can only speak for the knowledge of when I was close to the school system. They ostracized VCS for many many years. Particularly the 8th grader tour, at least to my knowledge, is still no longer offered.
