In an email sent to the campus community, Board Chair Robert D. Hansen, Jr. has announced that José Padilla intends to retire at the end of 2025. Hansen notes that he also will retire at the end of the calendar year. An official Presidential Search Committee is being formed now. Jon Steinbrecher is now Chair-Elect of the Board.
With how turbulent times have been at Valpo, the only good news about needing a new President is that they have a long time to figure out who they want to hire…
Interesting that the campus community didn't hear it directly from Padilla.
They may need a competent president sooner than the end of the year, and let's be realistic, in many cases employees coasting into retirement tend to not be peak activity. Perhaps hire soon then transition to start the role on Jan. 1, 2026.
Haven't been on in a bit, been busy with move /new job / getting kids settled at new schools, etc, but a couple of my board-adjacent friends were whispering about this last week. The faculty got their wish. Same friends say the discussion amongst that group is now to target DI athletics.
I've said it many times previously and on many of our prior forums, since it has been a recurring topic for 20+ years, but Valpo getting rid of D-1 athletics would be what kills the overall university. Those in the faculty that support dropping down are delirious in how they think that Valpo can pull in enough students to survive, without the national awareness provided by our D-1 athletics program. I am not saying that most folks come to Valpo because of our sports, but it is a big reason that people even hear of Valparaiso University, unless you know people that went there. It's just a self-serving hope on their behalf, in hoping that any D-1 savings would end up in their pocket.
Haven't been on in a bit, been busy with move /new job / getting kids settled at new schools, etc, but a couple of my board-adjacent friends were whispering about this last week. The faculty got their wish. Same friends say the discussion amongst that group is now to target DI athletics.
As in target D1 athletics to push out of the university next, or target a D1 administrator as the next president?
Faculty at Valpo in favor the end of D1 athletics must love seeing their university go down. How narrow minded and boneheaded…
Whoa, huge news re: Padilla.
USC, don't freak out too much. I really don't hear much or anything among faculty about wanting to end D1 athletics. I mean, there's obviously a lot of concern about where the university's shrinking budget is going, but is there really some cabal upset about D1 in particular? I know I personally have questioned the cost of the Lottich buy-out just because it was SO much money (tho I know you think just 'crumbs') in light of the severe austerity and cuts everywhere else. I don't like the buyouts (of either coaches or senior faculty) because of the desperation of it all.... it's just all part of a downward spiral of paying people NOT to work, when there are so many people underpaid still expected to show up and move mountains with no shovels. But even I don't have some overall vendetta against D1 and would prefer the uni to stay D1 if that can help maintain the uni's overall reputation and enrollment draw (I generally think so!). If there is some staff or faculty movement to leave D1, I'm unaware of it. And I think there would need to be more transparency and understanding of the overall budget of the university for anybody to make the analysis that it wasn't worth it. My own sense of the enrollment situation is that we do get a fair amount of students in the door because of D1 sports, so my guess is there's serious financial benefit to staying D1 from a couple angles.
Faculty at Valpo in favor the end of D1 athletics must love seeing their university go down. How narrow minded and boneheaded…
This is how rumors get started. I don't think it's fair to pin this mentality on the faculty.
I dont think D1 Athletics is a major target. Considering that the school just signed a major deal for a corporate sponsorship with Uchicago med. If this really was known about weeks ago. This deal would have been dropped. D1 athletics is a major draw for a university. Even a school where said D1 athletics isnt really doing too well. On another note D1 athletics is some of the only positive press to come out of the school recently. Would you really want to get rid of your only source of positivity in the newspapers?
However, if, and this is a big IF, the staff are going to target D1 athletics. I would agree with USC that it is boneheaded. However, staff members in this forum have stated that that is likely not the case.
What I do see, is that any effort Padilla had or was working on is gone. No more Victory Village. No more IVY Tech partnership. No more UIC partnership. No more CCC partnership. No more HSI initiative. But that is just my theory. These initiatives could very well continue.
@nativecheesehead - you led me in the wrong path! Stop that!
I feel most on this board are in favor or pleased about this. I just hope faculty can engage with leadership and vice-versa, get a plan that works and move forward. In reality, I think we need the president sooner than later, and perhaps a salary buyout for Padilla for the remainder of the year should be considered. 11 months of stagnancy is a long time.
The idea of dropping D1 is simply silly. About 15% of the freshman class are athletes. How many would be here if Valpo was D3? Maybe 10 or 20?? Padilla has said that the vast majority of students now come from a relatively short distance. Athletes are the exception and come from 37 states and 12 countries. How better to get the word out about Valpo across the country? Look at the current listed new football recruits. Just so far our recruits hail from 13 different states.
The other positive is that the new Board Chair is Jon Steinbrecher. Currently the MAC Commissioner and obviously an advocate for D1 athletics.
@usc4valpo Huh, interesting point about buying out the end of Padilla's contract. Yeah, I agree there's a risk of the lag soaking up precious time VU needs for turning the ship around. It seems like the next 11 months could only be some sort of lame duck presidency.
I just think the Board would need to actually negotiate and not be overly generous in throwing money at departing people's backs. As I was noting earlier, VU has a bad precedent of shelling out way too much cash for people who are gone (very expensive process of getting Law School administrators and other folk off payroll, paying Heckler his $400K+ salary for multiple years after he'd stepped down from presidency, paying tons of retiree-age faculty 2 years(!) full salary plus benefits to leave in 2020, paying Lottich lord knows how much to not finish his contract (and yes, agree Powell has been great), etc.) In the big picture, buyouts have often seemed to me like a symptom of Valpo flailing.
If we're going to spend money to turn the page, it could be the strategic thing to do.... but it really needs to be carefully and tightly negotiated, and be an investment forward into Valpo the future.
@vu72 Agreed. Good point about Steinbrecher.
