@vuindiana be aware that most students or professors have little or limited understanding on how universities operate. The art sale was a must to keep the school in tact, and professors and student cannot comprehend the fiscal perspective.
@vuindiana I agree with most of your statement, but claiming the upper admin is hellbent on killing enrollment doesn't seem to be the strategy. Killing underperformed programs is a natural part of performance reviews. I was shocked to find out about the potential of revoking tenure for profs who were not initially hired to the department, bit killing underperformed majors to make way for "hot" majors seems like a step in the right direction to me
@vuindiana well in my opinion that is the post covid effect. Valpo was fortunate to survive covid. A lot of small religious schools were not so lucky.
@vuindiana righting the ship is going to be a long process. We are still in the infancy stage. Adding the online degrees for health sciences, as well as a social work master is a step in the right direction I think. Hopefully the admin can regain their trust with you and your coworkers.
killing underperformed majors to make way for "hot" majors seems like a step in the right direction to me
I have been around long enough to remember when there were serious discussions at VU about discontinuing nursing because it was "underperforming."
@valpopal And now nursing/health science is the premier major. Really shows how far things have come
We're at least above Evansville in that article, though one below Butler. It's interesting to see the lasting power of Depauw and Wabash. I remember that on my trip to Valpo, my dad had us drive down to look at both schools ("fun" drive in the snow), so that I had D3 baseball options, if I wanted. My same age cousin ended up going to Depauw and she ended up as one of their top Field Hockey players of all-time. Her education served her very well. I assume that it is still the same, but Wabash's dudes only view was a huge turnoff to me. As much as their staff and coach tried to sell me on their mixer events with Depauw to meet girls, being around dudes 100% of the time was not how I was looking to spend college 😀. We also visited Purdue and Butler on that trip. Butler's coach was nice, but their campus tour at the time was showing people a dorm room that was a dungeon-looking basement. It wasn't the greatest sales pitch for those of us on that tour.
@valpotx Interesting about Wabash...I was there long time ago to give a talk and chatting with faculty they admitted students have a hard time joining the school because of men only aspect but they say the vast majority of them, upon graduation, they claim they appreciated highly the one sex aspect of it. Could be rationalization, after spending 4 years might as well find a way to like it. I always wondered how they put up Romeo and Juliet in their theater shows 
Maybe I'm missing something here, but why would faculty not understand how universities operate or how the enrollment and fiscal dynamics operate?
Most of us did our grad work in four-yr universities far more functional and financially responsible than Valpo. In doctoral studies and postdocs, you see a lot... Rankings & enrollment, discount rate & enrollment, undergrad course coverage cycles, teaching cycles, variety of types of faculty contracts, undergrad and grad recruitment eforts, running a lab, grant acquisitions, town & gown relations, courting of local invesment, administrator fundraising, etc. If faculty did also either a masters before or a postdoc after their doctoral studies, they likely have experience of all this an additional couple different institutions. And if they most likely applied and interviewed on campus at a range of places, then they probably even glimpses of yet another set of programs developing around the country and variety of interpretations of what it takes to make them succeed in the complicated balance of professional schools vs. natural sciences and social sciences disciplines. If faculty remain active in the academy at conferences and the like, then they are talking shop all the time with colleagues at other succeeding or failing institutions.
Most the VU Board members seem to have only seen one institution: Valpo undergrad. Most the VU upper administrators only seem to have one playbook: kill enrollment.
Perhaps you might take the time to actually look at who is on the Board before making broad statements about their respective educational experiences. Many have JD degrees, a guy like Andy Nunemaker has not only a degree from Valpo but a Masters from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard. Oh, and the Board also includes a guy named Noe M. Ortega, who is the Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner. Lest we forget, the No.2 guy at Valpo, Provost Eric Johnson, who holds a PhD from Notre Dame and has, in the past, been Dean of Engineering for many years. These people would all seem to have plenty of experience understanding how "universities operate", wouldn't ya think? Take a few minutes to examine to backgrounds and profiles of the members of Valpo's board. You might just be impressed, like I was.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but why would faculty not understand how universities operate or how the enrollment and fiscal dynamics operate?
Most of us did our grad work in four-yr universities far more functional and financially responsible than Valpo. In doctoral studies and postdocs, you see a lot... Rankings & enrollment, discount rate & enrollment, undergrad course coverage cycles, teaching cycles, variety of types of faculty contracts, undergrad and grad recruitment eforts, running a lab, grant acquisitions, town & gown relations, courting of local invesment, administrator fundraising, etc. If faculty did also either a masters before or a postdoc after their doctoral studies, they likely have experience of all this an additional couple different institutions. And if they most likely applied and interviewed on campus at a range of places, then they probably even glimpses of yet another set of programs developing around the country and variety of interpretations of what it takes to make them succeed in the complicated balance of professional schools vs. natural sciences and social sciences disciplines. If faculty remain active in the academy at conferences and the like, then they are talking shop all the time with colleagues at other succeeding or failing institutions.
Most the VU Board members seem to have only seen one institution: Valpo undergrad. Most the VU upper administrators only seem to have one playbook: kill enrollment.
Perhaps you might take the time to actually look at who is on the Board before making broad statements about their respective educational experiences. Many have JD degrees, a guy like Andy Nunemaker has not only a degree from Valpo but a Masters from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard. Oh, and the Board also includes a guy named Noe M. Ortega, who is the Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner. Lest we forget, the No.2 guy at Valpo, Provost Eric Johnson, who holds a PhD from Notre Dame and has, in the past, been Dean of Engineering for many years. These people would all seem to have plenty of experience understanding how "universities operate", wouldn't ya think? Take a few minutes to examine to backgrounds and profiles of the members of Valpo's board. You might just be impressed, like I was.
Isn't this board also almost entirely overhauled from when Padilla took command? I may be wrong here but if true, this could be a reason for the stark difference in direction the University seems to be taking.
@rezynezy Although I don't know when each were elected, I know several, like Nunemaker, Duesenberg, Irwin-Knott, Hansen, Helge and Winkler have been on for some time, certainly going back to Heckler's days and at least one back to 2009.
Certainly some are new, I'm not sure when David Bochnoski was elected but he is the kind of guy on the board to help broaden appeal to Northwest Indiana. David is the retired Chairman of Finward Bankcorp based in Munster, and a member of Northwest Indiana Time Business and Industry hall of Fame.
