I like this website for realignment talk but we came up yesterday as a potential to close
Valpo has a $300M endowment. The university certainly has issues that need to be addresed, but it is irresponsible for anyone to say it has the potential to close.
I like this website for realignment talk but we came up yesterday as a potential to close
Lazyme would like a link. 😋
@vulb62 https://csnbbs.com/thread-983865-page-15.html ctrl F doenst work tho so time to go fishing
In terms of Valparaiso closing, it’s only talked about (as far as I can see) on page 5 and 6 in just a few posts. One person posts and a few comment, no confirmation, no links or sources and no proof at all. I’m not saying that Valparaiso is not closing, but only that there’s no proof that it is either!!! Though, I do have to say that endowment is not a major indicator on the economic life of a college of university…though, it’s not nothing too…LOL!!! How’s that for a hopeful response?!?
In terms of Valparaiso closing, it’s only talked about (as far as I can see) on page 5 and 6 in just a few posts. One person posts and a few comment, no confirmation, no links or sources and no proof at all. I’m not saying that Valparaiso is not closing, but only that there’s no proof that it is either!!! Though, I do have to say that endowment is not a major indicator on the economic life of a college of university…though, it’s not nothing too…LOL!!! How’s that for a hopeful response?!?
Not to mention that people were lumping in Evansville and other small D1 private schools in the financial troubles group. Its an issue with a lot of small private universities around the Midwest
Ummmm....not to sound snobby....or maybe so....but what secret info or insights do those posters have about higher ed funding and finances that we don't know about and haven't discussed at length?
Here on this board, we've had our honest (and largely respectful and informed, I might add) differences of opinion on how VU should approach these challenges, but I doubt that any of us assumes an easy go of it. We know that Valpo shares, with dozens of other private, regional, "comprehensive" universities, a core of challenges that must be navigated in order to survive this ongoing shakeout in higher education.
What I don't know -- and I doubt even the "experts" know -- is whether some extinction event equivalent of trends will coalesce to existentially threaten virtually all schools like VU. I'm seeing some disturbing signs, such as the general bashing of the value of a bachelor's degree (that bashing won't impact the elite schools -- even the elite bashers will continue to send their kids there), the extreme social and political polarization that is hollowing out the middle (and I'd put VU in the middle of that spectrum), and ongoing hikes in tuition and student debt.
Well what these posters are going off of is what we expected to happen. Concern surrounding the cutting of programs. Their sentement seems largely unwarranted as current students dont care about how many electives, or classes you have. Most modern students only care about 4 things, sports, cost, location, and quality. As a modern student and as someone who has polled my peers on these issue. These are the 4 criteria I have gathered that best fit the interests of the modern college student. THe decline in enrollment we have seen in the midwest can be attributed to a number of factors as well. A lot of midwestern kids preffer to stay at home and manage the family farms. With te decline in births and family size. This usually leaves an only child to do this and not the siblings who are going to college because "Johnny said he would take over". Now Little Johnny is the only one available and has been groomed his entire life to take over the family business.
Another factor was the rise of the tech industry. In 2020, the tech industry saw a significant boom, albeit on the programming and data front. People were seeing the value in skipping college altogether and becoming self taught. Back then, compainies didnt care if you did or didnt have a degree because they just needed people in their IT departments to oversee zoom, or in their devops divisions to push out bigger and better apps and programs. Now that it has been about 5 years since that boom, the industry has cooled off and receded. Layoffs are sweeping the tech world, and the first to go are the self taught programmers. I have multiple sources within the tech sphere who cooberate this information. Unless you have a degree and a good portfolio, and/or multiple recommendations on your LinkedIn, you are "cooked" as we younguns say.
The value of the industry may have dropped, but the value of your engineering, computer science, or tech adjacent degree will see its stock rise. Especially if you have a school like Valpo with a large number of alumni ready and willing to give you some recommendations to businesses in Chicagoland. All of this without mentioning the new Microsoft Data Center in Crown, or the switch to Green energy by NIPSCO, NWI is going to be the place to be for the tech industry in the coming years. VU has an opportunity to jump on this early.
@vuindiana you're right that there is no generic college student. I have been given other answers for why so and so attended so and so state, those criteria are just what came up the most often. The last paragraph is why I found the partnerships with UIC (lake county medical facility) and Ivy Tech (dual enrollment) to be major steps towards the right direction. Lowering tuition by allowing students to transfer in from other facilities seamlessly while still maintaining campus resources is a major draw for the low income crowd. As for sports. Reminiscent of the days where we were the sports guys, people will still show up and spend their money at your school if you are good at basketball or football.
Given that there have been improvements in the degree/internship aspects of courses such as nursing and engineering, it seems as if VU ia trying to use these as attractors as well.
All signs are pointing up, it's just down to execution of a goof marketing strategy, or maybe the sports teams help out a little and win some games to get people to look at the school again
@vuindiana Rest assured, I don't see sports as some sort of "Holy Grail" when it comes to drawing students. There are certainly other factors that attribute to what school one goes to. I see sports as a great marketing tool for a university to showcase what they got. The population of people that claim "I like the sports team so i went here" is very low. However, the population of people that say "I haven't heard of this place at all since their run at march madness, lets check them out! Wow they actually have a good program for the path I am studying. I'll keep them in mind." Is actually quite an expansive list.
Schools such as St Marys, Gonzaga, Loyola Chi, and even public schools such as Indiana St have effectively uses this strategy to boost enrollment. Zaga's COI is even 5k higher than Valpos! Yet they are able to draw 7-8k students even with being more expensive. Actually, Gonzaga overall costs much more to attend that VU by every metric. One cannot deny that their sporting success had something to do with their success in getting butts in seats and kids in the classroom. I am of the opinion that if admin had invested in sports in the late 90s and early 00s, we wouldn't even be having this conversation altogether. We could have been Gonzaga, but the admin didnt see the opportunity that Homer and Bryce saw with the sports. Or so I have been told.
As for instability in the College Athletics sphere, it isnt going to last. Not if players are refusing to sign the agreements the NFL and other leagues have for branding and merchandise. The storys of players refusing to sign their agreements with the pro leagues are becoming increasingly common. If you think the NFL isnt going to fight for their money or the NFLPA isnt going to fight for their money than I have to say I think you are wrong. There also comes the decision of some schools to start drafting contracts for players to sign that gaurntees years of service. I expect this to become commonplace. All in all the portal and NIL world is going to experience another fight, and this fight I dont think they can win.
The Sweet 16 team is now more history & lore than a live draw. Today's applicants weren't even gametes when Bryce hit The Shot. Other than the 2016 NIT run, which isn't going to wow many outside Valpo even if it was a truly wonderful chapter for VU hoops, there's not much to market in terms of relatively recent success.
Against that backdrop, we'll know within 3-4 seasons whether VU can buck the odds and leverage its athletics program -- esp. MBB -- to help stabilize and grow the rest of the university. Basically, it's on Coach Powell and his staff to rebuild a once relevant program, hopefully in a way that ripples out benefits to VU overall. I'm sufficiently impressed with Coach Powell to say that if he can't do it, then no one can.
