What is great about Konkol is he is engaged and acting like a human being instead of acting like a Jamie Dimon or a Joel Osteen.
He is bringing his authentic self to this opportunity, not just empty exhortations. From my admittedly distant perch, I sense that people are feeling more excited and optimistic than in years.
While I agree that there seems to be more excitement and optimism (and have talked to several people on campus who share the same sentiment), I am wondering if he is behind in filling out his leadership team. From Valpo's website, the head of finance is interim and my guess is that university advancement also has an interim lead. Arts and Sciences will need a new Dean, but that may take a little more time (due to how academia works in such matters). I think he knows this, but President Konkol will only be successful if he gets effective leaders in all of the important areas.
He will only be successful if he can get enrollment up and stable. This will be the ultimate measure.
Chugging - I agree that enrollment growth and stability is far and away the critical outcome. But Pres. Konkol cannot do it alone - he needs enrollment and marketing to be strong and he needs the Deans and faculty in all of the Colleges to buy into that and be willing to put forth even more effort to promote/sell/etc. their College than they have previously. To get that, you need to build a culture of excitement and optimism. Thus, he has been making the right efforts that are prerequisites for addressing the enrollment issue.
While I agree that there seems to be more excitement and optimism (and have talked to several people on campus who share the same sentiment), I am wondering if he is behind in filling out his leadership team. From Valpo's website, the head of finance is interim and my guess is that university advancement also has an interim lead. Arts and Sciences will need a new Dean, but that may take a little more time (due to how academia works in such matters). I think he knows this, but President Konkol will only be successful if he gets effective leaders in all of the important areas.
Can Rev. Konkol really be behind when he came in at mid-year and many prospective senior admin candidates at other schools are still finishing their academic years? Among other things, we also don't [my edit] know what assurances have been given to interim heads and what quiet hiring decisions may have already been made, with public announcements coming after the current academic year ends.
The advantage of his starting in January was to immediately begin building, rebuilding, and repairing ties to major VU constituencies, including students, faculty, staff, and alums. By all accounts he is doing that. This is also giving him an opportunity to evaluate current appointed staff and to identify staffing needs generally.
Ideally it would be great if he can have his full team ready to go as of July.
I agree with @david81 here - it is hard to be behind at this point. The academic hiring cycle takes a long time, surprisingly so to many people outside of academia. If President Konkol can have his team (hopefully the right team!) in place by the fall of 2026 it would be a big win and right on time.
This hiring appears to be a big one and key to bringing in his own team.
Dr. Mary Grace Almandrez as Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff to the President
Rev. Konkol wrote an op-ed piece sharing what he learned by living in the residence halls during his first semester at Valpo:
That is one excellent op-ed!
It is clear to me now that hiring Jose Padilla was a mistake. A nice enough guy who lacked the background or knowledge of what makes Valpo, Valpo, as well as possessing a “bull in a china shop” managerial style that left faculty, alumni and students unsettled. He did not understand the Lutheran character of Valpo and that wasn’t his fault. He was Catholic. He tried hard but needed to go. President Konkol is the right choice. He is young, brings a Lutheran background to the office, and apparently a clear understanding of what current students seek and how to address those needs and concerns. Valpo is in good hands.
I agree that hiring Pres. Padilla was a mistake (and that letting him stay on for so long after announcing he was leaving was another mistake). I further agree that Pres. Konkol has taken effective and appropriate steps, so far, to turn the university around (though hard decisions likely await). Further, he has articulated a university mission that can attract new students and energize faculty, staff and alumni. But I do not agree that this is because he is Lutheran or that having a Lutheran in the senior position is essential for Valpo's success The excellent op-ed piece could just as well have been talking about impressions of students and mission at the mid-sized Jesuit university where I teach (we even apply a term for this philosophy - Cura Personalis or "care for the whole person").
There is no way Padilla would reside in student dorms to understand the scenario. Padilla was more of a GoodFellas character with a huge ego.
we need to give Konkol time and grace. This is a difficult problem to solve.
84, question: at your Jesuit university— my guess the President is a Priest, not a Lutheran. Just a guess.
72 - no, our current President is not a Priest. Nor was his predecessor (who was there when I started in 2016). However, all Presidents prior to his predecessor were Priests.
Jerome Whitehead would have been a helluva priest!