I agree with DejaVu and VUIndiana. Johnson once had a fine reputation, but unfortunately respect for him among his peers has disappeared since he now seemingly acts merely as a spokesperson for Pres. Padilla, and he sometimes makes statements advocating administration positions in meetings with faculty that clearly nobody believes he shares. As DejaVu suggests, Johnson's support of the administration's shady interpretation of the faculty handbook on revocation of tenure is a good example.
@vuindiana Provost Johnson can resign from being a Provost and return as a regular, tenured (see what I did there?) faculty. I mentioned in another post. I am not surprised by the necessity of the cuts including firing tenured people for cause (i.e. financial exigency). The problem is, the criteria used for tenure revocation includes people who are above on seniority and performance who still teach classes with plenty enrollments. They just had the misfortune of teaching mostly classes associated with programs that are discontinued. BUt those classes still run.
I think outside people have this impression that if a program is cut then all courses associated with that program disappear. There are lots and lots of service courses required and taken by other majors. Anyway, of all possible metrics they could have used to identify who must be let go, they chose the most arbitrary, demoralizing one, based on a completely bad faith interpretation of 1-2 words in the faculty handbook (you can clearly see the lawyer eyes on that one).
So, again, don't really know Provost Johnson, but as a senior, tenured faculty, he should have resigned from being a Provost instead of endorsing this thing. But, as I said, things are still in flux on this matter and it is too early for a post-mortem.
Yeah, of course he wouldn't want to return to just be tenured faculty; his job is way more safe as an administrator even if its dirty work.
Anyhow, whatever their strategy is, it's definitely not to limit the scope of damage.
If before there was some sense that the university was at least chopping by college, now it is clear it doesn't matter where you are. You can be the most senior, hard-working, high-reviewed, most successfull researching tenured professor in Engineering or even a growing area like Nursing too, and your tenure doesn't mean squat and the Faculty Handbook can be used against you too. I am really not sure why anybody would come to start a career here, regardless of college or discipline. Interestingly, the recent student Torch 'Scorch' satire issue referred to Johnson as Provost 'Used to be an Engineer' Johnson
https://www.valpotorch.com/eedition/page_203b9db1-3a38-51f5-9a09-c49256192cd6.html
Student groups are getting a trim too: https://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_5943aff6-fe23-11ee-abfb-03ea9aa6e0fe.html
If Alan Harre, or more appropriately, Mark Heckler had taken Valpo in the direction of becoming the “Lutheran Hillsdale” instead of a secular one size fits all university, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
If Alan Harre, or more appropriately, Mark Heckler had taken Valpo in the direction of becoming the “Lutheran Hillsdale” instead of a secular one size fits all university, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Exactly. That's what I was trying to say when I said that the shift to the left (or extreme left) in academia will not age well. I bet if VU would emulate (to an extent at least) Hillsdale, it could actually increase the enrollment.
interesting comment. Heckler’s goal was to increase enrollment to 6000, and we know that failed miserably. If Valpo took the Hillsdale model, Valpo would have stayed around 3500 to 4000, but certainly not 6000. I think Valpo went over woke for sure, but a university thinking that Fox News is the truth and Ainsley Earhardt is intelligent is scary.
Heckler's plan was to fund the university and increase enrollment through attendance by international students and grad students. In 2014 there were close to 1,000 international students on campus. Large constituencies were from China, Saudi Arabia, India, and Central America (some enrolled in summer semester as well). For the most part, they (or their government) paid full tuition, room, and board. At the same time, the Law School was still enrolling students. Unfortunately, the Law School closed and the flow of international students dried up. For example, there were more than 200 Chinese students taking classes in 2014, today there are almost none.
Below is a publicity release from 2014. Read it and weep:
Valparaiso University expects to welcome nearly 1,000 new undergraduate students when classes begin Tuesday for the fall 2014 semester. Valpo anticipates total enrollment will be nearly 4,525 — the largest in 34 years.
“It’s an exciting time of positive momentum at Valpo, and we continue to recruit, enroll and retain remarkable students of outstanding character,” said Michael Joseph, vice president of Enrollment Management.
Valpo anticipates total enrollment growth across disciplines, despite national trends in higher education. The University expects to enroll 500 new students in the College of Arts and Sciences, 125 new students in the College of Business, 125 new students in the College of Engineering, and 215 new students in the College of Nursing and Health Professions.
The academic year begins Tuesday, Aug. 26, with the 86th annual Opening Convocation. During the service, all new students will be invited to sign the student-initiated Honor Code that has guided academic integrity for more than seven decades: I have neither given or received, nor have I tolerated others’ use of unauthorized aid. The pledge signifies the students’ commitment to hold themselves and others to the highest standard.
Valpo’s class of 2018 continues the University’s record of attracting high-quality students. The incoming freshman had an average high school GPA of 3.6, and they averaged 1660 on the SAT and 26 on the ACT — both well above national averages.
In addition to enrollment growth, campus infrastructure and academic programs continue to expand. Beacon Hall, a suite-style residence hall, is now open for sophomore students, featuring 16 community lounges. The College of Business added a bachelor’s degree in business analytics, and the College of Nursing and Health Professions expanded to include additional health science degree options.
Valpo also expects record enrollment for the Graduate School, with 260 new graduate students, representing 36 different countries. The Law School expects to welcome 174 new students.
interesting comment. Heckler’s goal was to increase enrollment to 6000, and we know that failed miserably. If Valpo took the Hillsdale model, Valpo would have stayed around 3500 to 4000, but certainly not 6000. I think Valpo went over woke for sure, but a university thinking that Fox News is the truth and Ainsley Earhardt is intelligent is scary.
Exactly the point I am trying to make. The school took drastic measures out of fear of backlash in my opinion. At the time the school quite literally was on the brink of collapse. One viral tweet about crusaders would have spelled doomsday. Doubling down would have only delayed the inevitable.
I’ve been holding my breath for the past couple of weeks and counting that a group of antisemitic knuckleheads doesn’t surface on campus before the end of the semester and graduation. Not that I’m expecting it, but anything’s possible in today’s upside down world.
We use these terms like "Harre" and "Heckler" because presidents are indeed ultimately responsible for the directions they take; but let's keep in mind it is often the charlatans they surround themselves with who inject the most stupidity into the system. For instance, the COO David Phelps and VP Finance Susan Scroggins oversaw most the finances through the disastrous 2018 through COVID period. Phelps was an outright anti-intellectual who had zero expertise in anything except posturing and saying the words "business" and "finance" really loudly whenever administrators were around. His LinkedIn describes him as "Experienced Founder with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. Strong business development professional skilled in Leveraged Finance, Structured Finance, Acquisition Integration, Divestitures, and Cash Flow Forecasting." In other words, he was a schmoozer who has never known, done, or taught anything real... he only knew how to move other people's money around, and make graphs to show the Board that made his own services seem very important. But at the end of the day, he was the only one that the Board, and Heckler, would listed to when it came to his efforts to destroy the university as efficiently as possible. Is it any surprise they made such a mess of 2020? So too, Susan Scroggins ran the university finances from 2001 to 2022, essentially overseeing the financial decline of the university --- continually advising the Board against keeping faculty salaries competitive over DECADES, approving endless tuition hikes for DECADES... all while paying herself a nice $200K+ salary. (Keep in mind Valpo's current generation of full professors who have been here this same 20-30 years are still just in the high $60Ks for annual salary in ArtSci and Christ College). So she oversaw the slip from a competitive private uni well-respected by other 4 year national universities, to a community-college ish place that can't keep faculty or staff. I honestly don't know how someone with such a track record of financial failure continued to have the administrative ear for so long, but she had a terminal MBA from Valpo itself. So she would say "well, the numbers require...." and the Board and Pres Office obediently falls into line because they reserve all their trust for financial "advice" and all their derision for faculty/students. It is the same today. The Board and will listen to any schmuck with a BA or Masters in Business who says "finance" and "growth" to them, even if it leads right into quicksand and disaster.
I'm not saying that ideology has no effect (Hilldale vs. woke, etc) since it does matter to some extent in the pitch to prospective students; and yeah, to some extent I agree with you all who are saying Valpo should have leaned into the conservative Lutheranism to find a distinct profile and pitch. BUT I just think at the end of the day, the politics for a place like Valpo (which is middle-of-the-road in the big scheme of higher ed) is mostly fluff and distraction, and not really the place to look for institutional failure. Honestly, I think the VPs of Finance were happy for the alumni to throw a fit over the Crusader mascot when they did, because it gave them the distraction and cover they wanted to be able to do the 2020 layoffs and salary cuts. So too the Art Museum has been one grand distraction from the financial failures of the place.
The real decisionmakers are the Board, Pres and especially the COOs and CFOs strata they entrust the university to, whose only religio-ideological commitment is their own control, conning universities into keep letting them hold the steering wheel and taking high salaries.
@vuindiana INteresing. I think I heard something similar to what you are saying...That Heckled listened to whomever, etc...I understand presidents needs a body of trusted experts. You can't expect the president to be expert in everything. HOWEVER....he has the firing hammer. He does not need to blindly trust someone just based on credentials and smooth talk. If he/she does not deliver (or shows signs of delivering) in 2-3 years then fire and hire again. We also have a benchmark of a dozen of peer institutions. At the last faculty senate one professor mentioned that the majority of peer institutions that have a better financial position than ours pay LESS for top administrative salaries.
@dejavu Yeah, I think faculty have little clue how little accountability there is for the upper administrators.
Faculty assume there are reviews at every level because it is so baked into the academic process from all directions -- instructors get reviewed every semester from below in anonymous student surveys that go to chair and dean, and reviewed every year from above by chair and other higher-ups, must conduct annual assessments on programs, etc. If you're a lecturer or tenure-track, you have to re-prove yourself every year just to get the next year's teaching contract letter. If any budget problems arise, the first place anybody starts looking is the 360-degree metrics on faculty and program performance both from below (students) and above (administrators).
But have you ever filled out a performance survey on the six-figure folk at the top? You probably don't even know who most the top-income names ARE, because they(except for the Pres and sports coaches) aren't out in the campus public, and there is no job assessment process for them. So you can be a Susan Scroggins and sit in an office for literally 20 or 30 years cheerily overseeing financial disaster and preparing quarterly slide presentations for Board Meetings. Or you can be a Darren Farrha, weathering any enrollment or financial storm over these rough 15 years just fine with your $240K salary, while advising the President on how to how to rebutt faculty and student interests.
So long as you long as you as you tell the Board and President's Office what they want to hear... a) that faculty and student resources should and can be trimmed without any ill effects or liabilities, and b) that it's about time for them in the room (General Counsel, VP of Advancement, and so on) to get another raise... then the other C-suite folk will never question whether you or consider firing you. During Board Meetings, if you add in a little ego-stroking for the Board Members into your presentations by reminiscing a bit about the 80s and telling them how excellent their own Valpo degrees are, you're set.
It's pretty simple....far more secure than tenure, and way more lucrative than teaching.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/350868125
Just sayin' again, you folks who think VU turned into some kind of woke/DEI paradise, thus chasing away all the religious kids who wanted VU to be the Hoosier Hillsdale, need to get out a bit and see what excessive wokeness (as seen from closer to the middle) really happens to look and sound like.
Hillsdale is successful because it carved, nay, made its niche. But there simply isn't a lot more room for more Hillsdales.
And had VU tried to become the new Hillsdale, it would've said goodbye to a lot of support from alumni who don't worship at the altar of Fox News.
VU is where it happens to be for a lot of reasons, including "own goal" miscues, the current shrinking academic marketplace of potential students, and the decline of religious identity in the U.S., among others. But I still maintain that its biggest failure is in not finding a way to market itself more effectively to kids who are seeking an education that is balanced, challenging, values-driven but not ideological, and not impersonal. The ones for whom the marketplace of Athens and the values of Jerusalem both speak to them.
Just sayin' again, you folks who think VU turned into some kind of woke/DEI paradise, thus chasing away all the religious kids who wanted VU to be the Hoosier Hillsdale, need to get out a bit and see what excessive wokeness (as seen from closer to the middle) really happens to look and sound like.
Hillsdale is successful because it carved, nay, made its niche. But there simply isn't a lot more room for more Hillsdales.
And had VU tried to become the new Hillsdale, it would've said goodbye to a lot of support from alumni who don't worship at the altar of Fox News.
VU is where it happens to be for a lot of reasons, including "own goal" miscues, the current shrinking academic marketplace of potential students, and the decline of religious identity in the U.S., among others. But I still maintain that its biggest failure is in not finding a way to market itself more effectively to kids who are seeking an education that is balanced, challenging, values-driven but not ideological, and not impersonal. The ones for whom the marketplace of Athens and the values of Jerusalem both speak to them.
@david81, you nailed it. Hillsdale is a niche school, and I would not support Valpo if they aligned to their views. Hillsdale is fine, I respect what they are about, but it’s not a school I can be engaged with. I like diverse views and I want to figure out the truth myself. What I want to see for Valpo is true excellence and to do that you have to take advantage and focus on your strengths.
Also, there are folks on this board who really don’t understand what a woke university is. Valpo is also far from being a woke school. It’s more progressive than it was 40 years ago, but so is Notre Dame. Rice is progressive, but it doesn’t deter from them being an outstanding STEM university. My daughter is not engaged with any protests, she is too busy dealing with physics, multivariable Calc and organic chem. No time to waste on that.
Just sayin' again, you folks who think VU turned into some kind of woke/DEI paradise, thus chasing away all the religious kids who wanted VU to be the Hoosier Hillsdale, need to get out a bit and see what excessive wokeness (as seen from closer to the middle) really happens to look and sound like.
Hillsdale is successful because it carved, nay, made its niche. But there simply isn't a lot more room for more Hillsdales.
And had VU tried to become the new Hillsdale, it would've said goodbye to a lot of support from alumni who don't worship at the altar of Fox News.
VU is where it happens to be for a lot of reasons, including "own goal" miscues, the current shrinking academic marketplace of potential students, and the decline of religious identity in the U.S., among others. But I still maintain that its biggest failure is in not finding a way to market itself more effectively to kids who are seeking an education that is balanced, challenging, values-driven but not ideological, and not impersonal. The ones for whom the marketplace of Athens and the values of Jerusalem both speak to them.
@david81, you nailed it. Hillsdale is a niche school, and I would not support Valpo if they aligned to their views. Hillsdale is fine, I respect what they are about, but it’s not a school I can be engaged with. I like diverse views and I want to figure out the truth myself. What I want to see for Valpo is true excellence and to do that you have to take advantage and focus on your strengths.
Also, there are folks on this board who really don’t understand what a woke university is. Valpo is also far from being a woke school. It’s more progressive than it was 40 years ago, but so is Notre Dame. Rice is progressive, but it doesn’t deter from them being an outstanding STEM university. My daughter is not engaged with any protests, she is too busy dealing with physics, multivariable Calc and organic chem. No time to waste on that.
I agree with what you say about the miscues, the marketplace, and religious identity. I agree with your description of VU's biggest failure, but, ironically, you don't see that Hillsdale's niche is exactly what you want or what you think VU's market should be. Your description of Hillsdale as "worshiping at the altar of Fox News" is small minded and left leaning and in my opinion far from the truth. We recruit kids from Hillsdale because we see them as well-rounded in the values of both Athens and Jerusalem.
Yes, my views are probably more conservative than many so our perceptions may be different. I spoke about VU being the "Lutheran Hillsdale" more from the sense that VU needs to have a niche, a Lutheran niche more aligned with the vision in O.P. Kretzman's inaugural address. A niche aligned with the stated purpose of the early Lutheran University Association. The degree of wokeness depends on your starting point. Many LCMS Lutheran's see wokeness in something so simple as putting high and low voices instead of male and female at a hymn sing (literally had an older Fort Wayne VU alum bring that to my attention at a VU concert 2 months ago) I believe that some of the actions taken to broaden VU's "appeal" diminished that vision and helped to alienate the second largest parochial school system in the country.
As a side note, there will most likely be fewer Lutheran colleges in the very near future because they are tuition driven and lack endowments of any significant size. Any small Liberal Arts school that is tuition driven is endangered of failing. Can VU be a landing spot for some of those students?
