If you are trying to become Hillsdale, you alienate the majority of the region. You'd be hard pressed to partner with small buisness or any form of local recognition and as people say, a lot of alum would no longer support you. There is a reason this town waves green and white as opposed to brown and gold. Becoming Hillsdale gives them all the more reason to do so.
If you are trying to become Hillsdale, you alienate the majority of the region. You'd be hard pressed to partner with small buisness or any form of local recognition and as people say, a lot of alum would no longer support you. There is a reason this town waves green and white as opposed to brown and gold. Becoming Hillsdale gives them all the more reason to do so.
Baloney, give me one substantive justification for that statement. This is purely your biased opinion. Name the reason.
I have no idea what the region would think of Valpo adopting a Hillsdale like position, but I can confidently say that a fair portion of alumni and other donors (20%?) would disassociate themselves from Valpo if they started hearing (or hearing of) ads on Fox News or other conservative media outlets for the University President giving lectures about the meaning of the US constitution and his perception of US history. Remember too, its not just the impact on annual donations, part of the endowment is committed portions of estates...which can be changed. I am not taking a political position here, but making note that Valpo has to strike a delicate balance to sustain its donations (including endowment).
Ok. for starters what 84 says applies. in addition to the declining religious affiliation across the region, I see less and less people at St. Paul every Sunday. This is happening across the country let alone NWI. Also most small business in the area does not affiliate themselves with a denomination or a religion. I don't think non denominational businesses would be keen to support and sponsor a school that markets itself as a conservative Lutheran school. There is a reason that even Hillsdale markets itself as "Christian" rather than with a denomination. You shorten your board of available candidates even more by becoming the Lutheran Hillsdale.
This whole discussion is interesting, yet the premise is somewhat flawed. There never was a push to become a "Lutheran Hillsdale" or even a "Lutheran Baylor" that does not have the FNC baggage associate with it.
However, it is clear that Heckler's choices and the marketing strategy alienated many core, conservative Lutheran families that had supported VU for generations, and they are voting with their feet. I don't have all of the numbers in front of me, yet in 2009 there were 901 undergrads who identified as Lutheran, 465 of which were identified as LCMS. In 2019, there were 518 undergrads who identified as Lutheran, of which 221 were from the LCMS.
Of course, there are some demographic challenges in the Midwest and in all Lutheran bodies, yet Ft. Wayne Lutheran High School is still going strong yet in recent years has sent NO students to Valpo while still sending students to many fine universities (both within the LCMS, in Indiana, and across the USA).
This whole discussion is interesting, yet the premise is somewhat flawed. There never was a push to become a "Lutheran Hillsdale" or even a "Lutheran Baylor" that does not have the FNC baggage associate with it.
However, it is clear that Heckler's choices and the marketing strategy alienated many core, conservative Lutheran families that had supported VU for generations, and they are voting with their feet. I don't have all of the numbers in front of me, yet in 2009 there were 901 undergrads who identified as Lutheran, 465 of which were identified as LCMS. In 2019, there were 518 undergrads who identified as Lutheran, of which 221 were from the LCMS.
Of course, there are some demographic challenges in the Midwest and in all Lutheran bodies, yet Ft. Wayne Lutheran High School is still going strong yet in recent years has sent NO students to Valpo while still sending students to many fine universities (both within the LCMS, in Indiana, and across the USA).
Similarly, the new university marketing strategy under Pres. Padilla with a goal to become a Hispanic Serving Institution faces a dilemma and further tests the Lutheran identity of Valparaiso University. As Padilla has stated, to qualify as a Hispanic Serving Institution, a university must have a student population that is at least 25% Hispanic. (Hispanics nationwide only make up 20% of college students.) The HSI determination is based upon percent rather than simple numbers.
The current demographic of Hispanic students at Valpo has risen to 10%. That means the percent of the student body that is Hispanic still must be 2.5 times what it is now. Unfortunately, the percent of Hispanics that identify as Lutheran is less than 1%. Therefore, even if the intentions are noble, statistics indicate the university's aim of achieving a Hispanic Serving Institution status is in conflict with its desire to maintain a Lutheran image. As Hispanic enrollment becomes a larger percentage of the student body, the percentage of Lutheran students will lower significantly.
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?
Yes, I was being flippant for my "worshipping at the altar of Fox News" comment, and it's fair to call me out on that.
But my broader point about Hillsdale being at an ideological edge still holds true. And I would agree if someone said the same about an Oberlin or Grinnell. There's not much room for differences of opinion on hot button issues of the day on these campuses.
I don't think Valpo fits or should be changed to fit either those extremes. I don't think it would be successful from a marketing standpoint, and it would change the essential culture of a school that has struggled to make room for more diversity on campus, with some genuine success to show for it.
And we do have to agree on a definition of wokeness, if only for the sake of ensuring we're talking oranges to oranges. Wokeness is now used by some as referring to any kind of advocacy for diversity, as a way of tagging anything with a liberal viewpoint on diversity as woke and then dismissing it. I see it as being more on the edge than that, representing a distinct and rather inflexible ideological extreme.
A story that raises why definitions of woke are important: When VU admitted its first Black student, Inez Parker, in the late 1940s, O.P. Kretzmann met her personally at the train station, took her heavy bag, and walked with her to the VU campus. He also negotiated with Valparaiso city officials to ensure that the sundown ordinance applied to Blacks generally would not be applied to Inez. That act of publicly walking with Inez and carrying her bag spoke volumes. For O.P., it likely meant sacrificing some of the privilege he enjoyed as President of VU, because I'm sure it angered a good number of people -- the same folks who today would be posting raging, anonymous comments on the internet about such a "woke" story and university president. But I would call it a simple commitment to human dignity and civil rights.
Regarding a larger Hispanic enrollment and maintaining the Lutheran denomination, it reminds me of my mother saying at my first day at Valpo, “I think Missouri Synod Lutheran is more Catholic than Catholic.” Ok, I am sure there are differences, but it made me think of my ever strong and loving mom.
I think I regret bringing up Fox News in this thread, but Hillsdale does advertise on the network regularly. I had to vent a I just find some of Fox News employees, particularly Ainsley Earhardt, to be narrow minded morons.
I geared my statements more towards region reception. I cannot speak for everybody, but I know of a few local busines owners and they said that they would be hesitant to partner with VU if it became a Hillsdale. Granted linking VU to Hillsdale and acting as if people were stating that VU should have marketed itself as a Lutheran Hillsdale is poor judgment on my part.
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I’m sorry, but all I think people see Valpo as today is a dime-a-dozen, high-priced small university repeatedly cutting programs and staff in line with never ending enrollment decline. What is Valpo’s unique value proposition? What’s the elevator speech to sell Valpo over the competition? Why Valpo over IU or Purdue, who have great academic reputations and infinitely more offerings at far less cost? Just asking for a friend.
Purdue may have a great academic standing, but they are still in the hot seat over how they are handling the IUPUI split in addition to how bad their housing situation is. Talking with peers, a lot of older siblings spooked people out of going to Purdue because of "The Barracks Incident" just a couple years ago. You are right in that academics is the selling point of Purdue and IU. However good VUs engineering department may be, they will always struggle to pull local kids because of Purdue I would ask why you think so much effort is being undertaken into the Nursing degree then. That is a market VU has a good chance of competing in considering partnerships with UIC and the online degrees are there. IU was able to become so strong in nursing in large part due to the proximity to Indy and its hospital network. Purdue is not in close proximity to many hospitals, and VUs only nursing competition is currently in a partnership with the school to give VU students preferred placement at UIC centers in NWI (I know the VU article mentions the new Crown Point facility particularly). Nursing is most likely going to be the ace to hold over Purdue and IU. Not to mention the amount of grant money that exists in the Nursing (and tech) industry that the school may be able to get access to.
In reference to the last two posts, regarding the general value proposition at Valpo and the misguided point about how Valpo might struggle to bring in engineering students, let me take a shot at the value proposition for Valpo (focused on engineering and probably business, since that is where I am most familiar).
There are a lot of universities - many of which are very good - where you can get a degree in a professional discipline. The difference for Valpo is that the people (faculty, staff) within engineering (or business) are committed to you completing your degree and being ready to contribute in your field. From day one, you will be engaged in challenging classes, have access to the College's best technology, and expected to learn and perform. You'll master skills and abilities in your chosen area, but with Valpo you will also develop key complementary skills that enable you to be effective in today's companies. While this can be daunting for many coming out of high school - and, indeed, many may refrain from the harder professional disciplines because they are fearful that they cannot complete a challenging program - at Valpo you have professors and staff who will be with you every step of the way, simultaneously challenging you, helping you see what's possible, and supporting you. Our objective is the same as yours...to have you ready in four years for a meaningful career and a life that contributes in so many ways.
Two other points:
1. An important part of this is who delivers this message. It needs to come from the college's faculty and senior staff.
2. I do not mean to imply that there is not a strong value proposition in other Colleges - I am jut not nearly as familiar with them.
