Valpo’s latest 990s are out. I’m not an accountant, but some of the salary data is … illustrative.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/350868125/202511349349304821/full
- Highest salary went to … Matt Lottich. His $850k+ buyout was nearly double the president’s, and about double Roger Powell’s salary. Those guys are the three highest paid employees. Provost and finance VP round out the top five.
- Highest paid academic was the dean of business. Dean of nursing was close behind.
- Related - of the 13 reported salaries, only two are academics.
- And of the 13, six no longer work at Valpo.
Maybe of note, ProPublica overhypes the “Reported conflict of interest transactions.” There is only one — the director of the Career & Alumni Network is the sister of a board member. (Both are Valpo grads, so I’m not too worried about that one.)
Some troubling though not unexpected numbers. a couple of things jumped out at me. A net loss of 27.5 million even offset by non-cash depreciation expenses still leaves an operating net cash loss of 17 million. Even more disturbing is the decline is endowment value in a rising market environment. Three years ago it stood at 363.6 million now 321.9 million for a decline in three years of 42 million.
Some of the overhead (like Lottich's cost) will be eliminated as will some of the other higher end salaries but the blood loss overall needs to stop and quickly. I presume Padilla's cost of 532,270 plus housing is sufficient to attract a solid replacement.
Finally, Roger Powell's comp of 456,000 plus a country club membership, seems very reasonable in today's market.
Finally, Roger Powell's comp of 456,000 plus a country club membership, seems very reasonable in today's market.
He had to take a significant pay cut to be here from what he was warning at Gonzaga it seems. The number I found was just north of 500k for his assistant job there
If you read the Nov. 2024 article from the bond/debt industry magazine closely, you can see in black and white that they are sucking big money in extra draws from the endowment every year at an amount well above the standard 4-5% distribution. The fund is dropping fast while the market grows fast ONLY BECAUSE OF EXTRA SPENDING.
As someone said on the board recently. Taking out more mone to plug budget holes is like taking early withdrawals from your retirement account to balance your living expenses. It can't go on long.
The reality is that at some point they will skim off all the growth of the funds and need to dip into the original gift that started the endowment. At that point, state law protects it and you need a ruling to show emergency reasons. It's not a pretty sight or a good look. Only the CFO and the board know those levels of protected money. The CFO naively says that Valpo has essentially "too big an endowment to fail." The courts may disagree.
I guess "sucking big money" from the endowment is relative in these very challenging times in higher ed.
Line #15 shows that the Valpo board draws were 6.5%, 7.3% and 7.5% in the recent three years ending June 2022, 2023, and 2024. Line #17 notes that normal policy is to distribute 4% annually. One might guess they pulled 7% or more again in the year ended in June 2025. And the budget ending June 2026 is also speculation.
Valpo’s latest 990s are out. I’m not an accountant, but some of the salary data is … illustrative.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/350868125/202511349349304821/full
- Highest salary went to … Matt Lottich. His $850k+ buyout was nearly double the president’s, and about double Roger Powell’s salary. Those guys are the three highest paid employees. Provost and finance VP round out the top five.
- Highest paid academic was the dean of business. Dean of nursing was close behind.
- Related - of the 13 reported salaries, only two are academics.
- And of the 13, six no longer work at Valpo.
Maybe of note, ProPublica overhypes the “Reported conflict of interest transactions.” There is only one — the director of the Career & Alumni Network is the sister of a board member. (Both are Valpo grads, so I’m not too worried about that one.)
Should ask former AD ML to give back some of his income to offset his blunders of hiring and extensions of Lottich and Evans. Absolutely out of touch with markets
Between him and Heckler we really buried ourselves. Now we pay Padilla to sit around waiting til the end of the year. The board needs to do a better job this time around. Hopefully some of the gray hairs are gone and we can get someone with current management and personnel experience to decide next President.
As a follow up. With the Lottich debacle. The genius move to extend his contract after getting lucky in conference tournament was asinine. If we don’t extend his contract does any other legitimate school want him as a coach? No.
Assume that faculty are seeing these numbers as well. For full-time professors earning $60k or so with heavy teaching loads, a buyout for a failed coach at 14x their salary will understandably strike some as outrageous and no doubt constitute another blow to morale.
The draws on the endowment are indeed contrary to best practices. VU is one of many regional, private universities that have done this. At least VU has a record of successful fundraising campaigns under each "modern era" president except for the current one, which not all of their peers can claim. Hopefully, once a new president is installed, attention to fundraising will become a priority.
Indeed, let's hope there is a president candidate out there whose philosophy and leadership talent immediately draws high hopes and a mega gift or two quickly. Outside the board, one never knows what's going on that realm.
By leadership talent, I would add that the person needs executive leadership talent - meaning that they have run organizations in which they have had a substantial number of people in their organization and that they were the person responsible for key outcomes. Further, Valpo needs to be ready to pay for that level of talent - certainly more than what they have paid Padilla.
And Valpo still needs to remove Padilla from his position NOW. He can do a lot of damage in the next few months. Appoint an interim President immediately.
@vu84v2 - agreed. Padilla needs to just go away. He is in settling to retire mode.
Yes, unless they know a dazzling candidate who we think we can interview, offer, and hire by October, and start in January,...we should name an interim Pres. by October to hold down the fort financially and for enrollment through May or June.
usc4valpo - I disagree that he is fully settling into retirement mode (I would be a little less concerned if he was as others would be leading). I believe that he is still engaged in at least some strategic activities. Further, I can't believe he can effectively raise money or develop new connections for the university.
