First, I will echo valpo95's points...these discussions are well-reasoned, thoughtful, and done with care for the institution.
The "barbell" analogy on the number of years faculty have been in their position is a good one, but I will add that many universities' hiring criteria are often not consistent with a College's needs. Assistant professor candidates are most likely to be evaluated by their research abilities/potential and (to varying degrees) teaching...even at a school like Valpo. Yet, many universities' and Colleges' greatest needs are faculty who can teach and someone who can advocate and evangelize for their discipline. Those who are hired then often spend six to seven years working toward tenure, devoting little time to service associated with their discipline. The solution is that universities and Colleges need to focus on what they need and then seek, hire and value (including compensate) the best fits. That may be early Associate Professors and it might be non-tenure track faculty. They then need to structure job requirements and performance measurements consistent with their needs...which may be very different than traditional academia job requirements and rewards for newly hired faculty.
Lastly, the points regarding motivation and energy of faculty between 55 and 70 are true in some cases and wildly off in others. In my 14 years in academia, I have seen older faculty who "mail it in", but I know more who carry a great deal of weight in their Colleges and universities (I endeavor to be in the latter group). In our College, I can immediately think of two faculty members in their 60s who are leading efforts to launch new programs.
Agreed on all the above.
Overall, I actually think Valpo does a pretty good job of keeping rank & tenure processes aligned with the teaching mission of the school. Teaching is by far the most discussed and supported and analyzed feature (which is appropriate given the heavy teaching loads), followed by Service with a fair amount of committee work, and lastly comes Research research where there is not much financial or temporal support for it but also minimal expectation for it. So maybe its functionally for most tenure-track and tenured faculty something like 60% teaching, 30% service, 10% research and public talking/writing?
This has for a while been a sore point among some of the more conservative or traditionalist faculty who lament that VU has fostered a 'teacher-activist' model rather than a 'teacher-scholar' model, and indeed most those with an interest in research do not stay. But I insofar as the money truly isn't there to give people time for research and people do need to prioritize teaching and saving their programs, surely it's more in the direction of fair to have next-to-nothing in terms of research expectations on folks.
My points about the age distribution are not meant to be ageist (though age and rank are related in most cases) but mainly to note that the remaining 50-65 crowd are probably pulling more weight than they should have to, insofar as some sections of Valpo are not even a barbell but just sort of a clump in the 50-65 range, trying still to teach full teaching loads and do all the service and wrangle whatever transient adjuncts and VAPs they may have around for the year.
Okay, the new president needs to can the VP of Fundraising almost immediately. The squirrel is back. He returns looking oh so cute, so as some on the board said to the first email, "maybe the young crowd wants a gimmick?" And it's been a hit at other universities. So throw a little spaghetti against the wall at them. That's fine. But following it with a "cute" scold to those who didn't respond? The whole think is cringy.
The current VP of fundraising is absolutely tone deaf in the dire VU context this fall. She is using the key fall season of tax-minded giving to pursue older alumni? I am over 60 and gave $500 twice back when we had good presidents. Bye bye VP. Don't let the door hit you.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
Date: Fri, Oct 31, 2025, 06:05
Subject: Scary thought: your squirrel is still nameless
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| Here’s a Halloween horror story, John Smith: a squirrel roaming the Valpo campus with no name. Tragic. Terrifying. Avoidable. | |
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When you make a gift of $18.59+, you:
Don’t let your legacy be ghosted. Claim your squirrel name today. Because nothing haunts campus quite like a nameless squirrel lurking in the shadows… Valparaiso University |
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Saw this on Facebook, and yeah… it’s both shameless and shameful. Gross AI picture of a squirrel on the post. Certainly not how I expect to resume my charitable giving to Valpo. I’d rather support a student than a rodent.
Honestly the current president should have taken action when we were one of the only schools in Indiana not to book the Lilly College and Community Collaboration Grant.
Now we have a “lead” gift for $4 million for a $90 million nursing building. At this rate, no wonder they claim it’s 7-9 years away. Hmm… that nursing building actually sounds like a college and community collaboration, now that I think of it…
Still think some of you getting this bent over backwards over a harmless campaign is hilarious
(Campaign is already over halfway to its goal btw)
Let me spin the record up again. This is harmless. HARMLESS. Major donors are in no way perturbed over a squirrel. Colleges do this all the time as an intermittent money generation tool when they are between major fundraising campaigns.
Georgia did this
Miami OH did this
Austin Peay did this
The list goes on and on.
Guess what? They still get major donations
Colleges do this all the time as an intermittent money generation tool when they are between major fundraising campaigns.
The attitude of following trends is one of the reasons why Valpo is in its current predicament. Demonstrates a lack of original thinking.
Colleges do this all the time as an intermittent money generation tool when they are between major fundraising campaigns.
The attitude of following trends is one of the reasons why Valpo is in its current predicament. Demonstrates a lack of original thinking.
Sometimes there is no need for original thinking. If this were a major campaign like the nursing building or annual events. Then this is a failure. However, that is not the case. This is an intermittent donation event that has no ties to major donation campaigns.
Campaigns like these are not designed to attract the large scale donors. They are designed to attract a different kind of clientelle
Rez is definitely friends with someone in the development office.
Not friends with anyone actually. Just not enough of a curmudgeon to clutch my pearls over a squirrel I guess
Rez is definitely friends with someone in the development office.
I’ve noticed that Rez consistently defends the actions of Valpo and the administration. Which strikes me as strange, considering they didn’t even attend Valpo (I think I remember a comment about that).
Folks, I'm fine with some harmless fundraising games being played right now. If it gets anyone in the habit of giving, that's a good thing.
Reality is that until this new president hits the ground (if not running, at least jogging), any real fundraising beyond quieter outreach to shore up and reinforce connections with existing donors is likely to be greeting with a thud.
Let's keep in mind that the current president's tenure was largely absent any major fundraising activity. The Forever Valpo campaign wrapped up during the early part of the pandemic, and since then it's been pretty quiet.
I just don’t know how we went from a university that raised $300 million to a university that struggles to raise $2500 on a generic idea copy/pasted from other schools.
I just don’t know how we went from a university that raised $300 million to a university that struggles to raise $2500 on a generic idea copy/pasted from other schools.
Answer is quite simple actually. Previous administration blunders as well as whomever tipped off the Chicago Tribune to start the cascade of negative press. You could also lump into this the law school closure and the decision to change the mascot as for some reason people are still bent over backwards about the mascot
Whether tax deductable or not. A donation is still an investment. Making a sound investment is the goal of any business transaction. Due to the above reasons, Valpo became a bad investment
@rezynezy Coupled with David’s mention that Padilla did not initiate any major fundraising initiatives (aside from selling assets), you may have simply cut to the chase.
This is complete gift-of-hindsight reasoning, but I'd say that if we're being honest with ourselves and not letting our own social views get in the way, VU's two biggest "own goal" decisions of recent years were the mascot change and the art sale. You can argue the merits of either move, but both came at a cost not anticipated by those who made them.
The next president would do well to learn these recent cautionary tales. At least in terms of alumni loyalty and gifts, the message has to be a unifying one, both mission-focused and inclusive at the same time.
