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The abandonment of mandatory ACT tests is a huge step backward for the entire U.S. higher education system and for incentivizing high school students to reach upward to difficult classes. 

Now I understand better why Valpo is so quick to assure students that they not only get $25,000 off tuition with a 3.0 GPA but add "no tests required."  They are just in a race to the bottom on both price and verification of their entrants' knowledge. 

The value of an entire industry just keeps sinking.  I bet that the stronger schools with lower acceptance rates still require or encourage ACT/SAT scores.   The chasm between those schools and the Bradley/Valpo types will only grow if this race to the bottom continues.   

   

Looks right.  And if you dig deeper, you will find that the number of census 2023-2024 enrolled SENIORS s larger than enrolled freshmen by a net of more than 70. 

So next fall you need 70 more just to pull even with this year's number before you start gaining. This is going to be tough. But as WH says, "keep grinding."  I do like David81 tag line of three V's.  But execution is equally important or more important than a magic bullet.

https://www.nprillinois.org/illinois/2023-08-29/bradley-university-looks-to-finalize-cost-cutting-decisions-by-end-of-the-year

Here is a newer Bradley story on August 29 after the first one July 31.   

This article divulges the Bradley enrollment drop. The BU president says there is 25% excess capacity in midwest higher education  and that midwest colleges discount their tuitions by 64%.  Yikes!!

Sorry Valpo22.  I guess my sarcasm on the high salaries for finance folk missed the mark. 

Your post on the museum going back several posts was epic.  And you bring great perspectives that seem really fair to all.  If you are a 2022 grad (....a very young dunehawk), you have figured out a lot very early in life.

Skimming through the salaries...yes the Heckler $500,000 is a major bloat and boat anchor.  But it was probably negotiated severance and contractual.  Count me impressed by finance and advancement career salaries. Good for them.  But good for VU? There are three finance people at these high levels. 

The big question for me is this.  The big "Forever Valpo" campaign total was great for touting it across the media. But what amount inside that big $300 million number is/was eligible for paying the ever-increasing salaries and underwrite annual grants?

Wow. That was the policy when I was there.  I just figured they had been forced out of that policy by modern expectations families have now. 

Oh....maybe that's a factor in our recruitment? 

Most of the State Univs now have university "affiliated" apartments (privately built and owned) in which four kids get their own bedroom and bathroom and they can do it as sophomores...even freshmen.  The prices often not hugely more than dormitories and you get more days for the price because you don't get locked out all summer or during school breaks.   

Thinking WAY outside the box here I guess.   You built brand new Beacon Hall and renovated Guild-Memorial.  When students rising in grades into Soph-Senior they are more likely to choose off-campus housing for various reasons. 

So why not devote your very best dormitories to freshman housing.  In their new year you want to keep track of them and maybe mom and dad can let go of Johnny or Jenny if they can assure themselves each will have more comfy room in which to face the cruel new adult world. 

Then the kids as sophomores upward either wash out or they can seek their way into new places like the apartments that are right freakin' next to the campus.

(from Moody's last bond rating)

"The university's management team is relatively new without a yet established track record of reversing the university's multi-year enrollment and financial challenges. Inability to make clear progress in fiscal 2024, including meeting enrollment targets in Fall 2023 would have either rating or outlook implications."

Net tuition income is the critical number, not enrollment.

Wow, your homework is extensive. Here is very quick math on the two lines of credit that total $21 million and expired Nov. 22 and Oct. 2023.  Raising the cost of the interest payments from 2% to 6% would add $800,000 per year in additional carried interest.  So on a per student basis, the interest cost of these two bonds alone is $300-400 per student. 

Yes, the Fed rates are now compounding the nightmare of the VU debt Padilla faces as he cleans up the mess. He will move on in 3-4 years. The position was a "no lose" situation to land a President job for all the reasons above. He came in with eyes wide open.  He will end up heading a large state university somewhere by 2027.  So I think selling the artwork might be paying off bonds as much as building a new dorm (which may not be needed.)

I certainly side with the board and president.  And the law certainly does. 

But what a PR disaster to steal them away shortly before Homecoming. it gives faculty and students a chance to complain and protest to our alumni.  Maybe they can get some TV cameras out if they march down Union Street. 

However,....its' truly possible that they have received threats from a deranged individual. You may know there have been several young nut job climate change activists who have ruined prized paintings in our major world museums over the past few years. So maybe an unstable 20-year-old at VU sees a chance for glory?  Art students are not known for steady rationale thinking. 

I think I am stating the obvious. But the Moody's rating is highly relevant because it guides the interest rate for any VU debt rollover we need to do or want to do.

I don't know the Bradley rating from Moody.  And yes, I was ALSO surprised by the big Bradley cuts because not long ago there was an article about some very large grants that seemed usable for budgetary use.  Not going to take the time to chase it down. So maybe I am wrong. 

The flagships are staying even and even growing slightly due to their brand and generous grants to in-state kids.  They have some budget shortfalls, but percent wise not severe and they have plenty of fat to cut.  Cutting the the swarm of new hired diversity officers alone could probably make flagship budget cuts attainable.

Fantastic!   He had so many opportunities.  We are fortunate.

It is so hard to compare Valpo football performance results across so many types of schools. Lots of apples vs. oranges year to year.  You have FCS, D-2, D-3, NAIA. And at the lower levels you get huge variances year to year due to one or two great athletes who might move up a notch the next year.

Remember Josh Johnson with U. of San Diego playing for Jim Harbaugh?  Josh has played several years in the NFL now with a few different teams.  But he was playing Pioneer non-scholarship football.

That program don't really move any needles in student numbers.  So it's a very minor element.   

In cold hard reality, the question Moody's Bond ratings will seek is the net revenue received from our new total Fall 2023 enrollment. On this board we can only speculate.

Dropping by a net 100 students in the undergraduate sector predicts lower income. But it's not a perfect correlation. What is the entering class total net tuition vs. the net total from a larger senior class who left last spring? 

Let's pray that a Bradley U. sized cutback isn't coming in the next few months.  Weasel words in headlines such as "new Beacons" typically mask a problem.

Maybe the "first year Beacon" term is a way to consolidate some odd categories that are not all actual technical freshmen like the new college access stuff. I guess that is fine. 

I just hope that nuance doesn't mean that the FTE realities for fall 2023 are lower than last year or that net income is lower than last year. 

In either case it was expected to be final on Thursday 9/7.

Still pretty odd wording.  "First year Beacons AND transfers" (who are also in their "first year."  If they are freshmen, why not call them that? 

Oh well. Monday should have the census and once and for all clarity on what numbers report up to the regulatories.

Wow. Incredible generosity.

Was it a letter to select alumni rather than a news release?  That would make sense I suppose.

Indeed a huge loss.  I don't see a news release on the website.  I think they funded the Welcome Center and at least one of the faculty chairs. 

STILL ON THE WEBSITE!!   
August 23, 2023 – Valparaiso, Indiana – An exciting new semester is set to kick off at Valparaiso University as over 600 new students start their Valpo journey. (contd...)

"Welcome, class of 2027, to the Valparaiso University family," said University President José D. Padilla, J.D. at this year's Convocation ceremony. " (contd....)

Of the 602 students joining the campus community, 94 are coming in as transfer students, and the University has been recognized by Phi Beta Kappa for its success in creating transfer-friendly pathways to education. 

The other big reason undergraduate enrollment is so pivotal is that you get revenue from dorms and from meal plans, especially from freshmen. So many seek apartments over dorms.  I bet they let them have cars too which adds to off-campus food shopping.  The dorm revenue is the key item even though some revenue is lost from fewer meal plans that may charge $10-15 bucks for "all in" meals. 

I loved that good old dorm and cafeteria experience for the social interactions (and a guy's appetite.)  But times have changed. Just another nasty revenue challenge.

 59  Penguins   

10  Freakin' Beamin' Beacons     

And of course there is the fiscal reality for the university at this point in time.

If you have empty dorm rooms and empty classroom seats then every new student is a revenue gain.  If marginal revenue on each extra kid is only $10,000 and your marginal cost to add them is ZERO, then you gain $10k in net revenue.   

I don't like it, but I suppose that is the reason to shout across Facebook that "YOU GET $25,000 AUTOMATICALLY....NO TESTS SCORES NEEDED!" At least it gets you noticed by parents/kids who think they are out of it from sticker price.  Just sweep up every interested student and get on their ACT score recipient list.  Then you can drive the price down as far as needed to enroll each him/her.

Great insight. Full tuition-paying international students make perfect sense as a rationale to push sticker prices through the roof. And of course the "vanity" or brand factor keeps the prices high even after those students are fewer now.

I found George Will's observations that there has been an actual decline in net tuition paid by families to be fascinating. But,....do those statistics include loans, since those are actually costs paid by the family? I should have read it closer. 

Did anyone see the Facebook release image of the non-Conference schedule?   I don't know the names of the players anymore.   Was the featured guy a senior?   Just curious.  I think I might have chosen to feature brand new coach Powell in a blazer or something with a bit of pizzazz.