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This does look like impressive promotion. Though I have no way of knowing this for sure, I speculate that Valpo had a vision of renewed and expanded promotion that involved the new coach when they interviewed and chose to hire Coach Powell (meaning that it is part of the job expectations and contract with Coach Powell). If this is true, it is clearly a good direction by the athletic department and university.

That does suck.

In regards to the other schools hating the ARC and the promise of Coach Powell and the program he will create over time, as well as leveraging a quote from Ted Lasso:

They're really going to hate it when we (Valpo) start winning conference titles.

Several students in one of my classes last Spring (though this was not part of my class) partnered with three local microbreweries to create a brew themed for our university and market/distribute it locally (in some bars and grocery stores). Can't say that I was wild about the beer itself (too light), but it was a great promotion for the university and a great practical application of their education (which also gave them some exposure).

I, for one, would like to see another former Valpo player in the NBA....even if he transferred out and, when doing so, gave mixed messages.

OK OK, now let me offer some perspective as someone who engages every day with the students that you reference. First, good teaching at the university level should be "how to think" and not "what to think" and I can honestly say that the vast majority (though certainly not all) of faculty teach "how to think". One can always find the case that supports the story you want to tell or support (and our media does a great job of that), but reality is far less in the manner projected. Second, while it is deplorable that some people/groups at some elite universities say that the Hamas attacks are justified...this deplorable behavior is not happening at other universities (OK, I am sure that someone can find the exception). So, while the criticisms towards Penn, Harvard, etc. are justified, criticism of the entire university system is not. As for the students, they are socially and environmentally more conscious - some of which is good and some of which probably needs greater critical thinking. But where is an average 18-22 year old college student's mind focusing? Classes/grades, family, the party this weekend, an existing or potential relationship with a significant other, getting a job/internship, gaming (for some), other activities. Spend a lot of time with them and listen and this is pretty clear. World events are not on their radar unless there is a specific reason for them to be (e.g.,  a student planning to study in Europe next Spring will be more attentive to geopolitical issues in and around Europe). Thus, if you ask them about the Israeli conflict, they are likely not going to understand the history or recent events and will revert to basic beliefs of compassion for all people.

One more thing. People talk about problems of what is taught in K-12, but they seldom consider the excessive emphasis on American history over World history. When my daughter was in 6th grade, the students in her class debated the Isreali-Palestinean conflict...which really fosters learning. Why did she have this type of educational experience? Because she was going to school in England at that time (can you imagine a middle shool teacher doing this in the US?). It was horrible for her to be exposed to such a broad perspective in 6th and 7th grade and then come back to the narrow American-based focus in US schools. Herein lies the issue...many want to increase US history in K-12 when we really need to increase world history and understanding of current world events.

From what I have heard. There are students who are organizing the student section themselves and finding different ideas and structure to make it more fun and engaging. I believe they are part of some fraternities on campus and were a part of planning this event.

That sounds great and the right direction. Hopefully, the university is providing support - but not direction.

Just saw the short video. Coach Powell is bringing it.

Of course, time will tell, blah blah blah, but we couldn't have asked for a more high-energy, connected, on point head coach for VU men's hoops. He's trying to do more than simply revive the program; he's trying to create a new energy around it.

Thumbs up to the man. 

My concerns were on the athletic department trying to create something that has almost always been created organically by the students. I agree that Coach Powell is doing a great job of bringing energy to the program in many ways.

I think it is smart to jump start the game culture for VU's students. My sense is that the current culture of the school just doesn't have a lot of comraderie minded kids. 

If you pull them off the smart phones and tablets long enough to experience an energetic environment, they might discover that they like it.  And for those types of personalities it also takes critical mass.  I will take a contrived student section over a pathetic one any day of the week.

The problem with a contrived student section is that the students can always choose not to attend/participate. They are far more likely to identify with something that they and their peers created.

Agree fully about how great Vashil was (overall and with the student section).

Most companies - and certainly the larger companies - scan social media postings for potential new hires. A CFO who meets with my students said her firm does this and every other firm she knows of does this too. I also know personally of a firm in Chicago who (several years ago) was going to hire two graduates from a major university (not Valpo and not the university that employs me), but rescinded the offer when they found anti-semetic posts from the two students. So, there already is a pretty extensive weeding out process.

Definitely mixed feelings about the university athletic department 'organizing' the student section to this (apparent) degree. Yes, Valpo's student section in recent years has been abysmal - but a lot of that is due to having (first and most importantly) a poor team and (second) a poor non-conference schedule that says "come see us in January". I believe the first of these problems is being addressed, but will take a few years, and the second problem can be solved to some degree as the team improves. The bigger potential problem that I see is that successful student sections are, for the most part, organic. They are not created by university or athletic department organizing it, they are created by students who decide to lead it...and (for the most part) feel that they dictate the environment, name, etc (and do so in a creative and chaotic manner - there is a good book on the genesis of the Gonzaga student section that illustrates this well). From what I see, this (the name, etc.) looks like it was created by the university (probably with some cursory student involvement). Thus, I am doubtful that this effort will work.

But I will also note that any effort will need to be complemented by success on the court. Gonzaga's chaotic story of creating a great student section was complemented by teams with John Stockton.

A few comments here:
-There is no reason why, if Valpo targets Lutheran high schools where the Concordias have developed an advantage, Valpo should not get a majority of the prospective students. The Concordias are not highly accredited - which ends up making a huge difference in finding a good job outside of the healthcare professions (e.g., the major companies in Milwaukee do not go to Concordia (WI) to seek and interview new graduates). If you were going to study business, for instance, my guess is that a Valpo grad would get (on average) 15% more starting salary than a student graduating from a Concordia...and that the Valpo grad has a significantly better chance of landing a job. There is so much demand in healthcare that everyone gets a job - but the better jobs are going to go to Valpo nursing students, PA students, etc. versus graduates from the Concordias.
-How split are the various synods and groups within the Lutheran faith. Do people in the Wisconsin Synod or LCMS consider those in ELCA to be Lutheran?
-The Concordias (or at least Wisconsin) require all employees to be Christian (prospective and new employees are required to state their faith).

My guess is most college students are still looking at the basic things: Cost, majors/opportunities, feel of the college, size/location, some sense of prestige for certain groups.

I have probably talked with three to four hundred prospective students and their parents over the last 5 years. My experience is consistent with crusader05's guess...but I would add dorms and having one or more prestigious/visible sports teams.

Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers.

Jeff Fryer still holds the record for three-pointers in an NCAA tournament game (11)

I do not see Roger Powell running Paul Westhead's "system", but do see him emphasizing pressure defense (like Nolan Richardson or Shaka Smart). But if you want more information on Westhead's "system", check out "The Guru of Go" in ESPN's 30 for 30 package or search Youtube for LMU's games in the late 80s. Suffice it to say, one record that is unlikely to ever be broken is LMU's 149 points in a regulation NCAA tournament game against Michigan.

The VP for Enrollment and Marketing explains a bit about the enrollment strategy in the recent Torch article: http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_e6f3a9c2-6847-11ee-b9f0-67b85d7f14f2.html

Title of article is "University admission rate trends up, yield goes down"

Is either of these good?  Can our admission rate get any higher?  I can accept that yield goes down, but only if we received many more applications. 

There are only three measures that the university should use to assess whether it is doing well in enrollment: new first-year student enrollment, discount rate, net transfers (or a related measure like first to second year student retention combined with transfers out). Indicators like number of applications are fine, but they are strictly indicators and should not be used to conclude that things are better/great (especially by comparing them to prior years in which the results were below expectations). Further, there are better indicators such as visits that may get "hidden" if they are below the expected number needed to achieve the enrollment goals.

The VP for Enrollment and Marketing explains a bit about the enrollment strategy in the recent Torch article: http://www.valpotorch.com/news/article_e6f3a9c2-6847-11ee-b9f0-67b85d7f14f2.html

A few observatations/comments:

-While many universities are not requiring the ACT or SAT, they are also adding entry tests before students start classes. The simple reason is that far more students are not ready in specific areas like math.
-Transcripts are becoming less meaningful because there has been increased grade inflation in high schools (it has always been there, but it is much worse now).
-I know that it is only one article, but her comments point towards a very centralized approach to marketing and enrollment - and, if true, it is wrong for Valpo to be so centralized. There needs to be a personal connection with each potential student for each college...thus the approach needs to be a combination of university-level AND college-specific.

.I am very optimistic about Coach Powell. Great leader with high expectations. It is just going to take some time to instill his system with the right players.

Which could or maybe will include scrapping many of the guys on the current roster out for better fits once the fit is identified.

But each one of those players on the current roster also has the opportunity to be one of those guys who excels and fits Coach Powell's system.

I am not at all surprised by the rankings. Poor performance last year, new coach, few returning players, new players are not highly ranked as recruits. Any analysis just stops there.

In terms of unknown, the one parallel I can think of is the 1998-1999 team. A different era in terms of advanced knowledge on players recruited, etc. Team had lost Drew, Sykes, two Jenkins, and Vilcinskas. Went to see them in their first two games at the Hoosier Dome and knew absolutely nothing about Barton, Stovall, Tonagel and Vujic. What a pleasant surprise those two games were!

However, such a pleasant surprise is clearly not likely or realistic this season. What do I expect and what would I like to see? (I do not think these are dramatically different) First and foremost, I believe Coach Powell will demand a clear set of on-court values - play hard, pressure defensively - or you don't play. Offense is much harder to develop quickly...what is the system and how fast can you develop multiple options on each possession?  how do you adapt to an opponent's defense as a team? who do you go to on possessions that stall? Thus, I expect the offense to lag the defense. I expect that the team will be "high variance" - some games competing strongly against top conference and non-conference opponents, other games they will not look good. This is not bad, this is part of development - which is what Valpo needs. The key things to look at will not be wins and losses as much as "is there a repeatable system being developed?", "are players developing?", and "are the players bonding - looked for the greater good as a team rather than individual accomplishment?". Some interesting additional metrics would be: number of deflections per game, number of field goals preceded by two or more passes.

Please don't misread my comments...I am very optimistic about Coach Powell. Great leader with high expectations. It is just going to take some time to instill his system with the right players.

I am all for considering alternatives on the art sale, but from what I can see (and I do not admit to being an expert on art or art transactions) there is a potential problem.

Let's assume that the O'Keefe is worth $8M. A museum offers a joint deal in which they get 75% ownership, Valpo gets 25% ownership, and both parties get to show the painting at their premises following the same ratio. Thus, Valpo get $6M. However, if Valpo goes to auction it would get at least $8M and (being a competitive auction) could get $10M (or more). That is $4M that Valpo is giving up and, again, owning art is not part of Valpo's main mission. Further, I suspect that museums are likely to want more friendly deals (after all, their perspective is going to be that they are doing the right thing for Valpo and the art institutions)...thus in my example they may only be willing to pay $4M for 75% usage.

This is definitely an option that should be considered, but Valpo should not be foregoing large sums of money just to appease art associations, etc. To make this decision, you need to get a strong assessment of what a buyer (museum or otherwise) would be willing to pay for an outright purchase.

Need to brag a little on the College of Engineering:
-Career placement rate for 2023 graduates: 100% (meaning they landed a job, are pursuing graduate work, or are performing military service).
-Current enrollment is 29.1% women and 18.4% from underrepresented groups.

I did not mean my points about how President Padilla handled a few student protesters to extend into broad conclusions about him and the board. While I believe the student's account of the events (they are presented in a logical and non-emotional manner in her letter) and I believe that he should have handled it better as a leader, I also believe that (if true) it was a mistake and not some grievous hatred of students, faculty, etc. I find it quite believable that the University President and Board may have strong disagreements on some topics and that they may get frustrated with some students and faculty, but that does not mean hatred and it does not mean that many (if not all) of them are respected.

College golf scoring (for men and women). For each round, you count the four best 18 hole scores out of five players designated as playing for the team. In some tournaments, teams will have additional players compete individually and their scores cannot count in calculating the team score (though they are included in the individual competition).

As someone who is in favor of selling the art (for reasons that I have detailed in prior posts), the university (particularly President Padilla) did not handle this mini-protest well. I can see no reason to dispute the summary of events provided by the student in the letter and it seems that she handled the events in a very mature manner (probably more mature than I would have been if I felt strongly about a cause and was stifled). Not allowing her in the banquet hall is one thing, but telling her that she is not allowed to speak at any location near the event and President Padilla making an off the cuff statement to students of "are you the muscle?" is not good leadership. Taking down flyers is also wrong.

As an empiricist who reviews for major academic journals, I see problems with the one or more studies associated with this book. I pulled up their publication on this in the American Economic Review (one of the most elite journals in the country) and their previous publication on this subject in another journal so that I could get a look at their empirical analysis. While admittedly I did not read the papers in detail, a quick scan and some basic searches indicated that there was no assessment of endogenous effects. Specifically, there is no analysis regarding whether there are factors that directly affect both the independent variable (whether someone goes to college) and the outcome (lifespan). I am sort of baffled at how the editor and reviewers in a very top economic journal - where exceptional econometric methods are sacred - did not require this. Heck, they did not even call out endogenous effects as a limitation of the study.

My view is that the findings are correlation only and that you cannot take anything meaningful away from this study.