Dear Faculty and Staff,
As the fall semester comes to a close and we prepare to leave campus for a much deserved break, we want to take a moment to, first of all, thank you again for your continued participation and input in the operational sustainability initiative. So many members of our campus community have been participants in this important process from the onset, which is essential to its success. Secondly, we want to again acknowledge that this process, of course, can be uncomfortable at times, and it is natural to have some anxiety about the outcomes of the work now underway. Change is inevitable and brings feelings of uncertainty, but, for Valpo, it is providing us with the opportunity to realign and reinvest in this extraordinary institution.
Having begun the administrative review process six months ago and the academic analysis nearly five months ago, this process has and will continue to be thoughtful so that we have the necessary information to work with. The data and steering teams, composed of our own colleagues, have met regularly throughout the fall semester — the data team, nearly every week, and the steering team, every two weeks — to provide accurate data and helpful context. After the December 4 Town Hall meeting, the data was released and can be found here. We continue to refine and revise that material with your input, through campus town hall meetings, submissions to the FAQ form or direct emails. We hope you will continue to digest the information gathered, help us clarify areas of concern, and suggest ways we can do better. As a reminder, the feedback form is still open and you can also email questions directly to rpk GROUP at rsibold@rpkgroup.com.
We are currently at the data absorption and fine tuning stages. No decisions about possible changes have been made or considered at this time. It is simply too early for that. We all need time to sit with the information that has been collected and consider what it means, what is still missing, and what needs more clarification. Therefore, the process will take a pause over the holiday break. To be clear, no decisions will be made over the Christmas holidays.
In fact, when we return from break, there will be more opportunities to provide feedback or ask questions. Three “open office hour” sessions (one hour each) will be held in early January. These will be zoom meetings, where faculty and staff can drop in to ask a question of rpk GROUP or administration. An email reminder, including the Zoom link, will be sent in early January, but please note the dates and times on your calendar now.
January Open Office Hours:
Monday, January 8 at 12 p.m. (Staff Focused)
Monday, January 8 at 1 p.m. (Faculty Focused)
Tuesday, January 9 at 8 a.m. (Open to everyone)
Some campus community members have asked for a timeline of next steps in the process, which we are happy to provide here (please note, the schedule is designed to be flexible and may shift).
- In January, the Board of Directors will receive the same rpk presentation that the campus received earlier this month, with all campus community feedback incorporated. (The board will see the same data that you have seen.) The board will meet again during the month as it continues to review the information, but will not be making any decisions at these January meetings.
- A campus town hall meeting will be held in February to share observations from the data and campus community feedback,and to discuss the FY25 budget planning process. The data collected will be used to inform our budget planning activity for the new fiscal year, which regularly begins each February.
- Our current plan is to announce decisions made as a result of the administrative review in mid to late February, at the earliest.
- We plan to announce decisions based on the academic analysis in March, and their adoption/implementation will follow the steps outlined in the faculty handbook.
While we hope you will take some time to think about the information gathered between now and our return to campus, it is most important that you take time to enjoy your time off. It has been a very busy semester and everyone needs and deserves a break. You should allow yourself to rest and recharge. We have a lot of important work ahead of us, and there will be difficult decisions, but we are in this process together. The strength of our community lies in our collective support for one another and our shared purpose.
We thank you for everything you do for Valparaiso University.
Sincerely,
Jose Padilla, President
Eric Johnson, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Mark Volpatti, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration
