Strategic Plan Initiative Funding
February 8, 2023

Dear Campus Community,

As you know, we have embarked on an ambitious five-year strategic plan to change and grow our University. One priority initiative is to improve first-year residence halls and create a first-year, residential complex that is on par with our upperclassmen residence halls and includes the amenities that the current generation of prospective students expect. This is crucial for both attracting and retaining students, as well as increasing the tuition revenue and strengthening our support of our students, faculty and staff.

Currently, our first-year residence halls do not reflect the importance we place on the residential learning experience and do not meet the expectations of our incoming students or their families. In order to attract, retain, and meet the expectations of the current generation of incoming students, it is imperative that we provide a residential experience that is commensurate with those of our peers and aspirational peer institutions. Our plans for a new first-year residential complex will provide the amenities and features that prospective students value and expect.

We intend to pay for this initiative through a practice we will use for other parts of the strategic plan. We will consider assets and resources that are not core or critical to our educational mission and strategic plan, and reallocate them to support the plan. In this instance, we intend to pay for the much-needed dorm renovations by using the proceeds from the sale of select paintings from the campus art museum.  

The Board of Directors and I have carefully considered this plan to reallocate these assets. The Board granted me the authority to sell the paintings at its October 2022 meeting. We have not yet sold the paintings. At this point, we are still completing the due diligence process that customarily precedes — and is a condition of — any major transaction of this nature. We will be sure to inform the campus community as soon as there is something else to announce in this matter.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear about this transaction. We would use the sales proceeds from the paintings solely to improve the student experience. No portion of the proceeds would be used for operating expenses.  

The Board and I care deeply about this University. Our actions will be based on the best interests of our students, our mission, and the entire campus. Not just one small piece of it, especially when it is not part of our strategic plan and our core mission of educating students and giving them an optimal residential life experience. We recognize that not all will agree with our decisions in redirecting non-core resources to support the strategic plan. I fully stand behind this approach since it prioritizes our students, faculty and staff, and puts the University on a path to change, growth, and success.  

I encourage you to contact the President’s Office at president@valpo.edu with any questions or concerns.

Thank you for all you do for this University, and I look forward to our collective progress.

José D. Padilla
President