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Not to be confused with University of Valparaíso.
Valparaiso University, known colloquially as Valpo, is a regionally accredited[2] private university located in the city of Valparaiso in the U.S. state of Indiana. Founded in 1859, it consists of five undergraduate colleges, a graduate school, and a law school. Valparaiso University is owned and operated by the Lutheran University Association, a non-profit corporation, and is the largest independent Lutheran university in the United States.
[edit] Campus [edit] LocationValparaiso is located an hour southeast of downtown Chicago and is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. It is also 15 miles (24 km) south of Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The 320-acre (1.3 km2) campus as well as its main entrance are located off U.S. Highway 30 on the south side of the city and is the site of over sixty buildings and a number of academic resources. [edit] Old Campus The Old Campus of Valparaiso University is both adjacent to and a part of the historic downtown district of the city. Old Campus is the site of the School of Law, which is made up of Wesemann Hall and Heritage Hall. Heritage is the oldest remaining building on the campus, and was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The school's fraternities, the Martin Luther King Cultural Center, and the Kade-Duesenberg German House and Cultural Center are all also located here. [edit] New CampusThe city and the University have grown together over a century and a half. Beginning in the 1950s, the school expanded eastward to occupy what is now known as New Campus. It is part time home to thousands of students living in nine residence halls. The campus is not laid out in a vehicular grid as the rest of the city, but as a pedestrian campus of winding walkways and distinctly landscaped areas. At the center of campus is the Chapel of the Resurrection, a 98-foot (30 m) high building which is the home of Valparaiso University's many worship services and convocations. Built on the highest elevation of land on the university's campus, it has been a Northwest Indiana landmark since 1959. The Neils Science Center was erected in 1974 and includes an astronomical observatory, greenhouse, and a sub-critical nuclear reactor which helped the facility receive an Atomic Energy Commission citation as a model undergraduate physics laboratory. The newly built Christopher Center Library houses over 350,000 books and numerous video and audio resources. The Valparaiso University Center for the Arts (VUCA) offers multiple performance facilities, which are most notably used by students to produce full scale theatrical performances every year. The performances and exhibits in the Center for the Arts are always open to the public, and the Center houses the nationally renowned Brauer Museum of Art. The school also hosts WVUR-FM, the university's student-run radio station. The new Kallay-Christopher Hall, adjoined to the Schnabel Hall communication building, is home to the Department of Geography and Meteorology. As of the summer of 2006, it has an observation deck and large weather lab facilities, and plans to complete installation of a Doppler weather radar by January 2007. The radar is currently operational. The College of Engineering has both a 16-inch (410 mm) computerized reflecting telescope to aid in NASA research and VisBox-X2, a virtual reality system used to immerse students in a visualized three dimensional image. The College of Nursing uses SIMMAN, a robotic patient simulator used to train students in real life treatment. [edit] Improvement Building projects at Valparaiso University are funded entirely by donation. No student tuition dollars are used, which helps keep the school a highly rated value school. The university also receives no support for operation from the state or federal government. The most notable construction project on campus is the construction of the 202,000 sq ft (18,800 m2), $74 million new student Union, named in honor of University President Alan F. Harre, who retired in June 2008. It opened in January 2009. The new union is more than 3 times the size of the previous union, and consolidated all dining services on campus. It has room for an ever growing number of student organizations, as well as a new bookstore, lounge areas, student mailboxes for every student on campus, entertainment areas, a large ballroom (capable of seating 500 for a dinner or 1000 for an auditorium setting), a career center, and an outdoor terrace overlooking the Chapel. The design architect is Sasaki Associates, Inc. and the architect of record is Design Organization. Mortenson Co. is the construction manager. Along with the new Union, other construction projects have dominated the Valparaiso University landscape. Recently completed was a new Tennis Complex and a Parking Ramp for approximately 400 vehicles. New water and sewer lines, as well as a new duct bank for fiber optic cable and telecommunication lines was completed. Furthermore, plans are being made to expand upon the south end of the Gellersen Hall, where the College of Engineering is located. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in Spring 2009, but nothing has yet been finalized. [edit] Academics[edit] Organization [edit] UndergraduateValpo is organized into five undergraduate colleges:
Areas of Studies-Majors, Minors, & Other Academic Programs
[edit] Graduate SchoolMasters Programs
[edit] School of LawMain article: Valparaiso University School of Law [edit] College of Adult ScholarsThe College of Adult Scholars is a unique program geared toward non-traditional students. Through it, adult students can pursue degrees, certificates, or further training and specialization in other areas. [edit] ReputationU.S. News & World Report named Valparaiso University as #3 in the Universities-Master's category for the Midwest in its annual rankings of "America's Best Colleges."[3] It also ranked Valparaiso among the "Best College Values" based on a ratio of price to quality, and placed the College of Engineering in the nation's top 25 undergraduate-only engineering schools.[4] Over ninety-five percent of graduates secure employment or further education (twenty-three percent) within six months. More than ninety percent of students receive financial aid totaling over fifty-two million dollars annually. Charity Navigator also gave the institution four out of four stars based on its organizational efficiency and capacity.[5] Valparaiso University was graded a "D+" on the College Sustainability Report Card in 2009.[6] [edit] FacultyValparaiso University faculty work with governments, communities, colleagues, and students. Ninety percent of the faculty members hold a doctorate or the highest degree in their field. Valparaiso is a teaching school where each professor lectures and every class is led by a professor. Thus, there are very few teaching assistants at Valpo and in nearly every class professors are on a first name basis with their students. The student-to-faculty ratio is 12 to 1, and there is an average of 20 students per class. [edit] CultureValparaiso is a growing school that works to uphold the benefits of an intimate education. Most first-year undergraduate students take a year of Core, a common interdisciplinary course rooted in liberal arts and focused on the understanding the purpose and fulfillment of human life. About a tenth of incoming freshman alternatively participate in the freshman program of Christ College, Valparaiso University's honor college. Students are also subject to an honor system originally implemented by the students themselves in 1943 which remains in effect today. The school also puts a heavy focus on diversity. Each January, the school holds a weekend of Martin Luther King, Jr. events as its major annual event, as well as offering study-abroad programs in fourteen nations including sites in Cambridge, England (Anglia Ruskin University); Osaka, Japan; Reutlingen, Germany; Puebla, Mexico; Namibia; Paris, France; and Hangzhou, China (Zhejiang University). [edit] Students[edit] ProfileValparaiso University students are some of the most geographically diverse in the nation. Of the 4,000 students, only one-third are from the school's home state of Indiana. The remaining two-thirds come from almost every other state of the United States and over 40 foreign countries. Over two-thirds graduate in the top quarter of their high school class and nearly ninety percent return to Valparaiso after their freshman year. Annually, more than 26 million dollars are awarded by the university to over eighty percent of the student body, which is administered based on factors such as community involvement, interests, recommendations, and personality as well as grade point average, class ranking, and standardized test scores. [edit] CommunitySixty-four percent of Valparaiso University students live on the school's city campus, mainly because University regulations require almost all students who do not have senior status to live in dorms. Thirty-five percent of students are Lutheran, but over twenty percent are Catholic and seventy-five percent participate in faith-related activities. Valpo supports over 100 student administered organizations, clubs, and activities. Fifty percent of students participate in intramural athletics, and over 1,000 students give over 45,000 hours of community service to the region annually. [edit] Greek lifeMore than thirty percent of Valpo students are members of one of the school's nine national fraternities or seven national sororities. The entire Greek Life community is coordinated by the fraternities' Interfraternity Council and sororities in the Panhellenic Council. Valparaiso also hosts chapters of all major honors fraternities. Many of the fraternities were local until the 1950s when they were accepted as chapters into national and international fraternities. However, the sororities were local and had no national affiliation until 1998.
[edit] Non-Fraternity Honor SocietiesMortar Board National College Senior Honor Society [edit] AthleticsMain article: Valparaiso Crusaders Valpo's colors are brown and gold and the school's mascot is the Crusader. Most athletic events are held in the Athletics-Recreation Center (ARC), which is the primary sporting facility on campus. Valparaiso's eighteen teams and nearly 600 student athletes participate in NCAA Division I (I-FCS for football) in the Horizon League, except for football, in which they compete in the Pioneer Football League (the Horizon League does not sponsor football) and play at Brown Field. The school is known for its well rounded athletes as 98% successfully graduate, which ties Valparaiso with the University of Notre Dame for the third highest graduation rate in the country.[1] Valpo is well-known for its men's basketball head coach Homer Drew and his son Bryce Drew, who led the team to its improbable Sweet Sixteen appearance in the 1998 NCAA basketball tournament by making "The Shot", a three-point shot as time expired to beat favored Ole Miss by one point. Bryce Drew is now the team's associate coach. Also, Valpo is the home of the National Grade School Basketball Tournament. [edit] Notable faculty[edit] Current faculty members
[edit] Notable alumniOver 50,000 alumni currently serve in their respective fields across the world.
[edit] History[edit] Methodist foundation
What is now Valparaiso University was founded by the Methodist Church in 1859 as Valparaiso Male and Female College, one of the first co-educational four-year institutions in the United States. Citizens of Valparaiso were so supportive of the placement of the College that they raised $11,000 in early 1859 to encourage the Methodist Church to locate there. Students paid tuition of $8 per term (three terms per year), plus nearby room and board around $2 per week. Instruction at the college actually began with young children, and most of the students were in the elementary grade levels. Courses at the collegiate level included math, literature, history, the sciences, and philosophy. Courses stressing the Christian faith included "moral philosophy" and "moral science."  The school was forced to close in 1871, due to the fallout of the Civil War. Not only did most of the men (both students and administrative members) enroll in an army, but Indiana had passed a bill in 1867 that provided for state support for public education, and the Methodists' very broad Indiana-wide efforts toward higher education meant that none of the schools were self-sustaining. This combination proved too much to overcome for the Male and Female College.[7] [edit] Intermediate growthThe school was reopened by Henry Baker Brown two years later as the Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute. The school was renamed Valparaiso College in 1900 and gained its current university status when rechartered in 1906. For the next two decades, Valpo gained a national reputation as an economical institution of higher learning, earning it the positive nickname The Poor Man's Harvard. At the height of enrollment, it was the second largest school in the nation, behind only Harvard University. However, the aftermath of another conflict, World War I, took its toll, and the school was forced into bankruptcy. [edit] Lutheran revivalIn 1923, the Ku Klux Klan assembled a bid to purchase the university.[8] At that time, the Pillar of Fire was publishing the pro-KKK monthly periodical The Good Citizen.[9] They pledged to offer the university's appraised value of $175,000, expand it to the size of Purdue University, and devote the institution to the instilling of Americanism.[10] However, in 1925 the Lutheran University Association outbid the Klan for the school's ownership. The association was a group of clergy and church laity that saw promise in the school and wished to create an academic institution not controlled by any church denomination. Valparaiso is still operated by the Lutheran University Association, and remains an independent Lutheran institution which enjoys close relations with the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. [edit] Student activismAs a liberal arts institution, Valparaiso University has a detailed history of student activism. [edit] Kinsey Hall fireWhile many colleges either amended or canceled the remainder of the 1969-1970 school year following the Kent State shootings due to unrest, the Valparaiso administration ignored student calls for a series of seminars and forums about violence at other campuses. A large group of students then organized a protest march from the campus Victory Bell to the Porter County courthouse. Continued protests led to discussions between the administration and student leaders. When these talks failed, a group of still-unidentified students set fire to the empty Kinsey Hall administrative building in the early morning. The aftermath of the fire left Kinsey Hall destroyed. [edit] Burning of the shantyDuring the 1988-1989 school year, a mock shanty town was erected on campus to show solidarity with victims of apartheid in South Africa. Mike Weber and Phil Churilla, two columnists for VU's student newspaper The Torch, wrote a column critical of the protest due to student use of portable CD players, wool blankets and packaged food in the shanties. A few days later the shanty town burned down and a culprit was never found. [edit] Valparaiso University Police DepartmentFor campus security, Valparaiso University employs a police department with academy trained and certified officers that sometimes assist other local law enforcement as a result of reciprocal agreements. Valpo has long been a dry campus,[11] but enforcement was raised dramatically in recent years,[12] and in the spring of 2006, the VUPD began considering placing officers on the campus escort vans in an attempt to curb underage drinking. Days later a city police officer entered the Sigma Pi fraternity house with his gun drawn, believing he had witnessed drug use through a window.[13] Though university officers only responded to the scene later, these incidents strained student-police relations further, prompting mass resignations of student drivers from the escort service and a protest of over 500 students. [14] The protests centered on the VUPD's increased focus on alcohol consumption and new placement of police officers with student escort services. [edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: Midwestern Undergraduate Private Engineering Colleges | Valparaiso University | Universities and colleges in Indiana | Lutheran universities and colleges | Valparaiso, Indiana | Educational institutions established in 1859 | Private universities and colleges in the United States | National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities | Northwest Indiana | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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