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Post by a3uge on Dec 8, 2010 14:49:18 GMT -5
I actually was at the dinner forum on Monday. It was in the basement of the Union, which was apparently where IMC had done a majority of their work. The whole room was lined in boards tacked with posters, diagrams, statistics, etc. They addressed literally everything you could imagine with IMC (and things unrelated as well). If anyone has specific questions, I could probably recall what the guy said. A few things I found interesting related to athletics... - They wanted to launch everything later, but the money from the court being redone made that unfeasible. The court was repainted last year, and a brand new court was put in this year due to Horizon League money from Butler (I believe) and if the old logo was painted back in, obviously they would have to repaint it for the new logo the following year.
- The mascot won't be named anything, and they were happy to get that feedback.
- The head of the mascot seems to be the issue and will be scrapped completely, with a new head coming next August. Time and money constraints won't allow for a shorter time.
- The cape is to cover the seam in the back.
- The new basketball uniforms were delayed because of Nike. Same with Volleyball.
- The grey uniform used against Purdue may be their alternate. There was a picture of a white uniform on one of the boards. It may have been the woman's uniform, however.
- The Valparaizone was made because they wanted to disassociate "VU" from Valparaiso. He said they conducted surveys and outside of 25 miles, "VU" was not associated with "Valparaiso University" whatsoever.
- The mascot was replaced so it would coincide with the universities' effort to become nationally recognized again. The old mascot did not fit the new design and they needed a cohesive brand in order to sell the university. The guy may have said this to not anger people who liked the old logo. In reality, the old logo wreaked of the 90's and looked too much like Notre Dame's. He mentioned the Dayton Flyers who went through athletics re-branding and new athletics marketing to make it a successful program. Their school, on the other hand remains 80% catholic and most of the students are from Ohio, and they suffer from a cohesive marketing plan.
Oh and most importantly- Valparaiso has seen a record number of applications this year.
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Post by vu72 on Dec 8, 2010 15:53:21 GMT -5
Thanks or that detailed report. Are you a student? Were all the invitees students or were other people invited as a well?
The new court money didn't come from Butler's run, it came from private donations. Ask jj!
Not having seen the new mascot in person, it is hard to see the "tackyness" factor that so many feel. I really like the big blow up Crusader and the new logo. Will the new head reflect/look like the blow up?
Not sure what the deal was with the grey uniforms. Clearly they are different and would think that if we are going with something darker it should be on the road. Too bad dark brown doesn't cut it on basketball uniforms. I love the football team uniforms.
I think the deal with the new uniforms has to do with money. some teams will get them this year and the balance next season.
As for applications, that is good news indeed and the entry standards have been raised as well. Need a 3.0 gpa on a 4 scale to even apply.
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Post by valporun on Dec 8, 2010 16:01:55 GMT -5
[/li][li]The Valparaizone was made because they wanted to disassociate "VU" from Valparaiso. He said they conducted surveys and outside of 25 miles, "VU" was not associated with "Valparaiso University" whatsoever. [/quote] Did IMC say who most of the people say they thought "VU" referred to when surveyed?
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Post by okinawatyphoon on Dec 8, 2010 17:03:40 GMT -5
Thanks for letting us know about the meeting, a3uge (and welcome to the forum!). Some very good news about admission numbers should come out soon (I hope), and there is indeed some very good news to be heard.
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Post by drewsaders11 on Dec 8, 2010 17:33:18 GMT -5
Its not that people outside of a 25 mile radius have another school they associate with VU, although some may associate it with Vanderbilt, Villanova, Virginia, Vermont, etc. It is that if Valpo is used instead of VU, Valpo is recognizable only as Valparaiso, as opposed to VU being vague. Kinda makes sense. I was at the meeting, too.
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Post by a3uge on Dec 8, 2010 20:34:10 GMT -5
Thanks or that detailed report. Are you a student? Were all the invitees students or were other people invited as a well? The new court money didn't come from Butler's run, it came from private donations. Ask jj! There were only about ten people at the session. The guy who ran the meeting was the head of the entire thing. There was also an older lady, who didn't say anything, but kept notes. There was also two IMC-Student division people there, but they really didn't say anything either. Thanks for the clarification on the court money. By a Horizon League representative in the championship game, the entire league got a bit of money. I was under the impression they used it on the court. And they didn't reveal what people thought "VU" meant outside of the area, but he did talk about Valpo losing recognition outside of all but 7 regional states. He talked about how the law school had to stop recruiting nationally because graduates were having a hard time finding a job when they have a degree from an unrecognized school.
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Post by crusadermoe on Dec 9, 2010 17:38:25 GMT -5
a3uge, Thanks much for the update. This is very encouraging. The costume's goofy looking head really was the key issue.
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Post by lurkingdog on Dec 12, 2010 22:18:13 GMT -5
[/li][li]The Valparaizone was made because they wanted to disassociate "VU" from Valparaiso. He said they conducted surveys and outside of 25 miles, "VU" was not associated with "Valparaiso University" whatsoever. [/quote] Did IMC say who most of the people say they thought "VU" referred to when surveyed?[/quote] In the South, VU means Vanderbilt.
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Post by agibson on Dec 13, 2010 4:17:17 GMT -5
I think Villanova may use it too.
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Post by valpo10 on Dec 13, 2010 9:27:53 GMT -5
Vincennes University uses very heavily also.
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Post by vuweathernerd on Dec 13, 2010 11:38:15 GMT -5
Vincennes University uses very heavily also. before the last year or so, i don't think i had ever even heard of vincennes.
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Post by valpo10 on Dec 13, 2010 12:59:34 GMT -5
Vincennes University uses very heavily also. before the last year or so, i don't think i had ever even heard of vincennes. Yeah, but the people in that area of Indiana do and I would assume Valpo wants to reach out of those Indiana kids.
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Post by rlh on Dec 13, 2010 14:41:50 GMT -5
The "VU" term is regional in scope and as such in Northwest Indiana, most resident think of Valparaiso. Valpo is laughingly compared to a dogfood in places we have visited for games...so there is no one right way to do this. Just use what you want and no matter what IMC wants, fans will do what they want to do in regards to talking about the university. As I stated before, the department must justify it's existence, and some of what they are trying is noteworthy, but sometimes trying to change things that have been years in the making is a waste of time
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Post by blackpantheruwm on Dec 14, 2010 3:34:26 GMT -5
I just don't get, in the age of online gaming, how you guys aren't running around with shirts that say "YOU GOT VALPWNED"
You think it sucks being VU? In our own city, half the people think UWM is UW-Madison. Now tell me why our idiot students voted against being "Milwaukee" again?
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Post by a3uge on Dec 14, 2010 18:50:33 GMT -5
The "VU" term is regional in scope and as such in Northwest Indiana, most resident think of Valparaiso. Valpo is laughingly compared to a dogfood in places we have visited for games...so there is no one right way to do this. Just use what you want and no matter what IMC wants, fans will do what they want to do in regards to talking about the university. As I stated before, the department must justify it's existence, and some of what they are trying is noteworthy, but sometimes trying to change things that have been years in the making is a waste of time It took a bit of Google searching to tell what you meant by Valpo being compared to dogfood. For those who don't know, there is a dogfood brand called "ALPO." Honestly, I've never heard this before, and I don't think "Alpo" is the most prevalent product in the world... To say that having students refer to Valparaiso University as "Valpo", or printing publications/alternate logos with Valpo instead of "VU" on them is a waste of time is completely ignorant. The fact is, Valparaiso was in desperate need of a new marketing campaign. To have an enrollment increase of only 500 since 1998 (which can be explained through grad-level programs) is not the direction the University should be headed, especially when standards of entrance were slightly declining. Changing outdated, poorly designed logos and print is one thing, but changing the way potential students from all over the nation look at Valpo is the most important. "VU" has been overused. When I was at the meeting, there was a wall dedicated to old logos, many of which had "VU" on them. When seen through the eyes of non-students, it's impossible to gather what the logos are referring to. A big example was the "Engineers Without Borders" logo, which had a small "VU" at the bottom. Obviously not productive at all when seen outside of the campus. Unfortunately the word "Valparaiso" is long, awkward, hard to spell, and hard to remember. "Valpo" on the other hand is short and most importantly, unique. Edit: blackpantheruwm: I'm also from Milwaukee, and despite being three letterss long, "UWM" hold little recognition outside of the area. People from Valpo usually are confused when "UWM" is mentioned... They still confuse it will UW-Madison or Western Michigan. Green Bay seems to have abandoned "University of Wisconsin-", and I'm surprised Milwaukee hasn't as well. The UW system is hindering these schools. Just in the naming, it can be interpreted that the University of Wisconsin is the main university, and other cities have offshoots of the main campus. University of Milwaukee? Milwaukee University would never fly... think of how those initials may be misleading...
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