Valparaiso University Valparaiso University Motto In luce tua videmus lucem ( In Thy light we see light ) Established 1859 ( details ) Type Private , Coeducational Endowment $ 130.4 million President Dr. Alan Harre Faculty 220 Students 4 , 000 Undergraduates 3 , 800 Postgraduates 200 Location Valparaiso , IN , USA Campus Urban , 310 acres ( 1.25 km² ) Athletics 18 Division I NCAA teams Colors Brown and Gold               Nickname Crusaders Mascot Affiliations Independent Lutheran Website www.valpo.edu Valparaiso University , known colloquially as Valpo , is a private university located in the city of Valparaiso , 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 . Academics Organization Undergraduate Valpo is organized into five undergraduate colleges : College of Arts and Sciences College of Business Administration Christ College ( The Honors College ) College of Engineering College of Nursing Graduate Division Valparaiso University also offers graduate studies programs . Areas of study include liberal arts , nursing , psychology , sports administration , international commerce & policy , and education . The graduate division also includes an MBA program connected with business leaders throughout the region . School of Law Main article : Valparaiso University School of Law College of Adult Scholars The 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 . Reputation U.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. '' 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 . 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 . Faculty Valparaiso University faculty work with governments , communities , colleagues , and students . Ninety percent of the faculty 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 13 to 1 , and there is an average of 22 students per class . Culture Valparaiso is a growing school that works to uphold the benefits of an intimate education . All first-year undergraduate students take a year of the Core , a common interdisciplinary course rooted in liberal arts and focused on the understanding the purpose and fulfillment of human life . 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 England ( Anglia Ruskin University ) , Germany , Mexico , and China . Campus Location Valparaiso is located an hour southeast of Chicago , and sponsors numerous events in the metropolitan area . It is also 15 miles south of Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore . The 310-acre 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 . 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 . 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 . New Campus Chapel of the Resurrection The city and the University have grown together over a century and a half . Beginning in the 1950s , the school grew 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 . First and at the center of campus is the Chapel of the Resurrection , a 98-foot 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 newly built Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources 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 radar by October 2006 . The School of Engineering has both a 16-inch 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 School of Nursing uses SIMMAN , a robotic patient simulator used to train students in real life treatment . An $ 8.5 million , 5-story parking garage is under construction between Alumni Hall and the Domke Power Plant . It is expected to be complete by May 2007 and should have space for about 385 cars when complete . A $ 42 million new Student Union will begin construction in Fall 2006 and should be complete about 2 years later . It will be located on the site of the former Moellering Library . History History at a glance Valparaiso Male and Female College Established 1859 Affiliations Methodist Closed 1871 to 1873 Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute Acquired 1873 Affiliations secular Valparaiso College Renamed 1900 Valparaiso University Renamed 1906 Acquired 1925 Affiliations Lutheran 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 . The school was forced to close though in 1871 due to the fallout of the Civil War . Intermediate growth The 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 . Lutheran revival In 1925 , the Lutheran University Association outbid the Ku Klux Klan for ownership of the university . 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 . Student activism As a greatly liberal arts institution , Valparaiso University has a detailed history of student activism . Kinsey Hall fire While many colleges either amended or cancelled their remaining semester following the Kent State shootings due to unrest , the Valparaiso administration ignored student calls for a series of seminars and forums on violence at other campuses . A large group of students then organized a peaceful 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 and the remainder of the academic year cancelled . Burning of the shanty During the 1988-89 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 penned 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 . Valparaiso University Police Department For 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 , but enforcement was raised dramatically in recent years , 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 raided the Sigma Pi fraternity house , entering with his gun drawn after claiming to witness drug use through a window . Though VUPD officers only responded to the scene later , these incidents strained relations further , prompting mass resignations of student drivers from the escort service and a mass protest of over 500 students . The protests centered around the VUPD focus on alcohol consumption and use of questionable tactics , while recent theft and sexual assault cases had gone unsolved . Student body Profile Valparaiso 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 . Community Sixty-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 . Forty 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 . Greek life Thirty percent of Valpo students are members of one of the school 's nine national fraternities or six national sororities . The entire Greek Life community is coordinated by the Hellenic Council , while fraternities cooperate in the Interfraternity Council and sororites in the Panhellenic Council . Valparaiso also hosts chapters of all major honors fraternities . Fraternities Sororities Honor Societies Lambda Chi Alpha Phi Kappa Psi Phi Mu Alpha Phi Sigma Kappa Sigma Chi Sigma Phi Epsilon Sigma Pi Sigma Tau Gamma Theta Chi                 Chi Omega Delta Delta Delta Gamma Phi Beta Kappa Delta Kappa Kappa Gamma Pi Beta Phi                 Phi Beta Kappa Gamma Theta Upsilon Lambda Pi Eta Pi Sigma Alpha Sigma Theta Tau Tau Beta Pi Alpha Lambda Delta Chi Epsilon Pi Athletics 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-AA for football ) in the Mid-Continent Conference , except for football , in which they compete in the Pioneer Football League ( the Mid-Continent Conference does not sponsor football ) and play at Brown Field . Starting with the 2007-08 school year Valpo will move to the Horizon League . 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 . 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 `` . Bryce is now an assistant coach . Notable alumni Over 50 , 000 alumni currently serve in their respective fields across the world . Nick Browder , quarterback , New York Dragons JoBe Cerny , owner , Cerny/American Creative , well-known character actor , voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy Jay Christopher , cofounder of The Pampered Chef Bryce Drew , former National Basketball Association player Michael Essany , television host Don Fites , chairman and CEO ( ret. ) , Caterpillar Inc . Keith Kizer , executive director , Nevada State Athletic Commission ( http : //www.maxboxing.com/News/Scotto042006.asp ) David Lally , creator , `` Bewitched , The Musical '' Lloyd McClendon , former MLB player and manager , current bullpen coach for the Detroit Tigers George William Norris , United States Senator from Nebraska and father of the Tennessee Valley Authority T. Marshall Rousseau , executive director ( emeritus ) , Salvador Dalí Museum David Ruprecht , host , Supermarket Sweep , Real People Lowell Thomas , writer and broadcaster Frederick `` Fuzzy '' Thurston , former member of the Green Bay Packers Jim Wacker , former football coach at the University of Minnesota Emily Watkins , Margot and the Nuclear So and So 's External links Valparaiso University website Official VU Athletics Website Campus maps , directions , and virtual tour Admissions Alumni Association Valparaiso University News and Events Notes ^ America 's Best Colleges 2006 . U.S. News & World Report . Retrieved on 2006-01-25 . ^ { { cite web | title=America 's Best Colleges 2007 | publisher=U.S. News & World Report | accessdate=2006-09-12 | url= http : //www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1univmas_mw_brief.php ^ Magazine again cites Valpo for excellence , value . Valparaiso University . Retrieved on 2006-05-01 . ^ Valparaiso University ( HTML ) . Encyclopedia of Chicago . Retrieved on 2006-06-26 . ^ The Ku Klux Klan’s invasion of Indiana in the 1920s . The Rochester Sentinel . Retrieved on 2006-01-25 . Mid-Continent Conference Centenary • IUPUI • Oakland • Oral Roberts • Southern Utah • UMKC • Valparaiso • Western Illinois Pioneer Football League Butler • Davidson • Dayton • Drake • Jacksonville • Morehead State • San Diego • Valparaiso Colleges and Universities in Chicagoland Art Institute of Chicago • Chicago College of Performing Arts • Chicago State University • University of Chicago • Columbia College Chicago • DePaul University • East-West University • Hebrew Theological College • Illinois Institute of Art - Chicago • Illinois Institute of Technology • University of Illinois at Chicago • Kendall College • Loyola University Chicago • Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago • McCormick Theological Seminary • Meadville Theological School • Moody Bible Institute • North Park University • Northeastern Illinois University • Northwestern University • Roosevelt University • University of Saint Mary of the Lake • St . Xavier University • Telshe Yeshiva • Valparaiso University • Vandercook College of Music Midwestern Undergraduate Private Engineering Colleges Cedarville University • Indiana Institute of Technology • Kettering University • Lawrence Technological University • Milwaukee School of Engineering • Ohio Northern University • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology • Saint Louis University • Tri-State University • University of Evansville • Valparaiso University Categories : Mid-Continent Conference | Pioneer Football League | Midwestern Undergraduate Private Engineering Colleges | Valparaiso University | Universities and colleges in Indiana | Lutheran colleges and universities | Valparaiso , Indiana | Educational institutions established in 1859 America 's Best Colleges 2006 U.S. News & World Report 2006-01-25 http : //www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_1842_brief.php Magazine again cites Valpo for excellence , value Valparaiso University 2006-05-01 http : //wwwstage.valpo.edu/engineering/coe/news/081905.php Valparaiso University HTML Encyclopedia of Chicago http : //www.example.com 2006-06-26 The Ku Klux Klan’s invasion of Indiana in the 1920s The Rochester Sentinel 2006-01-25 http : //www.rochsent.com/files/theklan.html Valparaiso University In luce tua videmus lucem ( In Thy light we see light ) 1859 ( details ) Private , Coeducational $ 130.4 million Dr. Alan Harre Valparaiso IN USA 4 , 000 3 , 800 200 220 Independent Lutheran Urban , 310 acres ( 1.25 km² ) Athletics 18 Division I NCAA teams Brown and Gold               Crusaders www.valpo.edu Valparaiso University School of Law 