Though the timing isn’t right yet for solid numbers, Valparaiso University officials said during a Wednesday community town hall that they expect enrollment to tick up when the academic year begins anew in August.

“I’m sure all of you are wondering what we are looking at for fall,” said Rosa Alvarado, the university’s new assistant vice president for enrollment. “We are on a very strong upward trend.”

While applications were a bit down, deposits to hold spots for the coming year are up, Alvarado said, adding the university will see a “sizeable” group of new undergrads and a “small but strong” cohort of graduate students.

“We are ahead at this time of where we were last year for incoming freshmen, incoming transfer students and incoming graduate students,” President José Padilla, who is retiring at the end of the calendar year, told the more than 50 community leaders and representatives who attended the town hall, held in the Harre Union.

Commitment to attending the university includes a $200 deposit, though some prospective students decide to go elsewhere and give up that deposit, a slimming-down of the number of students Padilla called the “melt.”

“Right now we’re ahead of pace but it’s premature for us to say the numbers,” he said, adding the figures will be shared in the fall after the academic year begins.

The university’s struggle for students has been ongoing, not helped by the closure of its law school in 2020 or the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fall and new student headcount both dropped in the past two years after numbers began to climb slightly in 2022, as the direct impact of the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane. Still, according to enrollment figures on the university’s website, both numbers are below where they were in the fall of 2019 before the pandemic began.

The university had 852 new students in August 2024, compared to 1,004 in 2019. Likewise, this year’s total fall headcount was 2,598 students, compared to 3,521 in fall 2019. Only 16 students from the latter count were in the university’s law school, its last cohort before it closed.

University officials have said they are working to “right size” the student population count, something Padilla said they are discussing with the school’s board of trustees. “We’re looking at 2,800 (students) as sustainable,” he said.

Toward that end, Padilla noted the recent sale of two of three cornerstone pieces of art from the Brauer Museum, including “Rust Red Hills” by Georgia O’Keeffe, as allowed by an August Porter Superior Court decision and affirmed by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office. The sale required a modification of the Sloan Trust, which directly or indirectly funded purchase of the three paintings.

“The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate” by Childe Hassam also sold, a university spokesperson confirmed last week. The sale of Frederic E. Church’s “Mountain Landscape” is still in process.

“Now we have $12 million in the bank,” Padilla said, which allows the university to move forward with renovations for Brandt and Wehrenberg halls for its freshman village. The renovation includes a gallery to display lesser-known works of art from the Sloan Trust.

The renovations are in the planning stages, Padilla said, but with the necessary funds in hand, “we’re off to the races with what we initially intended to do.”

The university’s marketing team is already working to push the renovated facilities.

“We’re very excited about it. I think it’s really going to help us in terms of getting students here,” Padilla said.

About 30% of the incoming students are commuters, who do so to save money, Padilla said, adding he doesn’t expect that to change much. Still, university officials prefer to have students living on campus, something that should increase with the dorm renovations, which include air conditioning, furniture and other upgrades.

“With these upgraded dorms, we think we’re going to get more residential students,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mark Volpatti, the university’s senior vice president for finance and chief financial officer, said Scheele and Lankenau halls are dormant and likely will be razed, though how that space will be used by the campus is yet to be determined.

Officials said the university also is selling off some of its unused property, including the site of the former Strongbow Inn, which the university purchased two years ago as controversy swirled on campus and beyond about the artwork sale. The property, Volpatti said, is in the area of Silhavy and Sturdy roads and includes everything but the baseball fields in that area.

Other topics discussed at the town hall included a new facility to replace LeBien Hall, home of the university’s nursing program.

“LeBien Hall has served us well but it no longer meets our needs,” said Christine Radtke, the university’s assistant vice president for development.

A new building will strengthen enrollment for the university’s nursing and healthcare programs, allowing for more extensive simulation labs and professional collaboration, she said. The facility will be 92,000 square feet and three stories as proposed.

“We want to have existing medical practices in this building,” Padilla said. “We don’t want our students to learn in a vacuum.”

The university already is in discussion with potential tenants that will bring the community to the campus, he said. The project includes a seven-year fundraising campaign, which university officials hope to complete in five years, with plans to break ground as the university comes close to reading its fundraising goal, Padilla said.

The new building will be constructed near the intersection of U.S. 30 and Sturdy Road.

Additionally, Rebekah Arevalo, the university’s assistant vice president and chief of staff, offered a timeline for finding Padilla’s replacement given his pending retirement, which he announced in January.

The university has engaged in the services of Academic Search, a search firm specializing in higher education. Additionally, a search committee has held 15 in-person meetings with campus and community members and seven online meetings for input on the university’s next president.

A professional profile will be ready sometime in June, with recruitment taking place over the summer and a review of candidates and scheduled interviews through October. A new president should be named by late November, to take over on Jan. 1.

Padilla will have served as president for five years when he retires.

Outgoing board chair Robert Hansen, who also announced he is retiring at the end of the year after 18 years on the board, including the last five years as chair, is being replaced by chair-elect Jon Steinbrecher, a 1983 graduate of the university.

alavalley@chicagotribune.com