The Leader’s Day with President Troy VanAken

We may never truly know what was spicier for Troy D. VanAken on that fateful day: the questions or the chicken.

Indeed, this year’s installment of The Leader’s “Day with Troy,” held annually over the summer, saw the sitting president of Elmhurst University endure a “Hot Ones”-style interview alongside seven members of The Leader’s editorial board: Editors-in-Chief Ashley Vanderhoff and Tyler Trench, News Editor Sarah Matzkin, Arts & Culture Editor Bentley Barrington, Opinions Editor Kevin Brassil, Multimedia Editor Star Herring, and Graphics Editor Serhii Mahula.

VanAken sat with the ed board members in the President’s Private Dining Room in the Frick Center, and true to the “Hot Ones” format, everyone sampled 10 different hot sauces with increasing levels of spiciness, ranging from a 2/10 to a dreaded 11/10. Both the questions and the hot sauces started out mild as VanAken was asked about his personal interests, hobbies, and background.

The president expressed excitement at becoming a grandfather in the near future, also mentioning that he enjoys restoring old cars and boats with his father as a way to recharge from burnout. Noting that he has already spent more than a decade as EU’s president, VanAken estimated that he probably has about five years left in him as university president.

In regards to the school implementing student-driven feedback, although VanAken said there would be difficulty in creating a commuters lounge, he expressed hope for other new projects, including possibly even the creation of a new residence hall. As for the topic of artificial intelligence, the president expressed optimistic views on AI tools, though he also felt that they would need faculty input and shared governance.

As the sauces grew spicier, so too did the questions, as VanAken was asked about financial challenges EU may face, including rising tuition, loss of scholarships, efforts to grow the endowment, and how the university is combating the student enrollment cliff.

During last year’s Day with Troy, amid budget cuts, grant dismissals, and funding pauses for higher education nationwide, VanAken said, “We can’t charge students more.” However, tuition increased again, along with a loss of the American Dream and Niebuhr Service to Society scholarships.

VanAken said the toughest part of working through finances is balancing the needs of students against the needs of 700 employees who rely on the institution for their livelihoods. He noted that without revenue increase, he cannot raise compensation for staff facing rising living costs.

“On one hand, I get it. We had a 2.9% increase, and there’s some people that feel there shouldn’t be any increase,” said VanAken. “On another level, we saw things that were 10% increases. You know that inflation and cost for food and the cost for water has gone up 30% in Elmhurst.”

A major part of VanAken’s job is finding donors for fundraising to offset costs for students. Despite the loss of several scholarships, EU’s endowment and net assets have undergone an almost fourfold increase. When VanAken arrived over 10 years ago, that number sat around $76 million. Today, it’s over $300 million. Five percent of that goes to student scholarships.

VanAken also discussed the enrollment cliff, which EU has offset through growing their graduate programs and international student population, with VanAken estimating an increase from about 50 international students to 400 since 2016, though he also noted that difficulties with visas have caused challenges for international students.

“I think that might get better in a few years, but for the next couple years, we’re not anticipating nearly as many international students as we’ve had in the past,” VanAken explained. “The good news is that this year our domestic first-year enrollment is up significantly, as opposed to like 525 last year. We’re looking at maybe 600 new students coming in, so I think our enrollment might tick down a little bit.”

The questions then shifted toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, with VanAken noting the difficulty with transitioning from Biden’s DEI-supportive administration to Trump’s DEI-resistant one, which resulted in $3.4 million in funding being pulled.

VanAken stressed the importance of being non-political in his position, noting that the university is funded predominantly through taxpayer money. However, he also emphasized the importance of EU being a very inclusive and supportive campus for everyone, referring to himself as an uncle or “tío” for all students.

“Now, different people take different hats on that, but in my case, I have to be everybody’s president,” VanAken explained. “Somebody might be a little conservative. Somebody might be a little more liberal. Somebody might be a lot on either one of those. I’ve certainly evolved over my lifetime in that regard, and then some of these people that are donating significantly are weighing in on this particular conversation.”

When it comes to college students who are particularly struggling, VanAken pointed to an unexpected demographic.

“I’ll tell you a group that is coming on the radar. It’s actually my group. White males are struggling at colleges and universities,” said VanAken, who referred to himself as the only non-Latino in his family. “Do a little bit of research about the decline in success at colleges of White males. The reality is, just need to make sure everybody, however they identify whatever’s going on, that they have the best chance to find that they belong here and they can take advantage of whatever program.”

As VanAken and The Leader’s ed board members fought their way through the hottest sauces, including “Da Bomb Beyond Insanity,” they discussed the EU Student Government Association’s controversial approval of an EU chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit organization founded by the late right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk.

According to VanAken, he had a nice chat with the chapter’s president, Timothy Dudasik, about being a compassionate conservative, seeing both sides of every situation, and aligning with Elmhurst University’s values. Although he said the chapter’s existence alone should not be enough to make people uncomfortable, VanAken also noted the importance of being mindful when it comes to topics such as immigration and sexual orientation.

“If you want to take a strident against immigration or what have you, just know that you’re going to have somebody sitting in a chair a couple of years that may be a DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] student, or has a parent who’s on temporary protected status, and every day they’re waking up with this horror that they’re not going to be able to be here,” VanAken noted.

Through the tears, The Leader had a productive conversation with EU’s president and found out parts about him they did not even know. And of course, everyone was grateful to wrap up The Leader’s newest Day with Troy with a cooldown of water, milk, and ice cream.