GUEST COMMENTARY: Increase access to clean, safe, affordable housing

About 800,000 people call Northwest Indiana their home, and I am glad to be among them. We live in an important region comprised of industrious people who contribute to the success and prosperity of our state and nation.

GUEST COMMENTARY: Education a key to public safety

Northwest Indiana residents are resilient. During the recent economic crisis, we experienced many of the same challenges that have been felt both statewide and nationwide. Yet our quality of life continues to improve. However, there remain opportunities and challenges ahead.

GUEST COMMENTARY: Amid partisan squabbling, remember true leaders

In this presidential election year we have been inundated with divisive political rhetoric that dismisses bipartisan collaboration for the common good. In the midst of all this, it is important that we remind ourselves we have true leaders working for us in Indiana from both major political …

GUEST COMMENTARY: Help cheer Crusaders in postseason tourney

With our men's basketball team's victory over Loyola University on Tuesday night, Valparaiso University has secured its first Horizon League basketball championship, the right to host the nationally televised league tournament in Valpo's Athletics-Recreation Center, and a postseason appearance.

GUEST COMMENTARY: Creating opportunity: Learning to fish, better

You know the proverb: Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. Yet even overworked cliches capture the collective wisdom of generations of human experience. When equipped with knowledge, a person's life can improve immeasurably.

GUEST COMMENTARY: A tale of bears, bunnies and ballgames

What, you might ask, do stuffed animals and sporting events have to do with building a caring community? Everything — when volunteers use the stuffed bears and bunnies to fight illiteracy and when athletics, music and picnics bring together campus and community.

GUEST EDITORIAL: VU a key player in environmental stewardship

When we think of quality of life, foremost in our minds is the environment: air, water and the physical landscape we enjoy.

VU College of Nursing helping NWI become healthy

It remains a troubling fact that Northwest Indiana lags behind the nation as a whole in the health of its residents. Infant mortality, obesity, lack of physical activity, the high prevalence of tobacco use, alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancy are significant challenges that we must address t…

GUEST COMMENTARY: Diversity is America's strength, key to success

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom."

GUEST COMMENTARY: VU students learn the value of civic engagement

The Quality of Life Council is a membership organization of engaged citizens from business, education, not-for-profit, and government sectors of Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties. It is chaired, on a rotating basis, by the six chancellors and presidents of colleges and universities in Northw…

GUEST COMMENTARY: Consider value when shopping for college

In these challenging economic times, families are rightly concerned with stretching each dollar as far as it can go. Many families making college decisions are under particular stress as they consider their own financial situation and read stories about the increasing price of higher educati…

Arts, culture are vital in region's knowledge economy

The world's economic doldrums are forcing nearly all of us to make some very tough personal choices. Can we afford health insurance? Can we afford to take a vacation this year? Can we afford to eat out this month? Belt-tightening forces each of us to make decisions about what is most importa…

Will you help fight poverty in the region?

Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.