Campus Update

Feb. 19, 2025

Dear Colleagues:

As I enter the final semester of my leadership at Messiah—participating in campus events, celebrating Messiah traditions, sharing in conversations with students, colleagues, donors and community friends—all are good reminders of the blessings of serving alongside you as we steward the mission of this wonderful institution.

Now I’d like to share with you an update about the winter board of trustees meeting, enrollment, giving and other related campus news.

Highlights from the January board meeting

On Jan. 27-28, Messiah’s board of trustees held their annual winter meeting. The board met in executive session on Monday morning to discuss the progress of the presidential search. Trustees also spent time praying together for the presidential search, including all potential candidates and for those involved in the decision-making process. I invite you, as a campus community, to continue praying for God’s wisdom and leading in the search for Messiah’s ninth president. You may continue to follow updates and new information about the search at messiah.edu/nextpresident.

Following Monday’s committee meetings, the board’s final session concluded with reports and action items from the various board committees, which are summarized below.

From the Committee on Governance: In accordance with the board’s bylaws, the board voted to appoint David Millary ’88, vice chair of the board trustees, as acting chair of the Messiah University board of trustees through the completion of the April 30-May 2, 2025, board meeting—at which time, the board will vote to appoint a new chair. (This action was in response to the board of trustee officers’ campus announcement on Jan. 13 that, due to personal circumstances, Craig Sider had stepped down from his roles of chairing the board of trustees and the presidential search committee.) The committee additionally reviewed the trustee emeritus policy and voted to remove the age parameters.

From the Committee on Assurance: The board reviewed the proposals and plans for conducting the university’s FY25 financial audit:

• The board approved engaging Capin Crouse to complete the 403b audit for calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2024.

• The board also accepted the three-year engagement letter provided by Baker Tilly, LLC to perform the financial audit of the University’s fiscal financial statements for the years ending June 30, 2025, 2026 and 2027, including the audit of the federal awards program, preparation of the Data Collection Form and an audit of the PHEAA Institutional Assistance Grant in each of those same years.

From the Committee on Education: The board reviewed and approved faculty promotions for COE members, as presented, based on the recommendation of the Term-Tenure and Promotion Committee, the provost and the president, effective Aug. 1, 2025.

From the Committee on Finance: The board approved the revised maximum target range for debt service burden on the annual operating budget from 7.5% to 5.5% in the Capital Structure and Expenditure Policy.

Dr. John Chopka assumes new role

After more than 17 years of excellent leadership at Messiah, Dr. John Chopka is resigning to accept the position of vice president for enrollment management and marketing at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. John and his wife, Debbie, who serves as the administrative assistant to the department of social work, have been wonderful colleagues whose presence greatly enriched our community. There will be a campuswide opportunity in May to express our appreciation to the Chopkas. By March 1, I will announce an interim succession plan that will provide capable and proven leadership to the Enrollment Management team while they continue to meet Messiah’s undergraduate and graduate recruitment goals.

Enrollment snapshot

Spring 2025: Messiah’s spring snapshot report was taken on Jan. 28. With a strong fall-to-spring full-time retention rate of 93.2% and a controlled discount rate, both undergraduate and graduate enrollment is consistent with last year and is on track to meet institutional enrollment targets. See the details below:

Undergraduate student enrollment spring comparison  (comparing where we are versus our spring goals):

• 9 new, first-time students versus goal of 3 (+6)

• 28 transfer students versus goal of 33 (-5)

Undergraduate student enrollment annualized comparison (comparing where we are versus our spring goals):

• 556 annualized new, first-time students versus revised budget goal of 563 (-7)

• 84 annualized transfer students versus revised budget goal of 86 (-2)

• 2,173 annualized FFTE versus revised budget goal of 2,183 (-10)

Graduate student enrollment comparison  (comparing where we are this year to where we were on snapshot day last year):

• 275 new students (84% to goal) this year compared to 264 (75% to goal) last year

• 889 unduplicated students (97% to goal) this year compared to 857 (93% to goal) last year

• 13,212.5 credit hours (85% to goal) this year compared to 12,939.5 (84% to goal) last year

Fall 2025 undergraduate enrollment: Admissions activity has been tracking fairly even with last year, although we are pleased to be ahead in admits (+44) and deposits (+31) in the middle of scholarship and financial aid season. It’s exciting to see an increase in activity come from students of underrepresented ethnic and cultural populations with 27.8 percent of applications and 17.6 percent of early deposits as many of these applicants come to campus for the first time when they participate in multicultural scholarship days.

Here is the undergraduate enrollment report as of Feb. 17:

Dual enrollment: A total of 278 dual enrollment students are taking at least one course in spring 2025, which compares favorably to the 216 students who registered at this point last spring.  Fifty-six of these students attend one of our Pathway Partner institutions.

Financial aid updates: FAFSA simplification, round two, has gone much smoother. After many tests in early fall, the FAFSA opened to the public in late November, slightly earlier than expected but later than the traditional Oct. 1 rollout date. We have been receiving and processing student records from the FAFSA and have released nearly 1,000 packages in the last three weeks. Admissions counselors are working closely with families and offering one-on-one appointments to discuss and add context to the package.

Dr. Robert Pepper appointed president of Huntington University

Giving update

• Total Giving:  $ 6.1 million (102% of June 30 goal)
• Messiah Fund:  $ 700,000 (70% of June 30 goal)
• Giving and New Pledges:  $ 7.6 million (85% of June 30 goal)

Announcing our 2025 Commencement speakers

Good news about Messiah

Messiah Athletics highlights

• Women’s Basketball currently is 21-2 with a perfect 12-0 conference record. The Falcons are receiving votes in the main national poll and are ranked 22nd in the country in National Power Index Rankings. The Falcons have home-court advantage in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament next week.
• Wrestling is hosting the 2025 Region III Regionals on Feb. 28-March 1. The team is expecting to send a couple of wrestlers to the national championships based on current regional wrestler rankings.
• Indoor Men’s and Women’s Track are traveling to Alvernia for the MAC Championships on Feb. 28-March 1.
• Hannah Witter, a Women’s Track and Field Athlete, broke the indoor track and field record for the pole vault with a height of 3.63 meters.
• Women’s Swimming earned second place in the MAC Championships this past weekend. The Falcons earned 11 medals throughout the weekend.
• Men’s Swimming finished sixth in the MAC Championships. The men finished one position above their expected ranking with some impressive swims from the team.

In closing