Nov. 11, 2015

Dear Colleagues:

Thank you for the successful planning, diligent work and gracious hospitality that resulted in a memorable alumni Homecoming, board of trustees’ meeting and open house visits last month. Our guests were able to truly experience Messiah’s campus at its best during this beautiful autumn season enhanced by your warm welcome. Now, as we navigate the busy weeks leading up to Thanksgiving break, I want to share with you a summary report of the College’s October board meeting, enrollment, giving and other campus-related news.

Summary of October board of trustees meeting

On Oct. 15-16, the Messiah College Board of Trustees met on campus for their annual fall meeting. During our first full board session we inducted new trustees Anthony Hahn and John Wagner, followed by a discussion of the College’s emerging strategic plan themes and goals and an update regarding Messiah College’s possible governmental challenges to our institutional autonomy, mission and values.

Additionally, the board was pleased to recognize the philanthropy and accomplishments of several current and former board members who were honored on Nov. 2 by the Central Penn Business Journal at its annual “Business of the Year” awards. George Parmer, chair of the Board of Trustees, received the Spirit of Philanthropy Award, and Trustee Larry Bashore and former Trustee Marlin Thomas were inducted into the Central Penn Business Journal’s Hall of Fame.

Other key actions from the board meeting included:

  •  From the Audit Committee: The board approved the FY15 audited financial statements and the 403(b) benefits audit 2014.
  • From the Committee on Education: The board reviewed and approved term tenure renewal for the five-year period, Aug. 1, 2016 to July 31, 2021, for faculty members as presented based on the recommendation of the Term-Tenure and Promotion Committee, the provost, and the president. The provost’s office will communicate these decisions to the campus community via the Intercom.
  • From the Committee on Finance:
    • Messiah College bonds: On Sept. 10, the College issued $11,385,000 Series NN1 bonds with our long (‘A’) and short-term (‘A-1’) ratings, and the interest cost on these fixed rate bonds was 3.94 percent (compared to the budget interest cost of 5 percent). These bonds were issued to provide funding for the natural gas conversion project ($7.5 million) and leasehold improvements and equipment for the occupational therapy and physical therapy graduate programs ($3.5 million). The interest cost of the recently issued bonds is lower than what is included in the College’s financial plan for FY16 and beyond, which creates additional borrowing capacity for the College. Accordingly, the College will borrow an additional $2.5 million for significant and much-needed renovations to the Mellinger apartment building, and to replace the artificial turf surface on Anderson Field. This additional borrowing will bring the total to approximately $28 million, which is still below the $30 million authorized by the board at their February 2015 meeting.
    • FY 15 surplus designation: The board approved the College’s recommendation (as processed by various campus governance groups) for the following designations of the FY15 cash flow surplus of $1.96 million:
      • $400,000 to fund the endowment matching initiative approved in January 2015;
      • $250,000 to fund additional startup costs related to the occupational therapy graduate program;
      • $888,000 to fund Tier 1 priority capital equipment/projects;
      • $367,000 to be allocated to ITS and academic equipment obsolescence and deferred maintenance ; and
      • $55,000 to fund admissions initiatives related to recruiting international students and students interested in the humanities.

Moving forward with campus master planning

We are making good progress in the development of a campus master plan (facilities, space use, etc.) that will reflect many of the priorities outlined in the emerging 2016-2020 institutional strategic plan. In October, many students and employees participated in presentation/feedback sessions that provided valuable input. Derck & Edson, Messiah’s consultants for this initiative, also held meetings with deans, vice presidents, residence life staff, student leaders and the operations and enrollment committees of the board of trustees, and has forwarded a preliminary report on these sessions to the master planning steering team. The next steering team meeting is scheduled for December, where Derck & Edson will present a full space analysis report, along with various scenarios to process for the future use of campus space. Thank you for taking time to participate in the feedback exercises and meetings.

 Enrollment snapshot

Undergraduate enrollment fall 2016: We are off to a good start with admissions activity for fall 2016. Individual campus visits and early open house attendance are strong. Our first two fall open houses were “standing-room-only” events in Parmer Hall. And in fact, the Oct. 31 open house was the College’s largest attendance for a Saturday October open house in the past 10 years! Additionally, we are excited about our November Spotlight Days where we will welcome prospective students into school-specific open houses. We appreciate the good work of the admissions team and their partnership with academic departments in considering ways to accommodate our visitors. The chart below shows where we are to-date compared to last year in the admissions cycle:

Nov. 9, 2015 Nov. 9, 2014
First-year students Fall 2016 % to goal Goal Fall 2015 % to final Final
Inquiries 25,260 90% 28,000 25,879 92% 28,037
Applications 1,211 45% 2,700 1,115 45% 2,469
Acceptances 677 34% 2,000 619 32% 1,950
Active Deposits 51 8% 675 45 7% 691
Transfer
Applications		 41 13% 311 33 12% 265
Acceptances 14 8% 165 11 6% 185
Active Deposits 0 0% 85 0 0% 83

Graduate enrollment: We have reached 70 percent of the credit hours budgeted for the current academic year. At this time, we are on target to meet the overall graduate credit hour goal for FY16. Compared to this time last year we have:

  • 40 fewer new students (165 this year versus 205 last year) due to enrollment patterns in a few programs that are tracking differently than last year; but we are ahead 18 more unduplicated students across all programs (531 this year versus 513 last year);
  • 438 more credit hours (5,593 this year versus 5,155 last year).

 DNP-FNP: The public marketing campaign for Messiah’s new Doctor of Nursing Practice: family nurse practitioner degree launched on Sept. 1. Response so far has been positive, with nearly 30 inquiries and six applications for admission processed to date, and our first enrolled student as of Nov. 10!

Giving update

Messiah’s overall fundraising efforts continue to progress well. We are keeping pace with recent years, which have been very positive:

Overall Giving Messiah Fund / Operating
Nov. 6, 2015 Nov. 6, 2015
$ 2,564,117 $ 561,515
36% of June 30, 2016 goal 39% of June 30, 2016 goal

 Messiah’s current fundraising priorities are focused on the following areas:

  •  Lacrosse field lighting: It was my privilege to help dedicate the new lacrosse field and lights during Homecoming. Student-athletes Claire Stikeleather and Tyler Goglio offered meaningful comments of gratitude. The development office continues to pursue opportunities to raise the remaining dollars needed to fully fund this important new venue.
  •  Campaign for Wellness: At the Oct. 15 Messiah Partner dinner, Campaign for Wellness Co-Chair D. Kelly Phipps announced that we had surpassed the $5 million mark toward our fundraising goal of $6 million. We have now achieved 84 percent of the goal, with many pending gift proposals and prospects yet to close before our May 2016 fundraising deadline. We remain both grateful for our encouraging progress and vigorously committed to achieving our fundraising goal.
  • “Create a Legacy 2018”: We recently launched an effort to encourage all members of the Messiah College Board of Trustees to include Messiah as a beneficiary in their wills and estate plans. We will also ask former trustees and alumni to consider similar arrangements in their respective estate plans. Our goal is to add an additional 100 members to our Heritage Society by 2018. The Heritage Society is a deeply valued group of donors who have included Messiah as part of their estate planning processes. To date, we have added approximately 20 new members toward our goal of 100. Estate gifts have offered significant support to Messiah over the years, and we are grateful for yet another example of the outstanding leadership of our board of trustees in this important effort.
  •  Messiah Fund: As we approach the end of the calendar year, we are focused on raising vital Messiah Fund dollars through strategic mailings, the efforts of student Phonathon callers, and online giving opportunities. The Messiah Fund helps bridge the divide in the College’s operational budget after tuition revenue and restricted gifts have been fully utilized. This important fund helps fills our most critical needs and is a benefit to every Messiah student.

 Good news about Messiah College

Here is a sample of some recent new highlights about the success and recognition of Messiah College’s programs and people. For more details visit messiah.edu/news , Messiah’s official Facebook page at facebook.com/MessiahCollege and the Bridge magazine www.messiah.edu/the_Bridge (the source sites for many of the below news items).

  • The Collaboratory’s bridge team recently won the “Team of the Year” award from Bridges to Prosperity, an organization that builds foot bridges for residents in isolated communities around the globe. In September, the team’s advisor, Professor of Engineering Brian Swartz, and students Andrew Joy, Ben Holderman and Zach Engle, attended the organization’s annual conference in Colorado, where they were recognized as a gold-level team for their work on constructing two foot bridges in the Panamanian villages of Arraijan and Bajo Grande.
  • Keith Quesenberry, assistant professor of marketing, just had his new book, “Social Media Strategy: Marketing and Advertising in the Consumer Revolution” (published by Rowman & Littlefield), publicly released on Oct. 23. Quesenberry’s newest published work provides “a guide to practicing marketing, advertising, and public relations in a world of social media-empowered consumers.”
  • Professor of English and Film Studies Crystal Downing’s newest book, “Salvation from Cinema: The Medium is the Message” (published by Routledge) is also now available. “Salvation from Cinema is cogent, comprehensive, beautifully written, and stunningly consistent. With a masterful grasp of cinematic history and a lucid deployment of philosophers such as C.S. Peirce and J. Derrida, Downing both shows us the ideological work of film and lures readers to its ethical possibilities,” reviews Gail Hamner of Syracuse University.
  • Students Hannah Busenitz and Nathan Solberg won design awards from Graphic Design USA for “design work for public service.” Their T-shirt fundraiser designs for a national and international non-profit were selected from over 6,000 entries. Busenitz designed and illustrated a T-shirt for the national non-profit The Clean Water Fund. Solberg designed and illustrated a T-shirt for the international non-profit Solidarity Uganda, working with Messiah alum Phil Wilmot, a member of the Team of Directors located in Uganda. The student designers were up against professional designers, and their award-winning work is one of nine in the Public Service category!

 Athletics highlights

Below are some recent highlights from Messiah Athletics. Visit www.GoMessiah.com the source for the stories below and for the Falcons’ most current scores, announcements and team-specific news.

  • Messiah women’s soccer (18-0-2) is currently ranked No. 1 in the country. Over the weekend the Falcons claimed their 14th MAC Commonwealth title in the last 16 years. They will host the first round of the NCAA tournament this weekend. The team was honored by the conference last week with 11 all-conference honors including the Offensive (Nikki Elsaesser) and Defensive (Macaulay Soto) Players of the Year, the Rookie of the Year (Ally Reinhardt) and the Coach of the Year (Scott Frey).
  • Messiah field hockey (15-5) is currently ranked No. 9 in the country. The Falcons won their ninth consecutive MAC Commonwealth title over the weekend with a 6-0 victory over the Stevenson Mustangs. The team earned seven All-MAC Commonwealth honors including the program’s third straight Rookie of the Year award (Shayna Landis) and Coach of the Year (Brooke Good).
  • Messiah men’s soccer (14-5-1) wrapped up their season finishing as the runner-up in the MAC Commonwealth tournament. The Falcons were honored with eight All-MAC Commonwealth selections, including three First Team selections.
  • Messiah women’s volleyball (29-3) finished up one of the most successful seasons in program history in Judi Tobias’ final season. Their season ended with their fifth-straight MAC Commonwealth runner-up finish on Saturday vs. Stevenson. The team earned five All-MAC Commonwealth selections including Player of the Year (Jane Underman)—the first such award in the program’s history―and Coach of the Year (Judi Tobias, who finishes her 20-year coaching career with a 370-235 [.612] record ).
  • The Messiah men’s and women’s cross country teams had terrific showings at the MAC Championships last weekend. The men were edged by just six points and finished as runner-up, while the women finished third overall.

 In closing

At Homecoming, I value the opportunity to speak with many alumni who describe how special and transformational their years were at Messiah College. As educators, staff and administrators you shape the lives of our current students and alumni. Thank you for influencing generations of women and men who are manifesting Messiah’s mission in their broader world.

Warmest regards,

 Kim S. Phipps, President