Campus Update

Nov. 3, 2016

Dear Colleagues:

Autumn is a lovely time of year to welcome visitors to our stunningly beautiful campus, and I want to thank you for providing warm hospitality to our board of trustees at their October board meeting, and to the 3,000 alumni and guests who attended our 2016 Homecoming festivities on Oct. 14 and 15. It was a delightful weekend—and I am encouraged by the positive affirmations many alumni offered about their Messiah educational experience.

At this point in our fall semester, I would like to provide you with an update related to the recent board meeting and additional campus news.

 Summary of October board of trustees meeting

The board’s first general session was held at the College’s new Winding Hill site and included a tour of the recently renovated space—which houses Messiah’s graduate programs in counseling, the dietetic internship, occupational therapy and physical therapy. During this session, the board officially inducted our three new trustees—Wendy Cole (attorney at Cole and Varano), Ed Nevin (Partner at Deloitte) and Dr. Kimberly Thornbury (vice president for institutional research, strategic planning, enrollment management, marketing and communications at the Kings College) —followed by a presentation about Messiah’s graduate programs from Dr. Rob Pepper, assistant provost and dean of the School of Graduate Studies. The trustees also received a presentation of the proposed Campus Master Plan. The trustees concluded their second general session with reports and action items from the board’s various committees.

Key actions from the board meeting included:

 From the Committee on Operations:

The board endorsed the Campus Master Plan to serve as a guide for campus enhancements and facilities projects for the next 15 years. Click here for an executive summary of the final Campus Master Plan and the guiding principles which informed it. Kathie Shafer, vice president for operations, will lead a campus forum on Nov. 9 from 3-4 p.m. in Parmer Cinema to discuss this plan and all employees are invited to attend.

From the Assurance Committee:

• The board approved the College’s FY16 audited financial statements and the 403 (b) benefits audit from 2015.

 From the Committee on Education:

• The board reviewed and approved term tenure renewal and emeritus status of 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:

• The board approved the following designations for the FY16 operating cash flow surplus of $1.5 million, as recommended by College governance groups:
  • $250,000 to fund the endowment matching initiative approved by the board in May 2016;
  • $231,667 to fund numerous priority operating initiatives (compliance, recruitment of international students and students in the humanities);
  • $624,000 to fund Tier 1 priority capital equipment/projects;
  • $157,344 to be set aside as enrollment contingency;
  • $250,000 to fund the impact of Fair Labor Standards Act changes related to compliance with exempt vs. non-exempt employee classification.

Messiah exceeds goal for Campaign for Wellness!

At the October board meeting, I was pleased to announce to the full board that Messiah College has exceeded its fundraising goal for the Campaign for Wellness!

• The campaign has reached the $100,000 Alumni Scoreboard Challenge from over 100 alumni, parents, and friends, thus ensuring another $100,000 in the form of a matching gift.

• The cornerstone project of the Campaign for Wellness is the new fitness center addition and the renovations to the existing Sollenberger Sports Center, which the College began constructing earlier this year (in March). The trustees have approved that the name of the new fitness center addition will be the “Falcon Fitness Center” in recognition of the Messiah College Falcons’ commitment to pursuing athletic excellence and developing Christian character.

More than 260 individuals contributed to this Campaign. I want to express my sincere gratitude to Campaign Co-chairs Rick Jordan and Kelly Phipps, Vice President for Advancement Barry Goodling and the Development Office for their excellent efforts. This new facility will provide much-needed, high-quality athletic facilities for current and future Messiah students.

Welcoming Todd Allen

I am delighted to announce that Dr. Todd Allen will be joining the Messiah College community in the role of special assistant to the president and provost for diversity affairs and professor of communication beginning in July 2017. Dr. Allen earned his Ph.D. in communication and rhetorical studies from Duquesne University and is currently professor of communication at Grove City College. Previously, he served on the faculty and as director of multicultural affairs at Geneva College. He is the founder of the Common Ground Project, which sponsors the annual Civil Rights educational tour in which more than 50 Messiah employees and students have participated. We look forward to welcoming Todd and his family to our community!

Enrollment snapshot

Undergraduate enrollment fall 2016: We are off to a good start with fall 2017 admissions activity. The introduction of an earlier federal financial aid process has prompted us to change our fee-waived application deadline to Nov. 1 from Nov. 15 in order to offer initial financial aid awards as early as November. Therefore, students are applying earlier, as evidenced by our 40 percent increase in this year’s Nov. 2 application counts. (This places us to within 26 applications of last year’s Nov. 16 count.) We have also experienced strong campus visit interest and open house activity. Attendance at our fall open houses on Oct. 10 and Oct. 29 was “standing-room-only” in Parmer Hall, with a visitor count of 562 students and more than 1,450 total guests!

The chart below shows where we are to-date compared to last year in the admissions cycle:

	Nov. 2, 2016			Nov. 2, 2015
First-year Students	Fall 2017	% to goal	Goal	Fall 2016	% to final	Final
Inquiries	28,449	102%	28,000	24,932	89%	27,862
Applications	1,421	53%	2,700	1,008	39%	2,596
Acceptances	595	29%	2,050	507	25%	2,064
Active Deposits	58	9%	675	40	6%	685
Transfer Applications	62	22%	288	32	11%	283
Acceptances	16	8%	191	10	5%	203
Active Deposits	2	2%	85	0	0%	80

Graduate enrollment: Graduate student enrollment for fall stands at 566, compared to 512 students at this time last year. We are currently on target to meet the overall graduate credit hour goal for FY17.

Strong interest is already being generated for our new Master of Occupational Therapy program, slated to start in July 2017. We have already received more than 200 applications via OTCAS (the national common application for occupational therapy) of which 35 individuals have completed the Messiah-specific full application. This is an encouraging start to the launch of our strategic recruitment efforts for this important new program.

 Giving update

The FY17 fundraising year continues the positive giving trends of FY16:

Overall Giving	Messiah Fund / Operating
Oct. 26, 2016	Oct. 26, 2016
$2,779,716	$ 386,474
39% of June 30, 2017 goal of $7,100,000	26% of June 30, 2017 goal of $1,484,220

Messiah’s current fundraising priorities include:

Finance lab, Anderson Field resurface and commuter lounge: The Development Office is working on raising funds for three priority capital projects: a new finance lab, the resurfacing of Anderson Field and a commuter student lounge. Over the last several years, a growing number of colleges and universities are constructing finance labs, i.e., special-purpose trading rooms. The purpose of these labs is to enhance experiential learning of students enrolled in the finance curriculum. The fundraising goal for the project is $750,000, of which $59,000 has already been raised. Additional fundraising is also underway for a much-needed resurfacing of Anderson Field, home to Messiah’s nationally ranked field hockey program, and for a commuter lounge to serve the needs of this growing student population.

The Messiah Fund: As noted in my last update, we have launched a Messiah Fund initiative with the tagline “Generosity Furthering Generations” toward a FY17 goal of $1.48 million. As part of our fundraising efforts, we will be inaugurating our first-ever Day of Giving on Feb. 9, 2017 – a date which commemorates the anniversary week of the first classes that were held at Messiah College. This event will be social media-driven and it is targeted particularly to millennial donors. Our goal is to raise $100,000 in one day for the Messiah Fund. Watch for additional information on how you can help communicate and contribute to this initiative.

Good news about Messiah College

For more details about the special recognitions of Messiah College’s programs and people, visit messiah.edu/news, Messiah’s official Facebook page at facebook.com/MessiahCollege and the Bridge magazine www.messiah.edu/the_Bridge and the Intercom http://intercom.messiah.edu/ (the source sites for many of the below news items).

• Messiah College recently received outstanding rankings in three key areas by Christian Universities Online, a college search web resource for prospective students.
  • #1 Best Christian College and University in the North for 2017: To calculate this ranking, CUO used publicly available data in the categories of 1) Faculty-to-student ratio, 2) Percent of full-time beginning undergraduates receiving grant or scholarship aid, 3) Selectivity, 4) Overall retention rate and 5) Overall graduation rate.  You can view the full listing here.
  • Listed in the Top 50 Best Christian Graduate Schools for 2017. You can view the full listing here.
  • #6 in the Top 10 Psychology Degree Programs for 2017. You can view the full listing here.

• William Stowman, professor of trumpet and chair of the Department of Music, recently released the CD “A Timeless Place,” a critically acclaimed performance collaboration between colleagues, friends and former students at Messiah College. In an enthusiastically positive review, Fanfare Magazine called it a “…wide-ranging, fascinating disc.” Other School of the Arts faculty featured in the release include Richard Roberson, Kirk Reese, Patrice Ewoldt, Erik Forst, Randall Zwally and Damian Savarino. The CD can be purchased on Amazon.

• Due to their outstanding practices in food safety and sanitation, Messiah College Dining Services has been chosen as a winner for the 2016 annual Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association (PRLA) Excellence in Food Safety Award.  This is Messiah’s fifth year to win this honor.  Criteria for the award includes consistently excellent inspection results from the PA Department of Agriculture, a quality food safety training program for all team members and demonstrated excellence in food safety practices within the operations. The PRLA performs an onsite visit of all of the finalists to view firsthand the quality of the organization’s food safety program, and awards the outstanding operations. Executive Chef Percell Green accepted the award on behalf of Messiah College at PRLA’s annual awards gala on Oct. 24.

• Members of the design team in the Office of Marketing and Communications have won five 2016 American Inhouse Design awards from Graphic  Design USA (GDUSA), a national design competition with over 6,000 entrants. These awards are the premier showcase for outstanding work by in-house designers from corporations, publishing houses, non-profits, universities and government agencies “to be recognized for their creativity, for the special challenges they face, and for their contributions to their businesses and institutions.” The winning entries were:
  • High Center and Climenhaga Art Gallery Logos designed by Graphic Designer Cindy Agoncillo
  • Welcome Week package designed by Graphic Designer Carrie Barlup
  • Messiah College Viewbook Redesign (designed by Cindy Agoncillo with initial design collaboration by Creative Director Nancy Soulliard and Carrie Barlup)
  • Homecoming 2015 package designed by Cindy Agoncillo
  • The Bridge magazine designed by Nancy Soulliard, Cindy Agoncillo and Carrie Barlup

 Athletics highlights

Visit www.GoMessiah.com the source for the stories below and for the Falcons’ most current scores, announcements and the full slate of team-specific news.

• With the MAC Commonwealth Field Hockey Championships this week, the conference has announced the All-MAC Commonwealth teams. A total of nine Falcons were named to the three teams—the most ever for the Falcons—and head coach Brooke Good was awarded Coach of the Year for the second straight year!  The Falcons will host the MAC Commonwealth Championship game on Saturday, Nov. 5 against Alvernia.

• In women’s volleyball this week the MAC Commonwealth conference announced the All-MAC Commonwealth teams. A program record six Falcons were named to the three teams, Jane Underman was tabbed as Player of the Year, Mary Underman was awarded Rookie of the Year, and Holly Motheral was honored with Coach of the Year. Messiah advances this week to their six-straight MAC Commonwealth Championship, seeking their first NCAA tournament birth, taking on Stevenson University this Saturday, Nov. 5.
  

• The 2016 Academic All-District Soccer Teams, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), were released on Thursday with Messiah’s Kayla Deckert, Marisa Weaver, Jacob Bender, and Colby Thomas listed among the honorees. The honor for Deckert and Weaver is the third is as many seasons, with both Bender and Thomas earning the accolade for the first time in their respective careers.

• Congratulations to our colleagues in the Athletics Division who have recently recorded significant coaching milestone wins:
  • Men’s soccer coach Brad McCarty eclipsed 150 career wins in what is his eighth season as head coach.
  • Women’s soccer coach Scott Frey eclipsed 350 career wins in what is his 17th season as head coach.

• Several of Messiah’s athletic teams are ranked in national polls:
  • Field Hockey is ranked No. 1 in the NFCA Top 20 poll
  • Men’s Soccer is ranked No. 9 in NSCAA Top 25 poll
  • Women’s Soccer is ranked No. 8 in NSCAA Top 25 poll
  • Wrestling is ranked No. 2 in NWCA Preseason Top 20 poll.

• Messiah cross country hosted the MAC Championships on Oct. 29. Messiah women’s cross country came away with a runner-up finish of 76 points. The Falcons’ brilliant showing placed them behind only DeSales University, who won with a total of 34 points. Men’s cross country finished in third place behind Widener and DeSales. Both the men’s and women’s teams next travel to the NCAA Mideast Regional Meet on Nov. 12 at DeSales University.

• Messiah College Athletics recently announced the 2017 induction class for the Hall of Honor:
  • Jessica (Chambers) Enders ’00 – Softball
  • Aftan (Fisher) Hoffer ’06 – Field hockey
  • Megan (Duke) Well ’07 – Women’s lacrosse
  • Luke Drescher – Former athletics director

 In closing

In just a few weeks we will be celebrating the annual Thanksgiving holiday. As we enter this season of thanksgiving, I want to express how grateful I am for your partnership in the vital work of Christian higher education—and for God’s continuing faithfulness to our campus community. Be encouraged!

 Warm regards,

Kim S. Phipps

President