Dear Colleagues:

Earlier this month, the College’s board of trustees gathered on campus for their annual spring meeting. The board continued important conversations regarding undergraduate enrollment challenges and budget realities. In the midst of these difficult discussions, they remain encouraged by the outstanding accomplishments of our students, faculty, staff and alumni. At the board’s opening session, faculty-mentored undergraduate research was featured as Peter Powers, dean of the School of the Humanities, chaired a panel of educators and students who shared their specific areas of research and identifiable learning outcomes. The board also received updates on: research being conducted about new educational programs, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels; fundraising for the admissions and welcome center; and our continued progress toward becoming Messiah University in July 2020.

In the past two weeks, Messiah College has graduated nearly 800 baccalaureate and master’s students who are intellectually and spiritually prepared to lead and serve in Church and society, Thank you for the daily contributions you make to our students’ educational experience—and for providing wonderful Commencement celebrations for our graduates and their families!

Summary of the May board of trustees meeting

Messiah’s board of trustees held their annual spring meeting May 8-10. During its first general session, Vice President of Finance and Planning David Walker and I shared with the board the same enrollment and budget overview that we presented to employees at the campus budget forums in April. Provost Randall Basinger and Special Assistant to the President/Provost Jeffrey Moshier also provided the board an update on several task forces that have been researching new potential programs including undergraduate certificates and degrees for post-traditional learners.

The trustees concluded their final business session by receiving the annual update from Rider Musser Development, LLC (RMD). The Oakwood Hills residential development is progressing well. The first apartment building will be open early this summer. Deposits are increasing steadily and RMD was the recipient of a $6.2 million Business in our Sites (BOS) state grant for the development of the commercial phase of the project.

The board concluded its session with reports and action items from the board’s various committees, which are summarized below.

From the Committee on Education:

  • The board reviewed and approved term tenure and promotion 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 COENet and the Intercom.

From the Committee on Finance:

  • The board approved the FY20 Financial Plan as submitted through campus governance, permitting the Executive Committee of the Board to take final action on the financial plan in mid-June when enrollment information will be more complete.
  • The board approved $500,000 to fund Endowment Matching Initiative #8, which has been a successful development strategy to support fundraising for the financial aid budget and existing programs.

From the Committee on Governance:

  • The board approved the appointment of the following individuals as a trustee in the class of 2023, effective July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2023:
    • First term:    Scott Heintzelman, David Millary, Andrew Samuel
    • Second term: Anthony Hahn, John Wagner
    • Third term: Heidi Bingaman, Joachim Huerter, Kenneth Moreland
  • The board approved the appointment of the following slate of officers of the Board of Trustees for a one year term to be effective July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.
    • Vice chair: Craig Sider
    • Secretary: Heidi Bingaman
    • Treasurer:  Rim Hinckley

 From the Committee on Operations:

  • Trustees approved the construction of the Kim S. Phipps Admissions and Welcome Center, which also includes the creation of a campus green, demolition of Hoffman Hall, and renovations to Old Main, Eisenhower Campus Center and Murray Library to accommodate personnel location reassignments. [Read additional details about the admissions and welcome center and its funding plan later in this issue of my update.]

 From the Executive Committee:

  • The board approved the logo concept for Messiah University as it was presented to the Executive Committee and the full board. The University Implementation team will continue to finalize the design for initial presentation to the Messiah community at Community Day in August 2019.
  • The board of trustees authorized me, in my role as president, and the President’s Cabinet, to establish a process and teams/task forces to conduct program and cost prioritization resulting in a permanent reduction of operating expenses by $5 million no later than July 1, 2023 (FY24). The Board reserves the right to increase the target, if necessary, and the board encourages the president to continue to lead program innovations that will yield increased enrollment of undergraduate, graduate and post-traditional students.

Next steps re: prioritization process

Throughout the summer months, members of the President’s Cabinet and Provost’s Cabinet will be working to design a comprehensive prioritization review process to achieve $5 million in cost reductions by FY24, of which $1.8 million must be implemented by FY21. Two teams are being created to lead the process: 1) Administrative Support Leadership Team, chaired by the president and comprised of vice presidents as they work with their directors and 2) Educational Area (Curricular and Cocurricular) Support team, chaired by the provost and comprised of the Provost’s Cabinet, with further educator membership to be determined.

More information regarding specific guidelines and financial targets will be communicated following summer planning efforts. On Sept. 16, 2019 (following enrollment snapshot day), I will send out a campus update with the detailed information regarding prioritization. In addition, open campus forums will be scheduled for that same week. A report on the progress of our prioritization efforts is due to the board in May 2020.

Enrollment snapshot

Undergraduate enrollment: The saying “it takes a village” is very true – especially when it comes to enrollment. I have been heartened by the tenacity and tireless efforts of our enrollment management team and the many campus colleagues who support all of our undergraduate events and individual campus visits.

  • In spite of our best strategic planning and recruitment efforts, first-year deposits on May 22 are at 617 compared to 650 one year ago. As outlined at our campus budget forums, the market for traditional undergraduate students in the Northeastern U.S. is increasingly competitive and we are working diligently to recruit every student.
  • While transfer applications and admits exceed the prior four-year average, deposits have been slower than anticipated; as of May 22 we have 49 deposits compared to last year’s 59. Our team will be continuing with strategic and timely follow up with potential recruits this summer to bridge the gap
  • Encouraging news at this point is that underrepresented student counts have been running ahead of last year. Currently 17.4 percent of incoming first-year deposits are from domestic students of color compared to 14.9 percent at this time last year. When combined with international students, this accounts for 19.3 percent of the incoming first-year class compared to 18.3 percent at this time last year.

The context for our undergraduate recruitment challenges: As presented at the April campus budget forum and to our board of trustees in early May, the regional demographic forecast projects double-digit declines in the number of college-ready high school graduates for the foreseeable future. This is having a profound effect on private colleges, like Messiah, that rely heavily on traditional undergraduate revenue. Updated projections based on birth rates, migration patterns, and college-readiness show Pennsylvania experiencing declines of at least 15 percent in students who will attend a four-year regional institution from 2018-2029. (See the below articles that report on these challenges, including the recent announcement of our sister CCCU institution, Gordon College.)

These conditions have created a “buyer’s market” that has put tremendous pressure on institutional discount rates. A recent NACUBO survey reports an overall 52.2 percent average discount rate among four-year private institutions for FY19, compared to our 49.4 percent. With that, we estimate that our first-year discount rate for FY20 will come in close to that 52 percent rate. It is our expectation that discount rates will continue to rise over the next 3-5 years as institutions respond to price sensitivity. We are modeling increases in our financial aid to remain competitive with our scholarships and grants. But we know this is not a viable long-term strategy. Our ongoing challenge will be to establish appropriate and focused financial aid strategies even as we continue to solidify our value proposition. With the assistance of CREDO, we will be reviewing financial aid and recruitment strategies and structure to ensure that we can achieve our goals in this volatile environment.

Messiah’s response for FY20 undergraduate recruitment goals: President’s Cabinet is responding to these challenges by revising and establishing realistic enrollment and budget targets. The first-year undergraduate student target has been reduced from 640 to 600 FFTE for FY20 (619 in the fall), as well as the transfer target from 100 to 93 (79 in the fall). This places our overall traditional FTE target for FY20 at 2,493. Continuing student registration counts currently meet our budget projections. Our continued student retention initiatives and commitment to a new student success model give us confidence that we will continue to experience strong student retention and graduation rates.

Graduate enrollment:  A mini-snapshot of FY19 graduate enrollment was taken on May 22. The 2018-2019 fiscal year budgeted credit hour goal is 11,160. Currently, including early summer registration, we have reached 12,123 registered credit hours (109 percent to goal).

Comparing where we are this year to where we were last year on 5/14/18:

  • Ahead 24 new students (316 this year versus 292 last year)
  • Ahead 101 unduplicated students (843 this year versus 742 last year)
  • Ahead 1,969 credit hours (12,123 this year versus 10,154 last year, 109 percent to goal this year versus 102 percent to goal last year)

Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program:  As previously announced, Messiah’s DPT program was granted candidacy for accreditation in October 2018 and the graduate enrollment office has been busy recruiting our initial cohort of students. We are confident that we will fill our initial cohort for fall 2019. As of May 20, there are 35 students enrolled with a maximum capacity of 36.

Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) achieves accreditation

The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) conducted the onsite review of the MOT program in March of 2018. On April 18, we received the very welcome news from ACOTE that all program standards are in compliance and we were granted a status of accreditation for 7 years – the longest period possible! Messiah’s initial cohort of MOT students marched in the School of Graduate Studies Commencement ceremony on May 11. Congratulations to our inaugural MOT graduates and their exemplary faculty! Messiah’s third cohort of MOT students is slated to begin their studies in late June 2019.

Admissions and welcome center update and funding plan

At the May board meeting, the board’s Committee on Operations brought a recommendation to the full board to proceed with the construction of the new admissions and welcome center (AWC) that was originally announced by the board in January 2018. At that time, trustees had already raised 80 percent of the funding for what was designated as the top facility priority during the campus master planning process. This building is designed specifically for the purpose of welcoming and recruiting prospective students and their families, as well as welcoming alumni who return to campus.

The board announced at its May 9, 2019 session that the trustees and the College’s Development Office have raised the necessary $10 million to fund the full construction costs of the admissions and welcome center. After evaluating cost estimates from the Operations Committee, the board agreed that the total cost of the project will not exceed $16 million, and that the remaining auxiliary funds for creation of a campus green, demolition of Hoffman Hall, and renovations to Old Main, Eisenhower Campus Center and Library (to accommodate related personnel location reassignments), will be funded through a combination of additional charitable gifts, institutional capital and deferred maintenance funding and current and future bond issues.

It is important to know that even while the College is identifying permanent operating budget reductions in response to our current financial challenges—we will need to strategically invest new capital and programmatic dollars to remain competitive.

Planning and progress: During the winter and spring months, the planning team for the new Admissions and Welcome Center, led by Kathie Shafer, vice president for operations, has continued to finalize the design of the building and spaces. Sub-teams have been working on identifying furniture, technology and facility needs to better develop a full budget for the project. The College hopes that the groundbreaking will happen in late summer 2019. Ideally, we would love to dedicate this facility (the first one constructed and opened for Messiah University) and the campus green space during the October 2020 board meeting and Homecoming.

Maintenance costs:  Following the campus budget forums, members of the President’s Cabinet have received some questions as to whether the construction of the new admissions and welcome center will negatively impact the College’s ongoing operating budget. This however, is not the case. There is no expected increase in annual operating costs since the new facility will be more cost-effective to maintain than the 70-year-old Hoffman Hall (due to energy and other efficiencies of the new construction). Specific examples include:

  • Cleaning – With the demolition of Hoffman and the reassignment of staff areas within Old Main, the existing cleaning staff hours will shift to the new facility. There is no extra cost. Additionally, the cost associated with any cleaning-related supplies for Hoffman will be neutrally reassigned to the AWC.
  • Daily maintenance calls – with the demolition of Hoffman, daily maintenance calls are expected to be reduced (due to the age/condition of that facility) and staff will cover any calls to the AWC without increase in staff.  .
  • Deferred Maintenance – the College carries funds for deferred maintenance (large capital funding projects) for all buildings; the funds previously assigned to Hoffman will transfer to the AWC.
  • Utilities – The AWC is designed to be a very efficient building related to heat, air-conditioning and lighting. Conversely, Hoffman has not been an energy-efficient building; the estimated annual savings for utilities is approximately $10,000.

Giving update

Current giving: The development office remains focused on successfully achieving its fundraising goals by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. We are progressing well toward the “gifts received” and “gifts received and new pledges” goals. As has been a nationwide trend in recent years with unrestricted giving, the Messiah Fund /operating goal continues to be a challenge. Donors are becoming more focused in their giving patterns and are more likely to direct their giving dollars to a specific project. We continue to work at different ways to engage donors in the growing social media driven marketplace, including increasing efforts in “text to give” and crowdfunding options.

FY19 Giving Progress Report

As of May 22, 2019

Gifts received Messiah Fund Operating Gifts Received and New Pledges
$ 5,528,913 $ 841,208 $ 9,676,750
June 30 Goals:
$ 6,308,00088% of goal $ 1,578,00053% of goal $ 11,808,00082% of goal

Endowment Challenge #7: We are nearing the successful completion of our seventh Endowment Challenge, which provides matching dollars to gifts designated for student scholarship support. Over $5.3 million in scholarship monies have been raised since the beginning of the Endowment Challenge program in 2013. When counting scholarships that have not be a part of the Endowment Challenge program, nearly $13.5 million has been raised in scholarship support over this same time period. These dollars represent 91 new scholarships for our students, which brings our total number of named scholarship funds to well over 300.

Good news about Messiah College

Here is a sample of some recent highlights about the success 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).

  • Todd Abbott ’19 (international business and marketing double major, politics and Spanish double minor, and Messiah College student body president) was awarded a Fulbright Grant to Malaysia by the U.S. Department of State. Abbott’s one-year grant assignment will begin in January 2020, allowing him to research, teach English, and integrate with the local community under the larger context of representing America and strengthening international relations. Fulbright is the world’s largest and most diverse international educational exchange program, and the award is a reflection of Abbott’s leadership and contributions to society.
  • Associate Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics Amy Porto recently received the Outstanding Dietetic Educator award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The Outstanding Dietetic Educator Award recognizes the excellence of educators in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics accredited and approved dietetic education programs.
  • Messiah alumna Julie Stefanski ’96 was named a winner of the Keystone Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The Keystone Award recognizes Pennsylvania registered dietitians who have demonstrated outstanding professional standards through their leadership, willingness to serve and efforts to advance the aims of the Pennsylvania Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
  • Congratulations to alumnus Christopher Beardsley ’16 for winning a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English as a second language in South Africa. A history major, with minors in psychology and education, he will be moving from one part of sub-Saharan Africa to another, since during the past two years he has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda.
  • Messiah College has been selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of a new Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) initiative on Humanities Research for the Public Good. This initiative, generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, connects undergraduate researchers, institutional collections, and community partners in projects of importance to local organizations and institutions. CIC will host an opening workshop for participants in Washington, DC, on June 26–28.  Participants will review successful public humanities initiatives and discuss best practices in project management, working with community partners, developing humanities programs for public audiences, and project evaluation. David Pettegrew was invited to represent Messiah College for his leadership on public humanities projects including Digital Harrisburg and the Commonwealth Monument Project, designed to recognize the history of African Americans in Harrisburg.
  • Students from Marketing Management and Strategy, Messiah’s capstone marketing class taught by Professor David Hagenbuch, recently took first place in the American Marketing Association’s 2019 Collegiate Marketing Plan competition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team of three students—Olivia Crawford, Sara Mammano and Matthew Zimmerman—presented their plan at the competition on April 5 at Point Park University. This year’s client, the Pittsburgh/Johnstown Office of New York Life, wanted teams to identify how it could recruit more Generation Z employees. Messiah’s team competed against schools like Duquesne University, Slippery Rock University, University of Pittsburgh, among others.

Athletics highlights

Below are some highlights since my last update from Messiah Athletics. Visit www.GoMessiah.com the source for the stories below and for the Falcons’ latest scores, announcements and the full slate of team-specific news.

  • Congratulations to Douglas Miller, professor of health and exercise science, who was inducted into the MAC Hall of Fame this spring for his outstanding performance as Messiah’s men’s and women’s track and field coach!
  • Messiah women’s tennis claimed their third MAC Commonwealth Championship with a 5-1 victory over the Alvernia Golden Wolves on Saturday May 4. The Falcons previously earned titles in 2016 and 2017 before turning in an undefeated conference regular season en route to the title. With the win, Messiah advanced to the NCAA Tournament where they fell to Rhode Island College, 5-0 on May 10.
  • Messiah women’s track and field claimed their third-straight Middle Atlantic Conference Championship this season. The Falcons were led by Field Athlete of the Year Taylor Wiederrecht and Rookie of the Year Esther Seeland. During the Conference Championship, Messiah set three program records on the women’s side with top marks in the 4x400m, 4x100m, and Ester Seeland in the 1,500m.
  • Benjamin Schott was named the Men’s Track Athlete of the Year at the Conference Championships. Messiah finished in sixth as a team, but Schott won the 1,500m and the steeplechase to earn Track Athlete of the Year honors in his senior year.
  • Messiah’s men’s and women’s track and field teams currently have five individuals and a relay team in the mix to qualify for the National Championship Meet. In the nation, Taylor Wiederrecht is currently ranked second in the high jump and 13th in the heptathlon. Esther Seeland is fifth in the 800 meter, Alyssa McMinn is eighth in the discus, Ellissa Slader is 16th in the 400 meter, and the women’s 4x400m relay team is 14th. On the men’s side, Benjamin Schott owns the top NCAA DIII time in the 3,000m steeplechase.
  • Hunter Zondory was honored as the Middle Atlantic Conference Giant Steps Award winner in recognition of his resilience and perseverance after fighting his way back to return to Messiah and the team after a significant neck injury in the fall of 2017.
  • Women’s Basketball assistant coach, Jodi Noble, was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Assistant Coach of the Year for NCAA Division III. In her 33rd season, Noble helped Messiah to the Sweet 16 this season and an overall record of 28-2.
  • Alecia Rhorer (women’s basketball) and Cassie Cotton (women’s swimming) were named the MAC Senior Scholar Athletes for their respective sport in the winter. Just one student-athlete is named the Senior Scholar Athlete for each sport across the 17 member institutions that comprise the Middle Atlantic Conference and Messiah was the only school in the conference to earn three honors during the fall of 2018. Messiah finished the 2019-2020 academic year with five Senior Scholar Athlete honors from the MAC.

 In closing

Whether you are pursuing scholarly research or engaging in course preparation, hosting summer conference guests and events, or working on campus to plan and prepare for the upcoming academic year—I hope that you are able to carve out time to be with family and friends over the summer months.  In closing, let me share a note I received from the Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ Church following Service Day:

“Dear President Phipps,

I wanted to give you a ‘shout out’ from McBIC. Your staff and students were a great blessing to our church today. By my count there were 11 staff members and 6 students who volunteered from Messiah at McBIC and they were joined by 14 staff members and volunteers from our church. This group accomplished a lot of work inside and outside of our church and their attitudes were fantastic. Thank you for placing such a high value on community service … We appreciate it!” – Layne Lebo

 Thank you for the many ways that you and our students contribute to the common good in our broader community. Please join me in praying for wisdom, grace and guidance as our community works together to successfully address the challenges before us, because we know the world needs Messiah graduates!

Warm regards,

Kim S. Phipps, president