President Laurie M. Joyner reflects on Wittenberg’s accomplishments and shares critical insights as she looks to position Wittenberg for even greater success.
By Laurie M. Joyner
Photos by Erin Pence ’04
For nearly the last two years, I have had the distinct honor of serving an engaged, talented, and caring community of learners. I have heard the passion and pride in the voices of our alumni and friends, and I awaken each day with a deep sense of gratitude and humility, privileged to partner with faculty and staff as we strive to deliver on our promise of providing a first-rate liberal arts education that prepares our students for success in the 21st century.
Together, our students, faculty, and staff create an active, engaged learning environment that has been nationally recognized by the Princeton Review for our “Best Classroom Experience” and “Most Accessible Faculty.”
Our students inspire me with their love of learning and of life. They embrace our mission as they work to become responsible global citizens, to discover their callings, and to lead personal, professional, and civic lives of creativity, service, compassion, and integrity. They are also the reason why we exist as an institution, and it’s their success, not just while students, but for a lifetime, that guides our actions and decisions as we envision the future.
As I have repeatedly articulated, a clear measure of our success as an institution is reflected in the lives of our graduates. As I look back on my presidency so far, I do so with sincerest thanks for the gifts of time, talent, and treasure shared by distinguished alumni and friends. I am excited by what we achieved together, and I look forward with great anticipation and enthusiasm for what is to come.
In the words of Wittenberg’s first president and founder Ezra Keller, “It requires strong faith to anticipate a large and well-endowed institution from so small a beginning, but ‘Large oaks from the little acorns grown, Large streams from the little fountains flow. If God be with us, we shall succeed.’”
Mission and Momentum
I have always found in my career that if I place the institution’s mission and students first, positive results will follow. The last 22 months are no exception. By focusing on students’ holistic success, creating a sustainable financial model, and encouraging a mission-driven, innovative spirit, I am confident that we are moving Wittenberg forward in unprecedented ways. Selected highlights to date include:
➻ Securing a pledge for half the cost of a new indoor multi- purpose athletic and recreation facility thanks to the generosity of Wes ’70 and Ann Bates ’70.
➻ Initiating a $6.5 million technology upgrade plan.
➻ Approving two new degree- completion programs (nursing and criminal justice), instituting a sport management major, and preparing to hire a director to create an exercise science major.
➻ Starting an intensive Maymester summer term, which resulted in more than $100,000 in net revenue.
➻ Launching the community-based Bullock Math Academy for high-achieving middle school-aged students, thanks to the generosity of Rosalyn Bullock.
➻ Delivering $6.4 million in cost-cutting measures in our five-year budget model.
➻ Meeting our Fall 2013 first-year enrollment goals for the first time in five years.
➻ Creating a Center for Student Success inspired by the successful student-learning model used at my former institution and by many other liberal arts universities.
➻ Establishing the Innovation Task Force to ensure that we are constantly seeking and developing programs, initiatives, and ideas designed to enhancerevenue.
Thinking beyond the status quo is essential if we are to meet the needs of students and prepare them for not just one job or career, but throughout their professional lives. Our goal of preparing students well is exactly why our Innovation Task Force is currently working to implement the newly developed value-added proposition called the Wittenberg Commitment. The next issue of the magazine will take a deeper dive into this exciting new venture, but the themes contained within the Wittenberg Commitment are inspiring as they speak to comprehensive student advising; creating a successful transition to college through a full first- year experience; defining clear pathways for student success through curricular mapping and enhanced Wittenberg networking with alumni and friends; and engaged and integrated learning designed to connect students’ curricular and co-curricular experiences.
I know our admission team cannot wait to get on the road and start talking about the Wittenberg Commitment, believing that it offers a new, compelling way of describing our whole-person centered approach to ensuring every student’s success. I am anxious to share it in more detail as well.
Innovation and Inspiration
We have created an Integrated Planning and Budgeting Committee (IPBC), charged with identifying and funding institutional priorities. The IPBC allows us to a) link planning, budgeting, and assessment; b) support data- driven decision-making; and c) work to develop consensus on a shared vision for the future. Last year, our Board approved IPBC institutional priorities, and the broad-based committee is now creating action items with the greatest potential to improve performance over the short term. These action items will also help inform our fundraising priorities moving forward.
The Board-approved institutional priorities seek to:
➻ Identify and invest in areas of strength (broadly identified to date as business, health sciences, an active and engaged learning environment, and athletics).
➻ Enhance efforts to become a more student-centered institution committed to student engagement, learning, and success. This academic year, for example, we expanded high-impact activities associated with our new Center for Student Success and created a new vice president for strategic initiatives to improve cross-divisional institutional effectiveness and serve as chief student affairs officer, thus ensuring that our policies and practices become even more student-centered and transparent across the institution.
➻ Create a sustainable financial model. In order to accomplish our mission, we have to increase revenue, contain expenses and fund depreciation, and build up a contingency fund. This working group is aggressively exploring several exciting opportunities that we will report on in the future.
➻ Institute best practices in our advancement division to ensure excellent stewardship of the generous gifts of our alumni and friends. To date, this has involved implementing a new customer relations management (CRM) system, and incorporating clear goals and performance metrics to increase alumni participation and dollars raised. My thanks go to Board member Sarah Hagen McWilliams ’88 and her husband Bruce for taking a lead in helping to increase alumni participation by sponsoring a matching-gift initiative.
➻Examine physical infrastructure issues to support other strategic priorities, including exploring space usage across campus and identifying highest-priority deferred maintenance.
In essence, while higher education is being impacted by powerful forces in the external environment, including a shrinking pool of high school graduates, increasingly price-sensitive families, a weak economy, and uncertain donor giving, I see remarkable opportunities through the IPBC to systematically engage in questions about our core purpose and mission with the full constellation of constituencies who care deeply about our success. It is truly an exciting time to work together to position Wittenberg for a brighter and more financially secure future.
Passion and Purpose
I will find any opportunity I can to applaud our students. I learn daily from them, and it’s essential that we continue to hear their voices as they seek to discover their own passion and purpose. With that in mind, I was pleased to see the campus come together again this April to celebrate student achievement.
During my inaugural planning, I requested that the steering committee consider an academically centered event, and the campus exceeded my expectations as it debuted the first-ever Liberal Arts in Action: A Celebration of Learning. The event continued this year with more than 200 students presenting their research and talents. Intellectually curious and motivated by a deep sense of personal and social responsibility, our students are engaged in the world, in their community, and on campus, and I would like to share just a few other recent student highlights:
➻ Haley Beckett ’14 just learned that she has received a Fulbright Scholarship for study in China this fall. Haley plans to examine how access to financial capital affects private entrepreneurial ventures. She follows in the footsteps of Amy Stamon ’13 and Craig Osterbrock ’13, who each received a prestigious Fulbright Teaching Assistantship. Amy is currently teaching English in Spain, while Craig is teaching English in Brazil.
➻ Connor Ryan ’13 earned a Boren Scholarship, a prestigious national award, and is currently spending a year studying Chinese with CET in Harbin, China. Connor also won a fully funded Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) from the U.S. Department of State for his intensive study of Chinese during his time at Wittenberg.
➻ Kevin To ’13, Angela Houser ’13, and Caroline Schmid ’13, who were accepted to the JET program (The Japanese Exchange and Teaching Programme), are teaching English in Japan right now through the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit.
➻ Lisa Simpson ’14 received the AAS Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award, the highest award in the field of astrophysics that a stu dent can receive for a single presentation.
Yes, our students inspire me as they enjoy learning for learning’s sake. This is the power of the liberal arts, and commitment to student success must form the foundation of the Wittenberg experience for generations to come.
Active and Engaged
As I have witnessed repeatedly in my presidency, Wittenberg’s active, engaged learning environment not only opens up a range of opportunities for students, but it proves attractive to prospective students and their families.
In the last admission cycle, in fact, Wittenberg welcomed 585 students, a nearly 10 percent increase from the previous year. This is even more impressive considering that, according to a recent NACUBO study of nearly 400 private colleges, more than half of the peer institutions surveyed increased aid and still saw their freshman enrollment decline. This trend “was especially pronounced at baccalaureate institutions with enrollments of less than 4,000 with more than 83% of those seeing a decline in both freshman and overall enrollment.”
It is not insignificant that Wittenberg bucked this trend with the largest incoming freshman class and largest overall traditional enrollment in five years. We are anxious to see who our newest Tigers will be this fall.
Investing and Inspiration
Since the beginning of my presidency, I have been awed by the sheer passion and pride our alumni and friends have for Wittenberg. Many have contributed their time, talent, and treasure in support of our mission, and in ensuring that the next generation can experience it.
Because of our alumni and friends, additional scholarships for our students have been generated these last two years. Others have dedicated hours at college fairs and in helping us recruit the best and brightest. Certainly, Wittenberg would never see as many applications for admission as we do without the dedication of so many in our alumni and University community.
Our efforts this past year in the areas or retention and student success deserve a quick shout-out as well. We not only created the Center for Student Success, but we also appointed an associate dean and assistant provost to be even more intentional about providing our students with every level of support they need to succeed.
While ever mindful of the shifting college enrollment environment, we are hopeful that with the continued assistance from our alumni and friends, the recruitment strategy we have in place, and our intensive retention efforts, more students will be able to experience a Wittenberg education for themselves and then graduate with the skills and confidence to make their own impact on the world.
Athletics and Excellence
From the day I arrived, I have believed that athletics is a clear area of competitive advantage for Wittenberg, and I’m excited to welcome new Athletics Director Gary Williams, Ph.D., to advance our tradition even more. The University’s storied intercollegiate athletics program speaks to the energized campus environment, with 23 varsity teams and a growing number of intramural and club sports, including ice hockey and rugby.
The consistency with which many of our Tiger teams continue to achieve success is outstanding. The Tigers have not lost a North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular season game in women’s lacrosse in three years; volleyball has won 19 of the last 25 NCAC titles; football has won four of the last five league titles and an NCAC-best 12 overall; men’s golf won its fifth straight NCAC title; and men’s basketball continues to lead all NCAA Division III programs in total victories and NCAA Tournament appearances.
On the scholar-athlete front, so many names come to mind that I would need a page to list them all. For now, though, I want to highlight the achievements of Kara Seidenstricker. In her first two years at Wittenberg, Kara has maintained a 3.99 grade point average while attaining a wide range of volleyball honors for our nationally ranked Tigers. Kara was the 2012 NCAA Division III Freshman of the Year, and she is already a two- time All-America honoree.
The success of our coaches and trainers is also impressive. Recently, Jeff Roope was named NCAC Men’s Golf Coach of the Year for a fifth straight year. He also earned NCAC Women’s Golf Coach of the Year for the first time. Paco Labrador has earned NCAC Volleyball Coach of the Year five times since 2006, including the 2013 season. Joe Fincham has earned NCAC Football Coach of the Year eight times since taking the reins in 1996, including the 2013 season.
Such excellence in athletics often speaks to the hearts of many of our supporters, as well.
I was honored to announce in 2013 that Wes and Ann Bates have committed to funding half of a new indoor athletics practice facility. I am deeply grateful to Wes and Ann for their leadership gift and, at a time of profound anxiety in our country about the value of the traditional residential college experience, for their unshakable confidence in the strategic direction of the University.
Knowing that this facility reflects our mission of developing the whole person, including physical development, and that athletic and recreation participation reinforces a number of important skills and learning outcomes, Wes and Ann have stepped forward to ensure that their alma mater has one of the best facilities in the country for a university of our size.
I also wish to thank all the alumni and friends of the University who have made or are now considering making a gift in support of this important effort, given that it will provide an opportunity for Wittenberg to become more distinctive among NCAC member schools.
Leaders and Mentors
Our core enterprise at Wittenberg is and will always be teaching and learning. This was reinforced again this year as our own John Ritter, professor of geology, was named 2013 Ohio Professor of the Year. John’s insistence on providing hands-on learning opportunities in the field and his commitment to student success have continued to inspire all of us, and we were proud to celebrate this accomplishment with him. I would encourage you to read his story in this issue of the Wittenberg Magazine.
John’s honor continues Wittenberg’s tradition of academic excellence as the University currently leads the state among four-year institutions in the number of professors who have earned Ohio Professor of the Year.
The University remains an academic leader on another front as well. In the last 13 years, Wittenberg faculty have received 17 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards, with Lauren Crane, associate professor of psychology and chair of East Asian Studies, earning the latest one in 2013. Lauren is currently studying in India. I have every confidence that she, like all those before her, will bring back new ideas and understanding, which will benefit students in her classroom and across campus.
Focused and Moving Forward
As I think about our future, I am encouraged and excited by what is yet to come. As 2014 continues to unfold, I expect that we, as an institution, will be able to convey Wittenberg’s competitive advantages in new, dynamic, and compelling ways.
We will continue our focus on aspiring to excellence in engaged learning and our commitment to student success.
We will work to institutionalize mechanisms even more through the shared governance structure to ensure that we develop an integrated and inclusive approach to identify strategic priorities, allocate institutional resources, and assess progress toward goals.
We will continue our efforts to create a sustainable financial model, one that builds on our mission and historic strengths.
We will leverage technology further in the delivery of our curriculum and expand our range of partnerships to address the needs of our community.
We will look to incorporate “best practices” across every division as we move toward a culture of continuous improvement and assessment of performance at every level.
Most importantly, we will insist that we are fully and completely mission-driven and student-centered.
I was asked recently why I applied for (and then accepted) a presidency at a liberal arts institution with all the daunting challenges facing such organizations. I responded this way: “I cannot imagine devoting my life to any more worthwhile endeavor given that our colleges and universities help students discover their passion and purpose in life.” In my experience, it is not uncommon for the work on our campuses to transform the lives of students, who go on to change the world for the better. Now, that is a cause worth sustaining.
As Wittenberg continues to move forward under my leadership, it will do so boldly, yet with a humbleness of heart. We will show moral courage, reflect entrepreneurial thinking, embrace our Lutheran heritage, serve humanity, and lead with laser-like vision, while always remaining true to our mission and values. This is our calling. This is our Wittenberg. Having light we pass it on to others.