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Enron Mail |
Monmouth College Trustee Newsletter
. . . from the President's Office Issue 5, June 20, 2001 The Monmouth College faculty and staff send their greetings, and I want to share some of the activities that we are currently involved in here on campus. * The campus is buzzing this week with a whole host of elementary and high school students here. Our College for Kids program, which we have been doing for a number of years, offers exciting opportunities for pre-college students. At Glennie Gymnasium, Coach Terry Glasgow has over 100 young basketball players participating in a basketball skills camp. We continue to try to build summer programming so that we can utilize more of our facilities year round. * The comprehensive curricular review, funded by the Teagle Foundation grant, continues to move forward. The curriculum task force met with several national consultants during the two weeks following commencement. Some initial emphases coming out of the review include support for improved pedagogy for all faculty, and an emphasis on enhancing the communication skills of all of our students across the curriculum. This task force will continue to meet over the next two years, and we will be sending out teams to visit innovative campuses and programs during that time. * We continue to add international study opportunities for our students. Approximately fifteen of our students are currently studying in Reading, England with two of our faculty members. We also are working on an additional exchange program with a college in Korea. * New faculty contracts have been sent out. We were able to give compensation increases to reach the short-term Board goal of having all of our faculty ranks average at the 60th percentile in salary among colleges nationally. * We currently have 315 paid deposits for next year's freshman class. Marybeth is confident that we will reach our goal of 350, which would increase our overall enrollment to approximately 1,100 for next fall. * For the first time in many years, it looks as though we will have as many new male students as female. This counteracts a national trend where nearly sixty percent of liberal arts college students are females. * We have completed an Admissions audit, which was conducted by national consultant, George Dehne. He will be working with Marybeth and staff to implement some ideas that will strengthen an already strong program. * We are nearing completion of the most successful year in fundraising history at Monmouth College. Already we have received over $7 million in gifts to the College this fiscal year. This compares to $4.8 million last year and $3 million in 1998-99. It is important to note that this number only refers to money received and does not include pledges. In looking back over College records, it appears that our greatest previous year totaled just over $5 million. * The campaign is off to a great start. You have been receiving notification of some of the very generous gifts given by some of our Board members. We will have other exciting announcements coming out periodically throughout the summer and fall. * We recently received another outside grant for the library. This $250,000 anonymous grant continues to move us toward our goal of $5.7 million to complete the library renovation. Work has already begun on the third floor, and by the fall meeting you will begin to see progress on this important project. * Monmouth continues to balance its operating budget. We will again have a strong financial year, and we plan to reduce the endowment drawdown from 5.5% to 5.35% in next year's budget. We hope over the next several years to get that down to 5%. * Construction is going on in almost every corner of campus. The main dining room has been gutted, and we now are beginning the construction phase of a very attractive main venue for food service. Phase 1 of the recplex is well underway with the renovation of the locker rooms and training rooms in Waid Gymnasium. Bowers Hall is nearly completed and will be ready for occupancy this fall. * Eleven houses are being razed this summer for future campus expansion. Gibson Hall will also be coming down soon, once the asbestos abatement has been completed. * The Nominations Committee of the Board of Trustees will be meeting on June 27 to consider new members for the Board. We continue to be grateful for the wonderful additions to the Board over the past several years. If you have someone that you would like to see considered for membership, please contact Nominations Committee Chair Peter Bunce or me. * The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees will be meeting on campus Thursday and Friday, August 9 and 10. Please note that the fall Board meeting will also begin on Thursday afternoon, October 18, 2001 and conclude at noon on Saturday, October 20. Remember that we scheduled it at this time to coincide with Homecoming weekend. The Homecoming football game will be at 1:30 on Saturday, and I hope that you will get a chance to see what I expect will be a vastly improved team.
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