Dialogue: Nota Bene: Weekly Update

January 17, 2022

Good morning,

I hope you all enjoy a peaceful and reflective Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Please remember to watch our virtual MLK Day commemoration event featuring Dr. Veleka Gatling and the presentation of the Mavis McKenley ‘11 Award to a student who embodies the ideals of Dr. King at 6:00 p.m. tonight on the VWU Digital Broadcasting Network.

I sent an email to our students, faculty and staff on Friday thanking them for their continued support of our on-campus mitigation efforts. To our Trustees, alumni, parents, and friends, I also extend my special thanks to you. These continue to be challenging times for our region and our nation, and your well-wishes and understanding of our on-campus protocols help make our efforts a little easier.

Our Emergency Response Team continues to monitor variant trends and guidance from the CDC, the Virginia Department of Health, and our Virginia Beach public health department. They are making difficult but necessary decisions every day to keep our community safe, and we appreciate their dedication to our wellbeing.

ET CETERA

A number of you have asked about an item in last week’s Nota Bene regarding the panel I participated in entitled “No Margin, No Mission: Presidential Strategies for Performance and Financial Health.” The panel was a part of a workshop for college presidents at the annual meeting of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC).

Fellow panelists were presidential colleagues Daniel G. Lugo (Queens University) and Fayneese Miller (Hamline University). The program was moderated by Sean Creighton, President of New American Colleges and Universities. VWU is a member of New American Colleges and Universities.

Dr. Creighton presented an overview of the findings. My fellow panelists and I then led discussions of specific findings and their applications to the day-to-day operations of a college campus.

A link to the study is here.

Over the past seven years, I have been asked for my perspective on competitors and peer institutions. Because of the outstanding work of many, Virginia Wesleyan has grown in reputation regionally and nationally. This is reflected in our positive placement in a number of national ratings.

Mainstream higher education has recognized The Carnegie Classification™, as the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education for nearly five decades. Derived from empirical data on colleges and universities, the Carnegie Classification was originally published in 1973, and subsequently updated approximately every five years to reflect changes among colleges and universities.

We have been classified “Baccalaureate: Arts & Sciences Focus” (also known as a National Liberal Arts College). We added the elective “Community Engagement” classification in 2020.

I place a strong emphasis in data-driven decision making. When I arrived here in 2015, I asked three independent researchers to give us a better understanding of our peers and to look at 10 years of data for Virginia Wesleyan in determining our peers and aspirational peers. They not only reviewed data from our Carnegie Classification peers, but looked at mission and historical church relationships. Following that, the VWU Office of Institutional Research did some additional research and refinement and also presented the results. In 2020, we repeated the statistical process and the grouping only changed by two.

The institutions listed below were chosen through extensive analysis of schools with similar educational mission, resources, and a series of 27 "matching fit" characteristics. The goal was to build a benchmarking group of institutions comparable to Virginia Wesleyan in most aspects of the educational experience.

Albright College - Reading, PA

Allegheny College - Meadville, PA

Austin College - Sherman, TX

Birmingham‐Southern College - Birmingham, AL

Bridgewater College - Bridgewater, VA

Elizabethtown College - Elizabethtown, PA

Hartwick College - Oneonta, NY

Hood College - Frederick, MD

Illinois College - Jacksonville, IL

Juniata College - Huntingdon, PA

Lebanon Valley College - Annville, PA

Lycoming College - Williamsport, PA

University of Lynchburg - Lynchburg, VA

Millsaps College - Jackson, MS

Moravian University - Bethlehem, PA

Muskingum University - New Concord, OH

Oglethorpe University - Atlanta, GA

Presbyterian College - Clinton, SC

Randolph‐Macon College - Ashland, VA

Roanoke College - Salem, VA

Susquehanna University - Selinsgrove, PA

West Virginia Wesleyan College - Buckhannon, WV

I hope you find this information helpful as we continue to affirm our leadership and standing among top liberal arts colleges.

Our outsourced grants and contracts team, led by Scott Tominovich, has transitioned to a new Washington, D.C.- based firm, Thorn Run Partners. The transition should be seamless.

The Office of Grants and Contracts within the Trinder Center for Advancement, led by Kim Hammer, Vice President for Advancement and Special Assistant to the President, will continue this partnership which we expect to grow significantly in the future.

AROUND TOWN AND ACROSS CAMPUS

VWU Junior Selected for Gilman International Scholarship Award

Melina Cabral ’24 is preparing to travel to Murcia, Spain, this month to study at the Universidad de Murcia for the spring semester. The Virginia Wesleyan junior is one of the recipients of a scholarship from the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, which awards up to $5,000 to more than 1,500 U.S. undergraduate students to apply toward their study abroad costs. Congratulations to Melina!

Construction Updates

Construction continues on Brock Commons with a completion in the next six weeks. Completion has been slowed as a result of supply chain issues of the main heating and cooling unit. This past week glass work was completed on windows and doors. With cold weather in the forecast, priorities shifted to this aspect which will allow internal work to be completed despite the dropping temperatures.

Brock Commons is the capstone of a two-year project to renovate and expand space in the Boyd Dining Center, Marlin Grille, and Board of Trustees Suite (to include Founders Foyer, Board of Trustees Room and Princess Anne Room). The addition facing the University Quad will provide new banquet space for campus use. The Alumni Galleria and Jane P. Batten Student Center have also benefited from this extensive project.

The opening and occupancy of DeFord Manor has also been slowed by supply chain issues. As such, faculty dinners that were originally planned starting in early February are delayed.

Learn more about DeFord Manor here.

President to President: Authenticity’s Many Powers

This year's President to President series, titled “The Vitality and Power of Higher Education,” offers insights into some of the most innovative ideas on college campuses today. The sixth chapter is now available online. In “Successfully Navigating the Mask Paradox: The Power of Institutional Authenticity,” Truman State University President Susan Thomas, Ph.D., describes how campuses can achieve institutional authenticity by proactively aligning what they do with who they are, allowing their mission and culture to drive strategic initiatives. Authenticity builds students’ trust and helps each campus create a more distinctive identity within the increasingly competitive higher education market.

This is the series that I have co-edited/produced for 18 years with Dr. Marylouise Fennell, Senior Counsel at the Council of Independent Colleges.

Virginia Signs Agreement with Denmark to Advance Offshore Wind Industry

Last week, then-Governor Ralph Northam signed an agreement with the Danish Ministry of Climate Energy and Utilities to work together to advance the offshore wind industry. Virginia and Denmark agree to become partners and to share knowledge of challenges, successes, and best practices when it comes to developing offshore wind and its supply chain in each location. This is an exciting development for Virginia with the potential to offer wonderful opportunities to VWU students and faculty. Read the full press release.

STAY CURRENT ON VWU NEWS AND FEATURES

Virginia Wesleyan University Magazine

The Pharos

REFLECTIONS

I hope you find these links useful to my recent columns and publications:

University Business