State of the College: Poised to Seize Opportunities
Alma College is well positioned to seize selected opportunities despite an unstable national economic environment, said President Saundra Tracy in her annual “State of the College” address to faculty and staff March 5.
“Alma College stands out from the crowd because of what we instill in
our students: critical thinking, service, leadership and stewardship,”
said Tracy. “We call these outcomes collectively ‘responsible
leadership.’ We accomplish these outcomes through our unique Alma blend
of personalized educational experience, rigorous academic programs, and
wide range of opportunities for students both at Alma College and
throughout the world.”
Tracy cited examples of positive momentum in the areas of academic
reputation, enrollment gains and efforts to diversity revenue. Academic
accomplishments include new general education requirements, the pursuit
of signature academic programs, enhanced leadership development
opportunities, and the articulation agreement with Equatorialis
University in Ecuador.
“We welcomed the largest incoming class in the College’s history for
the second year in a row; now we must enroll more than 400 for fall
2009,” said Tracy. “Alma has never had three years in a row of 400 or
more new students.”
Alma College will break ground later this spring on a new basketball
arena/convocation center, with construction to be completed in August
2010.
“We were one of the few private institutions able to go to the bond
market last fall; we made it by about four days before the ability to
sell bonds for facilities projects completely dried up,” she said.
“[The Hogan facility project] creates further evidence of institutional
momentum while other schools are retrenching.”
Alma’s strong positioning, said Tracy, will enable the College to
“emerge in an even stronger position relative to our peers with
increased visibility and distinction when economic conditions improve.”
“A difficult and unstable environment surrounds us,” said Tracy. “Alma
College has the advantage of being a dedicated community that works
well together and is focused on students. Thus we can be more
agile than many schools, more creative in our problem solving, and more
focused on the real priorities.”
Read the full text of President Tracy’s speech.
Also read a list of accomplishments cited by faculty and staff who attended the speech.
Posted: Fri, March 6th, 2009 at 8:31AM
