Under Construction:
Building For Our Future

It is a privilege and a delight to begin what I hope will be a long tradition of gathering together as a community for dinner at the launch of the new academic year. I hope you have all had some fun tonight. We owe a great deal to Ruth and Debbie for their scintillating mc-ship. When it became apparent in early August that we would not have the cafeteria carpet ready for students when they arrived…along with several other campus projects also incomplete…I suggested to the cabinet that we turn the "work-in-progress" idea to our good with banners and checklists. I figured it was better to have the campus torn up and incomplete than to have no sign of any change. Little did I know we’d be able to carry the idea over even to a dinner! In the end however, it has turned out to express well the place in which we find ourselves institutionally. So building and construction is an appropriate theme. 

Good construction takes dreaming, planning, money, demolition, hard work, and flexibility. I’d like to take a few minutes to describe to you how some of these elements are present at Greenville College during these days of transition in leadership. 

Each one of you is an important part of our community. Whether you work in maintenance or the classroom, with your hands or with your voice, we share in common the mission of educating young men and women to BE all they can BE in character and to DO all they can DO in service. We enjoy a rich tradition at Greenville, one characterized by a warm personal touch. Change should not abandon that distinctive, but build on it, capitalizing on our strengths to become even stronger. Still, as we all know, whether it’s in regard to cars, buildings, or even relationships, things cannot stand still. As my wife Ellen once put in when I wanted to put our courtship on "hold" for a while, living organisms and relationships "can’t stand still." She said, "I need a green light or a red light; yellow won’t work." I’m afraid yellow pretty well describes me during those days. Fortunately, she was pretty persuasive. Now the same point holds true for Greenville College. We must go forward or backward; there’s little room in between. So let me review briefly where we’ve been this past year, and where I hope we are going.

GENERAL

Because they are the most obvious visibly, let me start with a few comments about the physical construction projects on campus. While they are not huge ones, they certainly impact our lives, and I hope are encouraging you even as they sometimes inconvenience us all with inevitable delays. The summer has been exciting and I hope you have caught that excitement too. The cabinet and I spent a lot of time apologizing to parents for the fact so much was incomplete when students arrived. Although sometimes what I hear is skewed, my impression was that almost all parents were very understanding and excited along with us. Most students seemed even less concerned and even more excited.

The Ganton Circle project is essentially complete. We were disappointed the paving could not be ready when students moved in, but rains had softened the base layer and forced the delay. I think you will all agree it is a wonderful new addition and we are most grateful to Lloyd and Judy Ganton for their generosity in funding the entire work. The Divine Servant statue, also donated to the college by the Coates family, will arrive in a few weeks. Awnings are planned to go all the way to the sidewalk, to replace the current one over the Admissions entrance, and perhaps to grace the west entrance off the alley as well. The city manager tells me that alley will be paved as soon as the city water line there has been installed.

A quick look around the room here shows that our cafeteria project has also been delayed. This project—funded entirely by Sodexho Marriott—has been dramatic. Besides the change of entrance—to avoid what I have called the old "cattle chute"—the whole "servery" is still being remodeled. New signage, new resurfacing—some of it still not complete I understand—new table tops, circular vs. square pillars, entirely new carpet and rubberized entries, and even new lighting to come, will make it quite a different place. The original carpet was not removed until we had promises the new would arrive by mid-August. But when DuPont could not supply the fiber to the mills, the carpet could not be produced. We hope it will be done in a single day, during the All-College hike! 

The Snyder parking lot changes have produced perhaps the greatest enthusiasm from students; something still ironic to me in a small rural Midwestern town. Now with both lights and paving, it is also larger to accommodate more vehicles. Along with some added parking in the two new Ganton lots, it partially addresses the longstanding college and community concerns in this area. Expanded lots near the GOAL building and a new policy restricting firstyear student parking to the lot southeast of the Free Methodist church we hope will help to alleviate this problem even more.

The plans for the Claussen Plaza call for the parking lot behind Hogue to be removed, and to be replaced by a circular brick plaza that would permit vehicle drop-off and turnaround at the rear stairs. Then all four "arms" of the intersection which is currently chained off will be transformed into an attractive pedestrian circle effectively extending Scott Field—the college’s "quad"—south and west. You can see the outlines painted on the pavement and we hope it will be done by November. We are most grateful to Jim and Susan Claussen for funding this project personally. 

Through yet another major gift, our board chairman, Craig Tidball and his wife Sue, have made it possible to enhance the campus lighting. Plans include new lighting on the Claussen Plaza, on the Snyder science building, and perhaps along the sidewalk on College Avenue across the Free Methodist Church.

In a surprise blessing this summer—and through the good offices of our state representative Frank Watson—we received $200,000 from the State of Illinois. These are a—all the funds we needed to implement the wireless network, including upgraded optic fiber to main buildings that has a state-of-the-art carrying capacity hundreds of times what we presently need.

Much of the major work to be done in the residence halls is only just now beginning. While new furniture is evident in almost all the lounges, new carpet for lounges and almost all the hallways was delayed along with that for this room. Electrical and fire alarm work will be ongoing throughout the fall. Bathroom remodeling will also begin and carry on throughout the year. In the long run, these changes are the ones we hope will most affect recruitment and retention, so we are eager to complete them as construction workers and materials are available.

Speaking of workers and materials, there was some delay in remodeling Tenney. It arose in large measure because the construction business is booming. Union workers could not be found for some important tasks for as long as two weeks. Material shortages because of high demand, accounted for still other delays. While arrangements were made for students to live in motels, virtually all of them chose to stay in the residence hall, and their rooms are now almost done. If you have not visited there, you may be surprised to see  the changes. They include not only the addition of 22 beds in a completely remodeled basement, but a complete change in drainage, large new fire egress windows that flood the lower level with light, an entirely new entrance to the lower level, a rear masonry stair tower to replace the old one and dramatically reduce fire risks, and two completely remodeled significantly larger rooms on the second and third floors. While there are still finishing touches to be done, the young men I’ve talked to seem delighted to be living there.

While we were unable to move ahead on the remodeling of Hogue foyer, that long awaited project is still planned. Meanwhile, for only a few hundred dollars and the generosity of a longstanding campus women’s group, we were able to remove some paneling, do some painting, and hang a beautiful chandelier. I have heard nothing but good things about the result. In the next few days, and on the heels of a game of "musical offices" in Hogue, the Craftsmen for Christ will finish the removal of two walls to expand both the first floor conference room and the president’s reception area. Again, because of the Craftsmen’s help, and a significant contribution of furniture and carpet from two trustees, this will cost the college virtually nothing. My wife Ellen has been on the phone, and through her effort I understand there is even carpet in store for Hogue third floor.

In all it has been a busy dusty summer on campus and promises to remain that way for some time. Our thanks to Rex Catron and Phil Amos for their special part in keeping the heat up on so many different construction projects.

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

In the area of academic affairs, the biggest news is of course the arrival of Dr. Longman. I have been delighted not only to see how quickly she has engaged and begun to come up to speed, but also by the warm reception you have given her. I have heard many many comments about her warm and encouraging heart, as well as her businesslike approach. I’m not surprised, and look forward to the exciting invigoration she will bring to faculty. 

Of course in the academic area there have been a number of other "construction activities" this past year too. Among the most exciting in my mind is the way dreams have translated into initial "architectural drawings" for general education. Those "drawings" recognize Greenville’s strengths in character building and preparation for real world service, and employ several elements such as "bookend integrative courses," an "across-the-curriculum" approach to writing, quantitative reasoning, and cross-cultural experience, and close cooperation between curriculum and co-curriculum to create an overall program that is both coherent and distinctive. With initial approval in principle, the next step is money and a three-year proposal for over $350,000 has gone out to even in the past few hours. I invite you pray that this might be funded as that foundation board meets in November. We have already received funding from the Chatlos and the Shapiro Foundations to support changes in the chapel program that relate to General Education.

Technology has emerged as another cutting edge to in Greenville’s "academic construction" almost without our realizing it. Last year, about half the faculty had laptops. This year, all full-time faculty will have them. Many have received training in the Ameritech sponsored workshops held by the Associated Colleges of Illinois, even on our own campus. Last year we had 50 students with laptops, this year, that number will surge to over 150, and by next fall, most likely, all firstyear students will have laptops. Last year, we had network connections in most offices, a couple of labs, and in no residence halls. This year, we have leapfrogged campuses 10 times our size to become one of the very very few wireless campuses in the country. I come recently from a college cited as one of the most wired in the country. I fully expect Greenville will find our place on that list in this year. Some may ask how this fits our mission. I am passionate that technology must always be "mission driven" not vice-versa. But when I consider the ways in which technology can help our students to hear opinions and perspectives different from their own I see clearly how it stretches them to grow in character. And when I see how technology facilitates communication among themselves as well as with faculty, providing information about the real world, I believe it cannot help but equip students better to understand and address the most pressing problems of our day.

The list of accomplishments in the academic area goes on and on. We all celebrated with the Education department the completion of their periodic state review. Entitled, "Preparing Teachers to Serve in a Culturally Diverse World," it was a huge project in which many from across the college participated under the masterful leadership of Dr. Ed Blue. We are proud of Greenville’s historic tradition in teacher preparation. Thanks to all the hard work, and in spite of dramatically altered criteria, the reviews were outstanding. The college’s reputation remains strong. This year the first courses were offered in Greenville’s first graduate program; the Leadership and Ministry Program (LAMP)—with 24 enrolled this last month. The GOAL program, Greenville’s adult degree completion program, grew to 9 cohorts per year, with 200 enrolled this fall, and 117 graduates in May. Discussion is underway to consider adding new cohorts perhaps in Decatur or East St. Louis. Finally, some initial steps were taken to strengthen faculty policies for rank and tenure and to set guidelines for teaching, professional growth, scholarship, and governance. These first steps must be pursued as we seek to remind ourselves constantly that the strength of the "construction process" in students depends perhaps more than anything else on the excellence of the teaching faculty and that in turn upon faculty member’s own ongoing personal scholarly "construction process." Our faculty must continue to build on their own intellectual vitality and curiosity. 

The new year is full of promise. With Dr. Longman’s energy and vision for empowering faculty I am confident these initial faculty development efforts will be only the foundations for even greater construction. This may include fuller implementation of the faculty "peer groups," consideration for standardization of loads, and further planning for salary benchmarking. One idea which might address several of these, is consideration of the elimination of January term. While I recognize that any such change is complex, I hope this one will be considered carefully and quickly, as I believe it brings significant multiple advantages in both real and perceived loads to faculty and students alike. The ongoing construction process means we must bring in new builders each year, so hiring diverse and excellent faculty will continue to be important, especially as we consider where those workers are most needed. 

In almost any significant remodeling there are some things which must be removed before improvements can be made. This is all the more true where limited resources make it necessary to avoid the "ratchet effect" endemic to academia where we add and add but never remove. So as with any ongoing construction, we must always ask whether everything we are currently doing is more important than anything new we imagine we could be doing. I am coming to believe we have too many different majors offered, each of them with perhaps more courses required than necessary, leading perhaps to too many classes with fewer than 10, or 8 or even 5 students. We must be better stewards of our human resources. Over the next weeks and months, we will have on campus a consultant in the academic area to help us gain perspective on these matters. 

But even while remodeling requires some reduction, it also means some programs must be reinforced and even new ones considered. Greenville College should NOT be the "best kept secret in Illinois." To avoid that we need what I call "signature programs" marketed more aggressively so that when people hear Greenville, they think of these distinctive programs. We need to get the word out even more effectively regarding our ZIES, regarding the strong education and biology programs, as well as the CCM program. The laptop and wireless network should be shouted from the housetops. And I hope we can seriously consider new signature programs in areas where the student market meets faculty passion; for example perhaps in an Urban Learning Center in East St. Louis, in an African campus, or new programs in Justice.

STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

Let me turn to the area of Student Development. At Greenville we believe we educate the whole student and not just a part. Education for character and service requires rigor and discipline in the classroom, but much more. This year the offices of student development have continued or launched a wide range of programs to accomplish this mission.

Retention management has been a major emphasis and I would like to make it even more central. When we consider how difficult and expensive it is to recruit new students, the idea of retaining those already on our campus becomes very attractive. Two years ago our retention of freshmen to the sophomore year was 69%. Our goal was to raise it by 2001 to 72%. Through considerable effort by the Retention Task Force under the guidance of Dr. Tom Morgan, retention for last year was 77%. We participate in the CCCU Quality/Retention program, administer the Student Satisfaction Inventory and the College Student Inventory, and are continuing the second cycle of a comprehensive Action Plan based on the results of this information gathering. Consistent follow through on this plan gives me great hope this will be an area of real success. This year’s data is still incomplete but it appears to be at 72% again, less than last year but at the 2001 goal 2 years early. Upper division retention seems to have taken a significant rise this year too. For an institution that prides itself in our sense of family and care, we ought to be a place where once students come they don’t want to leave. I hope we will all do everything we can in the next days to make this so for this year’s new students and over the next months and years for every student who joins us. I believe this can be a significant part of our plan to secure stable and viable enrollments long term. I believe excellence in retention can be a hallmark of Greenville College.

New Student Orientation this year has continued the small CONNECT groups so essential to retention. Studies show that unless students form a bond with a permanent member of the community (rather than just another student) they are far less likely to remain. The groups extended their activities last weekend by one day to participate in a day of cleanup on the Meramec River. Imagine the flotilla of 150 canoes! They will continue to meet over 7 weeks in an effort to integrate them thoroughly into community while simultaneously engaging them in discussion of the purposes of a liberal arts education.

Outreach ministries have been another strong foundation for Student Development. Our students regularly cite this as a source of high satisfaction. This year programs continued at the Light House inner city church, the Crossroads program for big brothers and sisters, the Harbor Light shelter for homeless, Royal Lake homework assistance, Habitat for Humanity, East St. Louis Christian Activity Center, the nursing home, World Vision famine relief, spring break missions trips, and this year for the first time, a high impact Urban Plunge weekend which exposed over 100 students and faculty to the real world problems of the inner city. There are weekly floor Bible studies, and over 100 meet weekly in covenant groups with 150 on average in the Sunday night worship and praise at The Well. While I believe we must beware of thinking that Greenville College is primarily a social service agency or that students should make such service a priority during these years of training, such opportunities serve our educational mission directly when they expose students to real problems, thereby helping them see that integrative rather than narrow solutions are required and motivating them to care about these problems when they graduate. 

For the second year, select students were invited to participate in the August Walkabout. Conducted in the mountains of Tennessee, 20 students in 4 groups hiked and lived together in an exercise for building character based on precisely the elements which ought to characterize our entire mission: stretching ourselves out of our comfort zone but in a nurturing supportive community. Those who participated this year were primarily student leaders and our hope is that what they learned about growth and development will be passed along to those students they lead. What an exciting way to make our mission come alive in a reproductive way! And the bears they saw in camp were pretty exciting too!

Student Development staff expect this year to continue the hard work on retention, to introduce the new Chapel program, to launch a Campus Service Organization, to further develop racial harmony and sexual harassment awareness programs, and to oversee the remodeling of the residence halls. The new Chapel program announced in chapel yesterday, not only seeks to integrate more seamlessly with the general education program, but also offers students constructive alternatives to the usual attendance approach. Options for obtaining elective chapel credit will include a range of studies, prayer groups, physical worship, service projects, and will increase in flexibility as students mature through 4 years. The Campus Service Organization will place uniformed student teams on campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to support all students with a range of needs for security, parking, and general assistance. It’s an exciting new step. 

FINANCE

As you have heard already, results in the area of finance for last year were not universally positive. But there were several good things to report. 

Mrs. Pam Taylor has assumed responsibility for many of the personnel functions on a half-time basis. Pulling together tasks formerly handled by both the chief financial and the chief academic officers, Pam now coordinates insurance and benefits matters, and processes all changes in employment status. Her work has already brought improved continuity and system to this important task. And as her familiarity with the issues increases, she will be able to investigate possible improvements in benefits. 

The conversion from our very old computer system to the new Quodata software has moved along well in recent weeks. Admissions is already fully online and budget information for the current year is being entered even this week. Barring delays from recent changes in personnel, we are still hopeful those systems will be in place in October.

We successfully refinanced our bonds last December. We have wanted to do this for several years and our credit worthiness was now judged acceptable. That lowered our interest rate on $3.9 million of debt from 7% to just less than 5%. That in turn saves us $70,000 per year in debt service. This savings is part of the basis on which we are able to proceed with a second bond this month to finance the residence hall and campus improvements I have already discussed and which we need so badly for recruitment, retention, and campus morale. While this second issue will increase our debt, it will not substantially increase our annual debt service.

In June of 1996 we had $1 million of invested working endowment. Since then we have given over to the endowment fund gifts that we have received for endowment. The fund itself has earned a good return these past years. Our current invested endowment has risen to $3.3 million representing an increase of nearly $1 million in just the past year. 

Four years ago, we had nothing set aside to fund our obligations to people who have Greenville College annuities. We changed our practices and as of June 30, we have $1.5 million set aside and earning to satisfy our $1 million liability to annuitants.

The audit for last fiscal year is now complete, 6 weeks earlier than usual. It reveals that overall we had an operating surplus of about $600,000. However because of the way these reports must be structured, this surplus includes such non-operations items as unrealized investment income and endowment gifts. When these are excluded, we showed a deficit of nearly $560,000 in our basic operations. While not much worse than the operations deficit of the year before, it is a serious problem we clearly must address as we reconsider our budget for this current year. The three main items contributing to the deficit were an over-expenditure in employee wages due to inaccurate budgeting and lack of adequate controls in hiring part-time staff, over-awarding of financial aid without compensatory increases in student enrollment and revenue, and a shortfall in our projected unrestricted giving goal. Each of these items represented nearly $200,000. It is now our task to determine what if any implications these results have on our current budget. Within the next week, we will be making these adjustments as well as others required by changes over the summer and the latest enrollment numbers. More on those numbers in a moment.

In early summer, I reported to you on a surprise debt of $600,000 to the federal government which resulted from inaccurate tracking both on our part and that of the federal government of funds we channel to students in the Federal Direct Lending program. We were concerned we would need to repay the amount entirely this summer. Fortunately that was not necessary and we are now attempting to arrange a schedule of repayment that is more manageable. Many businesses regularly require short term borrowing to tide them through those periods each year when the fact that income does not come smoothly creates cash shortages. Largely because of the department of education debt we expected we would need significantly more cash temporarily this summer and made arrangements to secure it. In the end, I am pleased we hardly exceeded our normal line of credit and even that for only a brief period of time. At no time did this involve any borrowing from the endowment. 

This next year will be a critical one for finances. Mr. Larry Sayler will be moving from the office of Vice-President to that of faculty member in accounting. He will serve half time in each throughout the fall. The search for his replacement is in the hands of a committee chaired by Mr. David Hoag and are the members are presently screening more than 45 applications this very week. We expect to begin interviewing within days and invite you all to pray with us for the Lord to lead just the right person into this crucial position. We will likely fill the newly created position of controller with temporary staff until the new Vice-President is appointed and can help select his or her own person for this job. Because of the change of chief financial officer and as I have already mentioned on the academic side, we expect to hire a financial consultant over the next 4 months to help us identify internal processes and programs in need of attention. Another new set of eyes is important. Together with the consultant on the academic side, we expect this person to work closely with the Cabinet to offer recommendations and "out of the box thinking" which we need to consider as we build for our future. We simply cannot continue to do business as usual. 

As I reported by email to the faculty in following up to brief remarks made during planning week, the key elements of our plan for the coming year consist in: 
-A high priority on retention as an extension of our community distinctive and a direct way to improve enrollments and revenue.
-New CFO and controller
-Conversion to Quodata system to allow better budgeting and tighter budget control
-Revamped Direct Loan tracking system
-Close analysis of program productivity through use of internal study and consultants
-Continued careful deliberation regarding refilling of positions vacated by resignation
-Discussion of possible increase in GOAL/LAMP net income.
-Increased attention to giving from sources which fell off last year.

ADMISSIONS

Enrollment this fall appears to be significantly better than we thought even 2 weeks ago. I believe this good news is an answer to our prayers. You will recall that our application pool this year ran 150-200 ahead of last year right through the complete admission cycle even to the end. Last March, using conservative yield ratios based on the past 3-4 years, we fully expected an average increase in FTE for the current academic year of approximately 30 students. This projection held through the spring until May and June when even though the applicant pool remained high, the yields dropped. The Admissions staff has not yet determined what may have caused this. Perhaps it was software conversion issues, which delayed follow-up correspondence. Perhaps it was staff turnover, larger numbers of online applications, or even slightly smaller financial aid packages. That analysis will of course continue. 

By mid-August we feared we might have no more—or even fewer—students this year than last. But today it now appears the picture is much better. We still do not expect to  see the increase of 30 for which we budgeted. And my greatest concern is that last year we LOST 23 students between August 1 and September 30. However, the current numbers show that we may have as many as 20 more FTE than last year. IF that is true, and if it holds, we would only fall short of our goal by 10 students. That is wonderful news and a dramatically smaller problem to address. What’s even better, we have been quite overwhelmed by the increased number of students wanting to live in our residence halls when compared with last year and with our budget projection. This surprising shift by over 50 students to the residences will of course generate significant unexpected revenue that may significantly offset the now much smaller remaining shortfall in students. 

As you can obviously see, it is of absolutely crucial importance that we not lose those 23 students we lost last year. We on the cabinet have been on the phones ourselves to parents and students over the past several weeks. I exhort each one of you to become a retention specialist in the next 2-3 weeks. Go the extra mile with your advisees or with the students you encounter. And contact Dr. Morgan or Mr. Randy Comfort if you identify situations needing extra attention. You can help us again at Christmas time. Because our budget always assumes a further significant drop in enrollment from the first to the second semester, we expect to make an all out effort to minimize that Christmas drop and keep our average enrollment even closer to the annual budget number. 

The Admissions staff initiated a number of new programs last year. They sent the "At a Glance" newsletter to all interested students three times a year, hosted the Free Methodist National Quiz Meet on campus and the first East Metro St. Louis Christian College Fair in Collinsville, provided recruitment support to coaches making them an integral part of the admissions team, registered virtually all freshmen prior to their arrival for New Student Orientation, and initiated the Admission Ambassadors, a student volunteer group to assist with campus tours, lunch meetings, and overnight hosting of prospective students. For the coming year—believe it or not—they are already hard at work launching an extensive advertising campaign and letter writing program touting the wireless network and laptop program. Publicity will appear in magazines, newspapers, radio spots, mall kiosks, and even online throughout the region and national-wide.

ADVANCEMENT

In the last fiscal year we raised $1.516 million in unrestricted gifts. While that falls short of the $1.7 million we budgeted, it was more unrestricted support than in any other year but one, 1996-97. And that year, all unrestricted estate gifts counted and we received $450,000 in that category. Total gift support came to over $2.6 million, the third highest for all time at Greenville. In conjunction with the Free Methodist Foundation more than $8 million of planned or deferred gifts were written last year, showing that the future looks very bright. 

Foundation giving totaled over $750,000 and major grant proposals like the one sent today, are always underway. This summer the College and Stepstone Productions received a prestigious Telley Award for the video "The Fire." The video was developed to show God’s work during a time of tragedy on the campus following the Kinney residence hall fire. It has become one of the most sought after awards in TV industry.

At their May meeting the Board of Trustees dramatically reorganized the hitherto non-functioning Greenville Foundation. Set up as a separate corporation for the sole purpose of benefiting Greenville College, the new foundation will serve as caretaker for our endowment and a tool to involve a whole new group of Directors as friends of the college. 

The new Foundation lays a new "foundation" (sic!) upon which to build a feasibility study for a capital campaign. This study should begin by next summer. 

Alongside these fund raising plans, there are ongoing discussions with outside developers regarding the feasibility of outsourcing construction of both a new bookstore and a large apartment-style residence hall. Based on the principle that it is often more economical to let someone else take the capital risk, these two projects could allow Greenville College to become more attractive to prospective and current students with little or no outlay on our part. Both of these are at the present only in discussion phases.

As the new fiscal year begins the entire Advancement staff is committed to contacting Greenville’s top 100 donors face to face by December, and the top 350 donors by next June. When you realize that a gift of only $10,000 puts a donor among the college’s top 25, you can see the enormous personal attention the Advancement office seeks to provide to a high percentage of the college’s gracious contributors. 

Finally, let me tell you that in the past 2 weeks there has been deliberate and systematic prayer for a major gift to the college. It is my privilege to tell you that in the last 10 hours we have received an anonymous donation of approximately $500,000. The Lord is faithful.

PRESIDENT

So this academic year will be one of change. A major tool for building systematically on the strong foundations I have cited and moving toward a fresh future will be the launch of the New Millennium Commission. Composed of a core planning group, together with 5 panels representing each major constituency in our community, the Commission has a timeline in place. It  will move aggressively to re-examine our mission, conduct an analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, lay out 4-5 major goals, identify a few key strategies to accomplish those goals, and then choose indicators which we believe will help us easily monitor our progress. The idea is to combine the advantages of a small and efficient planning group composed of those who are ultimately responsible for implementation with a larger cross-section from whom we can solicit crucial input and build community wide ownership. Minutes of this effort will be widely available and I ask your prayers for the entire effort. Our goal is that the work of the Commission will be complete in 8 months and will be succinct enough to enable all of us to "get our arms around it." By focusing our collective attention on a few simple goals and strategies we believe it will allow us to reinforce one another’s efforts as we build together. I will chair this effort with Dr. Sharon Alger coordinating our work.

SUMMARY

So what is the state of our college? At the end of a century, the end of a millenium, it is appropriate, I believe, that we are at what I have called a "moment between." We have anxiety about whether past concerns will persist and hope that the future will be different. We must begin our building carefully, not rushing when foundations are so important. We must gather and consolidate the construction team, lay our plans, identify and install improvements to the systems that will insure we remain accountable to one another, then patiently and persistently undertake to do the work. The Millenium is coming and my own desire is to help to raise the Greenville College standard of excellence beyond what it is now. I hope you will join me in that. Without each of us striving to be excellent, striving to do more than just what it takes to get by, our construction will not endure and the student lives will not be all they can be. 

Early this morning as the sun rose, I found myself reading an odd combination of things. My usual morning "diet" comes from My Utmost Devotional Bible which Bible, which combines selections from Oswald Chambers with both Old Testament and New Testament selections so as to read the Bible in a year. The passage from Chambers reflected on how humans lost their communion with God at the fall, breaking our source of sustenance though continuing to live forever. The Old Testament passage highlighted the many ways in which Nehemiah had chastised God’s people for being defective in their faithfulness (Neh 12:1-13:31), and the New Testament passage from Romans 1 underscored the ways in which God’s people profess to be wise but were again so defective that God gives us up to our passions and failures. 

For some strange reason—strange because I never read secular material in my personal devotions—I also found myself reading an article in the alumni magazine from my alma mater. The piece was an interviewed of Stanley Williams head of the Hewlett Packard Research Division. He was discussing the next generation of computers, to be built in chemical beakers through a process that assumes the components will be defective. He believes that the old way of making incredibly complex and perfect devices which are progressively more and more expensive to construct, must give way to building simple and extraordinarily inexpensive devices that are prone to manufacturing error. He says, "We think that in the future, things…are going to have to have as part of their organizing principles these defect-tolerant designs because it’s going to be impossible to make such small things perfectly."

At first I struggled with the contrast between this new "defect tolerant" approach and what I had just read in Scripture suggesting that in God’s kingdom we must be "defect intolerant." Does excellence at Greenville require us to be defect intolerant; that is to say, "perfect?" Does this creative new approach to computer design merely reflect a humanistic lowering of standards? A compromise to be avoided? Or is the Scriptural standard merely a legalistic demoralizing one that simply cannot be achieved? 

As I read on I realized that the secret to Williams’ computer project was the notion that one can deal with the imperfections of defective silicon components by running them under brilliantly designed software which understands these defects and works around it. It suddenly struck this forgetful wesleyan that this is exactly what it means for our heavenly father to work with us. His brilliant design for us takes our limitations into account, works with the imperfect defective hardware we offer, and nevertheless works for good through us to accomplish the most excellent results of his kingdom. By His grace our Father in heaven is defect tolerant yet can accomplish excellence if we are available to him. Chambers was right, that it is our sustaining connection to God, not the nature of our fleshly hardware that makes all the difference.

Let me close with one illustration of the excellence I mean. It is evidence that some of you already quietly and anonymously do go beyond what is necessary, that some of you already hold to the high standard of excellence I urge us to hold, evidence that there really IS a Greenville touch. I received the following letter literally within the past 24 hours from a very satisfied parent. As you will see, the staff members mentioned are unknown to the parent and hence to me, but like today’s anonymous donor, they have clearly extended the Greenville touch. These staff, like our donor, are my heroes this week.

Dear President Mannoia:

I write to express my thanks and appreciation for the manner in which an incident was handled on August 28, 1999. I had arranged to meet my daughter at the conclusion of her freshman testing so that I could help her purchase her books and pay her bill. Unfortunately, as I traveled several hours to Greenville, I was involved in a traffic accident. Thankfully, only the car was "injured", but I knew that I would be unable to keep my appointment. As soon as I was able to get home, I called the college to ask if someone could meet my daughter for me, explain why I was unable to meet her, and reassure her that I was fine. In my haste to make sure that she was notified, I neglected to write down the name of the person that answered the phone, but this person assured me that they would get the information to my daughter. This was handled without a hitch. What I didn't expect but I am most grateful for was that you folks would also arrange a credit at the bookstore so that she could go ahead and get her books without my assistance. This extra service was most appreciated. As parents, we were pleased when our daughter selected Greenville. We were even more certain of her decision after attending a preview day this spring. The choice was again certified as we went through orientation this past weekend and it was cemented in the handling of this "emergency" situation. You should be pleased to know that the care and concern that we felt on our visits was manifested "under pressure". We remain convinced that Greenville is the absolute right and perfect place for our daughter to continue her education. Thanks again, and please express our appreciation to all the staff involved!

Sincerely, Mr. and Mrs. X

So this year, even as we build for retention, build enhanced internal finance, build projects that build morale, build with fresh eyes, let us above all THINK EXCELLENCE for the glory of our Lord. Remember the words of Jeremiah, 

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

My friends, the prophet is right. There is indeed cause for great hope at Greenville College this fall. The Lord has brought us many blessings, His mercies are new each day, and His faithfulness was not just to our founding fathers but to all generations. When we are inclined to rely upon ourselves, let us never forget that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus himself. Let that be our vision as we build together this year.

Let us pray:

"Show us your way for us Lord. By your grace allow us to peer through the confusion of dirt and chaos and glimpse the institution which can shape our students more effectively than ever before in our history toward lives of character and service. Help us to build carefully and excellently. Wisdom alone will not automatically make our plans easy to adopt or implement. Inevitably, wise planning will require us to act before it is completely apparent even that we need to do so. For most of us that will be hard to do, and it will be frightening for some. The comfort and security of the present that we worked so hard to create will try to seduce us. Nostalgia from our past will tempt us to stay here. Help us to instill in one another a longing for our future the way you see it. Help us to let go of the present we worked so hard for, the present we asked you for, so that we may embrace a new and better future. Prepare us to accept some chaos in the short run in order to make things better in the long run, to take resources that could feed our present strengths and current welfare and risk them on an uncertain future. Help us to move fast enough to reach our future in time for it to matter. But let us move wisely enough that we can all stay together. Our inheritance lies yet ahead. God help us claim it. Show us your way. Make our plans wise." (Taken largely from Kriegbaum’s Prayers for Leaders)

Dr. V. James Mannoia, Jr.