President Filby Discusses GC's Strategic Plan with Students

Published: April 13, 2021

Earlier this semester,President Ivan Filby invites GC students into his home to talk about the Strategic Plan for Greenville College and the institution's transition to Greenville University.

The following is a transcript of their conversation (also captured in the video above.)

Strategic Vision Video Transcript President Filby Discusses GC's Strategic Plan with Students

President Filby: Thanks everyone for spending some time just coming over to talk about the strategic plan. And, I dont know if youve seen the document but for the last year, weve really been thinking about how to extend our heritage and expand our reach. We have 125 years, almost, of history of Greenville College and we want to see that stretching into the future.And particularly we want to focus on three areas:

The first we can talk about is spiritual vibrancy. Greenville College is a place where we absolutely put centrality on our faith in Christ. We want that to be the central touchstone of who we are and for the students that graduate from here we want them to have the opportunity to become followers and deep disciples of Christ.

I think secondly, and part of my passion, is that we become a more diverse and more international campus and so thats both in our student body and where we have programs.

And the third area is program innovation. We both need to, have to and want to be a very innovative institution. Youll start to see new programs being developed as we think about what education looks like in the future and we deliver programs that really get us there. I think we have an exciting future and Im glad that you are students around at the launch of this process.

Question and Answer Session with Greenville College Students President Filby Discusses GC's Strategic Plan with Students

Rachel Stroud 15, Business Management Major: So when will these changes start to take effect on campus?President Filby: In fact some of them have already begun. Weve already started to look at general education, weve started to develop new majors. But of course the big change that everyones talking about moving to Greenville University, will be celebrated on September the 20th, 2017; which is the 125th anniversary of our very first convocation.Albert Lee 16, Business Management Major: Is this going to change my major?President Filby: You know thats a great question. A lot of students have asked that. Maybe yes and maybe no. So first of all, you can complete the major you are already on. So we guarantee that. But were also trying to make sure all of our majors are absolutely relevant for the future. So there will be some changes in the major and you get to choose which of those options you want to take.Sarah Adams 15, Business Management & Marketing Double Major: So what does the name change have to do with the Strategic Plan?President Filby: Actually the name change is just so central to the whole strategic plan. I think I mentioned earlier that our focus is on how to extend our heritage and expand our reach and were just convinced that the best way to do that is to transition to Greenville University- which recognizes really that were already doing university level work. I think it resonates more with international students as well as our own students. It helps our students in the labor market and in getting graduate school admissions as well. So it is just central to everything that we want to do in the future.Jasmine Bavaro 17, Commercial Music Major: President Filby, arent we already reaching out internationally? How will that change with the new name and the Strategic Plan?President Filby: What a great question. One of the reasons we are using thename university and why we think it links to international strategy is for two reasons. One, in the Far East and in many countries in the world, college doesnot have the same meaning as it doesin the United States. So in many countries such as China, often in India, in Japan, in Korea, college is seen as an inferior institution to a university. So we want to clarify that we are a university-worthy institution. Then also domestically, I think the fastest growing demographic in the United States is the Latino population. And so if you translate college into spanish it is colegio which means 'high school. Its like Greenville High School. So it doesnt translate who we are. And we want to use the name university to actually translate who we are and what we do and the quality education we deliver.Ariel Wright 15, Biology Major: For the people graduating in the next few years, how should they refer to Greenville? As college or university?President Filby: Great question! So after July the 1st, 2017, you can say that you graduated from Greenville University. So if youre on LinkedIn or Facebook you just say Greenville University. Before Julythe 1st [2017], though, you still need to put Greenville College.Nathan Hood 15, Business Management & Religion Double Major: As we think about alumni who have already graduatedfrom here, what are we doing to keep them connected as we transfer from Greenville College to Greenville University?President Filby: Well we keep connected with our alumni through all sorts of media already. We have amagazine that we issue throughout the year called The Recordwhich we keep alumni up to date with happenings and obviously weve talked about the name change in that publication. We use our Alumni Board, which is a group of volunteer alumni who meet, in facttheyre meeting later on today, where we help them to roll out the message. And then Kathie and I travel throughout the country meeting alumni groups where we talk about the message, we get their input we get their feedback. And I have to say its been really positive. Alumni get why were doing it and are really for the name change. And I think the final thing we want to offer is the ability for alumni, should they so wish, to get new transcripts issued under the name of Greenville University. And also to get the new spirit wear under Greenville University if they want the t-shirts andhoodies and so forth. President Filby Discusses GC's Strategic Plan with Students

For more information about President Filby's Strategic Plan and the transition from Greenville College to Greenville University, visit www.greenville.edu/plan.

Video by Sean McFarland '15 and Logan Nelson '17

President Filby Discusses GC's Strategic Plan with Students

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