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Centrepiece Online | Fall 2008
Raising the Bar
In 1998, Centre’s enrollment was 1,001. The endowment was $130 million. And the semester-long international programs numbered exactly . . . two.
What a difference a decade makes.
In 2008, enrollment is up almost 20 percent, to about 1,200, following record-breaking enrollments for the past eight years and a first-year class this fall of 336, the largest in Centre history. The endowment—in spite of the global financial meltdown that started in earnest just as the school year began—is up $40 million—or 30 percent—to $170 million. With the addition of Shanghai in September, the College now offers nine semester-long programs overseas.
And in August, Forbes.com ranked Centre No. 13 among all the nation’s colleges and universities.
John Roush, Centre’s president over this decade of progress, calls the annual autumn rankings “the silly season.” But he also acknowledges their importance.
“The rankings and guidebooks of all kinds do affect people’s behavior,” he wrote in a recent opinion piece. “Though not scientific, Forbes’ high ranking of Centre and its laudatory article will bring the College to the attention of individuals previously unfamiliar with it. . . . If a school is highly ranked and well regarded in virtually all the lists and guide-books . . . it’s fairly likely that good things are happening in terms of the education being provided to young men and women on that campus.”
And Centre is often cited. In addition to Forbes, there’s the No. 1 ranking from Consumers Digest as the top value among private liberal arts colleges and the perennial Top 50-rank among liberal arts colleges from U.S. News & World Report.
In the Beginning
The decade began when John Roush moved into the president’s office on July 1, 1998, his 48th birthday. He found a “remarkable place,” he recalls, but one with untapped reservoirs of potential.
One of his first major suggestions was that Centre host a general election debate. The idea, in 1999, seemed absurd. No school as small as Centre—nor town as small as Danville—had ever done so. But Centre’s Vice Presidential Debate on Oct. 5, 2000, between Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Dick Cheney, turned out to be a resounding success. An Associated Press article pronounced its organization and execution “as close to flawless as was humanly possible.”
The debate opened doors to a national—and even international—arena. But there was another equally important result. “It raised the bar,” says Roush. “The real advantage over the long pull is that from that point forward everybody here believed, ‘We can!’”
The debate also marked Centre to be increasingly a place where important conversations occur, from a forum on Kentucky’s educational funding crisis to a debate between two candidates for governor. Looking for a way to use collaboration to provide leadership for some of Kentucky’s many challenges, Roush initiated a series of meetings with the presidents of Berea College and the universities of Kentucky and Louisville. The result was a series of conferences called Energizing Kentucky.
“The public and private institutions in most states are strangers who live in different universes,” says Roush. “I am really pleased that Kentucky’s four national institutions have found it so easy to work together for the long-term good of the Commonwealth.”
Appearances Count
Certainly Centre’s increasingly cohesive look is among Roush’s most visible accomplishments over the last decade. The building projects include the greatly expanded main academic (Crounse/Doherty Library) and athletic/recreational (Sutcliffe) buildings (in 2005), a new residence hall (Pearl, in 2008), a temporary dining facility (Chowan, in 2008), a new student center and work on the Norton Center for the Arts (in 2009), and a new science building (in 2010). By the time the science building is completed, Centre will have invested some $92 million in major renovations and new construction since 1998.
The $15-million, 142-bed Pearl Hall is the first residence built since Bingham Hall opened in 1988. Its geothermal heating and cooling systems, energy-efficient windows, and water-saving plumbing fixtures reflect Centre’s growing efforts to be more green, with silver LEED certification (the official mark of reduced environmental impact) pending. It has received a wildly enthusiastic response from its first residents, who affectionately call it “Hotel Pearl.”
It is also fully paid for, thanks to a gift from board chair Bob Brockman ’63, whose mother and grandmother were both named Pearl.
At the groundbreaking for the $20-million, 40,000-square-foot science building in October, Jeff SoRelle ’10, an animated chemistry major from Waco, Texas, drew big laughs when he said, “Geez, what are we doing here at another groundbreaking ceremony? Haven’t I been to, like, 10 of these already?”
The new building will wrap around two sides of Young Hall, creating a complex to house life sciences as well as synthetic (organic and inorganic) chemistry.
The $15-million, 50,000-square-foot campus center already has two stories of steel framing up on the site of the old Cowan Dining Commons. Refurbish-ment of the College’s Norton Center has also begun.
There have been a number of smaller improvements as well, including lights for the football, soccer, and baseball fields and an unusual collaboration between the new bookstore, now downtown, and a popular adjoining coffee shop.
In spite of the unsettled economic climate, the College will continue with the two buildings currently in progress. With the gradual growth of the student body, there remains a need for additional space. First-year applications set another record in 2008—nearly 2,200—and even with an acceptance rate of just 60 percent, Centre still finds itself in the happy position of having more students show up than were actually expected.
Growth of the International Programs
The international programs have transformed the College, with many students now saying they chose Centre for the opportunity to study abroad. That was not true a decade ago, when the College offered just two semester-long programs: one in London, the other in Strasbourg, France. Since then, the College has added four more: in Merida, Mexico; at the University of Reading, outside London; in Turkey; and in Shanghai. There are also exchange programs with schools in London, Northern Ireland, and Yamaguchi, Japan. The three-week CentreTerm in January (which replaced the six-week winter term in 2002) finds study-trips to a changing roster of countries; in 2009 the seven trips will include Barbados (psychology), and Cameroon (international studies).
More than 300 students—a quarter of the school—will study abroad this academic year, says Milton Reigelman, Cowan Professor of English and director of international programs. About 85 percent of Centre students participate in at least one off-campus experience by the time they graduate. Foreign study is one of the three guarantees Centre makes in the Centre Commitment, instituted in 2001 (the others are an internship and graduation in four years). And in November, USA Today cited Centre’s use of foreign cities as “laboratories,” where students “consistently engage local people and institutions on topics from politics to art.”
Student interest in study abroad bears fruit in the success they have had winning national awards that support postgraduate study in other countries over the decade. The list includes two Rhodes Scholars (see story about the 2008 winner on the inside front cover), Fulbright (27 winners, including a record six in 2008), Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Programme (18), Rotary International Ambassadorial (9), and Freeman-ASIA for study in Asia (5). No wonder building on the existing international programs to develop students with a true sense of global citizenship is an important part of Centre Forward, the strategic plan adopted by the board in January 2008 (see story on page 12).
Playing on the World’s Stage
A trip to Bangkok with the CentreTrumpets when he was a rising junior helped Chris Patton ’07, then of Mississippi, raise his sights. “I came away with a real sense of how good some of the trumpet players are around the world and just how many players there are,” he said upon his return. “To see trumpet players from Asia, Europe, Australia—it was incredible.” He now works with computers at Morgan Keegan in Memphis.
Vince DiMartino, Matton Professor of Music, took the ensemble to Thailand in 2005 for the International Trumpet Guild Conference. Although he is a celebrated trumpeter himself (winning the 2008 Governor’s Artist Award for lifetime achievement), DiMartino is intensely focused on teaching. His presentation at the conference that year was on trumpet ensembles as teaching tools; in 2004 his teaching talents had been recognized when he was named CASE Kentucky Professor of the Year.
The decade has seen a number of other professors honored with national and state teaching and research awards. Rick Bradshaw (history) received a Fulbright grant to support his sabbatical in Cameroon. Jim Morrison (classics) had his sabbatical supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Lisa Williams (English) spent a year in Rome after receiving the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. And Stephen Powell ’74 (art), an internationally known artist in blown glass, also was named CASE Kentucky Professor of the Year (1999, 2000). Faculty awards also include Kentucky Academy of Science naming three during the decade as outstanding teachers: Christine Barton (biology), Brent White (psychology), and Rob Ziemba (biology).
Although Centre is first of all a teaching institution, it has added considerable support for faculty research over the decade, especially for collaborative research with students. The College has 16 new endowed professorships since 1998 and has instituted a Centre Scholars Program to recognize outstanding junior faculty. A student symposium last April featured the research, internships, and creative endeavors of 116 students; a second is planned for the spring. The symposiums represent another goal of the College’s strategic plan: to increase students’ opportunities for engaged and experiential learning. Studies such as the National Survey of Student Engagement have shown that engaged students get more from their education and stick around long enough to complete it. Centre’s first-year retention rate (the percent of students who return the next year) is up to almost 93 percent. And the Class of 2008 had a remarkable four-year graduation rate of 83.5 percent, up from 65 percent a decade ago.
Why Are They Always Asking for Money?
Money is one of a college president’s greatest challenges: finding it, attracting it, and spending it responsibly. It’s particularly important for Centre to remain affordable: the College’s record as a place of high achievement and high opportunity is nearly unique, with more than 60 percent of students receiving need-based aid. In addition, merit scholarships are increasingly needed to compete for the best students. As a result, more than 80 percent of students receive some form of aid, either need-based or merit—or, frequently, both.
Michael F. Hamm, who was faculty president when Roush was named, credits the commitment to merit aid with helping to fuel Centre’s success over the last decade. “He increased enrollment without reducing the quality of the students, which has a lot to do with the amount of merit aid we can offer,” says Hamm, Boles Professor of History. “We’re a better institution with 1,200 students and 100 faculty. We’re a better institution, and we haven’t sacrificed quality. That’s significant.”
But it’s not cheap.
Fortunately, the College has generous donors. The development office, “with Richard Trollinger providing inspired leadership,” says Roush, closed the books in July on the most successful fundraising year in Centre history, receiving a record number of dollars—$17,468,098—from a record number of donors—8,391. The College completed the Campaign for A More Perfect Centre, a five-year, $120-million capital campaign that raised $50 million more than its goal, in December 2007. Major campaign gifts included $20.4 million from the estate of Adele and Wes Stodghill ’36, the largest individual gift of non-property assets ever made to a Kentucky college or university. Almost as substantial was the gift of approximately $16.4 million from the estate of Alfred and Mary Swain Wood, neither of whom attended Centre (although her siblings, Enos Swain ’31, Jack Swain ’34, and Dorothy Swain Patterson ’39 all did).
Across the Board
Although their work often goes unnoticed by alumni, the trustees have played a critical role in Centre’s overall success. Most attended Centre, but the nearly 25 percent who did not are just as committed to ensuring the College’s progress. The trustees are exceptionally collegial and remarkably willing to support the College with both time and money. For 22 years, J. David Grissom ’60 served as board chair, until turning over the gavel in January 2008 to new chair Bob Brockman ’63 and new vice chair Randy Kell ’69.
“Our trustees do not grow weary over time and move on to other things,” says Roush. “Our board is as strong as it’s ever been. And the impact that those individuals will have over time in the life of this institution gives Centre the chance to be great.”
Challenges Affect the Decade
One week after classes began last September, the landscape outside the Centre bubble changed beyond recognition when the U.S. government seized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, kicking off a worldwide financial free-fall. By the time the board of trustees gathered for its October meeting before Homecoming, the question on everyone’s lips was, “What do these uncharted economic waters mean for Centre?”
“The College is well-positioned to approach this interesting time,” President John Roush assured the board. “I believe that our place—Centre College—can and will weather this storm. This may not be true of all places, to include any number of private colleges in the Commonwealth, but it is true for us!”
Centre was not immune to the serious economic downturn after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. “In our 10-year period, we had a national event that could have put us, as it did many other institutions, either into a flat line or even a little bit of a tailspin,” says Roush. “Our campus community—our trustees, our faculty, our staff, even our students—responded in a way that made all of us proud and allowed us to not give up or move toward average. We decided we were going to hang in here together and make something good of it. The events of 9/11 and the ensuing 18 to 24 months could have put an institution of less resolve in jeopardy. We didn’t experience that.”
There have been plenty of other challenges over the last decade of a more internal nature. A significant one has been maintaining Centre’s “soul,” says Roush, in the face of major changes in both faculty and board leadership.
“When I arrived in 1998, the die was already cast—there was going to be a sea change among our board and there would be a similar change among our faculty,” says Roush. “When those things happen, a college can lose its way. That has not happened at Centre.”
Challenges awaiting the College, aside from the current economic downswing, include the major shift in the country’s demographics and related efforts to make Centre a more “cosmopolitan” place, says Roush, as well as an increasing concern for Centre’s impact on the environment.
A Leader for These Times
His wife, Susie, believes it is his “talent as a good quarterback” that makes Roush a successful leader. (Although he was an Academic All-American at Ohio University, his position on the field was actually running back.)
“He brings a great sense of quarterback to the Centre team in that he knows that with just one person not playing his or her position, the team will not achieve its potential,” she says. “And so he tries to make sure that every team member, whether it’s a custodian or one of our vice presidents, knows how valuable he or she is to the team and that the team is really only as strong as its weakest link. He is able to convey his optimism and his passion for this place to other people.”
Roush’s athletic energy and desire to make Centre even better—faster—have also brought a certain momentum to the College. “Centre now has a sense of urgency that would have been impossible to imagine 10 years ago,” he says. “Among our faculty there’s a sense of ‘Let’s not hope that it happens; let’s do something about it.’ And among our trustees, there’s a sense of ‘Let’s go ahead and finish off some big pieces of the physical plant that were missing: we did Crounse, we did Sutcliffe, what else might we do to advance the College?’”
Centre Forward
Direction for the challenges and opportunities ahead is already identified by Centre Forward, the strategic plan adopted by the board in January 2008. It’s ambitious, with 93 initiatives in nine categories. Most strategic plans cover a relatively limited period of time. But Roush, who has a reputation as a futurist, thought bigger. “Why take your faculty’s time, your staff’s time, to generate a three- to five-year plan?” he asks. “That is completely ordinary. One needs to think longer—10 years, 20 years, what could Centre be in 2033—and work backward from that date.”
Although it remains to be seen how the global markets will resolve themselves, there is no question about Centre’s future.
“People inside and outside academe increasingly recognize that this is a remarkable place,” says Roush. “People want to know about it; people come to see us about it. They know what we do, and they believe what we do is excellent. And that is significantly more true in 2008 than it was in 1998.”
And thanks to a remarkable decade of progress, the College is poised to become “a truly great undergraduate residential college,” says Roush.
“We’re not there yet,” he adds. “But we now have that capacity. Ten years ago it would have been a flight of fancy for me, or anyone, to make that claim, an outcome that is now possible.”
—D.F.J.
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