RELEASED: Jan. 31, 2004

DANVILLE, KY—Centre College is in the midst of another strong recruiting year for new students according to a report delivered to the Board of Trustees at its annual winter meeting held Friday and Saturday (Jan. 30-31) in Louisville. The trustees also learned of additional funding for endowed scholarships and Centre’s strong showing in recent college surveys.

The College is currently ahead of the record number of student applications received last year. Centre is up 18 percent in applications received as of the same time last year and the quality of this year’s student applicants is stronger.

The College received $850,000 grant from the James Graham Brown Foundation in December for the endowment of the James Graham Brown Scholarship Fund. The Brown Fundation is Centre’s largest endowed scholarship program. During the current academic year, 154 Centre students have received Brown Scholarships. The scholarships range from $1,200 to $9,000, with nearly 75 percent of the scholarships awarded in the $4,500 to $6,000 range. The Brown Foundation also awarded Centre $43,788 to support a Brown Scholars Recognition program for two additional years. This grant will fund a special leadership program for Brown Scholars.

This fall two national surveys were published that touted the educational experience at Centre. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine rated Centre among the top-50 values in private colleges in the United States. In the magazine’s January 2004 issue, Centre ranked 46th out of 100 schools. The College is the only Kentucky institution listed and shares a spot in the top 50 with institutions such as Yale, Harvard and Princeton. In addition, Centre is one of the most successful colleges in the country in providing an enriching educational experience to its students according to the 2003 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Since NSSE began in 2000, Centre has improved its standing in the survey each year even as more schools participate. Six-hundred and forty-nine colleges and universities took part in the recently released 2003 survey, up from 276 in 2000. Centre ranked above the 90th percentile in all of the five benchmark categories of effective educational practice for seniors in the 2003 report, and in four of the five for first-year students.

E.C. “Eddy” Roberts, Jr., State President-Kentucky, BellSouth, attended his first meeting as a member of the board.

J. David Grissom of Louisville serves as chairman of the board. John Roush is president of the College.

While the Centre board holds its annual fall and spring meetings on the Centre campus in Danville, it’s a College tradition to hold the winter meetings in Louisville. The spring meeting will be held April 15-16.

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