June 13, 2007 Greetings, We are enjoying bright sunny days on the Hill under a brilliant blue sky fringed with summer flowers in the campus' six new or restored gardens. Although it's a little quieter on campus with most of our students gone, it's been a pleasure to meet our incoming freshmen at orientation and to see so many young people enjoying our basketball and volleyball camps. More than 120 boys are here for basketball camp this week. Among other things, they get to enjoy the new air conditioning in Wood Hall. That's just one of the long list of June and July projects that are well under way this summer. Construction has begun on the new track; we've put a floor over the old pool in Herrick to turn it into academic space, and we'll be enhancing our curb appeal with new sidewalks, stadium steps, signs, and landscaping. If you want to check out the full list of summer activities, just click on the yellow hardhat icon on our home page at www.culver.edu.

Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees met on campus in mid-May and endorsed a process for us to create a comprehensive Master Plan for the campus and its facilities. We are already contacting national firms that specialize in this work, which will be the first comprehensive Master Plan in many decades. This will help us with major priorities and, ultimately, become the case statement for a fund-raising campaign. In addition, the board adopted our proposed balanced budget for FY08 that begins July 1, which allows for new growth in academic and student life program expenses for the first time in several years.

The board also heard a report on campus safety from a group that not only included our own staff but the first responders from our area, all three of them alumni: Canton Police Chief Corey Bringer '00, Lewis County Sheriff David Parrish '93, and Canton Fire Chief and Lewis County Emergency Management Director Jeff McReynolds '81. They have always worked closely with me and our Office of Campus Safety to respond to any situation on campus and are now part of an effort to examine not only our ability to prepare and respond to emergencies but also our efforts to forestall any crisis. After the unforgettable horror this spring at Virginia Tech, every campus has a heightened concern about safety; and it is good to know that we have excellent plans and relationships on which we can depend.

Commencement

We completed a tremendous academic year at the college with baccalaureate on May 11 and commencement on May 12. Three fathers of graduates contributed their talents to a warm and loving baccalaureate. Beautiful weather blessed our commencement morning, and the Field House was filled with families and friends to celebrate the accomplishments of our 183 graduates. Our speaker, Timothy M. James '74, associate general minister and administrative secretary of the National Convocation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), gave a rousing address. We honored Robert Paige with the Helsabeck Prize for Teaching Excellence; and we made Bob Galloway, who is retiring from the faculty, an honorary member of the Class of 2007. It was a wonderful event, and I know we sent a terrific class of graduates into the world with broad smiles and fresh confidence. It was especially heart-warming to speak to the parents about the work we have been able to do together to prepare their sons and daughters for the future. It is also noteworthy that our Class of 2007 included the first four graduates of our online Connected Campus program.

Finances and Education

We are coming down to the June 30 wire, the end of our fiscal and fund year, just like the beautiful filly who won the Belmont, the final leg of the Triple Crown, on Saturday. We have balanced our previous two annual budgets and have worked with an increasing number of opportunities to do so again this year. We were emboldened by our performance and growing confidence to increase salaries and wages and to offer a stronger benefits package to our employees. We have also invested more aggressively in campus improvements, such as the Alexander Campbell Auditorium. All this required us to take some risk in the belief that our alumni and friends would help when asked. Many have already made gifts to the Education Fund; some are making a second gift. If you haven't had a chance to join up with Lynn and me and 96 percent of the faculty and staff, to be counted, we need to hear from you. It's simple and immensely helpful to a place you care about. For your convenience, you can make a gift online and then be able to return to this newsletter by clicking here.

Faculty and Staff

Faculty and staff rosters will see several exciting changes by fall. In addition to filling vacancies, we have hired a head coach for the new cross country and track and field programs, as well as a dance coach who will augment both our fine arts program and our athletics programs. In response to the input from a number of student focus groups, we have appointed an associate dean for student success and freshman programming, who will introduce even stronger programming to meet the student needs of this generation. We will have a full-time chaplain on staff, and will be seeing a few new faces in the offices of admissions, student life, and communications. We will have a new choir director, as well as new faculty members in business and psychology. I know they will quickly become part of the Culver-Stockton community and continue our tradition and mission of providing students of promise a superb education.

The Year Ahead

We are still building our class for the fall and look forward to greeting these talented members of the Class of 2011. Perhaps I think this every year, but this looks like one of the best crops we have ever had! The first day of classes is August 27, with Wildcat Welcome scheduled just before. The schedules for athletics, the art gallery, the theatrical productions, and Homecoming are already available through the online Campus Calendar, so I encourage you to begin your planning to join us on campus in the fall.

Final Thought

I just saw an item of interest that I'd like to bring to your attention. Al Beck, professor of art emeritus, has a letter to the editor published in the current issue of TIME magazine in response to the magazine's recent special report, the June 4 cover story on "How to Fix No Child Left Behind." To read Al's letter, click here.

Have a wonderful summer,

Bill Fox
President, Culver-Stockton College

P.S.: I look forward to being connected with each of you. Contact me at wfox@culver.edu to share your thoughts about this newsletter, or about Culver-Stockton College in general.

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