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You Make it Possible
These are great days for Point Loma Nazarene University.
The university is strong and vibrant, thanks to its faculty and staff, student body, alumni and in great part, to faithful supporters like you who have been believing in the mission of PLNU for over 100 years now. Through your support, you make it possible for Point Loma to teach, shape and then send its students into the world, prepared for service to Christ and to others.
Clear mission
You have made it possible…for Point Loma Nazarene University to bring greater clarity to its mission.
In the past year, University President Bob Brower and the administrative cabinet engaged the board of trustees, faculty, staff and students in the process of recrafting of the university’s mission statement—“Point Loma Nazarene University exists to provide higher education in a vital Christian community where minds are engaged and challenged, character is modeled and formed, and service becomes an expression of faith. Being of Wesleyan heritage, we aspire to be a learning community where grace is foundational, truth is pursued, and holiness is a way of life.”
A complicated process can be expressed in a few simple words: to teach, to shape and to send. Point Loma Nazarene University is committed to teach—to provide its students with the highest caliber liberal arts education possible; to shape—to foster the spiritual, ethical, social and character development of its students as whole persons; and to send—to empower every student to carry those qualities and character into their world.
Broad vision
You have made it possible…for PLNU to dream great dreams for its future.
From a position of strength and with a clearly defined mission as its guide, PLNU is in an optimal position to dream about the days and years ahead. The university has begun an extensive vision-casting process: what will the PLNU of the future look like? How will the institution most effectively teach, shape and send the students who will walk through its doors?
Qualitative difference
You have made it possible…for Point Loma Nazarene University to develop a distinctive of quality.
One of the attributes that sets Point Loma Nazarene University apart from other academic institutions is its qualitative difference. There is something different about what happens to students when they walk onto the campus or into a classroom at PLNU. It’s more than simply attending classes or chapel or belonging to a club. It is becoming a lifelong member of a community of scholars and believers who share a commitment to constant intellectual development and spiritual growth. It is learning from, and watching the lives of, professors who make deep impressions on young lives. It is building relationships with faculty, staff and fellow students that will continue to matter in years to come.
Christ-centered
You have made it possible…for Point Loma Nazarene University to keep Christ at the very center of the enterprise.
Throughout its 100-year history, Point Loma Nazarene University has never wavered from its bedrock commitment to Jesus Christ as its cornerstone, upon which every facet of university life is built. That commitment remains as strong today as it did in the university’s earliest days.
PLNU integrates that spiritual dimension into every aspect of the educational process, from the classroom to the gym. At Point Loma, a Christian world view is not mandated, it’s modeled: students are taught to do their own thinking and develop their own personal, authentic relationship with Christ.
The office of Spiritual Development is charged with creating and implementing programs that facilitate the up-reach of worship, in-reach of discipleship and the outreach of ministry. In chapel, the university community comes together to worship and study, to encourage one another and be equipped for service as agents of grace throughout the world.
Service-oriented
You have made it possible...for Point Loma to make service to others one of its hallmarks.
Point Loma's emphasis is not just on personal devotion and discipleship but in translating faith into action. PLNU’s dedicated students serve an average of 100,000 hours a year in the community. Students participate in more than 30 student-run ministries on campus that range from working with the homeless to tutoring disadvantaged children to ministering to children at Mexican orphanages. There's something for everyone, from Elderly Outreach and Prison Ministry to Surf ‘n Serve, a fellowship of surfers.
This winter, Point Loma students organized a 30-Hour Famine, sponsored by World Vision, and raised $14,000. That donation marked the university as one of the agency’s largest fundraisers for this sort of program in the nation.
Focused on common mission
You have made it possible...for Point Loma to recruit quality students with like values.
From a position of strength, Point Loma is able to attract students with strong academic credentials and commonality of mission. Students enter PLNU with G.P.A.’s and SAT scores well above the average of other colleges and universities and with an expressed interest in the development of their own spiritual lives, character and integrity. Their own personal mission statements are in alignment with PLNU’s own and that makes for a focused student body.
Dynamic and growing
You have made it possible...for Point Loma to grow in every facet of the institution.
This spring, the board of trustees approved a restructure of academic areas into the College of Arts and Sciences, the Colleges of Social Sciences and Professional Studies and the College of Education to better facilitate academic offerings. Within those colleges, several academic departments were renamed; among them the School of Theology and Christian Ministry, the School of Business, the School of Nursing and the School of Education. These changes become effective at the beginning of the 2004-05 academic year.
Since 1990, PLNU has completed over $50 million of new construction. Currently three additional projects are underway—a new 17,200-square-foot administration building; a 15,000-square-foot building for the department of Accountancy, Business and Economics; and a 17,000-square-foot addition to Nease Residence Hall. The construction is scheduled to continue through the fall of 2004. In 2001, PLNU Arcadia moved its operation from Pasadena into new quarters in Arcadia. Classes at PLNU Bakersfield are held in state-of-the-art instructional facilities in the city’s newly refurbished downtown area.
- The average high school G.P.A. of entering freshmen has risen from 3.14 in 1990 to 3.72 in 2004.
- Freshmen enrollment has grown by 60 percent from 322 in 1991 to this fall’s entering class of 563.
- PLNU’s freshman retention rate has risen significantly to more than 80 percent. The university is graduating more than 50 percent of those first-year students
- The number of applications for enrollment has doubled and this year exceeded 2,100 applying for approximately 700 available slots, giving PLNU one of the highest applicant-to- available-space ratios of any Christian school in the western United States.
- The number of full-time faculty has grown from 108 in 1990 to 149 in 2004.
- PLNU Arcadia’s enrollment has grown by more than 40 percent in the last five years. Enrollment for the 2003 fall semester was at 338, up 33 percent from the previous fall. Director David Haney and a full-time faculty of three work with about 20 adjunct professors.
- PLNU Bakersfield’s program started with 29 students in 1998. It has grown to a fall enrollment of 205, an increase of 39 percent over 2002. Director Don Burnard added two new faculty members in 2002, bringing the number of adjunct professors to 22.
- PLNU will graduate its first class from its master’s of science in nursing degree program in 2004. Originated two years ago, the program is San Diego’s only graduate program in nursing designed for nursing educators. The program joins Point Loma’s other recent addition to its graduate offerings, the master’s of business administration. Both are offered at PLNU Mission Valley.
Life-changing international programs
You have made it possible…for Point Loma Nazarene University to offer its students life-changing international study opportunities around the world.
Through the university’s office of International Studies, students can study a semester or more virtually anywhere in the world and add a new dimension of learning to their academic career. When the program began five years ago, the initial enrollment was 18. During the 2003-2004 academic year more than 175 students will have participated in a program overseas. The national average for students in such programs during any given year is about 3 percent. Nearly 10 percent of PLNU students regularly participate.
During the fall of 2003, 21 PLNU art majors participated in Euroterm Paris, Point Loma’s largest sponsored international program to date. The students spent a week each in London, Florence, Venice and then the remainder of the semester in Paris. Their experience incorporated art history, including seeing significant works of art in person, with their own photography and painting. As Aubrey Coon, a junior art major from San Diego, puts it, “I wasn’t really a fan of [Monet’s] until I saw a lot of his later works. The big water lilies and the gardens were so beautiful and colorful and intense. But you look at a painting of Monet’s from far away, and then you go up closer and see that it is so many layers of paint and texture and color. You can’t see that unless you’re there.”
Active community involvement
You have made it possible…for Point Loma Nazarene University to extend its reach to its neighbors.
The examples are many. The department of Nursing continues to expand the Health Promotion Center at San Diego’s Mid-City Church of the Nazarene. The center focuses on health screenings, referrals and education, and is staffed by student nurses under close faculty supervision. In March, the Nursing department held its fifth annual Mid-City Festival of Health Fair and served hundreds of people in one day.
The Biology and Chemistry departments’ “Perspectives on Sciences” program is in its sixth year. The series of monthly lectures by imminent scientists is offered to area high school science teachers, who can learn the latest discoveries while enjoying one another over a free dinner on campus.
Last fall, the Music department launched the Point Loma Strings Projects, which connects elementary school children from the community who want to learn to play a stringed instrument with PLNU music majors who want hands-on experience in teaching. For a nominal fee, 70 kids come to a “lab school” two times a week for lessons overseen by a master teacher.
This year’s annual Professionals in the Making Breakfast sponsored by the Fermanian Business Center drew its largest crowd. More than 600 PLNU students and working professionals rubbed shoulders as they listened to commentator Hugh Hewitt talk about being a success in the world, but not of it.
Competitive graduate programs
You have made it possible…for Point Loma Nazarene University to offer its unique brand of graduate education through expanded programs and additional locations.
In addition to its second-to-none undergraduate programs, Point Loma Nazarene University offers graduate programs, marked by academic quality in a context of authentic Christianity and an emphasis on personal ethics and integrity. Graduate programs are offered at PLNU Mission Valley, PLNU Arcadia and PLNU Bakersfield. Graduate programs in religion are also offered at PLNU Albuquerque.
PLNU’s master of science in nursing with an emphasis in nursing education program is for the experienced nurse who not only wants to grow professionally, but is concerned about the future of nursing. The course of study integrates professional excellence with values of caring, personal integrity, spiritual growth and service.
Point Loma’s master’s in business administration is for professionals with at least two year’s experience who want to advance in their careers and make their lives count. Coursework contains three critical elements: application of a Christian world-view in business, development of critical thinking and an emphasis on a global perspective.
Point Loma’s department of Graduate Education is committed to preparing thoughtful, culturally-sensitive educators equipped with the latest research and methods. Programs of study include credentialing, master of arts and educational specialist degrees. The academic-focused master of arts in religion degree and the master of ministry program for the active minister are taught by faculty with Ph.D.s and practical ministerial experience.
Significant accomplishments
You have made it possible…for Point Loma Nazarene University to reach new levels of excellence.
- In each of the last five years, PLNU’s speech and debate team has finished among the nation’s top five colleges and universities participating in intercollegiate parliamentary style debate, taking first place in both in 2003 and 2004.
- According to a 2000 index by the National Research Council, Point Loma ranked among the top 10 private colleges and universities in California for producing graduates with doctoral degrees.
- Since 1989, 81 percent of PLNU students who have applied to medical school have been accepted—more than double the national average.
- Of the graduating class of 2004, 18.5 percent have participated in PLNU’s international study program.
- Alumni of PLNU go on to post-graduate study at Harvard, Georgetown, Boston University, Duke, Emory, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Yale and many other prestigious institutions.
The StrongWord Portfolio | University Annual Report 2004
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