 |
|
Back to portfolio | Next story
On the Horizon
Like the horizon that borders its main campus, Point Loma Nazarene University is at once, changing and unchanging. Changing, because every day a colorful and complex new scene unfolds, a response to that day’s natural forces. Unchanging, because if you watch long enough, the simplicity of the horizon line reappears to provide a steadying point of reference. PLNU responds to the winds of change but is always guided by the deep values upon which it was founded and which sustain it.
What will Point Loma Nazarene University look like in the years ahead? Here’s a look at what’s ...On the Horizon
If you visited Point Loma’s main campus,even as recently as 1990... ...how different the silhouette of the campus looked then. There was no Nicholson Commons, no Bond Academic Center. Colt Hall hadn’t been built yet, and the renovations of Culbertson and Taylor Halls hadn’t happened. But university leaders were dreaming about the future.
Then-President Jim Bond’s “Goals 2000” listed six, and most have come to pass. In addition to completing phase II of the Campus Master Plan, the university has established the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies. The institution has taken on university status and the enrollment cap for Point Loma was reached.
But who would have predicted, for instance, a student body of over 3,200, with SAT scores in the 1155 range? Or a College of Arts and Sciences, a College of Professional Studies and a College of Education? Now there’s a new School of Business; more than six graduate degree programs; and 10 university centers and institutes, including the new Center for Pastoral Leadership, initiated by President Bob Brower. A new administration building has been built and named after the late Bill Draper, university president from 1978 to 1983. And, all along, this expanded capacity to meet the needs of students and reach the community has carried the core values of our Wesleyan and holiness heritage. That hasn’t changed.
None of this would have happened without the dedication and sacrifice of friends like you; supporters invested in PLNU’s future, for the sake of PLNU students; supporters who realize that the future is built upon the present.
We can dream about tomorrow more confidently because our supporters have in the past stood by us and made miracles happen.
So what’s on the horizon?
What will PLNU look like in 2015? The present is a building block to the future...so we’re happy to report......that much has been accomplished at Point Loma Nazarene University during the last fiscal year. Foremost is the university’s new Vision Statement.
This spring, after two years of thought and discussion, the President’s Cabinet and the Board of Trustees approved a Vision Statement that, together with the Mission Statement established the year before, comprises Point Loma’s identity and uniqueness.
Much of it will sound familiar, unchanging. We will always be centered on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We will always promote excellence in teaching, research and service. We will always promote a community of respect and encouragement.
But some of it is bold and ambitious. Because education is changing, we must change with it—in fact, we must be at the forefront of that change. That requires a huge investment of money, time and effort.
President Brower asserts that Point Loma Nazarene University intends to be distinctive, to make a difference and to pursue a grand task.
“Attaining prominence and having a voice requires some visible accomplishments and sustaining realities,” he said.
Here’s a glimpse at what President Brower, the Board of Trustees and the university see coming into focus by 2015:
- An enrollment of 6,000 students
- Six professional schools
- Ten graduate sites
- Ten master’s degree programs
- Two doctoral programs
- A redesigned summer school
- Ethnic diversity of 25 percent in undergraduate enrollment and 35 percent at the graduate level
- Foundation assets of $100 million
- Planned gifts of $150 million with a 25-year horizon
- University Fund support of $2 million annually
That’s not all, of course. And at the center of that picture, as always, are the lives of students. PLNU exists to Teach, Shape and Send. Everything Point Loma Nazarene University does revolves around our students. That’s unchanging. The intentionality with which PLNU stands firm on unchanging truths will never change—no matter what’s on the horizon.
Back to that changing silhouette
With the focus on serving........present and future students better, PLNU has been successfully moving toward expanding its capacity. You may know that three construction projects were begun in the summer of 2003, forever altering the campus landscape. A year later, the 17,000 square-foot expansion of Nease Residence Hall welcomed 100 students to its beautiful quarters. The entrance to the university was upgraded, with a new amphitheatre-shaped outlook offering visitors a chance to stop and gaze at the Pacific. A new administration building was completed. (You will hear more about that this year!)
And then there’s the new Fermanian School of Business—the new home of what was the department of Accountancy, Business and Economics. PLNU’s School of Business will prepare its students for the future by emphasizing the latest business practices, technology and next-generation theory, while embracing timeless principles like honesty and integrity.
Having a brand new facility, to be dedicated in the spring of 2005, is exciting. The 17,200 square-foot Fermanian School of Business facility has state-of-the-art classrooms with flexibility for interactive learning and team-oriented teaching; wired and wireless conference areas; casual meeting spaces to encourage relationship building between students, faculty and business leaders; and a stunning ocean-view lanai.
But Dean Bruce Schooling says the School of Business is dedicated to “more than the bottom line. We want to provide business education that changes the world.”
Changing the world with changeless values.
Highlights of the 2003-2004 Academic Year
- The Howard Hughes Medical Institute awarded PLNU $800,000 for science education, research and outreach.
- The Center for Pastoral Leadership was established, with Norm Shoemaker as director.
- The 17,000 square-foot, 100-bed expansion of Nease Residence Hall was completed in summer 2004.
- Twelve Sea Lion teams qualified for postseason play, and nine teams earned a National Championship bid.
- Sixteen full-time faculty members were hired.
- The PLNU Resource Stewardship Task Force held its first annual Creation Care Week in April.
- The city of San Diego honored PLNU with its 2004 Recycler of the Year award in May.
- The Greek Amphitheatre, built in 1902, was honored in June by San Diego’s Save Our Heritage Organisation.
- PLNU held its ninth annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea in February, featuring Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly.
- Hundreds attended the fifth annual Health Fair in March organized by the School of Nursing and the Health Promotion Center.
- The first annual Grandparents Weekend was held in May.
- The first annual Community Day was held in July.
- The third annual Parents Weekend in October brought more than 250 parents and families to campus.
- PLNU hosted for the 10th time the San Diego County Special Olympics Track and Field Championship, drawing 300 participants and volunteers.
- The Point Loma String Project prepared for its second year of connecting elementary school children with PLNU music majors.
- Point Loma was featured in the Washington Times in a three-part series on Christian colleges and universities.
- PLNU joined with Habitat for Humanity for a work day commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Wesley.
- A new satellite dish was installed to allow Point Loma broadcast journalism students access to the full resources of CNN.
- Students raised $14,000 in February during a 30-hour famine in partnership with World Vision.
- Two PLNU journalism students were accepted as interns with the Copley News Service in Washington D.C., in June, and got bylines on page one of the San Diego Union-Tribune for a story about the funeral of President Ronald Reagan.
- Graduates were accepted into programs at the University of California Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology, and Harvard to name a few. A political science major was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in Syria.
The StrongWord Portfolio | University Annual Report 2005
CONTACT: |
|
