We are well on our way

I have been traveling over the past few weeks – to Austin, Los Angeles and, most recently, to Philadelphia.

One week, I was away from campus to attend the annual meeting of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Austin. I serve on the AASCU board and was just appointed to the executive committee. I ended that trip in Los A
ngeles, where I spent a long weekend with my mom, who turns 94 this week.

This weekend I attended the annual fall meeting of the Pennsylvania Council of Trustees (PACT) at the State System Center City campus in Philadelphia. Bloomsburg will begin offering degree programs in this centrally located facility with state-of-the-art classrooms in summer 2016.

Back on campus and in Philadelphia, we marked a major accomplishment for Bloomsburg University, the launch of the public phase of It’s Personal: The Campaign for Bloomsburg University.

Events were held on the Quad, in a beautifully transformed Nelson Field House, and at the Benjamin Franklin Institute to celebrate our great university and the milestone of raising more than $37 million of our $50 million goal. Over 400 donors and friends of Bloomsburg University enjoyed outstanding and meaningful performances by our Concert Choir and a group of current students and alumni from our theater program.

We are well on our way to meeting our $50 million goal to support our students through academic and athletic scholarships, to recruit and retain our great teacher-scholar faculty, to provide experiential and career-focused learning experience through Professional U, and to take advantage of emerging opportunities to enhance our university, such as the Greenly Center.

This week I look forward to meeting with the CGA Senate and having dinner with the CGA Executive Committee at Buckalew.

#CollaborativeLearning #SenseOfCommunity #CoCurricularLearning

Matching majors with scholarships

Everyone has a story as to why they chose the major they did. Some stories are long, some are complex, others are comical and others straight-to-the-point.

For Adam Kulp, it’s personal.

Kulp is one of roughly 600 biology majors at Bloomsburg University. And he came to campus three years ago with a promise. Studying biology is Kulp’s first step toward making a difference in the life of his sister, who battles Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome, an incurable disease of the central nervous system. His goal is to someday treat or possibly cure his sister’s disease.

Kulp’s promise is supported by Bloomsburg University. He is among the hundreds of students annually who receive scholarships for tuition assistance, research stipend, conference travel or another academic venture. Kulp is a Biology and Allied Health Science Scholarship recipient.

As an institution, we understand the strong relationship between scholarships and students’ academic interests. Tying scholarship opportunities to specific academic programs and opportunities will contribute to our successes in retention, a term that describes efforts to welcome new students and ensure continuing students return and continue to graduation. It also helps with recruitment by using scholarships to help grow programs deemed high in quality and capacity.

New retention initiatives include:

• Calling continuing students who had not scheduled classes
• Calling continuing students who had fewer than eight credits scheduled
• Creating class schedules for transfer students as they were identified
• Compiling tracking reports that will guide future enrollment management efforts by providing a historic perspective

As a public institution, we take great pride in our ability to develop the potential of each student. We can attest to the success of our focused efforts on providing quality student services, retention programming efforts, and other means to prepare each student for graduation.

It is the Bloomsburg tradition. It is what has helped us become who we are and will allow us to remain a great choice for future students.

#FutureHusky