Wake Forest Magazine, June 2009 - Past Issues - Wake Forest ...

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We have been historically and are currently fully
committed to our policy of need-blind admissions,
accepting students regardless of their financial situation.
Our first priority is to honor our commitment to students
whose families earn less than $40,000, who we have
guaranteed that their student loans will be capped at
$4,000 per year over four years. Our next challenge is to
meet the increasing needs of those families for whom the
cost of higher education carries a far greater financial
burden than it did prior to the recession. We will do what
we can to help our current students by carefully managing
our financial aid packages to minimize increases in loans.
We are also allocating a small increase in funds to help
incoming students for whom these economic conditions
present a great obstacle to selecting Wake Forest. In total,
we will make a modest increase in funding for financial
aid, as that is all current economic conditions allow,
but these funds will be allocated with great purpose,
and I believe with great impact on our ability to sustain
our considerable momentum, especially in improving
socioeconomic diversity and enhancing opportunity.
Maintaining our Physical Campus
Our future success relies upon an ongoing investment
in our campus buildings and critical infrastructure.
Therefore, we have made plans to continue to address
capital projects that are central to our strategic plan.
Last spring we invested more than $3 million in capital
improvements to academic units and more to student
facilities. We sought and have received approval from
the board of trustees to move forward with three capital
projects: a new freshman residence hall to accommodate
planned enrollment growth, a new admissions/welcome
center to accommodate our growing number of visitors
and our new applicant interview process, and a modest set
of upgrades and repairs to athletics facilities. We also are
pursuing plans to merge the faculty of the Calloway and
Babcock Schools in a new business school that will rely
on the renovation of the Information Systems building
adjacent to the Worrell Center. These projects will be longterm
financed following long-standing guidelines created
by the board of trustees.
LOOKING FORWARD
As the board considered our strategic priorities and
investments, they were impressed that each administrative
unit is looking ahead toward FY10-11, which may be an
even more difficult year because of the way operating
revenue is calculated from the endowment, by aggressively
assessing programs, setting priorities in accordance with
the strategic plan, and cutting non-essential expenses.
The budget that was approved recognizes that the cuts
made this fiscal year must be continued, and that we
must generate new revenue to support our strategic plan.
Therefore, the board of trustees approved a moderate
investment in our Advancement Office in order to increase
our capacity to raise private donations for key strategic
priorities.
Together with our commitment to the more stringent
expenditures prescribed by the budget, an increase in
fundraising will position us to meet the impending
challenges that await us in FY10-11.
Although the reality of endowment decline will be felt
more deeply next year, we hope to stave off its impact
through the measures we are undertaking this year to
control our costs and increase our revenue. In sum, we
are determined to capitalize on this rare opportunity to
increase our competitiveness nationally, while holding
sacred our distinctiveness as the nation’s leading collegiate
University.
It is my firm belief that these measures provide the
best course for Wake Forest. The board of trustees is fully
supportive of the direction we have taken. As always,
I invite and look forward to your ideas, questions and
advice. I will continue to keep you informed as we move
forward implementing our plans. Let me also say that
Wake Forest cannot live up to its vitally important mission
without the ongoing support of its alumni and friends,
like you. Your work on our behalf and your generous gifts
breathe life into the plans we make today to live up to our
motto, Pro Humanitate.
Thank you for all you do for our students, for each other,
and for Wake Forest every day.
48 wake forest magazine