1,000+ Reasons to Celebrate

Bruce Fawcett, PhD President and Vice Chancellor

More than a decade ago the Board of Governors and then-President Dr. Brian MacArthur had a vision that someday Crandall University would be home to more than 1,000 students. The first step to realizing this dream was to construct additional facilities that would provide the space to permit this growth including more classrooms, offices, student space, and campus housing. When I arrived as President 10 years ago that large construction project had been completed and the Board said to me: “We have the space. Now, can you help us fill it?”

In response, our team spent a few years strengthening the University’s financial foundations and then launched an ambitious program to attempt to double enrollment to meet and exceed the goal of more than a decade ago. Rather than rely on one “silver bullet” to accomplish this task, the plan was to advance on many fronts simultaneously, inviting donors of both modest and significant means to help the University realize this vision.

As a result of God’s blessing, the hard work of our team, and generous gifts from our supporters, I am pleased to report that this year we not only reached the 1,000-student mark, we exceeded it with an enrollment of more than 1,100 students!

Our mission remains that same: “transforming lives through quality education firmly rooted in the Christian faith.” To serve more students we developed a strategic plan with five key components:

Enhancing Student Life and Transformation

We’ve added more staff and programs to support and care for our students including investments in chapel, our CU Serves volunteer program, and a team to provide settlement support and new co-curricular programs for international students.

Creating New Programs and Delivery Options

We’ve launched a variety of new programs including an in-person and online Master of Management program, a new Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology program, and a Saturday-only Bachelor of Education program.

Serving More International Students

We’ve worked hard through the addition of more faculty and staff to increase our capacity to serve students from around the world who wish to study at Crandall. Many of these students who have come to us from more than 50 countries around the world are pursuing master’s degrees. They have been a delight to welcome to our university family and we’ve enjoyed helping them build a new life in the Greater Moncton area.

Investing in Our Facilities

Our new employees who have joined our community to teach and serve our larger student body come with a clear passion to fulfill our mission, but they need offices to work in, so we built five new offices last summer, and this summer we anticipate constructing nine more.

Last fall we refurbished the Joseph Crandall Tower that sits atop Murray Hall, and this spring we are putting a new roof on Murray Hall.

We’ve also made investments in athletics, including improvements to nearly all of our athletics facilities.

Over the summer we hope to increase space in our library, create a new space for our Student Writing and Success Center, and refurbish our kitchen and dining hall. To encourage deeper student relationships, we’ve added two new, large student lounges in Stultz Hall.

Telling Our Story

Over the past few years we’ve invested quite heavily in a new branding and marketing strategy, and we’ve tried to support our broader community by sponsoring a variety of exciting and worthy initiatives.

Thank you for your continuing interest in Crandall! It is a pleasure to serve more students – but along with increasing enrollment comes a greater need for supporters to stand with us. As always, we welcome your prayerful and financial support.

Dr. Bruce Fawcett (’88) has served as President and Vice Chancellor since 2012.