Annual Report 2019 -2020
PRESIDENT’S LETTER
Our Finest Hours f you are like me, by now you’ve probably read dozens of letters, commentaries and emails from people trying to make sense of COVID-19. Words and phrases like “unprecedented,” “challenge,” “meeting the moment” and “all in this together” are used over and over and over again.
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In all seriousness, when we moved to online learning last March we were worried. The College refunded a good portion of student room and board dollars and we weren’t sure what the fall semester might hold. The time-honored graduation and awards convocation ceremonies had to be canceled in the spring. How could we deliver the Ripon experience in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic? It was going to be a challenge. We saw a larger number of students than usual “melt” during the summer and elect to not return for the fall semester. Fall sports competition was canceled, and it was hard to understand how we could have any meaningful extracurricular events. But here’s where the meeting the moment part really kicked in. International students who were stranded in the U.S. were allowed to stay in the dorms all summer (and again during the winter 2020-21 break) without charge. Many of their food needs also were picked up by the College and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion who provided regular goodie baskets. Faculty and staff devoted May, June and July to preparing for the new learning and living environments. When we welcomed students back a week earlier than usual in August (with no fall break and the semester’s end at Thanksgiving to minimize the coming and going off
campus), we were as ready as we could possibly be. A third of our classes were in person, a third online and a third were a hybrid of the two. Our fall sports teams practiced outside in small groups, the theatre department streamed “Molly Sweeney” online and the Center for Politics and the People dissected the U.S. elections with interactive panel discussions. But then, in fact, we really are all in this together. Our alumni stepped into the void with an amazing year of fundraising, including a record-breaking One Day Rally in which all 50 states were represented. Good administrative work led to early support from Washington and Madison to help defray virus-related costs for sanitizing equipment, personal protective equipment (PPE) and the “gold standard” COVID-19 testing of all our students during the fall semester. Our Student Support Services program’s hard work paid off with the renewal of a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to help first-generation and lower-income students. It is worth mentioning how proud we are to be named (again) as the top school in Wisconsin for social mobility by U.S. News and World Report. Years from now, when the history of Ripon in the 21st century is written, we should be proud of the heroic efforts of the past few months. This is how the College dealt with unprecedented challenges by meeting the moment because we are all in this together.
Z ACH P. MESSITTE President
COVID-19 Response • March 17: campus shut down, most students returned home to complete the semester virtually. • Remaining were mostly international students who faced travel restrictions: 16 through end of term, 11 through the summer. They required housing and food support. • Long-standing events such as Commencement and Alumni Weekend were canceled. • $1.4 million refunded to students for unused housing and food service. • Major new expenses: cleaning/sanitizing supplies, needlepoint ionization systems attached to heating and air conditioning for air purification. The Reunite Ripon plan established proactive and preventative steps to ensure a safe return to in-person learning in fall 2020. Over the summer, a national drop in enrollments had been predicted to be 15% to 20% and realized at many regional institutions of higher education. Ripon’s enrollments increased over fall 2019.
ON THE COVER When the physical campus shut down in March 2020 and student learning went entirely virtual, Abbi Grieger ’22 proudly showed off her participation in the Fargo, North Dakota, “remote campus” of Ripon College.
Continually updated information can be found at ripon.edu/covid19
REVENUE AND EXPENSES
REVENUE
The College provided $20,591,043 in financial assistance to 100 percent of our student body during the 2019-20 academic year. Financial statements for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020, reflect a decrease in net assets of $3,078,929. The market value of our investments as of June 30, 2020, was listed at $91,958,278. This reflects a decrease of $2,111,220 from the prior year. The average endowment investment returns for one, three and five years were 1.1%, 5.1% and 5.0%.
COVID-19 Impacts
Student Tuition and Fees
$11,566,206
44.2%
• $3.2 million received in federal stimulus money
Auxiliary Enterprises
$5,006,537
19.1%
Contributions
$6,062,647
23.2%
$1,753,243
6.7%
• $1.9 million in donations to new Emergency Assistance Fund
Government Grants/Contracts
• $1.9 million in general operations savings from moving off-campus and freezing spending
Investments
$963,288
3.7%
Other Income
$806,803
3.1%
• $1.4 million in lost revenue from room and board refunds
TOTAL
$26,158,724
100%
$11,416,741
39.1%
Institutional Support
$4,896,033
16.7%
Auxiliary Enterprises
$5,091,080
17.4%
Student Services
$5,927,158
20.3%
Academic Support
$1,081,124
3.7%
$825,517
2.8%
• $1.1 million in continuing student scholarships to flatten tuition from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021 school year
EXPENSES
Piano Lab, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts: A high-tech, professional-grade piano lab in Rodman facilitates Class Piano instruction. With eight student pianos and one instructor instrument, the College is more efficient with piano instruction, and the technology allows students to develop skills at their own pace. The instruments are networked together and come with headsets. Students can talk to each other, ask a question, record themselves and even play duets from across the room. The instructor controls all of the instruments from an iPad. Here, Grace Sullivan ’20 of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, participates in a class session.
Instruction
Public Services TOTAL
$29,237,653
100%
GIFTS AND GRANTS
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ifts to Ripon College during FY’20 included $4,415,716.12 in unrestricted funds and $1,726,439.94 in restricted funds, for a
combined total of $6,142,156.06. 59% of the Class of 2020 contributed to the Senior Class Gift. The total of $1,747.40, including an Alumni Board match, will go to the Ripon Fund. N E W G I VI NG CLUB M EM BERS 1851 Club: Now in its ninth year, the club added 68 new member households for a total of 612. Members include donors who give $50,000 or more to the College during their lifetime; $1,000 or more
during the fiscal year; and young alumni (up to 10 years out) who give an equivalent of $100 for each year since graduation. Partners in the Legacy: Four new households notified us of estate plans that include Ripon College, bringing the total number of Partner households to 512. GRA N T Professor of Communication Steve Martin received a $7,500 grant from the Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation (CSII) to support activities related to civil liberties.
TRIO Grant A new five-year grant of $1.4 million has been awarded to the Student Support Services program at Ripon College by the U.S. Department of Education, TRIO division. The program supports: • First-generation students whose parents/guardians did not receive a four-year college degree. • Students who come from families with lower incomes relative to family size. • Students with physical or learning disabilities. Among several artworks given to the College in FY’20, Dennis Rocheleau gave a weaving and a painting by Paul Jenkins. “Portrait, New York, New York, 1981,” an acrylic and screen print on paper, consists of colorful abstract brushstrokes on top of a screen print of the artist, derived from a photograph taken by Andy Warhol. Both pieces are on view in C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts.
Student Support Services offers academic support and guidance, supplemental grant aid, educational-cultural opportunities, a high schoolto-college Bridge program, financial literacy exposure and graduate school information.
#OneDayRally 2020 The worldwide Ripon College community came together in the era of social distancing to smash all previous records for the annual #OneDayRally giving day. A record $1,918,598 was raised for the Ripon Fund and the new Emergency Assistance Fund, which supports unanticipated needs of students because of COVID-19. There was a record of 2,015 donors, 108% of goal. This was an additional 569 donors over #OneDayRally 2019. Donors represented all 50 states and several foreign countries, including Canada, the Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Panama, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The amount raised surpassed 2019’s recordbreaking total of $1,085,314 by 77% or $833,284.
ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT
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ipon College has a base of about 12,000 alumni worldwide. Ripon continues to maintain strong ties with alumni throughout their lives in ways that benefit both the alumni and the College. R EG I O NAL & ON-C AMPUS EVENTS Before in-person activities closed down in mid-March, more than 40 events in 25 cities were attended by nearly 2,000 alumni, parents, friends and students. Events included Rally Hours, Family Weekend, sporting events and picnics, as well as Friends of the Arts, holiday and presidential receptions. These on- and offcampus events were supported by 30 volunteer hosts. Ripon College initiated its first-ever virtual event during the pandemic. The R Connections Webinar Series, launched in June and continued through the summer and into the fall with strong attendance and positive feedback. A LU M N I W E E K E ND Although Alumni Weekend 2020 was canceled in June because of the ongoing pandemic, alumni and Reunion Classes were honored. 2020 award winners will be celebrated during Alumni Weekend 2021, to be held June 24-27. The 2020 Reunion Classes raised $2.7 million in the five years since their last reunion, and the 50th Reunion Class of 1970 won all four “trophy” awards: • Most New Partners in the Legacy since the last reunion (two) • Largest Reunion Class Gift ($220,504) • High Reunion Gift Participation (45%) • Largest five-year class gift since the last reunion ($745,642)
A gathering of track and field alumni was held at Ripon College Jan. 18, 2020.
2020 Alumni Association Awards Distinguished Alumni Citation • Ruth Anne Gero Adams ’85 of Clemmons, North Carolina, career achievements, service to community • James P. Danky ’70 of Stoughton, Wisconsin, career achievements • Jon A. Fasanelli-Cawelti ’75 of Muscatine, Iowa, career achievements • William C. Quistorf ’80 of Everett, Washington, career achievements, service to community Outstanding Young Alumni Award • Sarah M. Anderson ’10 of Washington, D.C., academic and career achievements • Lucy A. Burgchardt ’10 of Bettendorf, Iowa, academic and career achievements Athletic Hall of Fame • Abigail Williams Budzynski ’98 of Lombard, Illinois, cross country, track and field • Todd W. Ciesielczyk ’87, football, wrestling, track and field (presented posthumously) • Aaron B. Johnson ’03 of Ripon, Wisconsin, baseball • Troy M. Youngbauer ’96 of Neenah, Wisconsin, football
At the Center for Career and Professional Development, Barb Williams Clay ’83 of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, holds a mini mock interview with Kyle Rutkowski ’20 of Hatley, Wisconsin. A devoted supporter of Ripon College, Clay is a member of the Alumni Board of Directors and Partners in the Legacy, and she also is a class agent.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
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ne hundred percent of our students receive financial assistance, and this became even more crucial in the era of COVID-19. Our mission to provide an accessible and premier liberal arts and sciences education remains unchanged, even in the midst of an ever-changing and challenging higher education landscape.
Life at Ripon
• Catalyst sessions: 20 • Graduate school visits, workshops and special events: 35 • Employer visits/involvement: 20
Graduates: • 129 from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020
• Alumni webinars: 4 • Handshake career platform launched
• 35 double majors, 1 triple major • 4 Phi Beta Kappa • 12 summa cum laude, 19 magna cum laude, 28 cum laude • Top majors: business management, biology, history, psychology, exercise science
Franzen Center for Academic Success: • 502 signed tutoring contracts over both semesters • 843 papers or presentations brought in for review • 178 quantitative tutoring drop-ins
Class of 2024: • 2,614 first-year applications, a record • 1,936 offered admission
• 59 participants in PLUS (Peer-Led Undergraduate Study) groups
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• 247 first-time, first-year students, plus 11 transfer students, for total of 258 new students
Around campus: • More than 40% on Dean’s List
• 19 legacies
• 30% upperclassmen in sorority or fraternity
• 23% diversity • 45% first-generation • 67% from Wisconsin, others from 22 states, one U.S. territory (Virgin Islands), India, United Arab Emirates and South Africa
• 96% lived on campus • 1,221 visitors to Health Services, 521 of whom were first-time visitors • 142 initiated counseling sessions • 50% student-athletes
Student body as a whole: • 816 enrolled, vs. 788 in 2018-2019 • 796 degree-seeking students, vs. 765 in 2018-2019 Miguel Ibarra ’21 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, presents at Catalyst Day in the fall of 2019.
Career and Professional Development: • More than 165 scheduled student appointments, plus drop-ins • In-class or requested careerrelated presentations: 26
Ripon Supports Neighboring Students Given today’s current climate, more and more students are looking at colleges closer to home but still are concerned with the cost of a private education. Ripon College is providing students in nearby communities the choice to stay close to home and gain a premier college experience at top value. Students from high schools in Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Winnebago counties in Wisconsin qualify immediately for our Local Commitment Award, which brings total scholarships and awards to $36,000 annually. This ensures a top-quality private school education at a cost that is about the same as many public schools in the University of Wisconsin system.
EXCELLENCE AT RIPON Faculty Achievements John Sisko is the new vice president and dean of faculty. He previously was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wayland H. Cato Jr. School of Education at Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also is a professor of philosophy. The book Republican Populist: Spiro Agnew and the Origins of Donald Trump’s America, co-written by President Zach Messitte, was released Oct. 18, 2019, by the University of Virginia Press. Articles related to the publication and its topic ran in news outlets across the country, and Messitte made numerous guest appearances. Henrik Schatzinger, associate professor of politics and government and co-director of the Center for Politics and the People, and Steven E. Martin, professor of communication, wrote the book Game Changers: How Dark Money and Super PACs Are Transforming U.S. Campaigns, released March 1, 2020.
for the Study of Midwestern Literature. Unger also is managing editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers. The expanding interests of space strategy, national security and great-power conflict in space have been addressed across the country by Lamont Colucci, associate professor of politics and government, including two private-sector space entrepreneur conferences in California and Texas, Space Command and the National Security Space Institute in fall 2019. Sarah Frohardt-Lane, assistant professor of history and director of environmental studies, has a chapter in an edited volume of environmental histories of World War II. “Imagined Resilience: U.S. Conservation Campaigns and Fat Salvage” appears in Resilient City: Urban Environmental Histories of World War II, published by Palgrave MacMillan as part of its Palgrave Studies in World Environmental History series.
Patrick Willoughby, assistant professor of chemistry, and students published a paper in the Journal of Chemical Education. The paper, by Rylie Morris ’19 of Madison, Wisconsin; Abby Hilker ’18 of Columbus, Wisconsin; Shane Donovan ’14 of Cazenovia, Wisconsin; and Willoughby, was in collaboration with Augsburg University and describes a teaching lab where students make and analyze self-healing materials. Beyond Testing: Seven Assessments of Students and Schools More Effective than Standardized Tests, a book co-written by Matthew Knoester, associate professor of educational studies, received a Critics’ Choice Book Award from the American Educational Studies Association. An essay by Mary Unger, associate professor of English and chair of the department, won the 2020 David D. Anderson Award for Outstanding Essay in Midwestern Literary Studies from the Society
INTERNSHIPS
Innovation The FLASH Internship program of the Center for Career and Professional Development was one of nine nominees for Most Innovative Career Initiatives at Colleges and Universities by The Career Leadership Collective national organization. FLASH Internships are the only projectbased, short-term experiences in Wisconsin designed to get results for both employer and student.
Rankings Ripon College again placed on prestigious national rankings: • Among the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges and as the top school in Wisconsin for social mobility on the U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best Colleges rankings. • The Princeton Review’s The Best 386 Colleges for 2021; and one of only five in Wisconsin on its Best Regional Colleges list. • Money magazine’s 2020 Best Colleges in America, based on factors such as tuition fees, family borrowing and career earnings. • Washington Monthly’s 2020 College Guide and rankings of four-year liberal arts colleges; and its Best Bang for the Buck Midwest listing.
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