THE WORLD AT
WOFFORD PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2013-2014
Dear Wofford College friends and colleagues, Nothing could be more important, more inspiring and more humbling than the charge we have as educators to help students build futures that include a commitment to lifelong learning and a responsibility to use their educational training and innate talents to make the world a better place. Wofford College is ideally suited to do just that because it provides a residential, liberal arts experience that combines faculty-student mentoring and excellent teaching with an emphasis on global learning and personalized, real-world opportunities as a conduit for future success—just ask students in the Class of 2018, the largest class in the college’s 160-year history. Many have already studied abroad, completed internships and formed the type of close-knit relationships that are hallmarks of a Wofford education. Why Wofford? Our students like it here—94 percent choose to live on campus all four years, making friendships and connections that last a lifetime. They also like learning beyond our borders—Wofford ranks in the nation’s top 10 for the percentage of students studying abroad. And after four years, our students are prepared for what’s next—94 percent of the Class of 2014 joined the workforce or enrolled in graduate school within six months of graduation. This President’s Report shares a glimpse of why Wofford does such an exemplary job of preparing students and leaders for the future. We invite you to come meet the Wofford family and see our magnolia, myrtle and oak-lined campus for yourself. Go, Terriers!
Nayef Samhat 11th President of Wofford College
CURRENT BOARD OF TRUSTEES J. Harold Chandler, chair James M. Johnson, vice-chair C. Michael Smith, vice-chair John B. White Jr., vice-chair The Rev. Dr. B. Mike Alexander Jr. Ashley Richardson Allen Dr. James E. Bostic Jr. Christopher P. Carpenter William R. Cobb Justin A. Converse Jimmy I. Gibbs Jordan Glatt D. Christian Goodall
H. Neel Hipp Jr. The Rev. John W. Hipp Laura J. Hoy Stewart H. Johnson Douglas H. Joyce Betty J. Montgomery Dr. Daniel B. Morrison Jr. Wendi M. Nix Corry W. Oakes III
L. Leon Patterson The Hon. Costa M. Pleicones Stanley E. Porter J. Patrick Prothro J. E. Reeves Jr. Jerome J. Richardson Joe E. Taylor Jr. Edward B. Wile Bishop William H. Willimon
OFFICERS OF THE COLLEGE Dr. Nayef H. Samhat, president Dr. Dennis M. Wiseman, provost David Beacham, senior vice president for administration Roberta H. Bigger, vice president for student affairs and dean of students Barbara F. Jefferson, chief financial officer Richard A. Johnson, director of athletics Annie S. Mitchell, vice president for marketing and communications Brand R. Stille, vice president for enrollment Dr. David S. Wood, senior vice president for development
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FOUNDED IN
1854
MAJORS, MINORS, CONCENTRATIONS & PRE-PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS
77%
ACCEPTANCE RATE OF NEW, FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
FROM
37 states & 22 countries
1,608
STUDENTS
RECEIVED
Phi Beta Kappa CHAPTER IN 1941
90%
FIRST-YEAR TO SECOND-YEAR RETENTION RATE
#1 Most economically Diverse COLLEGE IN SOUTH CAROLINA (NEW YORK TIMES, 2014)
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94%
OF STUDENTS LIVE ON CAMPUS
all 4 years
11:1
STUDENT-TO-FACULTY RATIO
94% of Wofford students
RECEIVE SOME FORM OF FINANCIAL AID, WITH THE AVERAGE FINANCIAL AID PACKAGE
exceeding $29,000
90%
#4
OF FULL-TIME FACULTY
Hold a Ph.D.
OR EQUIVALENT TERMINAL DEGREE
IN THE NATION FOR THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO STUDY ABROAD FOR CREDIT (OPEN DOORS, 2014)
#1 public or private
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION IN THE 5-STATE REGION OF ALABAMA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI AND SOUTH CAROLINA (FORBES, 2014)
#18 best value
IN THE SOUTHEAST AND #52 BEST VALUE IN THE NATION
(KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE, 2014)
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Engaging tHe world WOFFORD COLLEGE AND THE NATIONAL SURVEY OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT (NSSE) According to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), the time and energy students devote to educationally purposeful activities is the single best predictor of their learning and personal development. Another critical factor is how institutions deploy resources and organize curriculum and other enrichment opportunities to encourage students to participate in educational activities. Wofford consistently performs well on NSSE indicators, outpacing NSSE national averages and often top 10 percentile benchmarks. The results, gathered from first-year students and seniors, affirm Wofford’s commitment to student learning and engagement both in and outside of the classroom.
Academic Challenge (First-Year)
50.00
46.15
43.79
45.00 39.04
40.00
37.86
39.49 35.86
35.59
35.00 30.00
27.35
25.00 20.00 15.00 10.00 5.00 -
Higher-Order Learning
Reflective & Integrative Learning Wo ord 2014
Learning Strategies
Quantitative Reasoning
NSSE 2014
Academic Challenge (Seniors)
50.00 45.00
43.79 41.23
40.00
41.33
43.76 40.33
38.93
35.28
35.00 29.91
30.00 25.00 20.00 15.00 10.00 5.00 -
Higher-Order Learning
Reflective & Integrative Learning Wo ord 2014
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Learning Strategies NSSE 2014
Quantitative Reasoning
Learning with Peers
Learning with Peers
(First-Year)
(Seniors)
50.00
50.00 44.22
45.00 40.00
40.88 37.93
35.00
40.00
41.84 37.46
35.00
32.05
32.40
30.00
30.00 25.00
25.00
20.00
20.00
15.00
15.00
10.00
10.00
5.00
5.00
-
45.31
45.00
Collaborative Learning Wo ord 2014
Discussions with Diverse Others
-
Collaborative Learning
NSSE 2014
Wo ord 2014
Experiences with Faculty
NSSE 2014
Experiences with Faculty
(First-Year)
50.00
Discussions with Diverse Others
(Seniors)
50.00 43.77
45.00
45.62
45.00
40.92
40.15 40.00
40.00
35.00 30.00
35.00
32.24
30.00
27.37
25.00
23.74
25.00 20.28
20.00
20.00
15.00
15.00
10.00
10.00
5.00
5.00
-
Student-Faculty Interaction Wo ord 2014
E ective Teaching Practices
-
Wo ord 2014
(Seniors)
(First-Year)
50.00
50.00 45.05 41.54
45.00
40.69
40.00
37.29
35.00
30.00
30.00
25.00
25.00
20.00
20.00
15.00
15.00
10.00
10.00
5.00
5.00 Quality of Interactions Wo ord 2014
Supportive Environment NSSE 2014
44.95 42.52
40.00
35.00
-
E ective Teaching Practices NSSE 2014
Campus Environment
Campus Environment
45.00
Student-Faculty Interaction
NSSE 2014
-
36.36 33.26
Quality of Interactions Wo ord 2014
Supportive Environment NSSE 2014
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Envisioning our world FOLLOWING AN INTENSE 18 MONTHS OF COMMUNITY-WIDE DREAMING, MEETING, PLANNING, RESEARCHING AND WRITING, WOFFORD’S BOARD OF TRUSTEES APPROVED THE COLLEGE’S VISION FOR THE FUTURE. The vision states that Wofford College will be a premier, innovative and distinctive national liberal arts college defined by excellence, engagement and transformation in its commitment to prepare superior students for meaningful lives as citizens, leaders and scholars.
THE VISION OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Educating superior students for rich, productive lives involves strengthening the curriculum, creating an academic commons, developing a center for the arts and creativity, expanding academic services and recruiting and retaining superior faculty. THE VISION OF THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE: Preparing students to be leaders and citizens means adding living/learning communities, developing a Wofford Exchange for student and faculty engagement and expanding career and professional development opportunities. THE VISION OF ENROLLMENT: Recruiting and retaining talented and inquisitive students who are diverse entails executing a strategic enrollment plan, striving toward a fully funded scholarship program and supporting diversity and inclusiveness on campus. THE VISION OF THE WOFFORD EXPERIENCE: Strengthening the Wofford community includes a commitment to shared governance, diversity initiatives, employee orientation and evaluation, internal communications, community collaboration and a fellows program for recent graduates. THE VISION OF THE SUSTAINABLE PHYSICAL CAMPUS: Supporting Wofford’s vision with flexible, thoughtful and sustainable facilities and spaces that reflect the ongoing and future needs of the college means addressing the need for an academic commons, residence hall renovations, a center for the arts and creativity, a new Greek Village and interest housing, expansion of the sciences, an arena for intercollegiate athletics and a Wofford Exchange to facilitate civic engagement. SUPPORTING THE VISION: Making the college’s new strategic vision a reality means executing a comprehensive funding campaign with emphasis on endowed scholarships; developing, funding and executing a comprehensive marketing and communications campaign; and developing and executing a facilities master plan.
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A world of possibilities IN OCTOBER JERRY RICHARDSON, WOFFORD CLASS OF 1959, THE OWNER AND FOUNDER OF THE NFL’S CAROLINA PANTHERS, SURPRISED HIS WIFE BY DONATING A BUILDING IN HER HONOR. A month later, he surprised the entire Wofford community by donating another building. Both the Rosalind S. Richardson Center for the Arts and the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium will be complete in the fall of 2017.
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THE ROSALIND S. RICHARDSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS (3, 4, 5)
The 54,500-square-foot building will include a 300-seat performance hall, a museum for the college’s permanent collection, a student gallery, a black box theater with complete scene and costume design studios as well as dressing rooms and a green room, a painting studio, a mixed media studio, a technology studio, seminar classrooms and faculty offices.
THE JERRY RICHARDSON INDOOR STADIUM (1, 2)
The 110,000-square-foot facility will include a 3,400-seat basketball arena and a 500-seat volleyball competition venue as well as locker rooms, state-of-the-art training rooms, coaches’ offices and team meeting rooms. Other features include a video board and ribbon board, designated areas for fans and four open-air suites. The stadium also will be used for non-athletic campus and community-wide events.
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exploring the world WOFFORD COLLEGE RANKS FOURTH AMONG BACCALAUREATE INSTITUTIONS FOR THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO STUDY ABROAD FOR CREDIT. (OPEN DOORS REPORT, 2014)
“Among other things, I have learned some life-changing lessons while abroad… how much you learn from its millions of difficulties and curveballs, how drastically you mature when you are relying solely on yourself, how being flown outside of your comfort zone makes you realize all of which you are capable. I had heard all of those benefits before I went abroad, but none of it meant anything at all until I experienced those feelings for myself.” Grazie per sempre, Roma. Anna Aguillard, Wofford Class of 2016
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WOFFORD STUDENTS HAVE STUDIED ABROAD IN MORE THAN 70 COUNTRIES AND ON ALL 7 CONTINENTS.
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Preparing for the world “EMPLOYERS NOW WANT TO TEST DRIVE EMPLOYEES THROUGH INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS, AND THEY’RE NOT GOING TO GIVE JOBS TO NEW COLLEGE GRADUATES WHO HAVEN’T GOTTEN INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE. THE EVENTUAL GOAL WILL BE TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERY WOFFORD COLLEGE JUNIOR HAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO COMPLETE AN INTERNSHIP.” Mike Brown (inset), president of Healthcare Capital Consolidated, Wofford Class of 1976, who just made a $105,000 commitment to fund summer internship experiences for Wofford students
In recent years, Wofford students have completed internships with hundreds of healthcare professionals, attorneys, legislators, small business owners and nonprofit executives. The list of internship sites also includes: • ABC News • Michelin North America • The Aspen Institute • NASA • BMW • Oxford University, England • The Bonner Foundation • PricewaterhouseCoopers • Citigroup, Hong Kong • The Smithsonian Institute • CNN • St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital • Manipal Technologies, India (pictured) Wofford students who don’t join the workforce after college often enroll in graduate school. Below is a list of top graduate schools with Terriers in attendance. Many of these also hosted Wofford students for summer, undergraduate research assignments. • Cambridge University • Oxford University • College of William and Mary • Stanford University • Columbia University • University of California, Berkley • Duke University • University of North Carolina • Emory University • University of Notre Dame • Harvard University • Wake Forest University • Johns Hopkins University • Yale University • Northwestern University
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The world is our gallery EACH YEAR WOFFORD’S PULP THEATRE — AN ENTIRELY STUDENT-RUN THEATRE COMPANY — PRODUCES AN EDGY MUSICAL DURING THE MONTH OF JANUARY. HAIR WAS AN INSTANT SUCCESS WITH BOTH THE COLLEGE AND THE UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA COMMUNITIES.
“The advantages and benefits to the study of theatre, music or studio art in college are often discussed in terms of enrichment, ‘being well-rounded,’ or acquiring ‘creativity’ that may be deployed in a business or professional context. These are certainly benefits, but ‘enrichment’ is not the primary justification for the pursuit of the arts. Rather, the study or pursuit of beauty and truth in the context of creating art is an end in itself: its value is intrinsic. Moreover, it is central to the process of personal discernment that lives at the heart of a liberal arts education: you cannot pursue work in line with your values and strengths until you know what they are.” Dr. Mark Ferguson, chair of the department of theatre, Wofford Class of 1994
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Competing in the world RHODES SCHOLAR RACHEL WOODLEE (WOFFORD CLASS OF 2013) WAS NAMED ONE OF “25 UNDER 25: RISING STARS IN US-CHINA RELATIONS” BY CHINA HANDS MAGAZINE.
94%
NCAA GRADUATION SUCCESS RATE
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NCAA DIVISION I ATHLETICS TEAMS
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ATHLETICS TEAMS RECEIVED PUBLIC RECOGNITION FROM THE NCAA FOR THEIR ACADEMIC PROGRESS RATE (APR) Men’s Soccer is 5th in the nation Football is 12th in the nation
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SOUTHERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE PAST 10 YEARS
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TRIPS TO THE NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT IN THE PAST 5 YEARS
1 NEW BUILDING ON THE HORIZON The Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium will be the home of basketball and volleyball as well as campus concerts and other events
Rachel Woodlee (inset), who is now working on a Ph.D. in contemporary Chinese studies as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England, attributes much of her personal and leadership growth to her experience as a varsity student-athlete on the Wofford College volleyball team. Woodlee serves as a co-convener of the Rhodes China Forum at Oxford, which seeks to promote scholarly and professional dialogue about China. After working at the Continental Hope Group in Chengdu, China, Woodlee hopes to facilitate further cooperation between Chinese and American businesses with her understanding of corporate culture.
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Highlights from the world at Wofford A REMARKABLE YEAR OF VISION, PLANNING AND GROWTH
Wofford inaugurated Dr. Nayef H. Samhat as the college’s 11th president.
In November, 2005 Wofford graduate Ben Ingram won the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions. He returned to campus for a viewing party during the finals.
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Drs. Angela and George Shiflet spent a working sabbatical in Oxford, England, and Melborne, Australia, conducting research on colon cancer, presenting workshops for graduate students and creating new computational science modules for their computational science textbook and for their classes. From the experience, they secured research internships for Wofford students and Fulbright Specialist assignments for themselves in Brazil and Italy.
In 2014 Wofford was ranked in: Insider’s Guide to Colleges Forbes Top 50 ROI Colleges Princeton Review’s Best 379 Colleges Kiplingers Top 10 Best Values in Private Colleges Open Doors Report U.S. News
Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon and the lunar module pilot of Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd in Wofford’s Leonard Auditorium. Aldrin’s visit, as well as a visit later in the year from former New York Governor George Pataki, was a part of the Hipp Lecture Series on International Affairs and National Security.
Chad Sauvola, class of 2015, was named the J. Lacy McLean South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities student of the year. A biology and art history major, Sauvola has performed research at MIT, the University of North Carolina and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
CBS’s Anderson Cooper came to campus to interview Dr. John Pilley, Wofford professor emeritus of psychology, and his border collie, Chaser, for 60 Minutes. Chaser has been labeled the smartest dog in the world.
The Wofford men’s basketball team won the Southern Conference championship and made it to the NCAA tournament for the third time in five years. The NFL’s Carolina Panthers celebrated their 20th training camp at Wofford College during the summer of 2014. Wofford and the Panthers continue to appreciate the partnership and enjoy rave reviews of the camp in Sports Illustrated and other national media.
The college received a 100,000 Mellon Grant to enhance learning in the general education curriculum through a renewed emphasis on writing and the integration of additional technology.
Wofford students received four prestigious national fellowships during 2014. David Moore (top left) and Anna Le (top right) were selected for Fulbright ETAs to South Korea and Vietnam, respectively. Alyssa Williams earned a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, and Justin Whitaker was named a Goldwater finalist (bottom left). In addition, Greyson Mann (bottom right) was tapped for a twoyear Princeton in Asia fellowship.
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A New Greek Village... Coming soon! A WORLD OF LEADERSHIP, TRADITION AND PHILANTHROPY
The Wofford Board of Trustees approved the construction of a new Greek Village set to begin in the summer of 2015. The new village, which will have homes for North-American National Interfraternity Conference, National Panhellenic Conference and National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations, will have chapter rooms, kitchens and common areas inside and a large patio and colonnade outside. The houses will share a multipurpose pavilion and large green lawn.
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OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
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Wofford’s mission is to provide superior liberal arts education that prepares its students for extraordinary and positive contributions to society. The focus of Wofford’s mission is upon fostering commitment to excellence in character, performance, leadership, service to others and life-long learning. Wofford College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any legally protected status.