t has been slightly more than a year since my Wittenberg experience began and what a year it has been. When Lin, Sarah, David and I made the decision to join the Wittenberg family one year ago, it involved a leap of faith on our part. We had been living in the Lehigh Valley for more than 20 years and enjoyed our life, but every time we visited Wittenberg we were more intrigued.

With each successive visit, we came away more convinced that this was the place for us. We were energized by the staff, faculty and students we met, and we felt like this was a place we could call home. But until we lived it and breathed it, we couldn’t know for certain if we had made the right choice – if this was the kind of place we could be truly passionate about.

One year later, I can tell you definitively there is no other place I would rather be than at Wittenberg University as your president, and my family would concur. I have never worked so hard or felt so fulfilled in my entire life. Simply put, we, like many of you, have fallen in love with this place.

It would, however, be wrong to suggest that my first year as president has been easy. I remember well the words of a presidential colleague who told me about “the weight of the seat.” I truly felt that weight as we endeavored to tackle a number of recruitment challenges and budgetary issues early in my tenure. The good news is that we are now charting an exciting course for success, and I could not be more inspired or pleased.

We have completed the final evolution of our strategic plan and set a clear direction for where we are going as a university. Titled Distinctively Wittenberg: A Vision for Excellence, the plan, included with this issue of the magazine to all our alumni, embraces our strengths, traditions and history, while stretching us as never before. It is a plan that is bold, but achievable and calls for Wittenberg to take its rightful place among the top 75 national liberal arts colleges in the country.

I encourage you to read the plan and share your thoughts with me.
We also just welcomed an outstanding 643-member class of 2010 thanks to a campus-wide effort. Early last February when it became clear that our applicant pool was smaller than expected, our faculty, alumni board members, and students mobilized to call accepted students – to tell the Wittenberg story.

The end result was an increase of 6 percent in our yield (the number of students accepted who chose Wittenberg) from 24 percent to 30 percent. This class reflects a three-fold increase in international students compared to last year and a 40 percent increase in African American students. It includes 113 students with GPAs of 4.0, and students from 30 states and 15 countries. Retention numbers are also looking strong.

In addition, we began this year with a clearer, more distinctive and more consistent message about Wittenberg externally and internally thanks to a new marketing campaign. Early signs of these initiatives already grace the campus in the form of banners, posters, exciting new recruitment materials and in your copy of the strategic plan. Ultimately, our new image and messaging will appear in all that we do, and I look forward to hearing your comments as the process proceeds.

At the same time, our physical campus changed considerably this last year. We razed Hanley and South Halls, completed our new residence hall and Alumni Way, and renovated several other residence halls, the Benham-Pence Student Center, Kissell Auditorium and Recitation Hall. We also re-invigorated the historic entrance to campus, the result of which is more green space and fantastic vistas.

Photos highlighting these changes appear on page 25 of the magazine, and I am personally excited by the transformation. I hope you are as well when you visit.
Add to these accomplishments technological upgrades, the expansion of our wireless network, a new Foreign Languages Learning Center, increased engagement with the Springfield community and a renewed commitment to our campus master planning process, and there is little doubt that we as a university have a sense of momentum.

To sustain that momentum, however, will mean that we need to continue to invest in this place, and I am confident that we are in a far better position to invest this year than we were a year ago. As I travel the country and the globe meeting with Wittenberg alumni, they have expressed great enthusiasm for this university and our future. I feel the same excitement among our current faculty, staff and students.

Imagining a vision is hard work, but not nearly as hard as making that vision come to life. It requires persistence, stamina, good humor, resilience and teamwork. It is not for the faint-hearted. Although this year is off to a great start, we will be tested and pushed in the year ahead.

Some may argue that I have been too candid in this column – that I should only share the good news, not the struggles and challenges. As alumni and friends of Wittenberg, however, I want you to be fully engaged; we need you fully engaged, which means you need to know what is truly happening at your alma mater. It is a great story that includes challenges and struggles, but also great news and many successes.

As I look to the future, I am excited about the possibilities. As I’ve often said, “Nothing but the best is good enough for Wittenberg,” and I firmly believe that. We must not settle. Everyday we have the privilege and responsibility of shaping the lives of 2,000 students, changing the trajectory of their lives. What could be more exciting than that?

— President Mark H. Erickson

Editor’s Note: To view the items mentioned in the following letter, log on to www.wittenberg.edu/magazine