Report of the President to the Alumni Board of Directors

Wayne Gardner October 10, 2008

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but to the interests of others.”
Philippians 2:3 – 4

These verses of scripture will be our verses for the year at the college. These verses remind us that we are to be servant leaders and be concerned with the needs of others as well as our own. These verses tell us that we are to put other’s needs above our own even though ours might be greater. These verses remind me of the message by Dr. Charles Stanley several years ago when he spoke on humility. He gave six areas where we could know that we are getting closer to this standard. I want to share these with you which Dr. Stanley calls “dying to self.”

2. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed and your advise disregarded, your opinions ridiculed and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself but take it in patience and loving silence, that is dying to self.

3. When you are content with any food, clothing, climate, society or interruption by the Will of God, that is dying to self.
4. When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works, when you truly love to be unknown, that is dying to self.

5. When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God even though your needs are greater than his, that is dying to self.

6. When you can receive correction or reproof from someone of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no resentment or rebellion rising up in your heart, that is dying to self.

Dying to self is never easy, but Jesus reminded us in John 12:24 that death to self leads to new life for others. As we began this new year it was our desire that we put the needs of others first and that the Lord will be glorified through our servant leader model.

Our scripture for this year reminds us that we are to be considerate of others as we do our ministry for the Lord. And as we continue to work toward “intentional spiritual formation” we introduced the Community Covenant to the Toccoa Falls College Community this semester. It was well received and signed by students, faculty and staff. As you remember you saw this document at the April board meeting. This now sets the stage for following Jesus, focusing on Him, and allowing Jesus to live His life through us. Our Spiritual Emphasis Week speaker, Dr. Ted Traylor, did an excellent job in his messages supporting our initiatives.

As we continue to focus on Jesus we will see His will done in the lives of our faculty, staff and students. God is at work here. And at times there will be rain clouds and rain. But we will also experience the sure blessing of Jesus Christ on this “the tree of His planting.” The Lord is faithful and will provide in every area for his college. May we always stand on the truths of the Word of God and His faithfulness.

As we focus on Jesus Christ we not only focus on our intentional spiritual formation but we also focus on Biblical Truth. The Word of God is central on our campus. It is integrated into the curriculum of each of our schools and we continue to require 30 hours of Bible for every major. Our students are being equipped to impact their world with the love and message of Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord for His faithfulness in providing the right professors and the right opportunities for ministry on campus.

We also provide academic excellence to our students. Toccoa Falls College is a leader in the Association for Biblical Higher Education. Our faculty and administration continue to be used as evaluators in accreditation visits to other colleges.

Our good report from SACS this summer has provided another block in the strengthening of our academic excellence. We anticipate that the recommendations will be answered by the time of the on-site visit in November. Dr. Bellefeuille will share more about this in her report. We also have several of our faculty and administration being sought after to be evaluators on accreditation teams for SACS.

We were excited and blessed to be accepted as a full member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities on July 29, 2008. This again recognizes the growth in academic excellence as we continue to expand our majors and credentials in a variety of areas.

We are very pleased to have Dr. Dale Garside back as our lead professor in Modern Languages. This is an area that also assists us in providing academic excellence to our students.

We continue to focus on the future as we give more attention to the online program. This program is growing and reaching out to those who are unable to attend college as a residential student. We are currently seeing good percentage growth in this program and trust that a greater enrollment will come this year. We are also discussing offering an Associate of Arts degree on line for the future.

We are continuing improvements on the campus as this year progresses. We have completed our last terrace dorm to be placed on the terraces. We have all but about $15,000 to complete the social center on the terraces for these dorms. This dream started back in the late 1980s has now become a reality for which we praise the Lord. The last two dorms were built with funds already provided by donors. Praise the Lord!

We are also removed Burt and Anderson from the campus. These older houses have not been used in a few years. We have had the asbestos removed and are now in the process of taking these down. Oak Cottage, the trailer in the center of campus, has also been removed. These are very positive steps for the appearance of the campus.

We have also re-carpeted C-Wing of Forrest Hall. This cost was unexpected but after looking at the carpet and the rooms in C-Wing two weeks before school began, I decided we had to put in new carpet to improve the living space.

The Lord has done a wonderful work at Toccoa Falls College. We continue on a good financial foundation even with a lower enrollment this year. I am concerned about the effect of the economy on our enrollment this year. Our new student enrollment and our returning student enrollment were both lower than expected. To better respond to this need we have tasked a person in Student Development, Mrs. Cathy Doan, with the job of retention. She has experience in this area and will be a good person to help us respond to the needs of our students.
We have also expanded the area of Student Development in student contact. We now have area coordinators along with resident directors who will respond to the needs of our residential students. This will provide a good foundation for students who may be at risk of dropping out of school.

We have also provided additional oversight of the Office of Admissions by asking Dr. Douglas White to provide leadership in this area for this semester. We continue to advertise for the right person to place in the position of Director for Enrollment who could also assist in the leadership area.

Admissions and Enrollment
So to re-emphasize the response to the downturn in enrollment I want to assure you that this has not taken us by complete surprise having known that numbers were slipping as far back as early Spring, 2008. At that time we did everything we could to either gain new students or retain our returning students.

To be proactive this year concerning enrollment we have done the following:

2. We have a new office of Student Retention which will work to increase our retention of students for the coming year.

3. We have assigned two admissions counselors to work on enrollment for this spring, 2009. We normally have one admissions counselor designated to this segment of prospective students.

4. We are purchasing additional names of high school seniors, juniors and sophomores.

5. We are increasing our advertising in areas which have traditionally provided students to Toccoa Falls College.

6. We have developed and we are in the process of receiving new admissions campaign material for this year.

Even with the lower enrollment this year we expect to support our academic programs and the student experience should not be impacted. We expect our resources to be adequate to achieve our mission this year as long as we are diligent in carefully handling our expenses.

And in light of that I have asked each Vice President to review their budgets and carefully look at all expense items.

We have also been diligent over the last four or five years to create a “Reserve Fund” for future years. We have entered this year with good reserves, some of which will be needed.

Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU)
I was very pleased to receive the approval for full membership with the CCCU in July.

Dr. Paul Corts and I had discussed this in January at the meeting of the CCCU presidents in Washington, DC. We had two phone conferences and submitted a revised report of the last report submitted about three years ago. This membership continues to show our growth to being a “Premier Christian College” which is stated in our “Vision Statement.”

Reaffirmation Process
The reaffirmation process of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges is continuing. We received a good report from SACS in June and have now answered all the questions. We will submit this report at the end of September.

The readers of the report and our SACS representative, Dr. Jack Allen commented that the report was well done and easily navigated. Much of the report was done on CD and reference material was on line. We were overjoyed with the report from SACS and praise the Lord for His blessing.

Our “Quality Enhancement Plan” report will also be presented to SACS at the end of September. Our on-site visit from SACS is scheduled for November 11 – 13, 2008. We are confident that every question will be answered and that our “Quality Enhancement Plan” will be accepted. The title of the “QEP” is Wisdom Education: An intentional approach to developing character with intellect.

We will also be going through the reaffirmation process with the Association of Biblical Higher Education as well as the Professional Standards Commission of the State of Georgia for our Teacher Education Program during 2009. We are anticipating good reports from these accrediting organizations as well.

I praise the Lord for what He has done and how the Lord, through our faculty and staff, has prepared us for these reaffirmations.

Learning Center Facility
We continue to seek funds for the learning center as we have around three million dollars promised or in hand for this facility. This 30,000 to 40,000 square foot center will provide a new library, new computer lab, learning support services, and our informational technology area. I have confidence in our Advancement Office and our staff there to provide the work needed for this campaign.

Toccoa Falls College Foundation
We also focus on the future with the development of the south property by the Toccoa Falls Estates Foundation. This will provide funding to assist in paying down the bonds. Everything seems to be in place for beginning the development. Our land planner and several from Toccoa Falls College met with the City Commission this summer. We have now received the final approval and the final plans are being made for this new development. We appreciate these fine efforts by the foundation.

Andrew Widman Memorial Scholarship
This summer one of our alumni, Andrew Widman, was shot and killed in Fort Myers. This tragedy was reported on national news as well as in the Fort Myers area. One of our former trustees, Mr. Roy Thaxton, went to the newspaper office in Fort Myers and made a statement that he would ask Toccoa Falls College to name a building after Mr. Widman. Andrew Widman was a police officer in Fort Myers and left a wife and four children. He had been on the force for less than one year. He graduated from Toccoa Falls College and then Gordon Seminary and tried to raise support for going to the mission field. When that did not proceed quickly enough, he moved back to his wife’s home town and became a police officer. This was an extremely emotional time for the city of Fort Myers.

I sent a letter for Mrs. Widman by Dr. Samuel Ferrell which was given to her on the day of the funeral. Parts of the letter were read by the television station during the funeral service.

I am recommending that a scholarship grant be named in memory of Andrew Widman and awarded each year to a student at Toccoa Falls College. This will honor his family and provide an ongoing memorial for Andy.

Projects Completed

I praise the Lord for the following projects which are completed and in the process of being completed.

I do appreciate Mr. Coker and the negotiating skills he brings to campus. We now have a new soft drink contract which is directly with Toccoa Falls College instead of Aramark. We were able to change back to Coca Cola from Pepsi and receive better income from this new contract.

Spiritual Formation

The new “Foundations of Spiritual Formation” course is in place and being taught by a team of professors. I am very please to see this course in place and assisting our students in developing their spiritual formation plan for their lives. I praise the Lord that we now have this course as a part of the core curriculum in the Bible department. We have heard many good comments about the course and the student participation.

The “Community Covenant” was presented to our campus community during the first week of school. This document was explained and each member of the student body, faculty, staff, and administration had the opportunity to sign this covenant in a chapel service. The members of the Toccoa Falls College Board of Trustees signed this document at their April meeting. A copy is attached for your information.

Institutional Advancement
With the departure of Dr. Neil Veydt I have stepped in to be the director of this area. With my 33 years of experience and certifications in this area I feel that we can go this year without a vice president or director.

I commend the work of Rev. Dale Leinbach, and Mr. Bucky Plyler for their relationship building and donor and prospective donor calls. They have done a great job in expanding the donor base of the college.

The fundraising for the Centennial Campaign is being revamped so that we might continue the search for major gifts to this program before a formal announcement. We are near the three million dollar mark in cash and pledges. We need several more donors to make commitments to move the library/learning center to a place of construction. We are working hard to seek additional funds from individuals and foundations.

I commend Sharon Sanderson and Deborah Wilkes in their fine job in the area of Alumni Relations. We applaud the growing response from our alumni base and look forward to continued income development in the future. The large jump in our income from our alumni is due to a large bequest of around one million dollars which was received this past spring. We also received around $500,000 from two alumni to pay for the new terrace dorm.

It is always a pleasure to report to the Toccoa Falls College Alumni Association. As a former president of this association and director of Alumni Affairs I am very pleased with the progress and involvement of this association. We have been able to add more alumni to the Board of Trustees as well as seat the president of the alumni association as an observer at the meetings of the Board of Trustees. These have been great accomplishments for the association.

May the Lord continue to bless you as you support our alma mater. We need unrestricted income more this year than ever before. I thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely in Christ,

W. Wayne Gardner

W. Wayne Gardner (BC 1969)
President

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Report of the President to the Alumni Board of Directors