Dear WPU Community,
“In all labour there is profit: But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.”-Proverbs 14:23
As we enter August, I would like to take the time to recognize the work of staff and faculty during the summer months to support our traditional (TRAD) and PGS (Professional Graduate Studies) students.
In June, Dr. Cecelia Monto and team worked diligently to pursue a $3M~ Hawkins grant, which we hope to learn of its success in October.
Recently, Dr. Linda Campbell and team have made an application for a near $1.3M~HECC grant to support the ongoing work of our nursing program. We are also pleased to report that the efforts of Doug Wade and the facilities team have returned the Nursing program back to our campus. We welcome the program back to campus and look forward to seeing nursing students around the campus.
Our Athletic Director, Matt Gregg and our able head baseball coach, Jeff Bard, have begun the initial recruiting of our newly returned baseball team with 15-25 athletes joining this historic time in WPU athletics.
And, as always, our Enrollment team under the leadership of Dr. Darilis Garcia have achieved last year’s pace but are continuing to press towards achieving a necessary goal of 155 new (TRAD) students. The Student Success division has done a tremendous job in achieving a near 98% for eligible continuing students and the work of Dustin Kummrow and the Financial team are continuously working to package students with FAFSA despite the ongoing challenges of this program at the federal level.
As we continue our pursuit of our fall enrollment goals for 2024-2025, we applaud the efforts of Marlo Waters, Amber Gribbins, Katherine McDonald and others in joining a newly assembled workgroup to increase our online enrollment. (You will learn more about this in the fall.)
Pastor Zo and members of the Advancement team have been working tirelessly to renew ties to our ChoG affiliated community with the hopes that they once again view Warner Pacific as a destination to champion, ambassador for and to ultimately send their parishioners.
On a final note, we hope that you will all enjoy our new digital front door: a new website! We appreciate the work of Katherine McDonald, Brandon Ray, Jeshua Neff and Aaron Brassea in this effort to improve the reputational value of our institution in Portland, Oregon, the region and the United States and beyond.
There are countless others who could be mentioned here and this is merely a sampling of what we can do as a community when our words do not supplant our work. I could speak of the work of the Finance Team of Doug Wade, Kevin Finn, Bryan Cook and Sarah Oancea for ensuring ongoing financial stability for our institution; Human Resources under the leadership of John Coules; Andrew Wynings—who has stepped in ably as the new leader for our Advancement division; Shimiki Stringer’s residential preparation for our some 100 students who reside on campus and Dr. Vandana Nandakumar, who has installed our strategic planning site to track our recently approved strategic plan in addition to submitting our most recent NWCCU annual accreditation report. Lastly, I always appreciate Lyne Bacon who keeps me and our entire Executive Council on our toes ensuring we are where we need to be.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who labour on behalf of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and within their callings here at Warner Pacific University during this season. May the Lord reward each of you, for your efforts are not in vain!
