COLUMBIA, SC (courtesy thestate.com) — On the job for just 93 days as of Friday, Roslyn Artis is not sitting still.

The new president of Benedict College has been moving fast to make changes at the historically black college in downtown Columbia, and wants to see a bigger change in the next school year.

Artis says she plans to cap enrollment at Benedict at 2,000 students next fall. She also wants to slash the school’s $29,000-a-year tuition in a bid to make the 147-year-old school more attractive to new students.

The 47-year-old Artis sees the changes as part of a new era of cost cutting at Benedict in hopes of stabilizing the school’s financial situation.

“The board has been forthright about some of the challenges Benedict is facing,” Artis said in an exclusive interview Friday with The State. “Enrollment has fluctuated over time, and since we’re largely enrollment driven (in terms of revenue), that creates a bit of a problem. So when coming here, my first task was really to stabilize our financial picture, to be quite frank.”

In recent years, Benedict has dropped from a high of more than 3,000 students in 2011 to a little more than 2,000 today. In the same span of time, Benedict’s reported incoming revenue has fallen from $81 million in 2012 to $71.8 million at the end of 2015, according to IRS filings.

“The last chapter in Benedict’s book saw a president who was visionary and interested in expansion,” Artis said of her predecessor, David Swinton, Benedict’s president for 23 years. Swinton’s time in charge saw an increase in enrollment, new construction and expansion beyond the school’s Harden Street campus.

But that growth came at the cost of stretching the college’s finances.

“I’m interested in transitioning us from what was to what must be, frankly in order to remain solvent,” Artis said.

No more open enrollment

Changes in enrollment and tuition are meant to make Benedict both more attractive to incoming students, but also “create a sense of urgency” for those considering Benedict, Artis said.

“We have historically been known as an open enrollment institution, which brings with it a certain negative connotation. It does not speak to opportunity, which it was really intended to speak to, but it just means, ‘Oh, I’ll just go there.’ That’s not really how this works.

“If you want to choose Benedict, you should probably do that early, because we will close the door at a certain point,” she said.

Likewise, the lower tuition – which has yet to be set – is meant to make the school more competitive in the education marketplace. Today’s high price tag might discourage some students from even considering Benedict, while scholarships, discounts and subsidies mean the college only sees 41 cents of each dollar nominally owed to the school.

The cost also doesn’t match the community that Benedict serves. Sixty-four percent are first-generation college students, and 85 percent receive federal Pell grants.

“That doesn’t get these kids there,” Artis said. “They are borrowing money. We do not want those kids to leave here with a debt load that is oppressive. It’s not giving them a fair shot when they start out in the world if they have oppressive debt loads.”

‘I am going to be aggressive’

Artis said she is a big believer in the value of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) like Benedict. Growing up as a coal miner’s daughter in an almost all-white corner of West Virginia, Artis says she was “racially confused” before she attended historically black West Virginia State, becoming the first in her family to go to college in the process.

She first went to law school, then decided on a career in education after teaching a legal research class. At the end of the course, “my student left me a note saying, ‘You changed my life,’” she said.

She earned her doctorate from Vanderbilt University and went on to serve as president of Florida Memorial College, an HBC in Miami, for four years until this past summer.

“Amongst her peers, Dr. Artis is a star,” said Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, who sits on Benedict’s board of trustees. “She’s an educator, a lawyer and an expert in higher education finance, but her first priority is the students.”

J.T. McLawhorn, president of Columbia’s Urban League, was impressed with Artis after she gave a talk at his church.

“Dr. Artis has a passion for education, and she’s able to connect with the underserved as a first-generation college graduate,” McLawhorn said.

Part of Artis’s appeal to the board was her reputation as a fundraiser. At Florida Memorial, unrestricted gifts rose by 20 percent on her watch, and restricted gifts jumped 38 percent.

In comparison, Benedict received $12 million in outside contributions in 2015. Of that, Artis said only $2 million was gifted by donors, half by Benedict alumni and another $500,000 from Benedict-affiliated churches.

“We have not had what you would want to see from our corporate foundations, (or) from a private foundation standpoint,” Artis said. “We are a great bang for our buck. $1 million here is a significant, transformative gift when you think about the kind of kids we’re educating and the content of our budget.”

Artis points to a study that shows Benedict and its students had a $130 million impact on the surrounding community in 2014.

“If I’m doing business to the tune of $130 million, I ought to be getting something back from those businesses that we patronize and support,” she says. “So I am going to be aggressive and engaged with our business community.”

‘There’s a little fear of the unknown’

As part of her efforts to cut costs, Artis already has put some Benedict-owned off-campus housing properties – some as far away as St. Andrews – up for sale to consolidate Benedict’s students on campus.

The president says Benedict’s current faculty size – 116 full-time, 46 part-time – is the right fit for the newly capped class size. Her next step, she said, is to “update classroom technology and wireless infrastructure” to teach a more high-tech generation – as long as the faculty can keep up.

“There’s a little fear of the unknown, and that’s fine,” she said. “If you’ve been teaching one way for 25 years, you’re going to want to keep doing that.”

She has the support of her bosses to make changes. Benjamin says the board wants Artis to do a “full, top to bottom assessment” of the school.

“We are beginning a new chapter in the history of Benedict College. We are focusing very specifically on our core population and our core mission,” Artis said. “We are hopeful our business community will embrace our students.”

“And,” she added. “Send checks.”

ANDERSON, SC (courtesy andersonuniversity.edu) — Anderson University has received a grant of $200,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to aid in the further development of the Rocky River Nature Park adjacent to campus. The funds will be used to clean up an industrial site (known as the Seabrook facility), which abuts the Rocky River wetlands.

The University has partnered with the Rocky River Conservancy, Upstate Forever and others in the development of the natural wetlands into a nature park and environmental education facility for the community. Whatever funds from the grant that are not needed for the cleanup of the Seabrook facility will be used for community outreach and education regarding the Rocky River.

“EPA is committed to working with communities to redevelop Brownfields sites which have plagued their neighborhoods. EPA’s Assessment and Cleanup grants target communities that are economically disadvantaged and include places where environmental cleanup and new jobs are most needed,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “These grants leverage considerable infrastructure and other investments, improving local economies and creating an environment where jobs can grow. I am very pleased the President’s budget recognizes the importance of these grants by providing continued funding for this important program.”

The conservancy previously received an additional grant to develop a boardwalk through part of the wetlands for public use. That project is underway.

ANDERSON, SC — A recent visit from a delegation of The University of Wurzburg-Schweinfurt in Germany, including the president and chancellor Dr. Robert Grebner, resulted in the signing of a partnership between that university and Anderson University.

AU has agreements with universities around the world, but this is the first from Germany.

The delegation from the Bavarian university plans to cultivate a relationship with Anderson that will result in faculty and student exchanges as well as some joint programs in the future.

Wurzburg, the fourth biggest metropolis of Bavaria, is located at the riverside of the Main between Frankfort and Nuremberg. 10,000 out of 130,000 inhabitants are from 130 different countries. About 30,000 students keep the city vibrant and progressive.

Anderson was represented by Executive Vice President and Provost, Dr. Danny Parker.

CHARLESTON, SC (courtesy of csuniv.edu) — The United States Department of Education has notified Charleston Southern that the university has been selected to receive funding for a Title 3 project.

The $2,249,700 award will be administered over a five-year period and will fund Success Through Access and Robust Support (STARS), an initiative to introduce new best practice instructional models for distance education/blended education to solve capacity programs, expand access to programs and services and address weaknesses that hinder adequately serving students.

“This new funding opportunity will enhance our commitment to promoting academic excellence in a Christian environment. The faculty will receive new technology training and will extend that expertise to our students – whether they are online or on campus,” said Dr. Jackie Fish, vice president for academic affairs.

Dr. Patty Hambrick, director of academic technology and academic grants, said, “Charleston Southern has many excellent benefits as a recipient of the Title 3 Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant including increased technology infrastructure to support faculty and student needs for more blended and online instruction due to CSU’s ever increasing enrollment.”

STARS will support three initiatives:

1. Improve Faculty Capacity to Offer Courses Using a Shared Classroom Model: The new model will save classroom space and allow CSU to enroll more students. The active learning emphasis has proven to be effective in increasing student success at other colleges and universities. CSU will develop a faculty certification for shared classroom active learning instruction, which is defined as a course meeting on campus half the time and using active learning out-of-classroom instruction, such as flipped classroom activities, the other half of the time.
2. Expand Access through Online and Hybrid Programming: CSU will upgrade its distance learning infrastructure and renovate and equip a faculty studio. Faculty will receive training to become Quality Matters certified instructors. These enhanced tools will allow CSU to convert its 13 Liberal Arts Core courses (general education) to online/hybrid format and redesign the existing online/hybrid Criminal Justice core courses, adhering to rigorous Quality Matters standards.
3. Expand Access to Support Services: Five online student support services will be developed:
   • Orientation to online learning
   • Mentoring
   • Academic planning
   • Advising
   • Mobile services

“Funds from this grant will enable our faculty to further enhance and expand teaching excellence and learning opportunities through technology,” said President Dr. Jairy Hunter Jr. “CSU recently received zero recommendations for improvement during the reaffirmation of accreditation process by a peer visiting team. I salute our faculty and staff for their commitment to academic excellence.”

CSU will receive the funds under the Department of Education’s SIP which helps eligible institutions become self-sufficient and expand their capacity to serve low-income students by providing funds to improve and strengthen academic quality, institutional management and fiscal stability.

Click here to read the original release on the Charleston Southern website.

TIGERVILLE, SC — North Greenville University will move its T. Walter Brashier Graduate School and the Center for Adult Professional Studies to the former Ryan’s corporate office building in Greer in time for the Fall 2016 semester.

“We just worked out some trading of some assets,” said Dr. Randall Pannell, Interim President of North Greenville University. “We had an opportunity on some things that we really were not going to use, some land and other things. We got a great opportunity to redeploy those assets.”

The graduate school had been located at the old Fairview Baptist Church in Greer since 2006 after the church built a new location across the street.

“It’s been a nice lease for us for the 10 years the grad school has been in existence,” Pannell said.

The new location features 10 acres of property, including a 1.4-acre section available for future development, as well as the office building.

In addition to housing the graduate school, Pannell said the university will move its undergraduate Center for Adult Professional Studies classes into the new facility. The program offers six online-only degree options including business administration, Christian ministries, criminal justice and legal studies, educational studies, general studies and psychology. The program is at the university’s Tim Brashier Center on Pleasantburg Street.

The new location means the university will consolidate its two off-site locations into one, but Pannell said the cost savings in paying the lease for the church location was not a factor in the move to a new facility.

“The lease at the church has been nominal, and we own the Pleasantburg site, so the lease savings won’t be that great,” Pannell said. “We get to consolidate several of our enterprises into one location, and we will save on the expenses caring for just one facility instead of two.”

North Greenville University recently announced it was launching a physician assistant medicine graduate degree slated to begin in January. The new program will be included along with the university’s other graduate degree programs: Ministry, business administration, education, education certification, music education and Doctor of Ministry.

The university also plans to move the Center for Adult Professional Studies recruitment team, as well as other “support functions,” from the main campus in Tigerville to the new location in Greer.

The graduate school will begin its transition to the new facility at 405 Lancaster Ave. in Greer this summer, and Pannell said the plan is for the school to be completely moved by the start of the 2016-17 academic year.

Click here to read the full news release from GSA Business.

GREENVILLE, SC — Thanks to a grant from Steelcase Education, Furman University’s Health Sciences Department will spend the summer transforming one of its classrooms into an active learning environment that has proven to positively impact student engagement and collaboration.

Furman received the grant through the Active Learning Center (ALC) program, a grant initiative in its second year founded by Steelcase Education. The program empowers educators to facilitate active learning strategies by leveraging classroom space.

A Steelcase Education learning environment valued at more than $60,000 will be installed this summer in Furman’s Lay Physical Activities Center and be ready for the 2016 fall semester. The PAC is home to the Health Sciences Department, which has the largest number of majors on campus.

Selected from more than 800 proposals, Furman was awarded the grant along with 12 other schools. Only six of the winners were institutions of higher learning.

In the proposal, Mike Winiski, Associate Director of Furman’s Center for Teaching and Learning, and Susan Dunnavant, Director of Learning Technology Services in Furman’s Information Technology Department, explain that instructors in the Health Sciences Department have been using active learning techniques such as team-based-learning (TBL) with a high degree of success for the last several years.

Research by Furman Health Sciences professors Alicia Powers and Meghan Slining was an integral part of the grant proposal to Steelcase Education. The professors have shown that when students are active participants in the learning process, are provided with frequent and iterative feedback, teach their peers, and apply their knowledge in new and complex situations, not only do they learn more content, they learn skills that are vital to their future studies and work.

The new classroom will transition from lecture to team mode without interruption, creating an effortless multi-modal learning system. With the new setup students are able to easily reconfigure into small groups to increase interaction, while the instructor station supports a variety of configurations and teaching styles.

“We are honored to be recognized by The Active Learning Center grant,” says Winiski. “The space conversion will be used primarily to augment the Health Science Department’s TBL approach as well as encourage evaluation of learning spaces across campus,” he says.

“Furman University was chosen for its commitment to utilizing progressive pedagogies and active learning strategies that truly impact student engagement,” says Craig Wilson, Director of Market Development, Steelcase Education.

In addition to the new classroom, Furman will receive training from Steelcase on the uses of the technology and furniture, and will have the opportunity to participate in a community with all awarded schools to share insights and best practices. Over the two-year program, Steelcase and Furman will partner to conduct assessments and research on the impact of the newly designed space.

For more information about the winners, visit the Steelcase Education website, or contact Furman’s News and Media Relations Office at (864) 294-3107.