The timing is optimal as Manchester grows in complexity beyond its 123-year-old undergraduate, residential liberal arts core with: a new professional doctoral program in pharmacy, with faculty engaged in research agendas; a new non-residential campus in Fort Wayne; graduate programs in athletic training and education, with more possibilities.
A name change to university is strategic, said president Jo Young Switzer. “A new name will help us communicate our expanding academic competencies and goals.
“What we will not change is our mission to graduate persons of ability and conviction who will work to improve the human condition,” Switzer said. “Manchester’s reputation for exciting learning and service opportunities supported by faculty mentoring will continue in the undergraduate, graduate, and School of Pharmacy programs.”
Switzer’s recommendation and the Board of Trustee’s decision were presaged by conversations with members of the Manchester community--alumni, faculty, current students, and staff--as well as surveys by a research firm of potential students and community leaders.
Manchester currently offers more than 55 areas of academic study, including master’s degrees in athletic training and education. A total of 1,320 undergraduate and graduate students study on its North Manchester campus.
In August, the first 70 students in Manchester’s new doctoral pharmacy program begin classes in a new facility in north Fort Wayne. When that first class graduates in four years, 280 students will be enrolled in the Pharm.D. program.
-- Jeri S. Kornegay is director of Media and Public Relations for Manchester College.
Source:5/3/2012 Newsline
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