Winter 2012 - Wayland Baptist University Alumni Association

The President’s Pen
“You can be proud
of your Wayland.
Her future is filled
with possibility and
opportunity.
“
Welcoming 2013
Challenges lie ahead for WBU
As hard as it is to believe, 2012 is
just about gone. I am amazed at
how quickly time seems to pass
in life. As I think about where we are, both
as a university and as individuals, a few
words come to mind.
Blessings
Your university is having a great school
year. With record enrollments at several
of our campuses, including Plainview and
San Antonio, we have been given wonderful
opportunities to practice the ministry
to which God has called Wayland Baptist
University. New opportunities to expand
the scope and reach of the school’s service
are always given serious consideration, and
invitations to consider such expansions
seem to come to us regularly. We have
added to and expanded the university’s academic
offerings, constructed a new men’s
dorm, and remodeled our university center.
There is a strong spiritual vibrancy among
our students which is deeper and more
pronounced than at any time in the recent
past. Many of the individuals attending
Wayland today are deeply and passionately
committed to changing our world through
the word and the power of Christ. In many
ways, our job as a faith-based institution of
higher learning is to give these students the
tools they need to fulfill that very calling.
Challenges
Because of growing concerns surrounding
government budget issues, student aid
programs at both the state and national
level are being examined with a view
towards large reductions and contractions.
Last year, Wayland students received $5.3
million in need-based federal sponsored
Pell Grant assistance. In Texas, our students
received around $2 million in Tuition
Equalization Grant funding from the state
legislature. Both of these programs are
facing serious challenges and threats. If
reductions are enacted, the impact on our
students will be significant—especially on
first-in-family college attenders.
Military tuition assistance is also in
danger of being substantively reduced.
Such a reduction would impact about 47%
of those students who attend our external
campuses. While no final decisions have
been made yet regarding MTA, the news
out of Washington D.C. is, at this point in
time, discouraging.
Because of the looming “fiscal cliff”
in our nation’s capital, all kinds of revenue-generating
proposals are being given
consideration. One of these ideas is to limit
and/or eliminate the charitable deduction
provision in the nation’s IRS tax code. Institutions
like Wayland, which depend heavily
on the generosity of their friends and
alumnae, are deeply concerned about such
possibilities. The way philanthropy has
been supported through the years is under
grave threat of being changed forever.
Gratitude
In spite of the challenges we face, Wayland
Baptist University has been blessed.
All of us who serve here have a very clear
sense that the future clearly is bright for
the school. You can be proud of your Wayland.
Her future is filled with possibility and
opportunity.
Your friendship towards and support
of this school is more important than ever
before. While the environment in which we
serve changes on a daily basis, your belief
in Wayland’s ministry remains strong and
sure and steady. Thanks for your prayers
and your gifts. They encourage and sustain
us strongly on a daily basis.
We hope that 2013 will be for you and
your family a blessed and happy year.
Grace and peace... .
What the President is Reading: Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin; Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet,
Spy, Eric Metaxas; Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World, Evan Thomas