Reinhardt University President, Mark A Roberts, PhD, delivered the annual State of the University Address on Monday. Inside Flint Hall at the Falany Performing Arts Center, Dr. Roberts welcomed the University’s faculty and staff to the new 2023-2024 academic year. Dr. Roberts’s central theme was to encourage the Reinhardt community to think of their work as a collective contribution to a great work of art: “The project we are creating is Reinhardt University,” he said. Dr. Roberts also shared institutional highlights and the new strategic plan.
Highlights included exceeding the University’s budgeted fundraising goal for 2022-2023 and an increase, compared to last year, in committed students for Fall 2023. Campus housing for Fall 2023 is above expectations, with rooms at 92% capacity. Dr. Roberts remarked that the Cauble School of Nursing and Health Sciences recently received Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) funds to replace aging nursing lab equipment. The President further emphasized the success of Reinhardt’s athletic unit, citing seven teams that competed at the national level during the 2022-2023 academic year. Dr. Roberts also pointed to challenges, including management of inflationary costs and keeping momentum in the area of enrollment and fundraising.
To address challenges, Dr. Roberts shared Reinhardt University’s new strategic plan, “Widening the Fields of Endeavor: Advancing the Vision,” which focuses the institution of three overarching initiatives: 1) Ensure a Constructive Culture; 2) Enrich the Learning Environment & the Living Community; and 3) Establish a Vital Institution. Each initiative is followed by an objective and strategies for achievement. The president thanked the Strategic Advisory Committee members and the Board of Trustees for their input and guidance during the process.
Dr. Roberts concluded his remarks by emphasizing the University’s mission, vision, values, and educational ethos, the last being the newest core statement to guide the institution into the future: To Do the Real Work for the Good Life, a motto to keep faculty and staff focused on the essential goal of a Reinhardt education.
