The Presidential Blog

Chile is a fantastic study abroad destination.

As a member of the board for the International Student Exchange Programs (ISEP), I recently attended a conference in Chile. I found the country more like Europe than I anticipated, particularly in the area I visited near Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, a seaport and resort area in the heart of wine country.

Only about five percent of the population speaks English, and I saw very few Americans or Europeans. A student could easily become immersed in the Spanish language. I was impressed with the students I met there and with the quality of education available.

With the recent addition of Dr. Peter Gess as Director of International Programs at Hendrix, we are working with organizations like ISEP and others to make study abroad experiences available to more Hendrix students.

I hope the more international students come to Hendrix and that a higher percentage of our students graduate with an international experience. Being immersed in another culture, even for a short time, gives you a different perspective on the world and is an important part of what it means to be an educated person.

For more information about the opportunities for international study and travel available at Hendrix, contact Dr. Gess at gess@hendrix.edu.

Hendrix is on an odyssey to establish itself as a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. When we started this journey, we estimated that we would need $70 million for the trip. We set a goal of raising that amount by the end of 2008.

In October, we announced that our goal will now be $100 million and that our comprehensive campaign will extend to 2010.

As Homer’s tale illustrates, an odyssey is a journey of discovery and surprise, following an often winding trail, facing unexpected challenges and obstacles. Our odyssey toward national leadership is following that trend, but so far the biggest challenges have been responding to our success.

Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning, the new component of our curriculum that emphasizes experiential learning, has been successful at attracting students and at inspiring creativity, ingenuity and enthusiasm among students and faculty. The program has also attracted support from our alumni and friends. We have received more than $68 million in gifts and pledges toward our goal.

But, even with that success, we still need to raise money to endow the Odyssey Program and to build a new Student Life and Technology Center, a building that will meet the needs of our growing student body now and into the 21^st century. The building will house the Odyssey Program, provide space for student life offices, student organizations, student programming, and a dynamic new Educational Technology Center that will connect Hendrix students and faculty to the world using the most advanced technology available.

Those are the goals driving our increased campaign goal. It is an ambitious goal for an institution with fewer than 12,000 living alumni. To reach this goal will require the support and involvement of everyone who loves Hendrix and wants to see the College and its graduates succeed. Visit www.hendrix.edu/chartingprogress to learn how you can help.

Does anyone know if Martin Hall was ever calm? It seems to be turning into Animal House. I am proud that we do not have fraternities and sororities at Hendrix. I hope that we never will. But, is Martin a de facto frat?

One of the wonderful things about the Hendrix Odyssey program is that grant-funding is available to support projects, allowing our students to think and dream outside the constraints of their personal finances. All of these grants – and many other things at Hendrix – are made possible by gifts.

Oh, and some have said to me that “my tuition dollars paid for the new Wellness and Athletics Center” or “my tuition will be paying for the new Student Life and Technology Center” the College is planning. Not true.

In 2006-07, tuition and other student fees generated just 58 percent of the College’s annual operating budget. Where did the rest of the money come from?

The endowment generated 26 percent of the budget. Contributions to the Annual Fund produced eight percent, and restricted gifts and grants generated another five percent. The last three percent of the budget came from miscellaneous revenue sources.

Gifts built the WAC. Gifts will build the Student Life and Technology Center. Gifts funded the more than $12 million in scholarships and financial aid given to Hendrix students last year.

And, in case you were wondering, gifts allowed us to build the playing field for our new intercollegiate sports – field hockey and lacrosse. Establishing those sports helped us to attract students to Hendrix who might not have considered us otherwise. The tuition dollars of those additional students will help to pay the annual expenses of these sports and support the academic program.

By the way...
Go to the lacrosse and field hockey games! Support your classmates and friends and enjoy sitting in the stands and watching them play on that great playing field that your tuition dollars didn’t pay for … and, if you happen to see some Hendrix donors enjoying the game as you are, take a moment and say “thanks!”

My almost-lost iPod contained photos from my summer Odyssey to Rwanda with Provost Entzminger, Dr. Daniel Whelan and eleven interesting and diverse Hendrix students. David Knight ’73, a Hendrix Trustee and our trip leader, made the opportunity possible for us.

It was a fantastic experience. Rwanda is a country of incredible beauty and the strength and resilience of the Rwandan people are amazing.  It is inspiring to see first-hand what people can accomplish when they come together in community and commit themselves to change. In the midst of great tragedy, there is hope for a better tomorrow.  If you'd like to hear more about this experience, listen to the podcast from the Special Edition Hendrix Huddle in Little Rock.

Our journey to Rwanda was not the only Odyssey trip of note this summer. Hendrix students and faculty were studying entrepreneurship in China, art in Italy, the land and literature of South Africa and C.S. Lewis at Oxford. In Tanzania, they were volunteering at an orphanage and in Costa Rica our students and faculty were part of the College’s first Summer Semester, studying ecology, history, culture and language in this Central American country.

In addition to these group trips, individual students visited places as diverse as India, New York City, Bolivia, Washington, D.C., the Galapagos Islands, the U.S. Naval Academy and Cambodia. Several intriguing Odyssey projects took place closer to home, including peanut allergy research, earthquake analysis using a ring laser, and studying chemical communication in African elephants.

One group of Hendrix students organized an outreach project last summer, working with the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Faulkner County to get young people excited about studying science. “Ridin’ Dirty with Science” was a resounding success and I’ve heard there are plans to repeat it next summer.

So far, Odyssey projects have taken Hendrix students and faculty to six of the world’s seven continents. Who’s up for Antarctica in 2008?