Virginia Wesleyan College

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In the summer of 2005, Virginia Wesleyan President Billy Greer announced a bold new vision: to become a Phi Beta Kappa-caliber college. Phi Beta Kappa is the benchmark for excellence in liberal arts and sciences. Of the approximately 2,300 four-year colleges in the nation, only 276 have earned Phi Beta Kappa charters. Its golden key has been bestowed on America's most distinguished citizens, including Chief Justice John Marshall, six American Presidents, six Supreme Court justices, John Updike, Stephen Sondheim, Pearl S. Buck and Jonas Salk.

The Phi Beta Kappa vision is driven by three strategies: promote academic excellence in teaching and learning programs; build a strong and diverse student body; and create a state-of-the-art instructional setting and a campus to support it.

To meet the most critical needs for attaining a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, Virginia Wesleyan publicly launched its $65 million Key to the Future Campaign on September 14, 2006, bringing the vision into focus.

The Key to the Future Campaign

The Key to the Future Campaign, which began with a quiet phase on July 1, 2003 and ends on June 30, 2008, will help fund the vision to become a Phi Beta Kappa-caliber college. The campaign was publicly launched at an organizational meeting and kickoff celebration with many of the College's closest friends.

"It was a fitting day for these kickoff events, as it was on September 14, 1966, 40 years ago to the day, that the very first classes were held at Virginia Wesleyan College," said Vincent Mastracco, chairman of the Virginia Wesleyan Board of Trustees.

It is the goal of the $65 million Campaign to fund endowed chairs and professorships, reduce faculty teaching load to allow for more undergraduate research and student interaction, faculty professional development, internationalization of the campus, merit- and need-based scholarships, an ocean-going research vessel, modernization of the Hofheimer Library and adding 50,000 new volumes, a new LEED-certified platinum green laboratory science building, residence hall renovations, modernization of Monumental Chapel, campus landscaping, a new lacrosse, field hockey and intramural stadium, a new eight-court tennis center, modernization of the baseball-softball complex and a new track. With $44.1 million raised, the primary thrust of the Key to the Future Campaign for the final 18 months will be completion of funding for these projects which will lead to obtaining a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

"With the Key to the Future Campaign, we are attempting to leap over 150 years of history and to put this College in the same league as those much older academic institutions," said Virginia Wesleyan President Billy Greer.

Campaign Organizational Meeting

The public launch of the Campaign began with the Campaign Kickoff Leadership Organizational Meeting at 2 p.m. on Sept.14 in the Convocation Hall of the Jane P. Batten Student Center. Campaign  co-chairs were announced: Jane Batten, a member of the College Board of Trustees and former chair of the Board; Gary D. Bonnewell '79, an alumnus and a member of the Board and first vice president of wealth management, Smith Barney, and D. Henry Watts, a former chair of the Board and retired vice chairman of Norfolk Southern. The Leadership Organizational Meeting included representatives of the Board of Trustees, Campaign Cabinet, Alumni Board, Parents' Council, Women of Wesleyan, President's Advisory Council, faculty, staff and student leaders.

Campaign Kickoff Celebration

The Campaign Kickoff Celebration took place at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 14 in the Boyd Dining Center and included a wide array of supporters of the College. President Billy Greer and Board Chairman Vincent J. Mastracco announced the Campaign's progress to date. The celebration featured a six-minute video on a 16' screen, titled Bringing the Vision into Focus that can be viewed on the College Web site at www.vwc.edu/campaign/video.php.

The evening's theme was built around the kaleidoscope with an artistic flare, upbeat music, bright fluorescent tie-dyed and spandex materials on all surfaces and modern floral arrangements by Helga. A 50" plasma screen flashed campus and student images. The menu was a regional fare with seven passed items, six stationary items, four dessert items from Norfolk's own Doumar's and Rowena's and a specialty drink, the "kaleidoscope." The Arrangements Committee, comprised of Carol Everett, Suzanne Mastracco, Elizabeth Middleton and Emily Miles, worked on planning the evening.

Campaign Progress on Goal

Of the $44.1 million raised, 11 individuals have made gifts of $1 million or more, 173 Campaign Partners have made gifts of $10,000 or more and a total of 4,005 donors are supporting the Campaign, including alumni, parents, friends, faculty, staff, corporations, foundations, churches and civic clubs. The Campaign has reached 75 percent of its $29 million endowment goal, 36 percent of its $27 million capital goal and 104 percent of its $9 million operating goal and is at 68 percent of its overall $65 million goal.

Leading Donors

• Leading donors include Jane and Frank Batten, Sr., of Virginia Beach, who gave $11.9 million to provide endowment support for scholarships, recognizing leading faculty, hiring new faculty, faculty compensation and the teaching and advising center.
• The John Lingo Family of Rehoboth Beach, Del., gave $4.5 million to help create Lingo Stadium, a lacrosse, field hockey and intramural facility and to create endowed scholarships and to support the Annual Fund for Academic Excellence.
• Joan and Macon Brock, of Norfolk, gave a $3.3 million current and estate plan, naming Brock Village and supporting residence hall renovations, the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, baseball-softball complex improvements, an endowed scholarship, the Annual Fund and the Marlin Athletic Club.
• Frank E. Brown left Virginia Wesleyan a $2 million planned gift, which the College has matched dollar-for-dollar with new gifts.
• An anonymous donor gave a $1.3 million current and estate plan gift to establish an endowed international scholarship to provide study abroad support for Wesleyan students and support for foreign students to study at the College;
• Robert and Nancy DeFord, of Virginia Beach, gave a $1.2 million current and estate plan gift to create an endowed scholarship and to support the Annual Fund for Academic Excellence.
• Susan and David Goode, of Norfolk, made a gift of $1.1 million to help launch the Green Science Building Campaign.
• George and Sue Birdsong, of Suffolk, made a gift of $1 million that will support endowed scholarships, the community service program and the green science building.
• S. Frank Blocker, of Norfolk, made a combined current and estate plan gift of $1 million to modernize Blocker Hall, to support the S. Frank Blocker Endowed Scholarship and the Annual Fund for Academic Excellence.
• Kenneth R. Perry's gift of $1 million supported the Dean of the College, the library and the soccer stadium.
• D. Henry and Eleanor Watts, of Virginia Beach, gave $1 million to create an endowed scholarship and to support the Annual Fund.
• An anonymous donor gave $1 million, creating the C. S. Lewis Endowed Chair in Communication and Christian Thought.

For more information about the Key to the Future Campaign, please visit www.vwc.edu/campaign or contact Suzanne Savage by phone at 757.233.8736, or via e-mail at ssavage@vwc.edu.

Campaign Partners

Campaign Partners have made gifts or pledges of $10,000 or more to the Campaign. A Partner can be an alumnus, a parent, a friend of the College, a corporation, a foundation, a faculty member, a staff member, a student, a church or a civic organization. There are 173 Campaign Partners as of February 2007.

Promoting academic excellence in teaching and learning programs

Leading Faculty

Virginia Wesleyan's academic program is the heart of the institution, and top-notch faculty members are at its core. Over the last three years, the College has recruited 25 new faculty members, expanding the faculty by seven positions. The College has recruited young and energetic professors with degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Ohio State University, University of Georgia, University of Southern California, University of Texas, The College of William & Mary and Yale University.

Class Size and Faculty Teaching Load

Virginia Wesleyan's average class size is 13.8, extensive progress has been made in moving the faculty to a 4-3 teaching load, and student-faculty interaction is high. The College recognizes the importance of retaining Phi Beta Kappa-quality faculty.

Endowed Faculty

The College has recognized and financially rewarded leading faculty by naming 15 Batten Professors over a period of three years. Batten Professors receive funds for special advancement of their scholarship. The College has also annually recognized and financially rewarded a Batten Scholar, a professor with the most outstanding record of scholarly production; thereby promoting an emphasis on undergraduate research and honoring faculty for the products of their scholarly or creative labors.

Endowed chairs have been created in identified areas to bring exceptional academics to Virginia Wesleyan. Dr. Terry Lindvall, a leading scholar teacher, author and film producer who creatively integrates the study of faith with study of the media culture, was named C. S. Lewis Endowed Chair in Communication and Christian Thought in the fall of 2006. The Thomas R. Fanney Distinguished Professorship in Mathematics was also created.

Faculty Salaries and Development

An endowed fund was established to help raise faculty salaries by a cumulative 27.1% (5.4% annual average) over the five-year span between July 2004 and June 2008 in an effort to place Virginia Wesleyan at the Level 2 Rank (second quintile or salaries in the 60- 80% range) in the American Association of University Professors National Survey of Faculty Salaries. A Faculty Professional Development Fund has also been created to allow faculty to confer with peers from other institutions, to support attendance at conferences, to present papers and pursue research needed to keep their teaching and research on the cutting edge and to create a culture of inquiry for our students.

Bachelor of Science Degree

In addition to advances in the area of faculty development, Virginia Wesleyan is seeing developments in its academic programming. In recent years, new majors have been approved, and a Bachelor of Science degree was established for biology and chemistry, acknowledging the important role of empirical study within the liberal arts curriculum and capitalizing on the potential of the new laboratory science general studies requirement.

Research Vessel

A 46-foot Chesapeake Bay Classic research vessel, with a tower, galley, rear controls, expansive deck, dive support for aquatic collection and chart table, is under construction and owned in partnership with the Virginia Aquarium. It is anticipated that the vessel will be ready in the fall of 2007 for use by at least seven academic classes for research on the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Library Volumes

Hofheimer Library has also seen growth in its volumes, having reached 20 percent of its goal on the way to 50,000 new volumes. To meet this goal, the Library is on track to purchase 10,000 new volumes per year for the next five years from the list of "Best Books for Academic Libraries."

Endowed scholarships help build a strong and diverse student body

An important part of attracting and retaining top student scholars, endowed scholarships benefit many students annually. The Key to the Future Campaign has raised $10.4 million in new, student endowed scholarships, including the Batten Student Scholars and funds for merit, need based and study abroad awards.

Peter and Phyllis Pruden gave $855,000 from the estate of Peter D. Pruden, Jr. This gift, the second largest endowed scholarship gift in Virginia Wesleyan's history, created the Peter and Phyllis Pruden Endowed Scholarship in English, which will be awarded to English students with financial need who have demonstrated academic achievement and good citizenship.

The Lingo Family gift will create endowed scholarships in the sons' names, the John E. Lingo III Endowed Scholarship in Recreation and Leisure Studies and the William D. Lingo Endowed Scholarship in Art.

The gift from Dr. D. Henry and Mrs. Eleanor Watts will create the Eleanor and Henry Watts Endowed Scholarship, which will help make a college education accessible to everyone.

"Our endowed scholarship at Virginia Wesleyan is important to Eleanor and me because it gives us a feeling that long into the future we will be impacting education at this wonderful school," said Dr. Watts.

Robert and Nancy DeFord also created the Robert and Nancy DeFord Endowed Scholarship.

"Nancy and I have a life-long commitment to education. We are thrilled to establish an endowed scholarship at Virginia Wesleyan that will make an education attainable for a deserving student," said Mr. DeFord.

Several gifts were also made to the Annual Fund for Academic Excellence, providing the campus with the tools students need to succeed through increased annual funding to support student scholarships, technology in the classroom, undergraduate research and faculty recruitment and retention, raising the level of excellence at Virginia Wesleyan.

Going Platinum: a building for the future

When Virginia Wesleyan College builds its LEED-certified platinum green laboratory science building, it will be the only one at a liberal arts college in the world. The building will be the model for science facilities of the future.

This $17.3 million facility will transform the future of science education. The science building is actually an experiment itself, a living laboratory of sustainable design, in which students will study, conduct research, interact and participate in measuring, monitoring, and re-calibrating the performance of the green elements of the facility over a
40-year period.

"This building is going to change the way the sciences are taught, and the way science buildings are built in the future," said Virginia Wesleyan President Billy Greer.

The proposed science building will contribute to building a culture of environmental responsibility. Special features of the science building include: a reduction of energy consumption by up to 40 percent; the capture and use of renewable energy resources to provide up to 20 percent of the energy needs of the building and photovoltaic panels; the use of only recycled, renewable or certified green sustainable materials; filtration of storm water runoff for a rain garden and irrigation; and a green roof that will have a lifespan nearly double that of a traditional roof.

The new science building will also foster hands-on, research-oriented activities in both classrooms and laboratories and incorporate multimedia instructional technology. The building will contain dedicated research areas for each faculty member and students; modern laboratories for biology, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, computer science, and physics classes; natural history areas for geological, zoological, and botanical specimens; an observatory dome and pier to house a high-power telescope; and a new greenhouse, herbarium, and botany laboratory.

"I think the green science building will take the sciences at Virginia Wesleyan to a whole different level," said Dr. Maynard Schaus, professor of biology. "It will greatly enhance our capacity to do undergraduate research and engage our students in the sciences, especially in the environmental sciences."

When Virginia Wesleyan opens this building, it will be the only LEED-certified platinum green laboratory science building at a liberal arts college in the world. The only other LEED-certified platinum green laboratory science building is the Bren Building at the University of California - Santa Barbara.

Lingo Stadium: a new home for lacrosse, field hockey and intramurals

Plans to build a new $5 million lacrosse, field hockey and intramurals stadium are supported by generous gifts from the John Lingo Family and William S. '70 and Shelly Shelhorse.

The proposed stadium will feature a multipurpose synthetic field turf, a 1,000 seat grandstand with a press box, electronic scoreboard, parking, and is fence enclosed, making it one of the finest facilities of its kind at a NCAA Division III college. The stadium will be located adjacent to the Jane P. Batten Student Center.

The facility will be named Lingo Stadium in recognition of the lead donors for the project. The John Lingo Family of Rehoboth Beach, Del. has made a lead gift of $4.3 million to help create the lacrosse, field hockey and intramural facility.

"Lingo Stadium will place the College in a position to recruit top lacrosse and field hockey athletes, to host NCAA playoff games in those two sports and in soccer and build an intramural program that will significantly aid in fostering an environment for improved student recruitment and retention," said Virginia Wesleyan President Billy Greer. "

This stadium will do for outdoor sports at Virginia Wesleyan what the Batten Center has done for the indoor sports program at the College," said John Lingo.

John E. Lingo, Jr. is a member of the Virginia Wesleyan Board of Trustees and his two sons, John E. "Jack" Lingo III '01 and William D. "Bill" Lingo '03 are Wesleyan alumni and former men's lacrosse players at the College.

The Lingo Stadium press box will be named for William S. and Shelly Shelhorse, of Virginia Beach, in recognition of their $250,000 gift to the Key to the Future Campaign. $225,000 of the gift will support the stadium project, and the remainder will support the Marlin Athletic Club and the Annual Fund for Academic Excellence.

Mr. Shelhorse, a member of Virginia Wesleyan's inaugural graduating class of 1970 and former member of the men's basketball team, also serves on the College's Board of Trustees.

Expansion and Modernization

In order to meet the growing needs of an increasing residential population, the Joan and Macon Brock Village (formerly Village III) was named in the spring of 2006. In the winter of 2005, two new townhouse buildings and a three story apartment building were opened to accommodate 124 more students, bringing the number of residents on campus to nearly 700. The facilities feature private bedrooms, semiprivate baths, kitchens with full appliances, living rooms, local telephone service, cable TV, high-speed Internet and parking.

Construction is underway for Village IV, a six-building complex of townhouses with 96 beds, which will move the College to 80% of its goal for 1,000 residential students. Village IV is scheduled to be complete for the spring 2008 semester.

The expansion and renovation of Hofheimer Library is one of the main focuses of the vision of Virginia Wesleyan. One of the original buildings on campus, Hofheimer Library opened in 1969, and has had no major renovations in the decades since. Included in the plans are a quiet study hall with access 24 hours a day, seven days a week; an instructional technology classroom; an enlarged computer lab; an enlarged floor space to accommodate more students; improved lighting and installation of climate control systems. The timeline for modernization is dependent upon funding.

The modernization of the Monumental Chapel is also planned, with improvements to transform the chapel from a multipurpose facility to one with a spiritual atmosphere, dedicated to and suitable for religious worship and reflection. Proposed plans include a new glass vestibule, wood slat flooring that leads the visitor from the entrance into the chapel toward the communion/alter table, slate tile, wood slat ceiling, colorful liturgical banners to add vibrancy to the space, new finishes, fixtures and furniture. The timeline for modernization is dependent upon funding.