A November update from the President | Albright College

A November update from the President

Dear Fellow Albrightians,

Welcome to November! The autumn leaves are coming down faster than we can clean them up, the weather is getting chillier, and before you know it we will be entering finals week. I write today to share some updates and celebrations with you, including:

Congratulations to several of our athletic teams, whose fall seasons have been exceptional. First, congratulations to women’s rugby, who won the Eastern PA Rugby Union (EPRU) Championship – for the second consecutive year! They are currently ranked as one of the top 16 in the country and took part in the EPRU Championship Regionals this past weekend, falling by one point to Catholic University (ranked #2). And undefeated at 5-0, the men’s rugby team finished the fall as Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference Silver Champions. Men’s rugby next faces LaSalle in a division challenge matchup, Nov. 16.

Congratulations is also due to women’s soccer, who won a MAC Commonwealth Tournament game last Tuesday against Hood – a first in program history!

And, a big CONGRATULATIONS to those teams with all-conference selections:

  • Women’s Soccer – Autumn Bieber (first team), Lauren Haley (second team)
  • Men’s Soccer – Billy Mullen (honorable mention)
  • Field Hockey – Jennifer Crumling, Mia Moshang, Brynne Schoppe (second team), and Bailey Lehman (honorable mention)
Last December, we announced tuition right-sizing as part of a broader strategy to make Albright’s pricing more accessible and transparent to our students and their families. Another part of this strategy is the Advancing Lives Scholarship mini-campaign. In the past, Albright has not provided additional institutional aid to help students with annual increases in tuition and fees, which have been significant in past years. Our Advancing Lives goal is to raise endowment to help students and families afford tuition increases. In addition, a creative strategy involving a match from the Joyce Family Foundation allows these endowment dollars to begin supporting students from the moment the gift is made (rather than waiting for three years, as endowment policy requires). Already, we have raised exactly $4,566,715.86 in commitments from alumni and friends to support this initiative. That figure can be broken down to the following:
  • $4,063,265.86 in endowment dollars ($3,905,065.86 of which we have already realized in bequests and $158,200 of which has been pledged)
  • $503,450 in annual restricted dollars ($214,250 of which represents cash in and quasi endowment dollars and $289,200 of which has been pledged)

Because of the matching benefit, the impact is already being seen through an improved and more inclusive financial aid appeals process, which allows a team of faculty and staff to identify the highest impact use of such gifts. Our ultimate goal is a $10M endowment. Congratulations to the Advancement team for their good work in preparing the case statement and in engaging alumni and donors in this important campaign.

We are also celebrating the work of our Alumni and Donor Engagement team in the Advancement division. Last year for Homecoming, we broke records with over 400 alumni returning to campus. This year, we went much further, with nearly 900 alumni and friends returning to campus to celebrate Albright, our students and our community. In addition, our Annual Fund team has worked to develop creative ideas to engage and re-engage our alumni and friends in our athletics teams. The Ready-Set-Roar campaign, which ran during October, exceeded goals, raising $28,534 both for individual athletics teams and for the general athletics fund. Over 400 donors contributed through this campaign! A special congratulations to the men’s lacrosse team, who reached more than 300 percent of their alumni participation goal!

As with all first-time initiatives, we had a few missteps with the Ready-Set-Roar campaign and I appreciate those students and alumni who reached out to share their thoughts. In future campaigns, I believe that you will see that your comments have been taken seriously. Congratulations to our colleagues in Alumni and Donor Engagement for their great work to engage and re-engage folks to support Albright College.

Alumni and friends are engaging and re-engaging with Albright because they believe in the vision that we have articulated together: Our vision involves working hard to close the gap on education for all students of academic promise, so that deserving students can earn an affordable and high quality degree with a strong liberal arts foundation. This in turn prepares them to enter the workforce and experience significant socioeconomic mobility, positioning them for success in lives and careers. Tuition rightsizing and the Advancing Lives Scholarship are but two pieces of a much larger strategy to achieve this long-term vision.

There are several exciting events on campus this month that you don’t want to miss. Be sure to catch one of the productions of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime,” being performed by our own Domino Players and directed by Jeff Lentz. Show times are Thursday through Saturday, November 14-16, 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m., in Wachovia Theatre. And on November 20, a multi-media 40th anniversary Leo Camp presentation on “The Nightingale’s Sonata: The Musical Odyssey of Lea Luboshutz,” with performances by world-famous musicians Ray Ushikubo, violin, and Wei Luo, piano, will be offered by the Jewish Federation of Reading in partnership with Literatour Berks at 7:30 p.m. in Wachovia Theatre.

And on this Veterans Day, much respect, honor and gratitude to all those who have served our country.

Best regards,

-Jacque

Jacquelyn S. Fetrow, Ph.D., ’82
President and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Albright College
Twitter: JacqueFetrow
Instagram: AlbrightPrezFetrow
Pronouns: she/her (Want to know more? https://www.mypronouns.org/)