continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve Manchester University. It has been wonderful traveling to meet our alumni, meeting current students, and chatting with new families and students who are considering Manchester. I have enjoyed working with our faculty on transformational policies and curriculum changes, and connecting with staff who work hard to make sure that Manchester is a great place to learn and work.

There are three main focus areas of our strategic plan: Distinctively Manchester Teaching and Learning, an Inspiring Place to Learn and Work, and being a university that is Focused on Investment and Growth.

Over the past few months, our strategic plan accomplishments include:

he majority of Manchester’s undergraduate and prospective students are Generation Z, born 1997-2013. Over the past few years, we have read about and studied this generation. They are an amazing group of students, sometimes compared to the Silent Generation, which came of age during World War II. This group cares about the environment, the rights of others, staying out of debt, getting through their education quickly, and they enjoy learning in and out of the classroom. Over the past few months, Manchester has spent time thinking about how to engage this group of students who have questioned the value of higher education. We asked: how can Manchester ensure that our programs meet their expectations while also preparing them for careers? We also want to help companies who desperately need employees that think critically, problem-solve, and work well in teams.

Today, Manchester’s faculty and staff are digging into their curriculum, finding ways to meet the demands of this generation’s learning style, while maintaining Manchester’s deep commitment to the liberal arts and our high-quality programs. We asked that all programs include more experiential learning, providing students with real world experiences that enhance their classroom education. The Manchester curriculum offers opportunities for students to engage with companies and organizations around the community. Students will gain credit while working, bringing the skills they learn in their organizations back to the classroom to continue to learn and reflect. Additionally, new transfer policies will recognize the hard work of students who earned college credits while in high school.

olleges and universities across the country have spent the last several years facing difficult and complex odds. From declines in enrollment to a general distrust of higher education, schools like Manchester are working to find creative solutions to these ever-growing problems.

Within the past year, Manchester has implemented and expanded a number of initiatives to help make a Manchester education possible for even more students, and to improve both enrollment and the overall student experience at Manchester.

This spring, Manchester University began allowing students with a 2-year associate degree in arts or sciences to transfer to MU by accepting their degree as a block of 60 credits and fulfilling all general education requirements. Recognizing students’ prior academic work and making the transition to Manchester as seamless as possible marks a significant step forward for the University’s transfer process.

mong the many concerns young people have about higher education, cost and financial stability are arguably the most prominent. Students have become even more debt-averse, and many are choosing paths other than higher education to learn and pursue their professional passions.

Manchester is developing new ways to address concerns about the cost of college and the risk of borrowing loans. One of these initiatives is the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), which helps graduates with their federal student, parent PLUS and private alternative loans if their income after graduation is below $45,000. The assistance continues until the graduate’s annual income exceeds $45,000 or until their loans are completely paid off.

anchester’s Theatre Society has been reinvigorated in the last several years. An entirely student-led group, Theatre Society organizes nearly all the theatre productions on campus and provides a creative outlet for Spartans from all academic interests.

Their productions range from traditional plays and musicals to variety shows, karaoke, and the annual drag show and air band competition.

Most recently, the group presented the timeless classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Brayden Hoggatt ’26, who played antagonist Claude Frollo, considers the musical one of his favorite Manchester productions so far.

During his childhood, his parents both performed in plays and musicals, and his dad even directed many of the shows Hoggatt participated in growing up. Following in his father’s footsteps, Hoggatt was a co-director of Hunchback.

anchester was life-changing in literally every way,” said Amela Sijaric ’00. “To me, it presented a rescue from suffering and seeing horrific reminders of what had been going on for about four years.”

Sijaric was 14 years old when the war in Bosnia, formerly Yugoslavia, began. Until then, she had lived what she considered “a normal life.”

On her younger sister’s 11th birthday, military forces entered the town of Sarajevo, where her family had lived for about six years after moving from Montenegro. Everyone in her neighborhood fled, and Sijaric didn’t return to that home again. From there, her entire life changed.

“When people started talking about potentially getting attacked, it took forever for that to sink in,” Sijaric said. “It just wasn’t something that could happen to you, period. You don’t think about it.”