Fox in Five Years: Where are we going?

Reported By: Benny Schorie

Photographed By: Allison Martinet

Since that fateful day of March 2020, George Fox University (GFU) has undergone a slew of dramatic changes. Programs and majors have been cut, demoted, and restructured. Students and faculty have been promised, then denied, new facilities. Departments have shuffled around the quad. And finally, the campus has carefully watched the construction of the new chapel. These tumultuous changes have been a mixed bag of the administration struggling to fulfill its promises and students criticizing their decisions. However, the Board of Trustees and President Robin Baker have big plans for the future of GFU.

Chief of Staff to the Office of the President, Rob Felton, shared that COVID-19 and its financial insecurity have caused the administration’s poor follow-through on recently announced construction and expansion plans. “COVID caused everyone to be very conservative in spending. It’s not for lack of desire on the faculty’s part,” Felton said. 

As GFU has reeled from the effects of a financial downturn, President Baker and the Board are now looking ahead and considering some incoming changes. Felton claims a nosedive in the rate of graduating high school students from California and Oregon is expected in the next fifteen years. GFU and the rest of higher education are bracing for “a decline in potential traditional undergraduate students.” Felton and the Board of Trustees are keeping this possibility of fewer available, prospective students in mind when constructing their plan for GFU’s future.

The next few years of GFU’s growth and development are structured around five strategic initiatives: cultivate thriving people, grow market-driven programs, innovate for effectiveness and sustainability, advance a thriving student experience, and serve the community. Developed by GFU’s vice presidents in the summer of 2022, these strategies are the framework for GFU’s immediate and distant future, according to Felton.

To achieve these goals, GFU is focusing on expanding George Fox Digital (GFD), graduate degree programs, and high-demand professional programs like nursing, engineering, and education. In the fall 2024, the Doctorate in Occupational Therapy program will launch, and the Doctor of Nursing Practice program will launch the subsequent fall. Felton said GFU is also beginning to partner with local industries. For example, A-dec, a dental equipment manufacturer based in Newberg, will offer their employees an MBA from GFU.

GFU has also diversified and expanded its financial ventures. “[GFU] creates revenue from being a landlord which can help supplement if we have a drop in enrollment and prevent potential cuts to faculty or programs,” Felton said. “It provides more financial stability.” Its recent purchase and leasing of Lyrics Cafe, formerly known as Coffee Cottage, is an example of such opportunities.

President Baker and the Board also plan on expanding the campus itself with various construction projects. According to Felton, the most immediate project will be additional parking. The old Campus Public Safety building in the Stevens Center parking lot will be moved this summer to allow for an additional fifteen spaces, and the Plant Services parking lot will be expanded by eighty-five spaces. Both of these construction projects are expected to be completed by the fall of 2024.

The next venture will be the construction of the Art and Cinematic Arts Annex. According to Felton, construction will begin in September 2024, and the building will be operational by Fall 2025. The quad refacing plan is also still in play and will happen by 2027 at the latest. 

All of the recent university presidents have wanted to tear down Brougher Hall, according to Felton, but none have been able to justify losing the building space. The new art annex will finally make that possible. The former World War II barrack will be demoed in tandem with the North Street Annex. This will help open up the quad and make Bauman Auditorium more visible, Felton said. A new plaza and outdoor seating area between Murdock Library and Klages Center will also be constructed.

A chunk of these construction costs will come out of the funds raised from the recent tuition increase, but the majority of those funds will go to maintaining faculty. “The biggest cost is personnel and keeping up with salaries, retirements, and healthcare premiums,” Felton said. “That’s where a lot of tuition increases goes [towards].” 

These various goals all lend to making GFU’s identity more aligned with the reality of the future. Creating and expanding specific programs “to attract new students that wouldn’t have come here otherwise” will always be central to the Board and President Baker’s decision-making. According to Felton, GFU is not the small liberal arts college that it once was; as the world around it has changed, GFU must adapt.