Family Advisory Council

A Message from the Co-Chairs
Fall 2007

Tom and Marcia Fulham

Parents and family members,

The Dean of Students, Sarah Swager, put out the following note to Randolph students due to allay concerns and put to rest the various rumors and reports she was receiving. We thought it would be helpful for you, too, to have the facts. All is well at Randolph. The administration is taking the recommended steps to ensure that the college stays in good financial standing so that our children can continue to receive a superb education at this wonderful institution.

Please let us know of any other information you've received that you would like the college to address. By knowing the facts, we can help to preclude upset for the students so that they can focus on their academic goals and enjoy their time at school.

All the best,
Tom and Marcia Fulham

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Dear Students,

Many of you have come by the DOS office to talk members of the DOS staff or me about recent events, rumors, and happenings on campus. Rumors are hard to address and when repeated enough they almost become fact. I’ve worked with others on campus to try to address the various concerns we have heard – I hope the notes below will help to clarify things for you. If you have additional questions or concerns please let me know, and if I can’t personally help you, I’ll be sure to direct you to someone who can.

Dean Swager

Accreditation

• Randolph College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) – the regional accrediting organization for all institutions in the Southeastern US.
  
• The College is in good standing academically with SACS. Last fall SACS approved the College’s masters programs as a part of their regular accreditation.
  
• SACS placed the College on a financial warning in the spring of 2007 because of the College’s increased dependency on use of our endowment to cover our operating expenses. SACS found that our endowment spending rate was not sustainable, and we were warned that the College is not in compliance with the Association’s Core Requirement 2.11 that states that an institution must have “a sound financial base, demonstrated financial stability, and adequate physical resources to support the mission of the institution and scope of its programs and services.” SACS pointed to the College’s operating deficit, deferred maintenance, and high tuition-discount rate as areas of concern.
  
• The College’s financial position will be reviewed by SACS again in December 2007. At that time SACS can remove us from warning, continue our warning for another year, or move us to probation. We will communicate with the community when we know the decision of SACS.
  
• We have taken significant steps to reduce costs and increase our endowment in recent months. Given these steps, the strength of endowment and our assets, our ongoing commitment to addressing this concern, and the SACS process, we believe there should be no concern for the loss of our accreditation.

Endowment

• Colleges should only typically spend 4-6 percent of their endowments annually. Higher rates of spending will lead to the endowment being spent down at a non-sustainable rate. The College’s spending rate is too high primarily due to the need for so many years to offer generous financial aid in order to attract students.
  
• Colleges cannot spend endowment excessively to cover deficits, as that leads to an erosion of the corpus of the endowment and weakens the financial position of the College. Our College needs to keep its endowment intact and increase it as much as possible in order to ensure a financially stable future for the College.
  
• The College has instituted a multi-step plan to reduce its spending rate. This plan includes the decision to go coed in order to increase enrollment over time, efforts to reduce the tuition discount rate for future students, the reduction of staff and faculty positions, and budget cuts.

Scholarships

• The College’s financial warning and the steps we have taken to address that warning will not affect the financial aid packages that are held by current students.
  
• A student may lose his or her scholarship if he or she violates any of the stated conditions of the scholarship, including failing to meet a grade point average threshold. As long as the student meets the expectations for his or her scholarship, we will continue to honor that scholarship financially.
  
• No student attending Randolph College receives an athletic scholarship. We are a NCAA Division III school and are not permitted to give athletic scholarships.

Recent Disciplinary Incidents

• There have been several incidents in recent weeks involving students behaving in ways that are inconsistent with our policies on individual behavior, secret societies, and state law. The students who have been found to be responsible for violations have been processed through our disciplinary system and have received punishments for those infractions.
  
• We will continue to address any violations of our polices appropriately and according to our written guidelines. All student life policies and processes for addressing violations appear in the Student Handbook.

Sale of College Artwork

• The Board of Trustees voted the afternoon of Oct. 1 to sell four paintings owned by the College. The funds gained from this sale will be put into the endowment and will also be used to endow the directorship of the museum.
  
• The paintings were removed and transported immediately following the board vote.
  
• There were several reasons the art was removed in the way it was, the major factors being security and the need to meet catalogue deadlines. We felt that we could not afford to take put the artwork at risk for any reason, and we enlisted the assistance of the local police department as well as special security personnel sent by Christie’s Auction House. The security guards from Christie’s escorted the paintings from the moment they left the Museum door until they arrived at Christie’s.
  
• Christie’s Auction House oversaw the handling and transport of the artwork. Professional art handlers prepared and transported the artwork. Shipping procedures followed accepted guidelines for transportation of museum quality art, including using several layers of conservation grade wrapping materials, and a firm protective outside layer incased each painting.
  
• The paintings were transferred to New York in a climate-controlled truck with special suspension and arrived safely.
  
• At no point did the College initiate the communication of a bomb threat. The Lynchburg police have acknowledged that one of their officers was responsible for that inappropriate statement, and have apologized for using that as a ruse.