MALONE UNIVERSITY - SERVING A GREATER PURPOSE

By KATHY AMES CARR

Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland

JWalter and Emma Malone had a vision of founding a school that would train students to provide practical mission work on the streets of Cleveland and throughout the world. The Quaker couple secured an old rented home on Carnegie Avenue and prayed for a small class, due to the modest size of the home — their prayers ultimately were answered.

On a blistery winter’s day in March 1892, the Christian Workers Training School opened with six registered students. By 1957, then-named Malone College relocated to Canton, a city that at the time had a population of about 110,000 residents, and which was the largest city in Ohio without a college or university. The institution’s move propelled its goal of enlarging its curriculum to include liberal arts and developing service-oriented students.

Now in its 129th year, Malone University has evolved into a Christian university with extensive opportunities for students to acquire a valuable mission-driven education through liberal arts, sciences, athletics and other professional degrees.

Malone University president David King considers the last few years as particularly formative in shaping the institution’s development amid the strong current of change in higher education that has been influenced, in part, by shifting dynamics in technology, workforce needs, students’ expectations and evolving learning models.

“This has been a decade of turbulence and disruption,” King said. “We recognize the marketplace we inhabit is demanding a greater pace and magnitude of change. We have to harness what others see as a challenge or a disruption. Which levers do we pull to realize new opportunities through change? As we do that, we cannot lose our laser-like focus of continuing the continuity and integrity of our mission.”

The underpinning of a Malone University experience includes core services of the Pendle Hill Pledge, an initiative unveiled in fall 2020, which aims to meet students’ needs for mentoring, experiential learning and career support.

“The Pendle Hill Pledge is a solid example of our faculty working together around the concept of adaptation,” King said.

The pledge provides first-year students with faculty advisers who assist them in navigating their college experience. Undergraduate students are assured their studies include experiential learning through internships, off-campus studies, service learning or a student research project. The Pendle Hill Pledge also commits to providing students with careerreadiness services, so they are prepared to fulfill their life’s purpose.

“The day you commit to Malone, we commit to walking beside you not just in the educational sense but in a mentoring mindset,” King said. “The Pendle Hill Pledge reminds a student why God created him or her, why the person is a gift and how they are being called to serve vocationally and purposefully.”

Students are first asked foundational questions, such as: • Who are you called to be? • What are you called to be? • Who will you surround yourself with? • What will you pursue in college? • What kind of community will you find? • What is your vision? • Where do you want to be in 15-20 years?

“We focus on welcoming, mentoring and serving each student. Welcoming is about cultivating a deep sense of belonging, and that you are welcome here,” said Jason Moyer, an associate professor and vice president for enrollment management. “Mentoring involves fostering one-on-one relationships. Our other core initiative is service, which involves character formation. We ask each young student to describe a time in their life that gave them joy — not fleeting joy, but deep joy. Our goal is to help students find this repeated sense of true joy through the service of others.”

Throughout their journey, the Malone experience pledges that each student will feel appreciated and loved, said Laura Foote, assistant professor of management studies and coordinator of the accelerated degreed programs in management studies.

“Your child will love the college they go to, but, as a parent, you want your child to be loved by the college they attend,” Foote said. “We understand students need community, and they are not just here to attend classes and take tests. Students develop and graduate feeling valued and supported by people who have walked with them.”

Mission Statement: “The mission of Malone University is to provide students with an education based on biblical faith in order to develop men and women in intellectual maturity, wisdom and Christian faith who are committed to serving the church, community and world.”

With 91 undergraduate areas of study, 10 pre-professional programs and five graduate degree programs to choose from, Malone University’s offerings ensure its graduates are prepared to succeed in a 21st-century global economy. The newest offerings, for example, include urban studies, hospitality and tourism, human services, cybersecurity, data analytics, digital arts and new specialized MBA programs. Faculty are scholars who work in their fields of expertise. Malone University aims to ensure these five graduate programs are delivered through experiences that integrate leadership development skills, faith, prayer, character development and meaning.

“Students learn who they are through experiences,” said Scott Waalkes, director of general education and professor of international politics. “They serve in church, the community and the world, in paid employment, and jobs and service. We want our students to be different, better, wiser people.”

Since its founding, Malone has graduated about 23,000 students who have served their communities and the world.

Malone’s adherence to its core values serves to reinforce its ability to navigate transition.

During King’s tenure, Malone University reframed its program development to not only address academics, but also offer a cohesive strategy that incorporated readjustments to enrollment, financial and marketing models. As a result, the timeline for a new way of thinking has been accelerated, according to King. A couple years ago, he, along with institutional leaders, delivered a state-of-the-university address that encouraged a collective mindset — that each leader, faculty or student has a stake in “our Malone of the future.”

Additionally, recent investments in academics, athletics and experiential learning have bolstered the Malone of today and tomorrow. For example, in 2018, The Timken Foundation awarded Malone University $1.2 million to support the creation of a new Learning Commons and establish the Timken Foundation Center for Student Success in the institution’s Cattell Library. This gift demonstrated the community’s commitment to the investment of innovation in academic excellence, Moyer said.

Meanwhile, the development and completion of the $1.6 million Pioneer Park Competition Field underscores the university’s commitment to campus and community inclusion. The multipurpose, synthetic athletic field will be the home turf to men’s and women’s soccer teams and the newly launched men’s and women’s intercollegiate lacrosse teams.

Pioneer Park also is intended to function as a living laboratory for experiential learning in business management, operations, promotion and marketing. The field will be available as an additional gathering place for community members. Slated for the next phase of development is the Robert Starcher synthetic turf baseball field.

Now, the university faces another stage of transition, as King prepares to retire in 2022 after a 10-plus years’ legacy as president.

“My hope is that the work we have accomplished, particularly over the last three to four years, has positioned Malone to be an exemplar of an institution that has successfully, in meaningful ways, maintained the continuity and integrity of our mission. At the same time, we are positioned on the leading edge of independent higher education to adapt in a rapidly changing marketplace and culture and church, all of which we serve. We want Malone to be a highly regarded example of adaptation that continues to serve our constituents, who our heritage tasked us with stewarding.” Malone University pledges to empower students to enter their careers and lives with meaning and purpose to serve the church, community and world through:

These opportunities remind students to seek a higher calling and vocational purpose through general education, study programs and co-curricular activities.

INDIVIDUALIZED GUIDANCE: One-onone mentorship ensures all students receive support to facilitate their purpose and career.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: Traditional undergraduate students realize their Pendle Hill Pledge experience through either an internship or practicum, a substantive research project, an offcampus study program or a course that requires significant service learning.

CAREER PREPARATION: Faculty or administration provide career readiness services, such as helping with resume and cover letter writing assistance, interviewing techniques and job search strategies.

• Higher Learning Commission - HLC/ NCA • Accreditation Council of Business Schools & Programs (ACBSP) • Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP) • Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) • Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) • National Associate of Schools of Music (NASM) • Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE)* *The baccalaureate and master’s degree programs in nursing at Malone University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education

• 13:1 student faculty ratio

• Malone’s RN Program ranked No. 6 in Ohio in 2020.

• Malone University has been selected as one of the Best Online Bachelor’s Degree Completion Programs for 2021 by College Consensus.