SPECIALRE P ORT
Renaissance
Members of the Renaissance Commisssion with students in the Presidential Ambassadors Program
Morehouse, the graduation rate is 38 percent. “Through our teaching, research, conferences, leadership development training, dissemination of key findings and other intellectual work, we can infuse a more informed, more hopeful perspective on how this population of young men can thrive,” he said. The last, and perhaps most important advancement of his vision, was staking a claim for Morehouse as a leader in expanding and diversifying the nation’s talent pipeline – that is, the educational continuum of students moving from elementary school, to middle school, to high school, to college and to graduate school. Faced with the worst economic crisis the nation had experienced since the Depression era—as well as many other external forces and trends that are reshaping higher education in general and affecting liberal arts colleges like Morehouse in particular— College leaders set about the necessary work to realize the vision and achieve its strategic goals. Rising operational costs, a dwindling applicant pool of eligible African American males, decreases in federal and foundation funding, and a shift in philanthropic giving are critical factors to consider in determining the future direction of the College. Under the leadership of the Morehouse Board of Trustees, the College completed an in-depth strategic plan, as well as a campus-
wide assessment of critical funding needs that will take the College through 2013. The strategic goals include developing and implementing new academic, student development and community engagement initiatives. In 2009 – realizing that this alone was not enough to maintain the College’s top positioning in the marketplace and sustain its strong financial foundation – Franklin put into action an unprecedented plan to “future” the Morehouse of his renaissance vision.
President Assembles Renaissance Commission THE CONCEPT OF A RENAISSANCE COMMISSION was born. The Renaissance Commission (RenCom) is a blue-ribbon, volunteer panel of influential thought leaders and fundraisers that will help “future” Morehouse and raise $125 million during the “The Campaign for a Morehouse Renaissance,” scheduled to culminate in 2017. “To ensure that we have both the financial and the intellectual resources we will need to ensure that future, I have created the Renaissance Commission,” said Franklin. “The Morehouse College Renaissance Commission is a volunteer group of ‘thought leaders’ and fundraisers who, as the College embarks on the quiet phase of its next comprehensive fundraising campaign, will help chart the course as Morehouse heads towards S P R I N G
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