Dr. Gene Fant, President Mission: Equipping transformational leaders for church & society • • • •
Core Values Christ-Centered Biblically Faithful Academically Excellent Mission-Focused
Theme Word: Accelerate! In the academic year 2020–2021, the university’s theme word was Accelerate! echoing the words of Philippians 3:13-15: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” This theme built on the previous year’s theme, Refine, which took on a meaning of finetuning our work in alignment with our Christ-first mission but also of the kind that occurs within the fires of the refiner, as with the crucible of the global pandemic. We seek to bring all things under the Lordship of Christ, including our mission of equipping transformational leaders for church and society, keeping Him at the forefront of everything we do, from academics to personnel recruitment, from campus ministries to athletics and cultural activities. Despite the pandemic, the university had an outstanding year. In March, the university hosted our regional accreditor (SACSCOC™) for our decennial review, which had been postponed from 2020. We anticipate receiving full reaffirmation in December at the annual meeting of the body. While our financial audit is being finalized, we finished the year very strongly, well into the black; we continue to have no long-term, interest-bearing debt, which allows our tuition costs to be less than many other similar institutions. Our traditional academic programs were able to meet face-to-face for the entire year with only minor exceptions. All athletic competitions were postponed until the spring semester when we carried out a vigorous calendar of activities. Student-athletes excelled as never before in the classroom, with high rates of academic achievement and progress toward graduation. We launched a new university website (www.ngu.edu) and overhauled our marketing approaches, which already have paid dividends. Several buildings, including Neves Hall (Student Services and Academic Classrooms) and Craft-Hemphill (College of Christian Studies), were renovated. Because Fuge camps were not held in 2020, we were able to remodel and update several dormitory and classroom facilities. Looking ahead to 2021–2022, because of the persistence of the COVID-19 outbreak, our Response Team continues to lead the community in developing and recommending safety protocols, which were highly effective over the past year. We will continue to monitor developments carefully, but fall plans include a complete resumption of academic, athletic, fine arts, and ministry programming.
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