By Anne Hogenson
Director of Marketing
Of all the challenges to which Ferris State University has risen in its 133-year history, perhaps the greatest has been change. From the 1893 collapse of the bank in which construction funds for its Old Main building were invested to the fire that ultimately claimed that building in 1950, the school has shown its remarkable ability to turn the challenge of change into opportunity.
Now & Always Campaign Co-Chair Gary Granger
Over time, this tradition has quietly instilled a “can-do” attitude in the campus community, a readiness to roll up sleeves and get to work on a solution. It was in that spirit that university leaders began laying plans in 2013 that ultimately led to Ferris’ first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign. These plans have proven timely, as challenges in the form of the national student debt crisis and projected decline in regional high school graduates have more recently emerged. These changes have the potential to have a major impact on Ferris, but so does the university’s plan to address them.
Now & Always: The Campaign for Ferris State University aims to raise $80 million in resources that allow the university to expand student scholarships and implement key initiatives to enhance the student experience, supporting recruitment and retention.
Scholarship support
The sharp decline of traditional government funding for higher education over the past two decades has had a major impact on students in Michigan, where the average debt of public university graduates is now 12th-highest in the nation. It has hit Ferris State University particularly hard; the average Ferris student works at least a part-time job but graduates with more than $35,000 of educational debt, which can delay buying a home, starting a family or saving for retirement.
Since 2012, Ferris has bucked the trend of its peer institutions and held its tuition increases to 2.51 percent each year, reducing its net price by 12.3 percent despite steady decreases in state appropriations. The university also has grown The Ferris Foundation endowment to its current total value of $73 million and more than tripled financial assistance to students from the university’s general fund since 2007. However, leaders recognize that, for some students, these measures alone will not be enough to make up the difference.
“We urge you to join us in supporting this campaign so that future generations of students can access Ferris’ unique, ‘go-to-work’ education—one that benefits our region, our nation and our world,” wrote Now & Always Campaign Co-Chairs Gary Granger and Jeff Rowe in their introduction to the campaign’s case statement.
The Ferris Futures Scholarship Challenge, the main scholarship component of the Now & Always campaign, seeks private donors’ help to build a $36-million fund that will generate $1.5 million of additional student scholarships annually. By matching gifts to new and existing endowments dollar-for-dollar, the effort will allow donors to name new endowments with gifts of $12,500 until 2022.
“Having alumni and friends of the university help our students is paramount,” said Jeanine Ward-Roof, vice president for Student Affairs. “Being able to have a commitment from people who care about our students and want to see them succeed is huge.”
“Think about building a $36-million scholarship endowment: That changes our university forever,” said President David Eisler. “Since July 2016, more than 70 new endowments and $3.2 million in gift commitments were made. This represents nearly 180 gifts and pledges to Ferris.”
Now & Always Campaign Co-Chair Jeff Rowe
Student-experience enhancements
Funds raised through Now & Always also will help Ferris recruit students more competitively and retain them more effectively, maximizing the value of the educational experience it provides with enhancements to its academic programs, facilities and community partnerships.
“In West Michigan, there’s this wonderful spirit of collaboration. I’ve never worked anyplace that creates more partnerships, that works better with its communities to try to address the needs, the way that we create opportunity through entrepreneurship,” said Eisler. “Our academic programs connect back with the professions that they represent. This is what public universities are meant to do.”
The Now & Always campaign aims to raise $44 million to support capital improvements and program development at Ferris’ main campus, as well as expansion of community outreach efforts and partnerships that support student service learning or student recruitment and retention.
“Universities have to change,” said Rowe. “When you have a new building or you’ve renovated your building, it says that you’re changing to take on these new challenges.”
Funds raised in the campaign will support multiple key projects and resources:
- Creation of a Center for Academic Literacies
- Creation of a Center for Athletics Performance
- Summer student research and creativity grants for the College of Arts and Sciences
- Creation of the Ken Janke Sr. Golf Learning Center for the College of Business
- Creation of a Criminal Justice Training Center for the College of Education and Human Services
- Expansion and renovation of the College of Engineering Technology’s Swan Annex
- Creation of a mobile unit for health care education and outreach for the College of Health Professions
- Renovation, faculty development and program improvements for the College of Pharmacy
- Partnership for a Grand Rapids Plaza Roosevelt community center
- Creation of a Learning Commons as well as faculty development and program initiatives for Kendall College of Art and Design
- Latino community development programming and outreach initiatives
- An expanded scholarship program for doctoral candidate recruiting for Ferris’ Michigan College of Optometry
- Curatorial support and expanded programming for the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
“There are so many projects that donors can get behind,” said Paul Blake, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. “It’s certainly an investment in our students.”
“There has never been a better time than now to join us on this exciting journey, but we cannot do it alone,” said President David Eisler.
Looking ahead, thinking back
Though significant groundwork for the Now & Always campaign has already been made in its “quiet” phase, the public-phase fundraising push, marked by a formal launch announcement and celebration at the University Center on Nov. 9, will be the one in which the university needs the support of its friends and private donors the most.
“We are humbled by the willingness of so many donors to help our effort,” said Eisler. “There has never been a better time than now to join us on this exciting journey, but we cannot do it alone.”
Though the campaign looks forward, toward all that it can do to promote support that helps Ferris and its students meet the challenges of the future, its inspiration may be traced all the way back to the principles that founded the school and rallied its people to face change, even when banks failed and buildings burned.
“At Ferris, our mission and values flow straight from Mr. and Mrs. Ferris, and the commitment they made to education for all when they moved to Big Rapids in 1884. The idea—of opportunity, of diversity, of excellence, collaboration, ethical community and learning—and this commitment to students, their future and our state of Michigan, are just at the core of what we do today at Ferris,” Eisler said.
“This is precisely the right time to build on those strengths, when each of us can give back to the university that’s made such a difference for us. This first campaign will create that legacy of giving and support. Joining together, we are going to create a greater Ferris—not only now, but always.”
For information on how to be a part of the Now & Always campaign, visit ferris.edu/giving.
Brenna Piper is a senior in the Allied Health Sciences Dental Hygiene program and recipient of the Mickey Shapiro Opportunity Scholarship.
The need for scholarship support
From its very mission and core values, Ferris is an opportunity university; approximately 40 percent of its students qualify for federal Pell Grants and state Tuition Incentive Program assistance based on low family income. At Ferris, these students have the chance to gain the skills to become successful professionals and engaged community members.
“We see it all the time: A Ferris education can change the trajectory of not only an individual student’s life but also the lives of his or her family,” said Jeanine Ward-Roof, Ferris’ vice president for Student Affairs.
But, for some, existing institutional support and cost containment efforts aren’t enough to bridge the gap left by decreases in traditional sources of higher education funding, and helping those students is a major goal of the Now & Always campaign.
For Brenna Piper, a senior in the Allied Health Sciences Dental Hygiene program from Montrose, Michigan, putting all of the pieces together was a real challenge.
“Funding for college was really hard—I’m using grants and TIP, and loans, a lot of loans,” said Piper.
“A big part of Ferris’ mission is to help those who may not quite have it all put together financially to have an opportunity for a high-quality education. That’s where scholarships are very important,” said Now & Always Campaign Co-Chair Gary Granger.
An award from the Mickey Shapiro Opportunity Scholarship is helping Piper. The scholarship endowment was created by Detroit-area real estate developer and Ferris honorary doctorate recipient Mickey Shapiro, and enhanced with gifts through the Ferris Futures Scholarship Challenge, the scholarship component of the Now & Always campaign.
“After I got the scholarship, I was crying because I was so grateful,” Piper said.
Piper will graduate in Spring 2019 and is an active member of the Ferris community, participating in Student Government and Panhellenic Council, as well as in Active Minds and Zeta Tau Alpha student organizations.