Winthrop University President Dan Mahony began his State of the University address by thanking those who had made all previous and upcoming awards and goals possible. With the speech being streamed on Facebook Live, Mahony got a chance to reach those who couldn’t physically make it to speech, including his mother. Mahony mentioned that the university had set certain goals that they weren’t sure they were going to reach until about 2025, but in 2019, Winthrop had actually surpassed what they expected to be doing.
“This year we’ve had our overall ranking in 25 years going from 25th place to 17th place which is a dramatic increase in just one year. Winthrop has gone from 17th to 8th place for best college professors. This February we were designated as a Purple Heart campus, which again is recognition of what we do and ou commitment of our veterans … we tied for 10th place among most innovative schools, and we went from 15th to 11th for best undergraduate teaching, which was again judged by our peers,” Mahony said.
“I want to highlight some student success from the last year — in intercollegiate athletics our women’s tennis team won the Big South championship for a record breaking 21st time,” Mahony said. “In lacrosse, baseball and softball all made in to the conference, which is very impressive accomplishments made by our athletic teams, and this fall has started out great. Led by women’s volleyball, which is still undefeated in the conference, undefeated at home and is really having one of the greatest seasons yet. So, we’re very proud of what their doing on the athletic fields.”
In addition to Winthrop’s athletic excellence, our students are also bringing home the win in our classrooms. “[Our student-athletes] also excelling in the classroom. Seventy percent of our athletes were present for the Presidential Honor roll, so not only are our student-athletes excelling on the field and on the courts, but in the classrooms as well. On top of that this year we’ve recorded out highest graduation rate at 90 percent for student-athlete graduation success. On top of that, the majority of our students that graduate, graduate within four years, and that trend has continued into this year. I sometimes have a hard time explaining to others because they say six years is the new norm because you do a six-year graduation rate. No, actually about 75 percent of our students who do graduate, graduate in four years or less, and, in fact, we’re seeing an increase in the number of students that graduate in three years or less. So our students are progressing towards graduation and doing so more quickly than ever, and we’re very happy with that.”
Mahony went on to mention the Winthrop Plan, which consisted of five goals. Goal one was to support inclusive excellence by expanding our impact on students and our communities through enrollment growth and increases in retention and graduation rates. Goal two is to continually enhance the quality of the Winthrop experience for all students by promoting a culture of innovation with an emphasis on global and community engagement. Goal three is to attract and half and retain high quality and diverse faculty, staff, and administrators. Goal four is to provide facilities, technology, and programs that support Winthrop students and the overall Winthrop experience. Goal five is to ensure financial stability and sustainability.
“Last year we had a record number of applications, over 6,000 students applied to Winthrop University. That’s a 15 percent increase from our previous record in 2006. This year things are continuing along that same track,” Mahony said. “We’re happy to report that we’re up about 425 applications compared to this time last year, and about 1,500 more than we’ve had two years ago. So the trend in applications is continuing. What this indicated to us, is that the interest in Winthrop has never been greater, and that we’re getting out there and people are pretty interested, interested enough to apply.” Since this, “We’ve had an 8 percent increase in our freshman class, and a 16 percent increase in our graduate courses, largely driven by our online courses. In addition to our website we’re doing lots of things to help make sure those numbers continue to grow. One of the things we’ve done this past year is work with a financial aid leveraging firm, BAB, to work on how we use our scholarships to best meet the needs of the freshman class,” Mahony said.
“We’ve 2019 target at 43 percent, I sometimes get the question, ‘Why do we focus on diversity so much at Winthrop since we’re already diverse?’ Well, we are a public university, and we should reflect society. We should reflect the people around us and so I don’t see this as just another goal, I see this as an obligation, as an institution as a public university we should reflect society, we should reflect the diversity in society, and we should be welcoming to all students, all students,” Mahony said. “And so that is our goal and priority, and we know that as diversity increases in society, these numbers should increase as well.”
A few more goals and accomplishments that Winthrop’s achieved include exceeding their goal of undergraduate placement, the fact that the esports team is performing better than expected, being a voter–friendly campus, exceeding the goal of diverse staff going from a baseline of 14 percent to 21 percent, improving technology with the addition of exercise science facility at Knowledge Park, adding a record–breaking 600 members to the Winthrop Athletics Eagle Club, lowering the debt ratio from .54 to a .406 exceeding this goal before 2024, collecting over $700,000 to exceed the goal for unrestricted giving and Mahony is, as of press time, the only South Carolina university president who has signed the CEO diversity and inclusion pledge.
With all of these new things that Winthrop is excelling in, there are still a few things that need to be worked on, one of which is retention rates. So far Winthrop has struggled to retain freshman, and having them stay and finish out their four years. Another thing that the university needs to work on is the facility/staff CAPA medium. Winthrop is still below the goal by about 20 percent either at the medium or below it. But that doesn’t mean the university is just waiting to implement different programs for our facility/staff because of this. Winthrop has started an assistance program, a relief program. In a few weeks there is to be a meeting to discuss how to get these numbers into the green, which will be implemented within the next few months to help get the faculty/staff where they need to be.
With all the new accomplishments, Winthrop appears to be in tip–top shape for the year. For more information on what was said about Winthrop’s accomplishments and awards, check out Winthrop’s Facebook page at Winthrop University, or check out the university’s website at www.winthrop.edu to catch up on every award, accomplishment and every hilarious joke from Mahony.
Photo courtesy of Winthrop University
