Written by President Barry H. Corey
During my first year here at Biola, I hit the ground listening in order to better assess the needs of this university. While my listening has not ceased, I am pleased to move ahead so that we as a community can boldly step together into year one of century two. I’d like to share with you some of the changes I have already made as well as some ideas I have for Biola’s future. But let me assure you that guarding and championing the biblical convictions of Biola have been and will be at the heart of leadership and planning.
First of all, I have made structural changes within Biola’s administration. In place of the President’s Leadership Team is the newly formed President’s Administrative Council (PAC). I look forward to working with what I believe will be a focused, hardworking, collegial and trusting team of administrators in Greg Balsano, vice president of university services, Chris Grace, vice president of student development and university planning, Gary Miller, provost, Adam Morris, vice president of advancement, Irene Neller, senior advisor to the president for communications/senior director of integrated marketing communications, Carl Schreiber, vice president of financial affairs, and Greg Vaughan, vice president of enrollment. This team will be representing key areas of the university and will have equal voices around the table.
Over the past few years we have discussed as a community the initiatives we need to expand Biola’s scope, moving us not from x to y but from x to x2. To achieve this, I am proposing three strategic themes with two initiatives each.
The first theme is championing a biblical worldview in which we will not waver in our commitment to the highest levels of excellence in teaching and scholarship.
Initiative No. 1 will be to establish a center for biblical worldview thinking. This center will serve as a resource for cultural conversation, positioning Biola to be a first responder to the major issues of our day.
Initiative No. 2 will be to formalize and expand our distinctive position in higher education by equipping faculty in biblically integrative teaching, living and scholarship.
The second theme is serving the world. We will be intentional about fostering a community that loves the Lord and loves our neighbor by serving the world.
Intiative No. 3 will be to address proactively the major challenges in our world (spiritual emptiness, skepticism, poverty, urbanization, illiteracy, values in media, etc.) and how as a community we may be positioned locally and globally to prepare our students to serve the world more effectively. We can accomplish this by launching new programs and strengthening and expanding select existing programs.
Initiative No. 4 will be to draft some theological imperatives on diversity that will lead us to think in practical terms about how Biola is making decisions so that we reflect the breadth of God’s people in composition and in understanding.
The final theme for the year is resourcing the educational enterprise to achieve our vision.
Initiative No. 5 is to consider methods to expand access and increase affordability for a Biola University education without compromising the core of a Biola career.
Initiative No. 6 is setting the stage to launch a major comprehensive funding campaign to build out the master plan and resource the university plan, expanding our educational mission and making Biola an affordable university for students.
My plan is that we will make these shared goals and projects our priorities for the coming one to two years, and that as we work toward these goals as a university we will learn together from the challenges we will face.
It’s an exciting day at Biola and I believe we have a community here that is ready to rally around courageous initiatives that will position this university to achieve great things for God and His kingdom.
