Success vs. Financial Challenges

By DAVID ERICKSON
Jacksonville College President

Recently Jacksonville College has experienced significant success. We started a bachelor’s degree in Christian ministry last year and will begin another bachelor’s degree in business administration this year. Our team set a record enrollment this academic year and student housing was filled to the breaking point. Thanks to the successful “Restoring the Heart of Jacksonville College” capital campaign and an insurance settlement after a hailstorm, our campus facilities are in better condition than they have been in many years. The college is on a consistent upward path toward a bright future.
 
Despite this, financial challenges remain. For more than a decade, the college has struggled with persistent deficits. Some years those deficits have been large, other years relatively small, and occasionally the college has run surpluses that enabled it to pay back debts. Increasing enrollment and shifting from a junior college to a bachelor-level college are structural changes designed to eliminate the persistent deficits and attain long-term financial stability and resiliency.
 
Yet this year Jacksonville College is facing a financial shortfall. We have already responded by trimming our budget and reducing personnel to narrow the gap. We are also accelerating our transition to a work college that relies on students as a critical part of the college’s workforce.
 
Even with these changes, the college remains in need of additional financial support. At the recent Homecoming weekend, our alumni strongly supported the college with substantial contributions and commitments. As I write this, we are preparing for our Scholarship Gala in a few days, and we are praying for a similarly strong result.
 
We are thankful for so many churches and individuals that give faithfully and consistently. You propel our kingdom mission forward every day. Yet as I look at the needs coming this year, I am praying to God to add to this.
 
Recently some of our alumni reminded me of a prayer meeting that their parents attended years ago. Bro. Barnwell Anderson hosted it in his living room, along with President Curtis Carroll. The college did not have enough money in the bank to cover payroll at the end of the week, and they gathered to pray for God to send what they needed. And He did.
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Things are not that tight at the college yet, but we are prayerfully turning to our supporting churches to ask that you help secure the long-term future of conservative Christian higher education at Jacksonville College.

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