MU| F e a t u r e s
E
lizabeth Reading ’00
Hippensteel enjoys life in
North Manchester with her
husband and daughter, and her
job as a research scientist at
DePuy Synthes in Warsaw is “pretty much a
perfect fit.”
Count her among other Manchester graduates
who expressed strong satisfaction with their
lives and key aspects of their education in a
Gallup survey taken earlier this year.
About 2,500 MU graduates responded to the
Gallup-Purdue Index, the first-ever measure
of college graduates’ long-term success in
their careers and lives. MU was among 13
Indiana universities taking part.
Gallup Inc., the well-known polling
company, developed standard questions
and demographic criteria for the survey in
partnership with the Indiana Commission
for Higher Education. Manchester’s results
provide a benchmark to help the University
gauge how its graduates are doing in relation
to college graduates nationally.
“We aspire to be our best self as an institution
and, with each passing year, we want to do
an even better job of educating students,”
says MU President Dave McFadden. “The
information Gallup collected will enable us
to tell the Manchester story more effectively
to college-bound students, their parents,
employers and others.”
MU has a great ambassador in Hippensteel,
whose college experience changed her life.
“I feel like I’m a lot kinder for coming here,”
says the Chicago-area native who discovered
a close-knit community at Manchester. The
women with whom she lived in Garver Hall
remain her best friends, she says. They are
“the most open, caring, loving individuals I’ve
ever known.”
quality. “I had to pay my own way,” she says,
and Manchester offered her more financial
aid than any other college or university.
What’s more, the liberal arts courses at MU
“gave me the freedom to think outside the
box.” At Manchester, Hippensteel adds, “I
learned how to think.”
Professors were caring, accessible and
treated students with respect, adds the
biology graduate, who also “took French for
fun.” She twice studied off-campus during
January Session, once traveling to France
with Professor Janina Traxler and another
year participating in the Medical Practicum
in Central America.
She’ll never forget taking Professor John
Planer’s course, “Experiencing the Arts.”
It opened up a new world for Hippensteel
who has a deeper appreciation for the
arts and is now comfortable traveling
internationally – a childhood dream – on
business and on family vacations.
Manchester has had that effect on graduates
for decades. Rich ’66 and Carolyn Byrer
Ringeisen ’66 say that Manchester made a
huge difference in their lives. “Manchester
exposed me to areas I’d never experienced
before,” says Carolyn, a first-generation
college student. “It just lit up a whole new
world.”
Now retired, Carolyn taught college-level
accounting and Rich was a mathematician
and longtime administrator, including a
decade as chancellor of the University of
Illinois Springfield. Rich says he and Carolyn
modeled their teaching careers after the
Manchester faculty who taught them. “The
personal attention we got at Manchester and
the relationships we had with professors
really made a difference.”
Gallup survey
of Manchester
graduates
89%
85%
81%
90%
are satisfied with the
education they received.
agree or strongly agree
that their education
from MU was worth
the cost.
of MU graduates who
took out student loans
agree or strongly agree
that their education was
worth the cost.
agree or strongly
agree that they were
challenged academically.
To see more results and methodology
for the full Manchester survey, visit
www.manchester.edu/gallup.
Elizabeth Reading ’00 Hippensteel is one
of many MU graduates who report deep
satisfaction with their education and
lives. Likewise, Rich ’66 and Carolyn Byrer
Ringeisen ’66 (pictured on Page 2) credit
Manchester with making a big difference in
their careers and lives.
By Melinda Lantz ’81
Hippensteel also expressed high satisfaction
with Manchester’s affordability and academic
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