Reflections Magazine Issue #48 - Spring 1998 | Page 3
From the President
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COMING SOON: Siena Heights University!
For the Siena Heights community, the old college try will soon become the new university effort! Siena
Heights College will be renamed Siena Heights University effective July 1, 1998, by vote of our Board of Trustees
last fall.
This is a significant decision for Siena and one which offers us exciting new opportunities, but be assured -- our
commitment to dedicated teaching and personal attention will not change.
We are making this change because the university name more accurately reflects the kind of institution Siena
Heights is today.
Colleges and universities are classified by the Carnegie Foundation and other organizations according to such
factors as mission, size, degrees awarded, and academic programs offered. Siena Heights is a much more complex
institution than most traditional liberal arts colleges. Our new name will more fully reflect that reality.
As most of you well know, Siena was founded as a womens college in 1919 and has been co-educational since
the late 1960s. Todays Siena Heights students are a diverse community of more than 2,000 traditional-age and
working adult men and women. We operate seven degree-completion centers across the state and a Lansing-based
theological studies program, in addition to our residential campus in Adrian. We award associates and bachelors
degrees as well as three different masters degrees. Of our undergraduate degree recipients, more than half now
earn degrees in various professional and technical areas rather than in such liberal arts disciplines as religion and
philosophy, although these of course are vital to our academic program.
News of the name change generally has been greeted positively on campus and in the community, and the
announcement earned a round of applause at the Alumni Weekend luncheon. This is not to say there have