A New Tabor

Lohrenz and cross

 

Higher education in America is going through some significant disruptions.  The public is concerned about the rising cost, increasing student debt, and questioning the value of a college education.  Many are advocating that a college education should be free. Still others think that content and skill training are all that matter.  Some private colleges have closed and more are predicted to close.  How education is delivered has changed and the loss of religious freedom to fulfill our Christian-based mission is threatened.

As a stewardship response, we embarked on a mission to prepare Tabor for a strong and sustainable future.  We did not believe that something magical would just happen without our taking responsibility for “doing what we can where we are with what we have” paraphrasing President Theodore Roosevelt.  Board, administration, faculty, and staff all participated in various levels of the conversation about viability for the upcoming years.  What came out of our work is a new, vibrant Tabor with a distinctive student value proposition, a restated mission margin formula, and a real-world readiness, kingdom awareness curriculum.

Central to the new Tabor is our student value proposition.  We made an intentional decision that we wanted to increase the value that students would receive for the cost.  That value proposition is known as The Tabor Promise and The Tabor Advantage.

The Tabor Promise.  We want to provide a compelling college experience.  Therefore, if you choose to attend Tabor, WE PROMISE you will:

  • Be encouraged to place Christ at the center of all you do. We are unashamedly Christian and when students come to Tabor, they will be presented with the claims of Christ and what it means to live life following him.
  • Be asked to pursue excellence in academics, athletics, and the arts. We will push students to excel in not only their sport, or in their artistic performing, but also in the classroom.  We have high expectations for our students.
  • Be prepared for the real world. Except for the dining hall where multiple food options and clean dishes are provided daily without having to do grocery shopping, we promise our students that they will be ready to assume responsibilities in the real world when they graduate.
  • Be made aware of your place in God’s kingdom. Our students will discover how they fit and belong in God’s great and grand world.

We promise our students that these will be part of their college experience at Tabor.

The Tabor Advantage.  We have created an advantage to attend Tabor that distinguishes us from other colleges, which is best described as real-world readiness, kingdom awareness.  If you choose to attend Tabor, your ADVANTAGE is:

  • Understanding your career as a calling. When a student graduates, if Tabor has done its work, the students will see their career as a place to find their calling, meaning, and purpose in life.
  • Being able to obtain a double major in four years. Students will be able to graduate with a double major making them more marketable in their employment search and better equipped for success.  There are over 400 possibilities of double majors.
  • Having the opportunity to complete a degree in 3 years. If you come well prepared, you can graduate in three years, saving a year of tuition and student debt, plus gain an income for that year.  This is a $50,000+ advantage.  A good GPA will be rewarded by allowing you to add additional courses to the block tuition price at no additional charge.
  • Learning and practicing leadership. Students at Tabor have the opportunity to learn and practice leadership in a variety of settings and student organizations and leadership programs.  Becoming a person of influence is an important outcome at Tabor.
  • Paying an All Inclusive Price. Tuition, room, board, fees, accident insurance, laundry are all included in one price. The All-Inclusive Price includes the elimination of tuition overload fees, credit card fees, and a host of typical college add-ons. In addition, Tabor is providing students all books for all classes at no cost.

These provide the students attending Tabor with a distinct advantage over other schools.

The student value proposition communicates a clear direction, creates a distinctiveness, and describes the Tabor Experience.

In his recent article “Why We Still Need Christian Colleges” published in Christianity Today (October 2019), Kelly M. Kapic, professor of theological studies at Covenant College stated, “What a gift it is to the church and to the world when a Christian liberal arts college graduates students who are not simply interested in a job or a career but who see their work as a calling. Whether they enter the laboratory, the classroom, or the courtroom, whether they rear children or serve as accountants, they enter their work not as a distraction from their faith but as a vital expression of it.”  May Tabor be among those that provide society with these kinds of graduates.

 

Tabor PromiseTabor Advantage