President Glanzer recently addressed the employees of Tabor College to provide an informational update, as well as encouragement to those who have responded in magnificent ways to needed adaptations. Included here are some excerpts from his address
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“I am so thankful for all of you and your ‘Can Do’ attitude along with your ‘Dig In and Do It’ mentality. We are witnessing Tabor at its finest. Your hard work and willing spirit is incredible. Creativity and innovation, generosity, empowerment, and results are being practiced in ways I never imagined. We have. We can. We are. I am also thankful to the Lord for his watchful eye and continual presence. We are experiencing as a college Isaiah 42:16.
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.
Those words are an understatement. We are going down an unfamiliar path that has darkness and is rough. But we are being led and guided with the Light himself showing the way and making paths smooth before us. We are not alone. Christ is walking beside us and is with us every step of the way.
As you know, our entire society has hit the reset button. And it is not like the Staples big red “Easy” button, but rather more like a complete reboot of our operating system and some of the APPs have vanished in the process. In one week, we transitioned from a residential college to an online college. We were not alone. The entire nation of higher education institutions did the same. My conviction is that the result will be a radical shift of the paradigm of higher education. The college experience, as we know it, will be different. I will share more about that at another time.
But for today, I want you to know what Tabor is doing to deal with this major disruption with the intended outcome of being strong and sustainable.
Did you know:
- Our faculty transitioned over 375 credit hours of courses from onground to online in one week, resulting in our students being able to complete the semester earning over 5,550 credits.
- Our admissions team created virtual campus tours and last week made more than 400 contacts of prospective students.
- Our advancement team made almost 500 phone calls to our donors in the past days. These were Partner Care calls just to check in with our people. Many calls last over 30 minutes because people just want to talk about what is happening. A mailing went out yesterday to our friends and alumni asking for their support.
- Coaches have been recruiting virtually, like crazy.
- Performing artists are creating a virtual cell phone choir. Stay tuned for their rendition release.
- Student life has been in touch with every student, some multiple times, arranging for move out.
- Student success has gone virtual in helping students succeed in our virtual delivery.
- Communications has ramped up keeping people informed.
- Facilities is keeping everything as germ-free as possible.
- And the business office is keeping it all running smoothly without any hiccups.
These are just some of the activities that we are engaged in to mitigate the coronavirus disruption. My thanks to all of you for your creativity and dedication to overcoming this disruption. You are my heroes.
Finally, thanks to the generosity of the board of directors, each of you will be receiving a small token of appreciation for all the hard work and positive attitude with which you have gone about this difficult time. Next week there will be an envelope in your campus mailbox with a gift for you. Of course, your next pay check will show a slight increase in taxes withheld, which is not something that we have a say in. But nevertheless, the board wants you to know that you are appreciated deeply. Thank you for “Digging in and Doing it” with a positive “Can Do” attitude.
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The address was broadcast to employees via Zoom technology with the technical expertise of the IT department at Tabor. The many remote employees were able to watch this via IPads and laptops from their homes.
Thanks to many who are reaching out to Tabor with their love, prayers and support! The world needs Tabor now more than ever, and Tabor needs you now more than ever.