Alex Watters (00:00): This is Inside Mside, your favorite podcast for all things Morningside. Hear stories from students, alumni, faculty, and more about what makes the Morningside experience so special.
Alisanne Struck (00:13):Welcome back to “Inside Mside.” I'm one of your hosts, Alisanne, and we are back for part two with President Chad Benson to talk about the future of Morningside.
President Chad Benson (00:25): Thanks for having me.
Alisanne Struck (00:26): Yes, back for part two. I know we look so different. We'll dive right in. Can you kind of tell me about long-term vision for Morningside and just how you see campus evolving?
President Chad Benson (00:38): Yeah. So I think at the highest level, we talked about this a little bit in part one, which is the student experience. And I'm a big believer that everything we need to be doing is built around that. And so when you start to go, okay, what does that mean? I think first of all, really understanding a few things at a kind of structural data level. And I'm going to kind of set some context and then I'll get into the specifics. But what I mean by that is we have to really understand the market, our regional needs here in the Siouxland area, but also what's going on structurally with the workforce over time. And what are the things either in the market of education or ancillary things along the market of education like AI influencing jobs, job types, skills, regardless of the discipline or the outcome?
1:36: So I think when you look at the landscape today, we know that there are going to be fewer students due to the population going to universities going to higher education over the next 10 to 15 years. And we know that AI is competing in that space, accelerating certain areas in the professional ranks. So part of my vision is to make sure we really understand what that future looks like both here regionally and what that means for us in terms of our ability to not just grow, but make sure that we're sustainable as a university. And I don't think that's fundamentally anything different than the other 4,300 university presence are probably worried about right now in the world of strategy. So understanding that and then I think ‘What's that mean to the experience? How does Morningside differentiate?’ I think looking back as well, we have been a very strong applied outcomes oriented university.
2:44: So that all really started back probably with agriculture where we did a lot of work with industry to bring experiential learning, internships, be highly integrated. That's now worked itself into 12 different tracks. And so those are the things that I kind of look at and go, ‘What's working really well?" And you have to really, I think, first of all, before you jump in and go, "What's the future look like? What are we doing really well? And then where are our opportunities?’ I'd also say that when I think about Morningside, we're 132 years old, so I've spent a lot of time looking back. I truly appreciate it because I got time with John and Albert, the things they were going through, but John entered at a different time. So he had different situations and issues to deal with and transitions. And then he had this vision for what he wanted the university to look like as it related to both academics and the campus.
3:55: I don't see mine much different. The problem probably just hasn't arisen yet, which is how do we make ourselves really compelling to get students to come here when the numbers are not going up, they're going down.
4:13: So experience. The student experience, I break that down into a couple really important pathways.
We have historically been a bachelor's of science for a year over the last decade or two, we've added education, we've added in the master's and graduate, we've add health nursing, and we recently add MBA. And so when you think about pathways, you think about how do we make available in our approach to education these clear pathways that make it seamless and we meet students where they're at. So what does that mean? So we're pretty much a residential on-campus in undergrad. We do most of our graduate online. And by the way, when you step back and look at it, now we have this new St. Luke's soon-to-be St. Luke's Morningside fully integrated nursing school, which now takes into consideration associate degree, bachelor degree, graduate degree, and doctoral. And so when I think about pathways, I think about how do we make it really easy for somebody here in the region to come to Morningside and they can either get a two-year degree in nursing, they can get a four-year degree, they can get a specialization, they can come back and get their graduate, and that we make that really seamless for them.
5:49: And that hasn't necessarily two plus two, everything feels all the time like it could be seamless. It doesn't always end up that way. So pushing that to make that seamless. And so when you think about that broadly over the university, I think about tracks like healthcare, obviously we're going to really put a lot of effort into healthcare. That's an area that sustainably is a great long-term investment for families, especially those that have a high purpose for serving and taking care of people and love the idea of being a nurse regardless of what kind of nurse they become in terms of specialization. I think the other area we're going to spend a tremendous amount of time on is in what I would call the business innovation and leadership. And so when you think about business and where we're at today, we have built a really successful business school.
06:47: We've got 375 students in our undergraduate program. We've recently launched the MBA, but we're going to continue to step back and think about what does that mean by way of how innovation plays out in the areas of data technology? How are we developing the next computer science tracks that are highly relevant to today's technology? And then I'm going to say the third really big area is going to be around agriculture and aviation. So
7:24: If you think about areas where there's a lot of demand in the market for need for students and there's a tremendous amount of opportunity because we have these programs, our effort right now is to make sure that we can market and accelerate and reach students and tell our story of why these are really appropriate opportunities for them to come here to campus to check out. More importantly, they're not just education. There is an applied approach to the learning process which gets them hands-on and that the outcomes and for us, we've been extremely successful at Morningside operating at 99% plus for probably well over a decade.
8:10: And, so those outcomes, it's not just about starting a degree, it's about finishing your degree, it's about getting a job or going back to graduate school and accomplishing that successfully. Cost and access. So probably one of the biggest things on every parent and student's mind, we want to be taking a look at our costs as an institution. That comes down to not just, hey, what's the sticker cost? But what's our cost of operating this university? Where are we putting our dollars? Are those going to the highest impact areas to influence? Again, back to experience and expectations for our students. They're looking to get the most value and have the best experience. So we think about our infrastructure and our technology. We're making a transition today to an existing new platform from our old one to a new one. So we're making these steps, but there's a lot of work to do to be as efficient as we possibly can as an institution to make sure that our cost can stay down. So those three things are extremely important, but we will also be focusing on more opportunities in the graduate area.
9:32: We will be looking conclusively at areas like three-year degrees. We will be looking at associate degree paths within health sciences and possibly some other areas that are pre-professional and make sense in terms of meeting students where they're at today. So yeah, we're going to put a lot of effort in the vision for the student and a lot of energy into what makes sense given the market dynamic looking out not just one year, but three years and five years. The experience going to university is one thing I think many of us feel very appreciative of the people we meet, the relationships that we have an opportunity to build, and those are over a lifetime. And I think for Morningside, our investment will come by the way of some re-imagining how that works in residential living here on campus. And honestly, there's a vision for surrounding the campus. We are an ecosystem. I think there's a lot of potential. I think this is where the broader Siouxland can have a tremendous impact. I want somebody to come here. I want them to feel very much like we're getting the absolute best in the classroom, that they're getting the absolute best in their campus experience and their living experience. And whether they're in performing arts or in athletics, that they're getting the necessary things there. That would take me to another area, which is our athletic facilities. We are going to have to make some investments there
11:17: And this will be a tremendous opportunity. Me, as a former athlete, I can be talking to this community where we are going to need to lean on our alumni base to have an opportunity to really focus in on that. So academic, operational and physical.
11:37: And, the last one I would say is about how we deliver education in the sense of we have been traditionally a very campus-driven university. And I think we're going to need to begin to look at how we take that to a more hybrid aproach. Again, going back to meeting the customer where they are. So all these tie to how do we create the best experience? How do we focus on cost efficiency and deliver that at a great value? And there's a lot there, but I think the realization is this is a sequence that eventually gets laid out pretty quickly and we get started with it and do it in chunks.
Alisanne Struck (12:28): So there's a very clear plan of moving forward. Also with moving forward, I think you're in a unique position that I think being an alum, how do you plan to honor a lot of Morningside's traditions while also driving growth and progression that you just talked about?
President Chad Benson (12:47): I have that level of appreciation as an alum myself. And so I have looked back in history and I understand the inflection points that each of our presidents have gone through and what they've built and why they have built and done what they've done over time. So with that context, I think you look at tradition here, our goal is not to change a line or a timeline. Our goal is to look at how we extend that and leave it a little bit better. So that's how I think about this. We still have to be very fiscally responsible. We still have to be very conscious of our mission. Our mission will not change. That's my number one principle. We have a very clear mission. That mission will not change. But we also have to look at how we operate our university, tools, the resources, the work that we do, and we have to make sure those are aligning to the outcomes that are going to make us viable out into the future.
Alisanne Struck (13:58): I love it. And talking from an alumni perspective as well, I know one of the things we always talk about is engaging the alumni community. How do you plan as president to strengthen that connection between past Morningsiders and more recent Morningsiders? How do you bridge that gap from where we are today to the alumni community at large?
President Chad Benson (14:20): Well, as an alumni, my hope for our alumni is this message would be more about just find a way to get involved. And I think that can be through getting involved in events that could be involved in different mentorship programs we have. There's a lot of different ways to come back to campus and just be engaged. Going to athletic events, performing art events, taking the time to just explore what's happening at Morningside. I can tell you from my perspective, living away from Sioux City for an extended period of time and then coming back really I think is a very touching way that has an impact on each of us as alumni. It brings back a lot of great memories. Had I not come to Morningside, I probably wouldn't have gotten a job at Gateway. That helped my career and I learned so much. And my wife came back to this area so we would've not met. So a lot of things for me are at Morningside and I hear those stories constantly from our alumni.
Alisanne Struck (15:38): Absolutely.
President Chad Benson (15:39): And that's the big thing is it's going to take all of us. The idea that it's all about donation, donation is an important factor here at Morningside, but time commitment, involvement, engagement. Our students love when either a performing arts or an athletic event is packed and that inspires them and that brings a lot to it. And frankly, for our students who are just here getting a great education, when we have different things in the classroom and there's an opportunity to come back and spend time with them in certain ways, that's impactful as well. So my message to our alumni is there are lots of different ways to get involved. We need you as a university. You're an important part of our journey. We were an important part of your journey. And so that togetherness I think is more important than ever.
Alisanne Struck (16:38): Yeah. And especially, I mean you talk about the buy-in of investing in students who are current students. It's not even just the financial aspect of that. It's also just buying into believing that there's another generation of Morningside students that are going to go and do great things, hopefully like all of our other alumni have done, that they have to buy into that almost emotionally and the belief of that too. So I think that's awesome. Can you tell me, I mean, you've talked a lot about the student experience and how you want to enhance that. I mean, I think that's super interesting. I want to hear more about also even you've talked about academically, even the social part of that. Can you dive into that just a little bit more?
President Chad Benson (17:20): So when you think about when it comes to experience and you think about some of the programs that we have going on, extending them and being more intentional across campus and supporting the demographics of our campus in the ways that they feel most impacted by that support. So I also just think when you look around the campus and you see how our students engage with each other, it's finding ways to create connections. Some of that is intentional. I want more of it to be unintentional, sitting in areas of our campus and just getting to know others. And I think that kind of development of relationship has really, really, really big opportunity to impact, especially when you look at areas like the nursing and combination with innovation. How is AI impacting the nursing world? How is AI impacting education? How is innovation impacting agriculture? These kinds of impacts are students are learning, but they have ideas and are finding ways to do that.
18:44: I see that happening in a bit of our residential design, but also with our new business school. We have very intentional design for pushing that kind of opportunity for students to be able to experience that.
Alisanne Struck (19:02): Collaborate and learn for each other. I love that. You also touched on some of the plans that you're planning or some of the plans that maybe have some struggle points that you need to address and things like that. And I think that's one of the things that we're seeing also on a national scale with higher ed is bigger challenges revolving around admissions and numbers dropping. So moving forward, when you look at the big challenges that face Morningside, what is your plan that you want to share with everyone to address them?
President Chad Benson (19:33): Yeah. This comes back to really taking a hard look at data and information because traditionally we would have been kind of anchored into our 90-mile radius. And so part of what we're going to start doing is a very intentional and deliberate office work series of steps with our marketing. We're going to be introducing this new tagline, which I'm really excited about is your ambition, your purpose.
Alisanne Struck (20:04): Oh, we've talked about this.
President Chad Benson (20:06): Your experience. And we believe the student that comes to Morningside has a strong ambition. And this comes through where this grounds is our ability for our students to go get employed. So they come out, and this comes back to this 99% job after six months number. Also, when you look at the college scoreboard, our students have a tendency to come out of Morningside University significantly higher than our peer group after five years. And so these are real data points that prove like, hey, not only is when you look at the track in a applied preparation where you have a relationship with an employer or a relationship with a school system or a hospital, they see you as somebody they want. And many of our students come out already with a job. Taking that into this idea that we have to help those students understand and we have to expand our capability.
21:16:I think the reach in geography, and we've tried this in the past, but not to the approach we're going to take moving forward. So our goal is to be a little further in distance in our reach, but we're also going to be spending a tremendous amount of time rounding out pathways, more opportunity within our schools. We have six schools, more opportunities for majors and graduate opportunities inside those. And that will be impactful because when you think about somebody who wants to come and say they want to come pre-med, they may find that when they get here after a semester or two, that's not the direction they want to go. And we want to have a really good set of pathways for them to transition, which is not uncommon. So all of us probably in one way or another ended up coming to school. Then we found out, well, wow, I want to go in a different direction. And so that exploration, we just want to make sure we have the right amount of opportunity.
Alisanne Struck (22:24): What message would you like to share with the Morningside community as we're about a month into your presidency and moving forward? What message do you want to share with them?
President Chad Benson (22:33): Well, I would say Morningside is in motion. We are moving forward. I think Morningside is a place where we fully understand the things that face us and we're eyes wide open to those. I think that's important for a university today. You have to truly understand what you're facing, problems you're trying to solve for. And I would say we have a great team here and that for any student wanting to make a decision to come to a university that they should absolutely take the time to visit Morningside University. If you're ambitious, if you have a strong purpose, you're seeking a purpose and you want to leave here with tremendous experience in the discipline that you either truly understand today or you're looking for, we're a great place to come. And for the broader Morningside community, I would just say we are here to serve Morningside. So we are here to engage.
(23:43): We are here to help solve problems through our resourcing and we want to make sure there's an open two-way dialogue. We can only be as good as how people are feeling and seeing about the things that are available to them from our university. And so we'll be very proactive and excited to engage.
Alisanne Struck (24:04): That was all great. We're all so excited that you're here to stay because we all think you're amazing, Chad. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Inside Mside with President Chad Benson. This is actually going to be our last episode as we go on our summer break hiatus, but we want to thank you all so much for listening this past school year. We've had so much fun recording these and we will see you guys this fall.
Alisanne Struck (00:13):Welcome back to “Inside Mside.” I'm one of your hosts, Alisanne, and we are back for part two with President Chad Benson to talk about the future of Morningside.
President Chad Benson (00:25): Thanks for having me.
Alisanne Struck (00:26): Yes, back for part two. I know we look so different. We'll dive right in. Can you kind of tell me about long-term vision for Morningside and just how you see campus evolving?
President Chad Benson (00:38): Yeah. So I think at the highest level, we talked about this a little bit in part one, which is the student experience. And I'm a big believer that everything we need to be doing is built around that. And so when you start to go, okay, what does that mean? I think first of all, really understanding a few things at a kind of structural data level. And I'm going to kind of set some context and then I'll get into the specifics. But what I mean by that is we have to really understand the market, our regional needs here in the Siouxland area, but also what's going on structurally with the workforce over time. And what are the things either in the market of education or ancillary things along the market of education like AI influencing jobs, job types, skills, regardless of the discipline or the outcome?
1:36: So I think when you look at the landscape today, we know that there are going to be fewer students due to the population going to universities going to higher education over the next 10 to 15 years. And we know that AI is competing in that space, accelerating certain areas in the professional ranks. So part of my vision is to make sure we really understand what that future looks like both here regionally and what that means for us in terms of our ability to not just grow, but make sure that we're sustainable as a university. And I don't think that's fundamentally anything different than the other 4,300 university presence are probably worried about right now in the world of strategy. So understanding that and then I think ‘What's that mean to the experience? How does Morningside differentiate?’ I think looking back as well, we have been a very strong applied outcomes oriented university.
2:44: So that all really started back probably with agriculture where we did a lot of work with industry to bring experiential learning, internships, be highly integrated. That's now worked itself into 12 different tracks. And so those are the things that I kind of look at and go, ‘What's working really well?" And you have to really, I think, first of all, before you jump in and go, "What's the future look like? What are we doing really well? And then where are our opportunities?’ I'd also say that when I think about Morningside, we're 132 years old, so I've spent a lot of time looking back. I truly appreciate it because I got time with John and Albert, the things they were going through, but John entered at a different time. So he had different situations and issues to deal with and transitions. And then he had this vision for what he wanted the university to look like as it related to both academics and the campus.
3:55: I don't see mine much different. The problem probably just hasn't arisen yet, which is how do we make ourselves really compelling to get students to come here when the numbers are not going up, they're going down.
4:13: So experience. The student experience, I break that down into a couple really important pathways.
We have historically been a bachelor's of science for a year over the last decade or two, we've added education, we've added in the master's and graduate, we've add health nursing, and we recently add MBA. And so when you think about pathways, you think about how do we make available in our approach to education these clear pathways that make it seamless and we meet students where they're at. So what does that mean? So we're pretty much a residential on-campus in undergrad. We do most of our graduate online. And by the way, when you step back and look at it, now we have this new St. Luke's soon-to-be St. Luke's Morningside fully integrated nursing school, which now takes into consideration associate degree, bachelor degree, graduate degree, and doctoral. And so when I think about pathways, I think about how do we make it really easy for somebody here in the region to come to Morningside and they can either get a two-year degree in nursing, they can get a four-year degree, they can get a specialization, they can come back and get their graduate, and that we make that really seamless for them.
5:49: And that hasn't necessarily two plus two, everything feels all the time like it could be seamless. It doesn't always end up that way. So pushing that to make that seamless. And so when you think about that broadly over the university, I think about tracks like healthcare, obviously we're going to really put a lot of effort into healthcare. That's an area that sustainably is a great long-term investment for families, especially those that have a high purpose for serving and taking care of people and love the idea of being a nurse regardless of what kind of nurse they become in terms of specialization. I think the other area we're going to spend a tremendous amount of time on is in what I would call the business innovation and leadership. And so when you think about business and where we're at today, we have built a really successful business school.
06:47: We've got 375 students in our undergraduate program. We've recently launched the MBA, but we're going to continue to step back and think about what does that mean by way of how innovation plays out in the areas of data technology? How are we developing the next computer science tracks that are highly relevant to today's technology? And then I'm going to say the third really big area is going to be around agriculture and aviation. So
7:24: If you think about areas where there's a lot of demand in the market for need for students and there's a tremendous amount of opportunity because we have these programs, our effort right now is to make sure that we can market and accelerate and reach students and tell our story of why these are really appropriate opportunities for them to come here to campus to check out. More importantly, they're not just education. There is an applied approach to the learning process which gets them hands-on and that the outcomes and for us, we've been extremely successful at Morningside operating at 99% plus for probably well over a decade.
8:10: And, so those outcomes, it's not just about starting a degree, it's about finishing your degree, it's about getting a job or going back to graduate school and accomplishing that successfully. Cost and access. So probably one of the biggest things on every parent and student's mind, we want to be taking a look at our costs as an institution. That comes down to not just, hey, what's the sticker cost? But what's our cost of operating this university? Where are we putting our dollars? Are those going to the highest impact areas to influence? Again, back to experience and expectations for our students. They're looking to get the most value and have the best experience. So we think about our infrastructure and our technology. We're making a transition today to an existing new platform from our old one to a new one. So we're making these steps, but there's a lot of work to do to be as efficient as we possibly can as an institution to make sure that our cost can stay down. So those three things are extremely important, but we will also be focusing on more opportunities in the graduate area.
9:32: We will be looking conclusively at areas like three-year degrees. We will be looking at associate degree paths within health sciences and possibly some other areas that are pre-professional and make sense in terms of meeting students where they're at today. So yeah, we're going to put a lot of effort in the vision for the student and a lot of energy into what makes sense given the market dynamic looking out not just one year, but three years and five years. The experience going to university is one thing I think many of us feel very appreciative of the people we meet, the relationships that we have an opportunity to build, and those are over a lifetime. And I think for Morningside, our investment will come by the way of some re-imagining how that works in residential living here on campus. And honestly, there's a vision for surrounding the campus. We are an ecosystem. I think there's a lot of potential. I think this is where the broader Siouxland can have a tremendous impact. I want somebody to come here. I want them to feel very much like we're getting the absolute best in the classroom, that they're getting the absolute best in their campus experience and their living experience. And whether they're in performing arts or in athletics, that they're getting the necessary things there. That would take me to another area, which is our athletic facilities. We are going to have to make some investments there
11:17: And this will be a tremendous opportunity. Me, as a former athlete, I can be talking to this community where we are going to need to lean on our alumni base to have an opportunity to really focus in on that. So academic, operational and physical.
11:37: And, the last one I would say is about how we deliver education in the sense of we have been traditionally a very campus-driven university. And I think we're going to need to begin to look at how we take that to a more hybrid aproach. Again, going back to meeting the customer where they are. So all these tie to how do we create the best experience? How do we focus on cost efficiency and deliver that at a great value? And there's a lot there, but I think the realization is this is a sequence that eventually gets laid out pretty quickly and we get started with it and do it in chunks.
Alisanne Struck (12:28): So there's a very clear plan of moving forward. Also with moving forward, I think you're in a unique position that I think being an alum, how do you plan to honor a lot of Morningside's traditions while also driving growth and progression that you just talked about?
President Chad Benson (12:47): I have that level of appreciation as an alum myself. And so I have looked back in history and I understand the inflection points that each of our presidents have gone through and what they've built and why they have built and done what they've done over time. So with that context, I think you look at tradition here, our goal is not to change a line or a timeline. Our goal is to look at how we extend that and leave it a little bit better. So that's how I think about this. We still have to be very fiscally responsible. We still have to be very conscious of our mission. Our mission will not change. That's my number one principle. We have a very clear mission. That mission will not change. But we also have to look at how we operate our university, tools, the resources, the work that we do, and we have to make sure those are aligning to the outcomes that are going to make us viable out into the future.
Alisanne Struck (13:58): I love it. And talking from an alumni perspective as well, I know one of the things we always talk about is engaging the alumni community. How do you plan as president to strengthen that connection between past Morningsiders and more recent Morningsiders? How do you bridge that gap from where we are today to the alumni community at large?
President Chad Benson (14:20): Well, as an alumni, my hope for our alumni is this message would be more about just find a way to get involved. And I think that can be through getting involved in events that could be involved in different mentorship programs we have. There's a lot of different ways to come back to campus and just be engaged. Going to athletic events, performing art events, taking the time to just explore what's happening at Morningside. I can tell you from my perspective, living away from Sioux City for an extended period of time and then coming back really I think is a very touching way that has an impact on each of us as alumni. It brings back a lot of great memories. Had I not come to Morningside, I probably wouldn't have gotten a job at Gateway. That helped my career and I learned so much. And my wife came back to this area so we would've not met. So a lot of things for me are at Morningside and I hear those stories constantly from our alumni.
Alisanne Struck (15:38): Absolutely.
President Chad Benson (15:39): And that's the big thing is it's going to take all of us. The idea that it's all about donation, donation is an important factor here at Morningside, but time commitment, involvement, engagement. Our students love when either a performing arts or an athletic event is packed and that inspires them and that brings a lot to it. And frankly, for our students who are just here getting a great education, when we have different things in the classroom and there's an opportunity to come back and spend time with them in certain ways, that's impactful as well. So my message to our alumni is there are lots of different ways to get involved. We need you as a university. You're an important part of our journey. We were an important part of your journey. And so that togetherness I think is more important than ever.
Alisanne Struck (16:38): Yeah. And especially, I mean you talk about the buy-in of investing in students who are current students. It's not even just the financial aspect of that. It's also just buying into believing that there's another generation of Morningside students that are going to go and do great things, hopefully like all of our other alumni have done, that they have to buy into that almost emotionally and the belief of that too. So I think that's awesome. Can you tell me, I mean, you've talked a lot about the student experience and how you want to enhance that. I mean, I think that's super interesting. I want to hear more about also even you've talked about academically, even the social part of that. Can you dive into that just a little bit more?
President Chad Benson (17:20): So when you think about when it comes to experience and you think about some of the programs that we have going on, extending them and being more intentional across campus and supporting the demographics of our campus in the ways that they feel most impacted by that support. So I also just think when you look around the campus and you see how our students engage with each other, it's finding ways to create connections. Some of that is intentional. I want more of it to be unintentional, sitting in areas of our campus and just getting to know others. And I think that kind of development of relationship has really, really, really big opportunity to impact, especially when you look at areas like the nursing and combination with innovation. How is AI impacting the nursing world? How is AI impacting education? How is innovation impacting agriculture? These kinds of impacts are students are learning, but they have ideas and are finding ways to do that.
18:44: I see that happening in a bit of our residential design, but also with our new business school. We have very intentional design for pushing that kind of opportunity for students to be able to experience that.
Alisanne Struck (19:02): Collaborate and learn for each other. I love that. You also touched on some of the plans that you're planning or some of the plans that maybe have some struggle points that you need to address and things like that. And I think that's one of the things that we're seeing also on a national scale with higher ed is bigger challenges revolving around admissions and numbers dropping. So moving forward, when you look at the big challenges that face Morningside, what is your plan that you want to share with everyone to address them?
President Chad Benson (19:33): Yeah. This comes back to really taking a hard look at data and information because traditionally we would have been kind of anchored into our 90-mile radius. And so part of what we're going to start doing is a very intentional and deliberate office work series of steps with our marketing. We're going to be introducing this new tagline, which I'm really excited about is your ambition, your purpose.
Alisanne Struck (20:04): Oh, we've talked about this.
President Chad Benson (20:06): Your experience. And we believe the student that comes to Morningside has a strong ambition. And this comes through where this grounds is our ability for our students to go get employed. So they come out, and this comes back to this 99% job after six months number. Also, when you look at the college scoreboard, our students have a tendency to come out of Morningside University significantly higher than our peer group after five years. And so these are real data points that prove like, hey, not only is when you look at the track in a applied preparation where you have a relationship with an employer or a relationship with a school system or a hospital, they see you as somebody they want. And many of our students come out already with a job. Taking that into this idea that we have to help those students understand and we have to expand our capability.
21:16:I think the reach in geography, and we've tried this in the past, but not to the approach we're going to take moving forward. So our goal is to be a little further in distance in our reach, but we're also going to be spending a tremendous amount of time rounding out pathways, more opportunity within our schools. We have six schools, more opportunities for majors and graduate opportunities inside those. And that will be impactful because when you think about somebody who wants to come and say they want to come pre-med, they may find that when they get here after a semester or two, that's not the direction they want to go. And we want to have a really good set of pathways for them to transition, which is not uncommon. So all of us probably in one way or another ended up coming to school. Then we found out, well, wow, I want to go in a different direction. And so that exploration, we just want to make sure we have the right amount of opportunity.
Alisanne Struck (22:24): What message would you like to share with the Morningside community as we're about a month into your presidency and moving forward? What message do you want to share with them?
President Chad Benson (22:33): Well, I would say Morningside is in motion. We are moving forward. I think Morningside is a place where we fully understand the things that face us and we're eyes wide open to those. I think that's important for a university today. You have to truly understand what you're facing, problems you're trying to solve for. And I would say we have a great team here and that for any student wanting to make a decision to come to a university that they should absolutely take the time to visit Morningside University. If you're ambitious, if you have a strong purpose, you're seeking a purpose and you want to leave here with tremendous experience in the discipline that you either truly understand today or you're looking for, we're a great place to come. And for the broader Morningside community, I would just say we are here to serve Morningside. So we are here to engage.
(23:43): We are here to help solve problems through our resourcing and we want to make sure there's an open two-way dialogue. We can only be as good as how people are feeling and seeing about the things that are available to them from our university. And so we'll be very proactive and excited to engage.
Alisanne Struck (24:04): That was all great. We're all so excited that you're here to stay because we all think you're amazing, Chad. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Inside Mside with President Chad Benson. This is actually going to be our last episode as we go on our summer break hiatus, but we want to thank you all so much for listening this past school year. We've had so much fun recording these and we will see you guys this fall.
