Since the fire which consumed Old Main in 1901, Wooster has been fortunate to create a campus graced with thirty-nine beautiful buildings, mostly in the English collegiate Gothic style. These buildings have served the College well and are one of its major attractions. The beauty of the campus and of its buildings and other spaces is a key factor in recruiting students. However, instruction in many areas of the curriculum is quite different from what it was just thirty-five years ago; and facilities required for Wooster's style of teaching and learning are changing rapidly, particularly in the use of instructional technologies.

The Campaign for Wooster in the 1980's and the Campaign for the 1990's produced a building sequence matched only by the flurry of buildings constructed after the 1901 fire. During the period from 1983 to 1999, we will have added the Scheide Music Center, Luce Hall, and the Flo K. Gault Library for Independent Study, transformed Severance Gymnasium into the Ebert Art Center, renovated Kenarden Lodge, renovated Frick Hall as the Timken Science Library, and expanded and thoroughly renovated Scovel, Taylor, and Severance Chemistry. With costs totaling over $50 million, these projects have stretched the giving capabilities of the College's constituencies.

Nevertheless, a number of important building needs remain. Several of these comprise the goals for campus buildings from 1998 to 2003.

Objective: To maintain and improve Wooster's buildings and grounds in order to provide a physical environment which supports the academic and campus life goals of the College.

Goals

• To develop a master campus plan for facilities and land use.
• To begin an assessment of space utilization and needs in Kauke Hall, as a first step in the planning process for renovation of this building, last renovated in 1962.
• To complete the assessment begun several years ago of the specific needs and possibilities for additional recreational and athletic space, as a step in planning for a new fieldhouse/recreation center supporting the health and well-being of all members of the community.
• To begin an assessment of the quality of small house living arrangements in order to establish a program of rehabilitation or to provide more cost-effective small house living opportunities.
• To reconstruct the student activities office area in Lowry Center.

Computing and Technology

Wooster's academic program emphasizes active learning, and the College takes pride in its individualized attention to students in seminar rooms, laboratories, faculty offices, and residence halls. In the academic program, technology is used to enhance these human interactions rather than to replace them; on the administrative side, it is used to improve the quality of administrative functions.

Through gifts and grants, the College's facilities for computing and instructional technology have grown enormously in the last ten years. Computer facilities have been added and strengthened in Taylor Hall and Kauke Hall, and the campus network has been enhanced by a fiber-optic backbone and the updating of building networks to an ethernet standard. However, needs continue to grow as the pace of technological development accelerates. The challenge is to keep pace with advances in the integration of technology with teaching and administrative functions.

Objective: To stay current with uses of computing and technology in instruction, learning, research, and administration.

Goals

• To increase the quality and effectiveness of technology utilization on campus, particularly in teaching and learning.
• To complete by 2000 the wiring project updating the College's buildings to an ethernet protocol for the campus computer network.
• To provide equipment budgets sufficient for the replacement of twenty percent of the College's desktop computers each year.
• To centralize the acquisition and management of hardware and software.
• To explore the establishment of a single platform standard.

Financial Resources

Through the generosity of alumni, trustees, and friends, Wooster has been fortunate in its ability to gather financial resources in support of its program. Sustaining and strengthening these resources requires self-discipline and careful reallocation in order to meet the resource implications of the objectives established in this plan. During the period 1998 to 2003, Wooster will undertake the following:

Objective: To ensure the financial preconditions for Wooster's continuing academic excellence by maintaining and strengthening the College's financial resources.

Goals

• To strengthen the endowment and its contribution to the College's operation.
• To limit annual comprehensive fee increases to a rate between the rate of inflation and one percentage point above the rate of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
• To increase net student revenue by the rate of inflation plus between 1% and 2%.
• To balance the budget each year from 1998 to 2003 and operate each auxiliary enterprise on a break-even basis and in a manner which contributes to the mission of the College.
• To increase gifts for operations and financial aid, exclusive of government gifts for financial aid, from a share of 7% to 9% of the operating budget.
• To engage in cost containment and thereby reach salary goals for faculty and staff and achieve competitive pricing without jeopardizing the overall quality of the academic program.

The Academic Program

Campus and Community Life

Enrollment and National Recognition

Conclusion

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