Anchored and Unbounded, Part 1: Gordon is More Affordable
Posted on August 11, 2021 by College Communications in Featured.
The fall 2021 issue of STILLPOINT, the magazine of Gordon College, spotlighted the completion of a wildly successful Faith Rising campaign. The Bell shares the highlights in a three-part series, “Anchored and Unbounded.” This is part one.
Faith Rising changed the game for Gordon
Gordon has been fortunate to be named in Washington Monthly’s “Best Bang for the Buck”; Money’s “The Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value”; LendEDU’s “Best Colleges for Financial Aid”; and “Inexpensive Colleges and Universities” in Fiske Guide to Colleges. But accolades alone weren’t enough to close the ever-widening gap between household income and college costs. More had to be done. Born from a desire both to recruit and retain top Christian students and to graduate them without significant educational debt, affordability became a key driver for Faith Rising. Through the campaign, Gordon has dramatically decreased tuition costs to families and increased the volume of merit- and need-based scholarships for students.
Sustainable scholarships for students: The transformative power of endowments
Faith Rising is about affordability for students—and the College. Until now, the majority of scholarship funds came from Gordon’s annual budget. “Because the College has been unrelenting in its commitment to student scholarships—99 percent of students receive some form of financial assistance from Gordon—this had grown to be an astronomical budget line,” explains Campaign Director and Associate Vice President for Advancement Britt Carlson Eaton ’03. “The pinch was palpable.” Enter endowed scholarships. Funded by annual interest from the College’s endowment and earmarked specifically for students, these scholarships help offset the cost of college without tapping into Gordon’s annual budget. The Faith Rising campaign has added more than 20 new endowed scholarships. “Gifts to the endowment—for scholarships, faculty chair positions and other allocations—transform Gordon’s trajectory and secure its financial viability for the future,” says Eaton.
Rolling back to leap forward: A 33% tuition reduction beginning in the fall of 2021
On October 8, 1970, when Gordon formally established itself as a national Christian liberal arts college (after the Divinity School spun off to merge with Conwell Theological Seminary), the cost to attend was one-third the median family income at the time. After five decades of hyperinflation in college tuition, the average American now must earn tens of thousands of dollars more than the current median income. To close the unsustainable gap, on October 8, 2020—50 years full circle—Gordon announced a 33 percent rollback of annual tuition, the "Gordon Game Change," to less than one-third of the 2019 median family income.
A home for honors: The Global Honors Institute
The College’s first fully endowed scholarship, Global Honors Scholars, launched in 2018 as the flagship four-year honors program. Thirty-three students in this cohort-based program have experienced one-on-one mentorships; specialized seminars on the relationship between education, culture and character; face-time with scholars like N. T. Wright, Dr. Ivan Satyavrata and Dr. Praveen Sethupathy; and cross-cultural worship, travel and internships. The Global Honors Scholars program is housed under the Global Honors Institute along with the Clarendon Scholars honors program and seven other distinguished opportunities.
Share
- Share on Facebook
- Share on X (Formerly Twitter)
- Share on LinkedIn
- Share on Email
-
Copy Link
-
Share Link
Categories
Categories
Archives
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014