Focus, flexibility propel Trine to a successful year and bright future

By Earl D. Brooks II, Ph.D.

I arrived at Trine University 26 years ago as the youngest college president in the state of Indiana.

Bill Clinton was wrapping up his presidency. Amazon had yet to post a profit. Facebook, Tesla and AirBnB didn’t exist.

How things have changed.

Nowhere has change had a greater impact than in higher education. Notebooks have been replaced with laptops, chalkboards with projectors and card catalogs and research journals with Google and AI.

And now, more than ever, people are legitimately asking higher education institutions to provide evidence of return on investment.

It’s against this backdrop that I believe private institutions like Trine can truly shine. While larger universities have their benefits, smaller private colleges, free from the bureaucracy and politics of larger entities, are able to move more nimbly to meet the needs of students, families and industry.

At Trine, this flexibility, combined with our laser focus on student success, has allowed us to have another very successful year.

It started with welcoming a record number of new students, who were greeted by the new Summit Street Apartments, the latest residence facility to offer Trine students the space, comfort and community of apartment-style living.

Our students have continued to excel, taking top honors in national esports, criminal justice, sports sales and chemical engineering competitions, often against teams from much larger universities.

Trine University’s first class of Association of Science in Nursing graduates, part of the university’s efforts to help meet this region’s growing healthcare need, all passed their licensure exams shortly after graduating.

Graduates from Trine’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program also had a 100% pass rate on their licensure exams on the first try. Trine was one of four universities in the nation to accomplish this feat two years in a row.

For the fifth straight year, Trine University was honored to be voted Best College among this region’s fine institutions by the readers of Fort Wayne Newspapers. Several of the people who help us be the best also received recognition throughout the year, with faculty and administrators earning awards like Forty Under 40, Influential Women of Northeast Indiana and Best Professor.

And while our top priority will always be training and equipping students, we’re proud of faculty members who secured grants from the American Chemical Society, Indiana Space Grant Consortium and National Science Foundation to support research that will prepare our undergraduate students who want to continue to graduate programs.

I’m also grateful for our staff who have secured generous grants from Lilly Endowment, Ansys and the American Society for Engineering Education to help equip our faculty with the latest technological resources to enhance our students’ educational journey.

On top of all this, our donors have continued to provide generous support for the university and its students, contributing record amounts this year for Giving Tuesday and the Scholarship Gala. Their passion for our university and its mission has allowed us to continue expanding and upgrading our facilities, with the new Trine Family Fitness Center, Thunder Dome and Pellegrino Student Design Center currently under construction.

These achievements have allowed us to continue to provide a solid return on investment for our students and their families. Our graduating seniors experienced an employment rate above 99% for the 13^th straight year.

It’s been an amazing year, and I’ve been proud to lead Trine University to continued growth and success.

Our Commencement on May 2 will be the last that I have the honor to preside over as president. Trine University has been a blessing to me, my wife Melanie, and our family, and a huge part of all our lives, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to support the institution and its mission as chancellor.

But I’m excited for the future of our university under the capable leadership of Dr. Tony Kline, who will become president on June 1. Dr. Kline brings a distinguished history with the university, a strategic mindset and a passion for students to his new role. I know that, under his leadership and supported by our growing endowment, enrollment and facilities, Trine University has even more amazing years to come.