Welcome Days for Fall 2015 (November 12-14) brought record numbers with 110 prospective students attending and representing sixteen states and one foreign country. “Welcome Days helps students get a taste of college life, make new friends, and get acquainted with all that Welch College has to offer,” said Debbie Mouser, Director of Enrollment Services.
Mrs. Mouser and her staff rolled out the red carpet for visiting students and their parents/sponsors on Thursday afternoon, greeting them with eager enthusiasm, information packets, and t-shirts, and then introducing them to their student host who gave them a tour of the campus.
Students attended chapel and classes. Friday afternoon brought “The Big Show” which was a game show style competition of girls versus boys. Students, parents, and sponsors then had the opportunity to participate in the Academic/Student Life Fair, which brought together the best of both worlds: academic life and campus life. It allowed students the opportunity to speak with faculty and staff representatives, society representatives, as well as Welch alumni, and to obtain information on all aspects of college life at Welch. The day concluded with games of the Welch Lady Flames andFlames basketball teams.
Mrs. Mouser said, “For some, Welcome Days is a reaffirmation of their decision to attend Welch College. For others, it is an opportunity to help in making the decision on where to attend college. Research shows that a personal visit is the most trusted source of information for prospective students choosing a college. That is exactly why we organize such an event. We had 110 prospective students and their guests join us and their incredibly positive feedback indicates our collective efforts were well-received.”
The next Welcome Days event is scheduled for April 21-23, 2016.
By resolution of the Board of Trustees, Welch College will construct a president’s home on its new 66-acre campus site in Gallatin, Tennessee, according to David Williford, vice president for institutional advancement.
“The most recent plans for phase one did not include a president’s home; President Pinson felt that all resources and energies needed to be focused on the building of the core campus,” Williford said. “Plans changed when the lead donor to the Building on the Legacy capital campaign for campus relocation, Mrs. Alicia Celorio of the Do Unto Others Trust in Miami, FL, promised an additional gift that would make it possible for the home to be built without diverting any funds from the core campus.”
“In December of 2014, Mrs. Celorio completed the most significant pledge of the Building on the Legacy campaign. While visiting the West End campus over the years, she had spent time in the president’s home and saw how the home was a hub of ministry to college students and the college family. It was her desire to see that replicated on the Gallatin campus.”
James and Mary Beasley of Turbeville, SC, subsequently made an additional, significant pledge above and beyond their Building on the Legacy commitment. As directed by the Board of Trustees, the funds for the president’s home will not come from gifts to the Building on the Legacy campaign, but from special gifts made above and beyond Building on the Legacy gifts, as well as from the president’s housing allowance.
“We’re grateful to our two lead donors in the silent phase of the Building on the Legacy campaign, who had a special interest in seeing a president’s home built on this land into which they have already poured such great resources and wanted to give above and beyond their original pledges,” Williford said. “Rather than taking a personal housing allowance, President and Mrs. Pinson wanted their monthly housing allowance funds placed back into the new Welch campus through the construction of a president’s home for future generations of the Welch family.”
“In the long tradition of college presidents’ homes, the president’s home on the West End campus was a symbol of the sort of Christian community, hospitality, and mentoring we’re attempting to foster at Welch,” Williford said. “It provided a wide variety of wonderful community-building events for students, faculty and staff, and the wider Welch constituency. We’re so glad, thanks to these generous donors, this tradition can continue in Gallatin.”
The design of the house is underway, according to Relocation Consultant Bob Bass, and construction is set to begin on the house this month.
Bass will oversee the construction of the home. Mike Murdock, a member of the Donelson Fellowship, a Nashville Free Will Baptist congregation, has been selected as construction manager to design the home and manage the building process.
“Mike has designed and built scores of excellent homes in the greater Nashville area,” Bass said. “He’s stepping up to the plate and doing this for the college at a fraction of what he would normally receive for the expertise he brings to the table. He sees it as kingdom work. Mike will produce an excellent president’s home that will mesh well with the overall design of the new Welch campus.”
“It’s great to see the amazing progress on the construction of the new Welch campus,” Bass said. “We are now completing the foundations and are about to see some vertical activity. After more than twenty years of work and anticipation on this project, it’s a wonderful sight to watch it all come together.”
To learn more about campus relocation or to give to the Building on the Legacy campaign, visit BuildingontheLegacy.com.
I am writing you excited that our construction on the new campus for Welch College in Gallatin, Tennessee, is well underway. We have begun site work and look forward to seeing the foundations laid soon for the campus buildings.
I encourage you to look at some images of what the new campus will look like at BuildingontheLegacy.com. Also on this website you will see the basic contours of our capital campaign, Building on the Legacy, for the new Welch College campus.
The reason for this letter is to ask for your help in the Gifts-in-Kind portion of our capital campaign. Our goal is to raise a total of $2 million in Gifts-in-Kind of materials and volunteer labor for the construction project. Some of the pledges for these gifts have already been promised.
What we need you to do is to help us identify friends and acquaintances who may be involved with businesses that could donate or provide substantial discounts on building materials, equipment, and furnishings that go into the construction of a new college campus. We also need you to help us identify individuals or groups of people who could provide volunteer labor for the project on a short-term or long-term basis.
Please take a few minutes and look at the attached list. If you know of anyone who might be interested in donating or discounting materials, equipment, or furnishings—or volunteering their labor over a short or long term—please email our project manager Bob Bass at bbass@welch.edu or call him at 615-347-5942. Please bear in mind that such gifts-in-kind may offer tax write-offs to individuals and businesses.
I am trusting that you know people who have a heart for Welch College, for Free Will Baptist ministries, or for evangelical Christian ministries in general who would be glad to assist in this project. Please send them our way.
Thank you for your support and prayers in this once-in-a-lifetime endeavor to build a new campus for Welch College for the glory of God and the extension of His kingdom.
I’m writing to tell you that we’ve formally submitted our application for a level change to our accrediting bodies so that we can offer the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Theology and Ministry at Welch College starting this spring semester sometime in January, February, or March, 2016. “Level change” means that we’re requesting permission to make the transition from being a bachelor’s degree-granting institution to a master’s degree-granting institution.
The main reason for this letter is to ask you to email our M.A. program coordinator Dr. Jeff Cockrell (jcockrell@welch.edu) if you (1) might be interested in enrolling in the M.A. program or (2) know someone who might be.
We believe our accrediting bodies will give us permission to begin offering the M.A. degree this coming Spring 2016 semester. The program will consist of hybrid courses, in which a portion of the coursework will be done online and the other portion in one-week on-campus intensive sessions.
Two courses will be offered at every week-long intensive. This means that those wishing to complete the M.A. in 16 months can do so by taking two courses at a time. Those who take only one course at a time will take twice as long to complete the degree. Our plan is to offer free campus lodging during the intensives. Generous financial aid will be available, including institutionally funded scholarships and federally guaranteed loans.
Right now, we’re provisionally enrolling our first cohort of individuals who want to be in the first class. If the program is approved for this January, we plan to begin with a day of meetings on campus January 5, 2016, which will consist of convocation and orientation for the program.
We plan for the first two courses to begin online on February 15 and go through April 15, with the on-campus intensive March 14-18. The first two courses will be Mission and Church Growth (taught by Dr. Barry Raper and Dr. Ron Callaway) and the Arminian Theological Tradition (taught by Dr. Kevin Hester and myself).
There’s a lot of excitement about this new program. Seats in this first cohort are limited, and students wishing to pursue the degree in sixteen months will receive priority seating. So I encourage you to inquire soon. If you or someone you know might be interested in starting with us next semester, please email Dr. Cockrell at jcockrell@welch.edu.
Please be in prayer for us as we initiate this new program. We believe the accrediting bodies will approve our starting the degree next semester, and we want you to pray with us to that end.
Welch College enrolled 327 students from 22 states, one U.S. territory, and one other country for the Fall 2015 semester, according to Registrar Matt Bracey. Enrollment statistics indicate a diverse student body with a wide range of academic interests.
At press time October 1, the college reported 169 dormitory students, 40 commuter students, 72 distance-learning students, and 46 dual-enrollment students. Officials set the Fall 2015 full-time student equivalency at 251.
By classes they include 64 Freshmen, 72 Sophomores, 55 Juniors, 53 Seniors, 37 non-degree part-time, and 46 dual-enrollment students.
By states:
Alabama 13
Arkansas 12
California 1
Florida 9
Georgia 11
Illinois 13
Indiana 1
Kansas 1
Kentucky 4
Michigan 3
Missouri 6
Mississippi 4
North Carolina 24
Ohio 7
Oklahoma 4
Pennsylvania 1
Rhode Island 1
South Carolina 9
Tennessee 148
Texas 7
Virginia 13
West Virginia 1
Virgin Islands 3
International 31
Provost Greg Ketteman said, “Fall is always an exciting time on the Welch campus. We have a wonderful group of new and returning students this semester and expect great things from God over the coming academic year. Students are excited about the construction of our new campus in Gallatin and moving to the new campus next academic year in January of 2017.”
To contact Welch College for more information, email recruit@welch.edu or visit the college’s website at welch.edu.
Jeffrey Cockrell, a well-known Free Will Baptist pastor and online instructor at Welch College, has been appointed to Welch’s full-time faculty beginning January 2016 according, to Provost Greg Ketteman. He will teach biblical studies with a specialization in New Testament and serve as program coordinator of the college’s planned M.A. program in Theology and Ministry scheduled to begin January 2016.
Dr. Cockrell has served as a Free Will Baptist pastor for nearly thirty years in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Most currently, he serves as senior pastor of Ahoskie Free Will Baptist Church in Ahoskie, NC, which also operates a Christian academy. He has served in a number of denominational posts at the local and state levels and currently serves as a member of the Historical Commission of the National Association of Free Will Baptists.
Dr. Cockrell holds a Ph.D. with a concentration in New Testament from the University of Wales in the UK, an M.A. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a B.S. and M.A.R. from Liberty University. In addition to his pastoral work, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses adjunctively at a number of institutions, including Gordon-Conwell, Liberty, and North Carolina Wesleyan College. He is author of a number of scholarly and popular articles and papers.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Jeff Cockrell to the faculty of Welch College,” said Dr. Ketteman. “Dr. Cockrell brings long experience in Free Will Baptist ministry, outstanding academic credentials, and a passion for teaching. He clearly demonstrates Christian virtues such as humility, diligence, and wisdom, traits that have been prominent during his career. Dr. Cockrell has proven to be an effective teacher, gaining significant experience in the Welch Online program as well as teaching online and in traditional formats for numerous other Christian and public colleges. These experiences will be particularly valuable in his role as program coordinator for the Master of Arts program in Theology and Ministry.”
President Matt Pinson said, “Dr. Cockrell brings just the right mix of pastoral effectiveness, evangelistic zeal, and academic credibility to his new position at Welch. We’re so excited to have a man of such proven ability, character, and spirituality to join our full-time faculty.”
Dr. Cockrell and his wife Terri have been married for 30 years and have two grown sons, Drew and Joel.
