To the Wilmington College Community,
The Board of Trustees of Wilmington College emphatically embraces and shares the various concerns, including full-time employee compensation, raised by students and others. The Board expresses strong support for Administration, and in particular its new President of eleven months, Trevor Bates.
With energy, imagination, and excellence, he has faced the challenges of the pandemic and the rapidly changing landscape of higher education. The Board is committed to the Quaker values and exciting future of our uniquely positioned Wilmington College. With Administration, it does, and will continue to, address with sound financial principles the complex issues of any college, including attraction and retention of quality faculty and staff, careful scrutiny of existing and future programs, and conservation of buildings and infrastructure.
It did, at the recommendation of Administration, authorize cash distributions to full time, non-administrative employees last year. A new CFO begins January 1 and new a Dean for Academic Affairs and Vice President for Advancement have just come on board.
A Strategic Plan is in place. It includes annual full-time employee compensation bonuses to reward the work of our faculty and staff as we strive to increase our resources to make permanent compensation increases. This addresses the concerns raised while providing a fiscally sound and sustainable vision to fulfill the mission of Wilmington College to educate its extraordinary students in the context of Quaker values. Students are always free to speak their concerns and if their recent statements reflect communication issues, the Board, Administration, and students will strive together to resolve them.
On behalf of the Wilmington College Board of Trustees,
Rich Sidwell, Chair