Four hundered and twenty-five invited guests--all friends and alumni of Manchester College--heard Dr. William P. Robinson issue a challenge Friday night to help the private liberal arts church-related school face up to the challenges of its next century.
Launching Manchester College's $10 million Centennial Campaign, Robinson said, "I am convinced that what happens during the four critical undergraduate years shapes the lives that shape the world." ............................
Robinson said the picture gets bleaker, not better, as Manchester College moves into its next century.
"As we face the 1990's we stand on the edge of a a decade that is sure to usher in a recession in higher education," he warned.
He explained that the year 1994 will see in Indiana one-third fewer seniors graduate from high school than did iin 1979.
"Indiana will have far more educational supply than demand. And like an economic recession the industry will be purged, with only academically and financially strong schools able to offer a quality education at a manageable cost to students," Robinson observed.