Ep. 2: Welcome to the Fall Semester
This is a presentation of the Trine Broadcasting Network, part of the Center for Sports Studies at Trine University. Learn more at trine.edu.
James Tew:Hello. I'm James Tew, assistant vice president for content and communications at TrineLine Podcast. Trine University president, doctor Tony Klein, will discuss some of the latest happenings at TrineUniversity as well as issues in higher education today. Thank you Doctor. Klein for joining me today.
Dr. Tony Kline:It's good to see you again James.
James Tew:Yeah great to have you here. So as we're talking now we're into our third week of the fall semester, how do you feel things are going so far?
Dr. Tony Kline:We're absolutely thrilled with all that's happening on campus right now. So as you know, we've welcomed the incoming record class of more than 760 students to our Angola campus this fall. And with now our total student body in Angola is more than 2,200 students. And that beats our previous record back in 2023 when we had 754 students. So really excited about that.
Dr. Tony Kline:Of course, that's a highlight. We wanna emphasize a record class from our school of business, and thanks to Dean Kat Benson, and we have our strongest incoming class in years for the Allen School of Engineering and Computing. So a big kudos to doctor Chris Carroll for all those chairs and faculty as well.
James Tew:What do you attribute these records to?
Dr. Tony Kline:I think Trine University really does a great job of differentiating itself from the competition. We have caring, supporting faculty, and yet most universities are gonna share about their caring supporting faculty. So that's a baseline that for us, that's a norm. And so we really try to emphasize the points of distinction, the value proposition of what can you do uniquely within a criminal justice program or a psychology program or a chemical engineering program that puts our students in a unique position that gets them industry aligned experiences and of course caring and supportive faculty that really support that entire process. But communicating that value proposition clearly to incoming students and their families is really important on the front end.
Dr. Tony Kline:Course, we're gonna always talk about that 99% job placement rate, which is the highest in the state that we can find, well above that national average. And so as they see on the front end of what's their student is gonna be going through our academic programs, they understand the outcomes, we talk about low student debt load, all those pieces when you put them together makes for a very compelling reason to choose Trine University.
James Tew:I've been seeing several articles this week even just talking about how important that return on investment and career placement is to the current crop of high school students. And that seems like that's been a change over time. Have you noticed that as well?
Dr. Tony Kline:We have. If you followed our headlines for the last fifteen to twenty years, that has always been an emphasis, return on investment. We understand that that's what families are looking for. So we've always talked about our industry alignment, which is very important because we want our graduates to be difference makers in industry, and we also want them to be great people. We want them to be difference makers in their communities as well.
Dr. Tony Kline:And so beyond our nationally accredited programs that have standards that align to the highest of rigor for the different disciplines, Our students take a very robust general education curriculum that teaches them about interpersonal communication, how to handle conflict, how to understand different cultures, leadership skills, all of those things that we know of working with adults in the workplace. We want people, of course, that are competent in their content area, but people who are also competent in understanding the other side. Those combinations, those characteristics also help them become really helpful and valuable within the communities.
James Tew:So what excites you the most as we continue into this new fall semester?
Dr. Tony Kline:Talked about the Angola campus, our Brooks College of Health Professions just increased over 20% from the past year. And, actually, if you look from 2024, their enrollment's up over 50% and such a strong portfolio of programs in the Brooks College of Health Professions. We start with our doctorate of physical therapy and our second doctorate program of occupational therapy. Our physician's assistant studies has been a staple at that campus as well. We have a full portfolio of nursing programs and our surgical technology programs have experienced, really exciting growth over the past years.
Dr. Tony Kline:But when you say what excites me most about this new semester, it's our students. It's seeing the students coming back, returning students who are connecting with faculty and our support and our department service teams. It's also seeing those new students coming on the campus and I was so excited that very first day to be out walking through the campus commons and greeting students and as they're trying to figure out looking at a campus map where their Faywick was at or Taylor Hall was at, just pointing them in the right direction. And it's exciting knowing all the work that our Trine employees are gonna be putting into these students over the next four years. And those students go from unsure of how to find a building on day one to confidently walking across that stage at the end of their their degree programs ready to take on that next step in the industry.
Dr. Tony Kline:And so knowing all that work that that happens in that and and and really the students wide eyed on first day, that that excites me just knowing the potential that's going into each of these individuals.
James Tew:Looking at our football team, because football season's now underway and the Thunder obviously got off to a very strong start, winning here at home against the University of Chicago. And we made some significant investments in new athletic facilities that open this summer. I know coach Abs is very excited about that, he's expressed those elsewhere. What do these new facilities provide for the university and for its students?
Dr. Tony Kline:Yeah. Congratulations to coach Abbs and his entire staff. That game was so exciting. I think they scored on the second play on the on that first drive, which was really thrilling for for all of us, myself included watching. So there's two new facilities that have opened up to students.
Dr. Tony Kline:The Trine Family Fitness Center, and so that's within the Zoellner Football Stadium. We've renovated the existing locker room, and we've turned the old weight room into a team meeting space. And so this new Trine Family Training Center, it features two new weight rooms, two new locker rooms, and beautiful windows that when you're working out, the students are working out, they can see the entire field, and it's just an incredible new addition to our Trine University athletic facilities. And then, of course, the Thunderdome. $7,000,000, 92,000 square foot inflatable dome.
Dr. Tony Kline:And so we're using that for our student athletes for training, practice, and competition space, and that includes football, baseball, softball, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer as well. So all artificial turf, climate controlled for year round use, and we're excited that we're using that in the summers to bring in k 12 students for a variety of camps, and we already kicked that off this past summer. And also excited that we signed a deal with the Fort Wayne football club to host their training camps each February.
James Tew:So what do you see as the role of athletics in the student experience at Trine?
Dr. Tony Kline:In my former role as dean for the School of Education, one of the great things in that role is I got the chance to sit down with families and potential students coming to Trine and if they're whatever major they're looking into, you could walk them through what that path could be. When those students also expressed an interest in sports, my conversation included this this statement is really you can do it all at Trine. You really can. You can succeed on our championship level sports teams and also do such a great job in academics. You don't have to trade one for the other.
Dr. Tony Kline:And so a lot of our students are student athletes, and knowing that their identity doesn't need to be fully wrapped into that athlete label that they can do both and they can do both well. And we have a long history of that. I wanna congratulate Andy Rang who's been recently named our athletic director. Andy has a long history here. He's a he's a steadfast, discerning coach and leader and now athletic director who really has won the respect of so many on campus, including coaches.
Dr. Tony Kline:And he served in, supporting athletic director role for a number of years. And so he he knows what he's doing and he's been hitting the ground running. And then if you just look over the past year at our athletics, our softball teams finished as the d three national they're in the d three national championship for the fourth time in five years. They finished runner-up for that in the second time in our program's history. Our women's cross country posted a program best ninth finish in the NCAA championships.
Dr. Tony Kline:Our women's triathlon finished in the top two nationally for the fifth straight season, James. And women's basketball reached the NCAA tournament for the ninth straight campaign. And so overall, we celebrated eight NCAA appearances last year, 14 conference championships, and 15 individual conference champions during the 2526 academic year. Again, evidence that you can do both here at Trine University.
James Tew:That also kinda ties back into what you said earlier about, yes, have a career focused curriculum, but we do everything we can to create well rounded people.
Dr. Tony Kline:You got it. We understand, and one of the beauties here is that these individuals are coming here as students, but we understand them as people. There's different dimensions of of that, and we provide services to to support all of those dimensions, and athletics is one of those. And for those who were athletes in in the past, sports teaches you so many incredible life lessons that are transferable for wherever you're gonna go in industry.
James Tew:We opened the Thunderdome this summer and the TrineFamily Training Center, but we also had another new facility that just opened and that's the new John and Mary Pellegrino Student Design Center. Can you share a little bit with those listening about this new facility and what it offers?
Dr. Tony Kline:I'm just excited to step back for a second, James, and think that we could talk about today three brand new facilities that have just opened over the summer. It's because we have incredible donors and supporters to the university, the board of trustees and their leadership, and then the people on the ground making that happen. And so, yes, we just opened them John and Mary Pellegrino Student Design Center, and this is creating really new opportunities for better, more hands on learning, interdisciplinary learning, and also innovation. It's a 15,000,000 22,000 square foot facility. And so James, as you walk through that lab, you're gonna see state of the art robotics lab, aeronautics lab, powertrain lab, and others.
Dr. Tony Kline:And including, we also have more than 8,000 square feet of project fabrication space, and that's allowing the university to accommodate more and larger projects completed by our senior teams. And often, the vast majority of those are partnering with industry to try to solve problems that the industry is facing.
James Tew:So besides new facilities, what are some other ways we've enhanced the student experience, heading into this fall semester?
Dr. Tony Kline:We're always gonna be razor focused on that student experience, and one of the things that we have seen recently is that our students can gain competence and also, better understanding moving forward in their college career if they have some additional layers of support. And so we have built in a these classes called UE one zero three, the university experience. And in the past, we've had one or two sections, and these sections focus on time management, we call executive function, and really trying to make that smooth transition from high school to college. What we've seen is that students have been very successful in these classes. And so now we have offered a record number of UE one zero three classes.
Dr. Tony Kline:In the past, we've offered some that were online. Well, we've really doubled down on the in person experience, 16 classes that we are being taught by some really outstanding faculty who are teaching those. We also wanted to expand student focus groups. And so, James, our students get a variety of of ways and mechanisms to share input and feedback on on their experience and what what's going well and what we can do better. One, of course, they fill out course evaluations, and I'm so proud to to share that our course evaluations as are often so high.
Dr. Tony Kline:And as when I was vice president for academic affairs, I went through every every faculties to to to better understand where our strengths lie and where we need to improve. And I was always left so impressed by reading what these students feel about their faculty here. Well, that's one mechanism that students can share feedback is on these course evaluations. We also have a variety of student satisfaction surveys that they fill out annually and we're putting into place more student focus groups. And so gathering students around a topic and asking them questions and again learning what's going well, what what are things that we should be considering that we may not, what are some future focus things from a student's perspective.
Dr. Tony Kline:We take all that information and that helps with our strategic planning. Our campus operations team, I continue just to be so appreciative of, this summer they remodeled the depot and that's to support more additional grab and go dining, adds convenience for our students and campus users. And then we also added additional seating options for UC Hallway and the cafeteria. All these things, both big and small, push the needle forward to a better student experience at Trine.
James Tew:The semester also opened with another successful TrineFest, which is always a great opportunity for the university and the Angola community to come together and celebrate our students arriving. How do you feel our relationship is with the community, and why do you think it's important?
Dr. Tony Kline:Well, it's crucial. I think most people would agree we're better together. When we put our heads together and we're trying to advance the region, the community, the university for the common good, there's a lot of wisdom when bringing around council, of folks that you respect. And so I have the utmost respect for for the city of Angola and all of its regional leaders. I have made it a priority of mine to get out and meet so many individuals, and there's a lot that I've met with, hundreds so far, and but there's a lot more than I that I look forward to meeting with.
Dr. Tony Kline:And having a close relationship is really important. I've met with mayor Martin and and his team a number of times. We're in conversations consistently and the collaboration, we're always looking for win win outcomes. And so we'll continue to do that. I know with doctor Brooks and former mayor, we've that was always the plan.
Dr. Tony Kline:We'll continue to do that in the future. And because when Angola wins, Trine wins, and when Trine wins, Angola wins as well.
James Tew:Speaking of collaboration with the city and the community, we just announced that the university is gonna be building a new West entrance in collaboration with the city as well as the Indiana Department of Transportation. Can you talk a little bit about the need for this new entrance and what it's going to provide?
Dr. Tony Kline:Yeah. So Keith Bussey Parkway is gonna be a new entrance, the west entrance that Trine has talked about for a number of years, and we're moving forward on that with collaboration as from the entities that you just shared. As you may have noticed, when we have larger events, so basketball games, football games, commencements, the line can get really backed up, and and that can cause not only an inconvenience, but also some safety hazards. And so that's been something that we've been thinking through strategically is how can we open up that west entrance. And so we are doing that.
Dr. Tony Kline:We're moving forward with that, and we're gonna name that Keith Bussey Parkway, and I'll talk about mister Bussey in a moment here, but that's going to begin in May. It's about a $4,000,000 project. And so what we're doing now is connecting a four lane road connecting US 20 to Thunder Drive, and that should be ready to roll by the 2728 school year. And we've named that Keith Bussey Parkway, and we're doing that to honor Keith, mister Bussey, who's been a great leader, a board of trustee member since 2003, one of the cofounders of SDI, and he serves on our board and cares deeply about our student experience. He right now, he serves as vice chair on our board and chair of the executive committee.
Dr. Tony Kline:He also serves on campus planning, the audit finance investment committee, and then the campaign and advancement committee. So he's he's wears a lot of hats here at Trine University. You'll see his name here a lot as the Keith e Bussey and Steel Dynamics Athletic Recreation Center, which we call the ARC. He's been very generous with the Thunder Ice Arena, the Steel Dynamics Center for Engineering Computing, and also the Mary and John Pellegrino Student Design Center. And it's most fitting that we named this Parkway after Keith Bussey.
James Tew:Well, once again, thank you, doctor Klein, for joining me today.
Dr. Tony Kline:It's always good to see you, James, and we'll catch you at the next podcast. Sounds great.
James Tew:Check back for more insights from doctor Klein on the next TrineLine podcast.
Announcer:Thanks for listening to this presentation of the Trine Broadcasting Network, part of the Center for Sport Studies at Trine University. Learn more at trine.edu.
