What an amazing year it’s been for St. Cloud State University — a time of building on our strengths, boldly facing challenges, and investing in bright futures for our University and those in our campus community.
Thousands of students from Minnesota and the world immersed themselves in the opportunities a St. Cloud State education offers. At the same time we continued to innovate and invest in areas of growth to provide a wide range of excellent academic and service options that help prepare students for successful careers.
Our It’s Time strategic framework is our guide as we focus on turning the financial challenges we are facing into opportunities to transform us into a new kind of university — a regional leader where current and future Huskies can access a high quality education in a range of distinctive academic programs led by teacher-scholars who are passionate about sharing their knowledge and mentoring learners.
We have accelerated our pace of adapting to a changing world. As a result, our students are thriving in classrooms and labs, in internships and field experiences, building focused portfolios and graduating to launch their chosen careers or enter advanced degree programs. They are being mentored and empowered by faculty who include them as active partners in the teaching and learning process, helping them develop the skills and character to apply their education to real jobs and real life.
Our sense of community is strengthening as we express our institutional pride. So many of us celebrate the academic success of our students and our Husky Athletes as they excelled in this year’s athletic competitions. Our Husky alumni demonstrated their pride in their St. Cloud State education with advocacy and support in a variety of ways — some with remarkable generosity. Most notably this year, alumni gifts funded It’s Time initiatives including our new Linda ’74 and Richard Offerdahl Autism Discovery Center and the dedication of The Judy C. Pearson Department of Communication Studies — both offer enhanced learning opportunities for our students and benefits for external partners and the community. Alumni support has also made possible a university speaker series, Herb Brooks National Hockey Center upgrades, faculty/staff professional development, and scholarships to support student success.
A major focus of our It’s Time framework is building and encouraging that kind of culture of pride in our community by expanding our reach and proactively marketing our University for what we are — an institution of distinctive programs and dedicated teacher-scholars who shine in their academic work and in their classrooms. Our impact is felt through the success of more than 131,000 alumni worldwide.
The stories in this magazine are reminders of how impactful SCSU can be for our students during their educational experience, and also as they go on into their lives as professionals, specialists, and citizens who make a difference in the lives of others.
We want to hear from our graduates to continue sharing your stories, and we encourage you to stay connected through #OurSCSU to share your milestones and successes. We are fiercely committed to building greater awareness and appreciation for the truly excellent people and programs we continue to offer our students and the tremendous benefits we bring to our many partners.
— St. Cloud State President Robbyn Wacker
Celebrating Unleash the Future and bringing flexibility to philanthropy
The start of 2023 brought with it the close of Unleash the Future: The Campaign for St. Cloud State University. The Campaign, which began in 2016, raised a total of $39.8 million from 10,133 individuals.
The impact of the Campaign and your support has been felt over the past six years including an increase in scholarships for students, enhanced student support through mentoring and career service programming, strengthened academic programs and faculty support, fostered a vibrant campus life and athletics programs and finally revamped living, learning and athletics facilities across campus. While we have made progress on many of our goals at SCSU thanks to your philanthropic support, there is more work to be done.
Higher education is changing rapidly, and philanthropic support is crucial to the continued success of SCSU. For years we have encouraged and promoted the importance of philanthropic support to individual programs, initiatives and projects. While this support is certainly welcome and does make an impact, it does not allow for the greatest flexibility to address the rapidly changing needs of higher education. One lesson learned during the COVID-19 pandemic was that things can be quite unpredictable and the need to adapt quickly to address the unknown is paramount.
As we look ahead, we are focused on maximizing your philanthropy and fostering a bright future through our It’s Time strategic framework. To do this, we ask you to consider supporting the Husky Impact Fund. This Fund provides the flexibility to directly address emerging needs and deliver on our five key priority areas:
- Removing barriers to education through scholarship and financial aid
- Providing robust individualized student support to ensure success
- Advancing campus innovation and academic success
- Ensuring a vibrant campus life and athletics program
- Creating dynamic state-of-the-art living and learning spaces for our community
In order for St. Cloud State to grow and flourish we must increase philanthropic support. For those of you committed to the success of SCSU, our students and our community I ask for you to make a gift and support the Husky Impact Fund – scsu.mn/give. For those of you with specific interests or passions, we look forward to learning more and working with you to make the most of your philanthropy. Please be in touch at 320-308-3984 or via email at [email protected].
We are committed to working with you to enhance your connection to SCSU! There is much to be proud of and with your involvement we will do great things.
On behalf of everyone at St. Cloud State University, thank you for your support of #OurSCSU and the Unleash the Future Campaign. We look forward to your continued involvement.
Go Huskies!
— St. Cloud State Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Engagement Nic Katona
