Newsline: Juniata College president Tom Kepple to retire

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl 
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Juniata College president Tom Kepple to retire

(April 20, 2012) Elgin, IL --Thomas R. Kepple, under whose presidency the 
campus of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., was transformed by an ambitious 
building plan and the most successful capital campaign in the college's 
history, plans to retire May 31, 2013.

Kepple was named president July 1, 1998, and will have finished his 15th year 
leading Juniata by 2013.

Kepple came to Juniata from the University of the South, where he specialized 
in overseeing large-scale construction and renovation projects and longterm 
strategic planning. In the 15 years he led Juniata, the college's central 
campus has been reimagined, renovated, and in some cases rebuilt to consolidate 
arts, sports, and classroom instruction around a central quadrangle. Among the 
transformative changes:

-- Construction of the 88,000-square-foot William J. Von Liebig Center for 
Science.

-- Construction of the renovated and improved Halbritter Center for the 
Performing Arts.

-- Renovation of historic LEED-certified Founders Hall, the 1879 building that 
was Juniata's first campus building.

-- Closing of 18th Street, which established a central quad and central walkway 
that links almost all of the main buildings on campus.

-- Creation of a new multimillion-dollar Raystown Field Station, transforming 
the original field station into a major instructional site for the 
environmental science program.

Kepple points to Juniata's student accomplishments as his personal touchstone, 
including a marked uptick in national and international awards received by 
Juniata students. Juniata's athletic teams also have been successful during 
Kepple's tenure, earning six of Juniata's seven national championships in the 
past 15 years.

The completion in 2005 of Juniata's largest capital campaign, the Uncommon 
Outcomes Campaign, raised more than $103 million, making it the largest capital 
campaign in Juniata's history. Last year, Kepple also initiated the "Changing 
Lives to Change the World" endowment initiative, which is focused on raising 
Juniata's endowment to more than $100 million.

Academic programs have been significantly expanded, including reinstating a 
theater department and reconfiguring an existing computer science program into 
a more widely specialized information technology program. Additionally, 
renovation of the college's former science center into Brumbaugh Academic 
Center transformed one wing into Dale Hall, a wing designed to generate 
collaboration and synergy between the business, IT, and communication 
departments.

The college's business department introduced a major program in entrepreneurial 
instruction, much of it focused on the Juniata Center for Entrepreneurial 
Leadership and the Bob and Eileen Sill Business Incubator.

Juniata also embarked on two major initiatives to diversify the college's 
student body demographically and geographically. First, the college started a 
Global Engagement Initiative that established a Global Community Living 
Community, international student clubs, introduction of more international 
courses into the college's core curriculum, an international language outreach 
program and helped establish international student exchanges. Secondly, the 
enrollment office made a concentrated effort to expand its recruiting of 
domestic minorities. Today about 12 percent of the student body represent 
minority groups.

Many of Juniata's innovative academic programs and improvements to the 
college's infrastructure have made news on a national scale, which subsequently 
has helped raise the college's national profile. The Princeton Review noted in 
2010 that "Juniata College has catapulted from regional to national status in 
the last decade."

Kepple and James Lakso, Juniata provost, also oversaw a faculty turnover of 
nearly 60 percent during the Kepple presidency. As a result the college 
dramatically expanded successful academic programs in theater, environmental 
science (now Juniata's fastest growing major), and information technology. 
Juniata also added faculty in digital media, art, and instrumental music. The 
college also added or hired new faculty to bolster the institution's 
established strengths in the sciences, business, religion, peace and conflict 
studies, and history.

President Kepple is founding chair of the Tuition Plan Consortium, vice chair 
of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's higher education transition team, founding 
chair of the new Landmark NCAA Division III athletic conference, and has 
chaired the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of 
Pennsylvania.

He is a member of the New York Times/Chronicle of Higher Education President's 
Cabinet, NCAA Division III Presidents Advisory Committee, Brethren Colleges 
Abroad, Princeton Review (Advisory Board), He was awarded the Westminster 
College Outstanding Alumni Citation in October 2000. In 2011 he was awarded the 
honorary degree doctor of humane letters from Elizabethtown (Pa.) College.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing 
the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith 
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 
300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across the United 
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, 
Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

(John Wall of the Juniata College staff provided this release.)

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org