Chapman University President Daniele Struppa celebrated recent accomplishments for the newest 2023 to 2028 strategic plan, “Our Path to Greatness,” highlighted upcoming projects for the university and ended with a special announcement at the annual 2024 State of the University address on Feb. 9.

The annual State of the University address, which is held in-person at the Musco Center for the Arts, serves as an update to the campus community on Chapman’s latest achievements over the past year and what it has in store for its future.

Struppa’s 2024 address emphasized the success of the first year of “Our Path to Greatness”, Chapman’s top employers for 2024 and various updates regarding INSPIRE, the university’s newest giving campaign, which was initially announced at the 2023 address. 

Before speaking about the new strategic plan, however, Struppa paid homage to the 2018- 2023 strategic plan “Engineering the Future,” which focused on the establishment of the Fowler School of Engineering and expanding the university’s research agenda.

The address also showcased Chapman’s commitment to becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). As of fall 2023, 19% of Chapman students identify as Hispanic/Latino, according to the presentation shown at the address. 

With those achievements in mind, Struppa continued his presentation by talking about various accomplishments within each of the five strategic priorities in the new strategic plan. 

These five strategic priorities include academic excellence, expanding graduate health science programs, organizational excellence, campus projects enhancing community-building and the university’s comprehensive campaign. 

For academic excellence, Struppa focused on ways to promote student success at the university, announcing a target retention rate of 93% and a target graduation rate of 89% for undergraduate students. 

Along with undergraduate target rates, Struppa announced the launch of the Atlas Early Arrival program for exploratory majors, formerly known as undeclared majors. The reorganization of academic advising for students was also revealed at the address, meaning that students will now have dedicated advisors that are specific to their major. 

For the second strategic priority regarding graduate health science programs, Struppa focused on recent national and specialty rankings for those schools and programs at the university. According to the U.S. News and World Report, Chapman’s School of Pharmacy ranked No. 99 in the country, and the university’s speech-language pathology, physician assistant and physical therapy programs ranked No. 92, No. 96 and No. 97, respectively. 

Struppa also disclosed the U.S. News and World Report rankings for other schools and colleges on campus. The Argyros College of Business and Economics ranked No. 60, the Fowler School of Law reached No. 109 and the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts maintained its No. 4 spot for the fourth year in a row. 

To learn more about Chapman’s other rankings, click here and here. 

For the strategic priority on organizational excellence, Struppa focused on introducing as well as promoting five staff members into administrative roles to serve the Chapman community: Garrett Ashley, Brenda Rushforth, Thomas Piechota, Brad Petitfils and Innokentiy Maslennikov. According to Struppa, all five faculty members will support staff and administrators to help aid them in delivering a consistently outstanding university experience.

At the address, various campus projects were also highlighted for the fourth strategic priority, including the opening of the Sandi Simon Center for Dance and awards the center has received so far, the grand reopening of the Hilbert Museum on Feb. 23 and the opening of a Campus Center at Chapman’s Rinker campus in Irvine. The finalized construction of the Killefer School, which will house the university’s Institute for Quantum Studies starting in early 2025, was another project that was highlighted. 

Struppa also alluded to other campus projects that will be implemented in the upcoming year, including the new Chapman Court apartment complex, which will open in fall 2024, as well as the Philosopher’s Walk and the Cypress Street Arts Corridor, which will undergo their pre-design phases later this year. According to Struppa, the Philosopher’s Walk will be an east-to-west corridor and the Cypress Street Arts Corridor will run from north to south, with the goal of connecting all portions of Chapman’s campus together.

Struppa and Matt Parlow, Chapman’s executive vice president and chief advancement officer, also discussed newfound achievements for the university’s comprehensive campaign INSPIRE, which began in February 2023. The goal of the public campaign is to raise $500 million by 2028. 

At the address, Parlow announced that INSPIRE has already raised over $370 million as of Feb. 9, 2024.

Along with fundraising updates, Parlow also spoke about the creation of the “12 Gifts of Chapman” campaign, which featured a series of transformational gifts to help amplify the university’s programs and initiatives. According to Parlow, the campaign’s goal had been set to highlight one gift per month.

However, in just one year, Chapman received and announced 18 different gifts for the campaign from various donors and university alumni. Some gifts given to the university include the Argyros family’s $10 million gift to transform the Argyros School into the Argyros College, Chapman Board of Trustees Chair Parker S. Kennedy’s $15 million gift and a $2.5 million gift from Anne and Chris Flowers to endow a doctoral fellowship in Chapman’s Math, Philosophy and Physics program, among others.

To end off the address, Struppa and Parlow also announced a special gift from Board of Trustees Chairman Emeritus Doy Henley, which will establish the Doy B. Henley School of Management in Argyros College.

The new school will pave the way for more classes and professors pertaining to business management and will help students build the skills they need to pursue a career in that field. 

This is the second school now part of Argyros College, with the first being the Burra School of Accounting and Finance, which was made possible through a $5 million gift from longtime Chapman donors Jim and Kay Burra in September 2023.

“(This) gift will help propel the Argyros College of Business and Economics toward our strategic goal of becoming a top 50 business school in the U.S. News and World Report rankings,” Parlow said. “It also highlights the impressive momentum the Argyros College has been experiencing in recent years.”

This is Henley’s second gift he has given to Argyros College in the past year, with the first being a $1 million gift to establish an endowed fund for innovation initiatives, which was announced in November 2023.

“Chapman is what it is today because of Doy Henley and his incredible leadership on the Board of Trustees,” said Struppa during the announcement. “With his great success in the business community and as a board leader, it’s fitting that the School of Management will bear his name.”
To view this year’s State of the University address, a link to the full presentation can be found online.