Anderson University inaugurates President John Pistole

00;00;00;12 - 00;00;06;29 Stephanie Wiechmann Why did you decide to make the move from the law enforcement sector, which you'd been in for a very long time, to education at your alma mater? 00;00;07;02 - 00;00;30;29 John Pistole God, opening a door that I didn't know was there. A series of doors, actually, you know, because I'd been doing national security work, for the FBI and TSA, really, since 911. And then just traditional law enforcement for years before that. I was contacted about the, what I thought a friend of the university was calling about to get my recommendation for who might be a good replacement for Doctor Jim Edwards. 00;00;31;01 - 00;00;45;01 John Pistole There's a group of us who've been talking. Think you might be a good successor? And I said, well, okay, so that's a different. It just wasn't something I'd given much thought to. Thought about it, prayed about it. And so we decided to say yes to the process. Here we are. 00;00;45;02 - 00;00;48;23 Stephanie Wiechmann So how has Anderson changed since the place where you grew up? 00;00;48;25 - 00;01;17;10 John Pistole Obviously, had a lot of change in terms of all the factory jobs that were gone, all the engineering jobs in over 20,000 Guide Lamp and Delco Remy. So that's that's been a major change. The campus has changed significantly since, well, when I graduated in 1978. There's so many, great facilities, buildings. So it's almost like the juxtaposition between the school and and the city. 00;01;17;15 - 00;01;41;27 John Pistole But what's exciting now is seeing the city starting to rebound with new jobs, over 4000 jobs in the last several years, primarily by foreign companies that value the background experience of manufacturing. We're excited by that because we started an engineering program a couple years ago, and looking to grow that and see some good opportunities for both internships and future jobs for students. 00;01;42;00 - 00;01;44;05 Stephanie Wiechmann Are there any big initiatives you'll introduce this year? 00;01;44;08 - 00;02;11;29 John Pistole We will be offering new majors next year in national security studies, and a little bit to do with my background. And then a separate but related major in cybersecurity, information security. Both big areas. We're also looking to expand the number of degrees offered in our nursing program. We'll be looking at adding a physician's assistant and nurse practitioner. 00;02;12;02 - 00;02;40;19 John Pistole And perhaps some other majors over the next several years. We are adding to additional NCAA Division three sports swimming and lacrosse, both men's and women's. And then, looking at expanding the, our engineering program, looking at some different aspects, in addition to mechanical and electrical engineering, perhaps computer engineering and some other disciplines. So those are some of the initiatives that we're looking at and we'll see as we go what what else we might look at. 00;02;40;26 - 00;02;49;29 Stephanie Wiechmann Growth at universities can be measured by all sorts of different things. More students, more buildings, more programs. What is growth at Anderson over the next few years look like? 00;02;50;03 - 00;03;11;10 John Pistole One is the individual students, each one of whom I believe is here for a reason and whether they have a sense of call. And in terms of Christian ministry or as I like to describe it, ministry in daily life, which is what I felt like I was called to, to be as much the hands and feet of Christ as I could be in whatever my position was. 00;03;11;10 - 00;03;31;26 John Pistole So I want to make sure we're providing outstanding academics, an area for spiritual growth. And then just a real sense of confidence in who they are and who they are as they go out to the world, so that the individual is first and foremost. And then you can look at the macro numbers of how many people applied, how many people were admitted, how many people matriculated. 00;03;31;29 - 00;03;56;08 John Pistole And I've been looking at a ten year trend of enrollments that have been declining. And so the question is why? Just trying to make sure that we are best positioned, whatever our enrollment is, to provide an outstanding academics, spiritual growth opportunities and relationship building, especially as we look at, 2017 being our centennial year. 00;03;56;11 - 00;04;00;04 Stephanie Wiechmann John Pistole is the newly inaugurated president of Anderson University.