ROME — The last graduating student to walk across the stage at Shorter College on May 8 will have a unique place in history: that of being the final graduate of the 137-year-old institution. The very next student to graduate in 2011 will carry a diploma bearing the name of Shorter University, backed by the heritage of the nearly century-and-a-half-old institution.

Shorter College may cease to exist on May 31, but the following day it will transform itself from one of Georgia Baptists’ three colleges into the state convention’s newest and only university.

Eighteen months ago, in November 2008, Shorter announced that it would transition to a university following approval by messengers to the annual meeting. With that approval, which was required due to a change in the college’s charter, the college was given the green light to proceed.

Shorter will celebrate that university status on June 1 with a full day of events, ranging from an open house to a concert by Christian recording artist Rebecca St. James and Jonny Diaz to an evening baseball game. See related story.

President Harold E. Newman said the change will require little internal structuring since the college already follows a university-style structure.

“For much of the past decade, we have operated under a university model in that we have had separate schools headed by deans and have offered graduate programs,” he said. “This change in designation solidifies that reputation.”

The status change will enable Shorter to better respond to market forces within the state of Georgia and within the higher education community at large, Newman added.

“Becoming Shorter University positions us for future growth. It does not, however, change the nature of Shorter. We remain committed to providing a high quality educational experience in a Christian environment that features personal interactions with faculty, a strong focus on students, and excellence in all areas.”

That commitment was reinforced at the college’s April board meeting when trustees, led by Chairman Nelson Price, approved a resolution authorizing that the new Shorter University be distinctly branded as a Christian university. Newman outlined the college’s new direction in his report to the governing body.

“Since I became president five years ago, Shorter has been on a journey to renew and strengthen our commitment to Christian higher education and to the Georgia Baptist Convention,” he told the Board. “On June 1, as we become Shorter University, we have a wonderful opportunity to begin anew and ensure that our Christian identity is clearly seen.”

The university’s new admissions and advertising campaigns will reflect the theme ‘At the Crossroads of Faith and Learning.’ Newman said he believed that theme created “a very important picture” in the minds of those considering a university degree.

“Shorter stands at the intersection where faith meets learning. We are here to help students see that those paths need not be separate. Our ultimate aim is to help those students whom God has entrusted to us develop into individuals who are fully prepared to embrace God’s plans for their lives. Ours is a sacred calling,” he told trustees.

Newman also reported that he and Shorter’s leadership team recently took part in an international forum hosted by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. CCCU is an international association of “intentionally Christian” colleges and universities, according to the organization’s website. To qualify for membership in this prestigious academic body, an institution must demonstrate that it is intentionally Christian as evidenced by its hiring policy, mission statement, core values, and more.

Shorter completed the application process in 2009 and became the only Georgia Baptist college to be counted among the CCCU members.

Newman also reported that, effective June 1, Shorter will rename its religion department as the Department of Christian Studies. Already the department has added a new missions minor, which is designed to help students sensing a call to missions prepare to serve others in the name of Christ.

He added that the work of the religion department is something of which Georgia Baptists can be proud. “Members of our religion department believe in and teach in accordance with the ‘Baptist Faith and Message 2000,’ which our trustee chairman co-authored. These faculty members are uncompromising in their commitment to the tenets of the document.”

The college also recently reworked its Church Music major to make the degree more relevant in training future worship leaders.

A central portion of Shorter’s strategic plan is the integration of faith and learning within the campus experience, Newman said.

“Our students are encouraged to and do participate in service projects and missions outreach efforts both here in the Rome community and in the larger communities of Georgia, our nation, and the world. We are also deeply committed to helping students see how their classroom lessons are connected to their lives as persons of faith,” he explained.

Newman then cited the establishment of the Hopkins Institute for Business Ethics and the tailoring of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) curriculum as recent examples of this integration of faith and learning. The Hopkins Institute, established through the generosity of Shorter trustee Col. Harvard Hopkins and his wife, hosts an annual lecture series “designed to help students see that it is possible to be both successful and ethical at the same time.”

In addition, when Shorter begins instruction in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program this fall, the curriculum will include a medical missions component that will have student nurses from Shorter working with Baptist missionaries in Bulgaria.

Dawn Tolbert, vice president for public relations at the college, said nursing students have been completing core curriculum classes until now but will being nursing classes come September. Twenty-eight students are currently enrolled in that first group, 25 percent of whom are men – far above the 10 percent average of other institutions and considered a positive development.

A recent $125,000 grant from the Georgia Baptist Health Care Ministry Foundation purchased a human simulation lab for the program. The lab allows students to administer injections, medicines, and other procedures on a simulation of a human and observe the effect of how the procedure.

“In the past 137 years we have grown beyond educating only young women, but we have not changed our desire for Shorter College – soon to be Shorter University – to be a blessing to humanity and a glory to God,” Newman affirmed.

Since 2003, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Shorter among the South’s best baccalaureate colleges, and The Princeton Review annually includes Shorter on its lists of best value and best Southeastern colleges.

The college offers traditional bachelor’s degree programs in 48 major areas as well as undergraduate degree programs for working adults, the Master of Business Administration, the Master of Education, and the Master of Arts in Leadership.

General education and calculus courses are offered in an online format, and this fall, Shorter will launch online programs that lead toward the Associate of Science, the Bachelor of Business Administration, and the Master of Accountancy degrees.