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Mark’s involvement as a Trustee results from a common feeling among his colleagues: a love for the people who affected his four years at Ripon, and the resulting love for the institution and the current student body.
“I believe I ‘owed’ Ripon a return on the commitment they made to me during my four years there and the rewards I have enjoyed professionally and personally because of my Ripon experience and degree,” he says.
The reward, he says, is being able to “reach out and touch someone.” He feels he has a personal responsibility to ensure that faculty and students alike have at least as good, and hopefully an even better experience at Ripon than he had as a student. That means seeing that Ripon is the best place, offers the best environment and has the best tools available for its administrators, faculty and students.
Small-business leadership and experience are the skills Mark says benefit him most as a Trustee.
“I run a fast-growing small company. It means I have experience in many of the areas Ripon looks for in its determining its strategic direction as an institution and a college business. As an example, my company was using a tax-free bond to purchase its building. Our timetable was about three months in front of Ripon’s so I was fairly well versed in the mechanics of such a bond, the process and the specific financial issues of this type of borrowing.”
Despite his love of Ripon, Mark acknowledges that there is much work to be done. In particular, he feels that Ripon must:
- Provide a meaningful curriculum to the modern student and to attract a geographically, socio-economically, and racially diverse student body. He says, “In the early ‘70s we had a much more diverse geographic student body. It made for a wide representation of political and social ideas, it made for a diverse economic student body and entering students with diverse high school experiences and educations. Ripon will be challenged in this area in order to grow…”
- Continue teaching, and promoting the benefits of, excellent writing, articulate speech, deductive reasoning, and social graces. “These skills are becoming a lost art in the technology age and graduates that have this bundle of skills will rise above their peers throughout their careers. The technology today tends to lead toward individualism and isolation. Business is conducted between people and the expression of any idea requires communication either in a written or oral form so other people can appreciate your thoughts, solutions, feelings and ideas. Science majors thinking about becoming doctors, dentists or researchers will also need these skills,” he says.
- Become more savvy at “selling” the merits of a Ripon education to high school students and their parents, especially when compared to larger schools.
- Continue its commitment to improve and modernize its physical facilities.
Mark’s primary hobby is that he is a Masters Swimmer who competes locally and nationally through U.S. Swimming. At Ripon he was a Varsity Swimmer and captain of the team for two years. He retired from swimming for more 25 years and then 5+ years ago joined a fitness club that was forming a team and providing a coach. This past summer he had a top-ten finish at the Masters Nationals and competed at the World Championships at Stanford University.
His other interests are two adult sons, bird watching, a new home and a new wife (Marcia Wahoske ’75). He has a strong personal interest in seeing the swimming program at Ripon be recognized as competitive, rewarding and fun for the students.
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