Alumni Council Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, January 19, 2002
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Welcome—Lou Richardson ’67 Lou opened the meeting and thanked everyone for coming. She apologized for the lateness of the meeting due to the extended, yet wonderful, ceremony we had all witnessed at the dedication of the Doris Kearns Goodwin '64 crew shell prior to lunch. Due to the late hour she asked that only those committees who needed official votes from the membership would report today. The remainder of the following committee summaries are based on written reports submitted to the Alumni Council Secretary after the meeting. Committee Reports/Updates Alumni Fund—Todd W. Halloran ’84 The 2002 Colby Alumni Fund completed the first six months of the fiscal year with a total of $1,287,326 in gifts, up almost 11 percent from fiscal 2001's same period. Non-reunion leadership gifts were up over 9 percent; reunion gifts were up 4.5 percent. A portion of the increase in giving through December can be attributed to gift timing as several members of the President's Circle Gift Club have made gifts earlier this fiscal year than they did last year. However, even after adjusting for these early-arriving gifts, general giving trends thus far in the year are positive. With regard to participation, through December 31, the Alumni Fund posted the largest donor count in its history. 2,773 alumni made gifts to the Fund as compared to 2,357 last year, an increase of 17.6 percent. As of December 31, participation stands at 14.5 percent, as compared to 12.5 percent in fiscal December 2001. Calling by Alumni Fund volunteers during October, November, and December is principally responsible for the increase in the Alumni Fund's participation percentage. In addition, many volunteers have obtained significant increases in giving from classmates they have called and themselves have made extra-special commitments to the Fund this year, helping to drive dollar totals higher as well. Discussion also focused on the merits and concerns around potential gift club changes. After some healthy debate, the committee decided to table a recommendation until the parameters and strategy of the next capital campaign are formulated. Alumni on Campus and Communications—Philip C. Wysor ’70 and Eric Rolfson ’73 The Alumni on Campus and Communications Committees met jointly for the second meeting in a row to continue discussion of the communication of the College's Strategic Plan to the alumni body. Steve Collins, director of communications, reviewed the planning process to date and explained the College's marketing and communications efforts that would result from both the strategic plan and the review of the Maguire surveys of both prospective students and alumni. Steve also shared a copy of an index of Web resources that alumni might find helpful on Colby's Web site. Margaret Viens, director of alumni relations, continued the meeting with discussion of action items the Alumni Office would institute to respond to key issues found in the Maguire research. Items will include strengthening alumni and career networking programs for current students, strengthening the use of the internet, and involving a more diverse group of alumni volunteers, who may not be currently involved. Athletics—Alex Wilson ’73 The Athletics Committee met again with the members of the C Club Executive Committee. Discussion included the annual report of the Jimmy Hayes '76 and Lee Williams Scholarships and the newly established scholarship in honor of former Colby Hockey Coach Jack Kelly. The committee discussed candidates for selection for the Carl Nelson Award for 2002, which will be announced at a later date. The C Club is planning an alumni reception at the Colby-Tufts women's basketball game at Tufts and perhaps another alumni event with an athletic focus in the greater Boston area in the spring. Alex will be resigning his duties as athletics committee chair as of June '02 to fulfill his duties as alumni council vice chair. Patricia Valavanis Smith '80 will fill his unexpired term until 2003, and Bob Landsvik '73 will be the new C Club president. Discussion also included increasing diversity among our student athletes and how the committee could help as part of the strategic plan. Awards—Hope Palmer Bramhall ’56 Hope thanked her committee for their work in selecting this year's alumni awards recipients for 2002. The committee is pleased to announce the following awardees, which will be presented at Reunion in June 2002:
There were 15 members in attendance, and after their regular meeting the committee met jointly with the Clubs Committee to discuss joint regional efforts. Admissions Staff Parker Beverage and Judy Brody gave the admissions statistics for this year. There is an increase in overall applications for the class of 2006, but they are still looking for assistance with increasing ALANA students. They discussed what the committee will be doing this year, including offering financial aid workshops. They will also be assisting with yield/retention events in Boston; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; New York; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Chicago; and Fairfield County, Connecticut. Career Services—Frank Finizio ’66 Following introductions, Cindy Parker, director of career services, gave a detailed presentation on career services at Colby today. She primarily focused on the process, student relations, and the various programs available on campus. After a valuable period of questions and answers, a brief discussion was held concerning the formalized mission, goals, and objectives of the committee. It was decided that a written draft would be prepared for review at the June meeting and would hopefully be finalized shortly thereafter. Next on the agenda was a discussion on "What can the committee do now." After considering many ideas, it was decided that we would sponsor a panel discussion on campus in late February or early March of this year, with about 4-5 alumni panel members from different career fields. Long-term support projects and events were discussed next. It was decided that the committee would work in support of a Career Week to be held on campus in February 2003. Included during this week would be career related panel discussions, lectures, information sessions on networking and resume writing, and practice interviews. The discussion of future committee support also covered bringing speakers to campus, providing internships and job listings for current students, utilization of the Colby Career Services Web site, promoting greater student-alumni connection and promoting the Office of Career Services to alumni, parents, and friends. Clubs Committee—Heather Daur ’00 The Clubs Committee discussed various issues concerning the 21 active regional Colby clubs. Items for discussion included standardizing regional club membership and/or dues; annual events planned, such as the "Welcome to the City" events for the newest alumni (this year, September 18, 2002); admissions retention events; and Volunteer Day. Meg Bernier, associate director of alumni relations, noted that the conclusion of the presidential events that have taken up much of the staff time in the past two years will free up more of her time to work with club leadership in the next few months. She reported there has been new activity in London and Tokyo and several new alumni events held in conjunction with our NESCAC peers. The clubs will continue to exploit the use of the Internet and broadcast e-mail to publicize events and communicate with regional volunteers. Academic Affairs—Becky Birrell ’92 Dean of Faculty Ed Yeterian joined the Academic Affairs committee for a discussion on the history and future of the Jan Plan program at Colby. He reported that the program is 40 years old this January, a program that was initiated at Colby and eventually adopted by over 400 colleges and universities nationwide. At Colby the program has evolved away from its original intent to encourage more widespread participation in experimental and independent study. Originally students were not given academic credit for Jan Plan work but were required to participate in 4 Jan Plans, which were predominantly independent study in nature. For example, for January 2002, 1,084 students are enrolled in for-credit courses, only 277 are enrolled in independent study, and 254 are engaged in Field Experiences and Internships. The College will review how the program can be improved and will encourage internships and experiential learning opportunities for students. This will be an area for which alumni can volunteer, to add additional internship and experiential opportunities for students. Nominating—Wendy Kennedy Ralph ’90 Barry Potter '60 reported for Wendy that the nominating committee had candidates to fill several vacancies on the Council. He presented the following candidates for Council approval: Paul Feldman '34—to fill an unexpired position 50+ class representative Scott Whitlow '99—to fill the unexpired class representative position for class of 1999. Barry also presented four candidates for member-at-large positions:
Financial Affairs Committee—Karl Dornish ’54 Steve Ford '68 filled in for Chair Karl Dornish '54 and introduced Doug Terp, associate vice president of administration. Doug presented the 10 attendees with a very interesting comparison of staffing levels at Colby and other peer institutions. In the past decade Colby added a total of 60 positions among faculty and staff, but Colby remains well below most of its peers in numbers of both faculty and staff. Colby's growth in headcount has been less than most of its peers. The current plan is to add up to 10 new faculty over the next decade, although there will be some changes among departments to account for growth in some of the academic areas. The plan is to add no new staff. Colby has a process in place to address staffing requirements and changes in needs without additional change to headcount. Colby continues to excel among our peers with efficient use of College resource. Student Affairs Committee—Shawn Crowley ’90 The Student Affairs Committee had as their guest Teresa Hawko '01. Teresa is the coordinator of the CCAK (Colby Cares About Kids) program, and she provided us with an overview of her organization. CCAK is a mentoring program that began at Colby this past fall. There are currently 155 mentors sent into area sites for at-risk children in the Greater Waterville community (Waterville, Benton, Clinton and Vassalboro). In order to be selected, each mentor must complete a written application, sit for an oral interview, pass a background check, and then complete a comprehensive training session before being matched with a child. Mentors and mentees interact on a one-to-one basis and meet twice a week for about an hour each time. All interactions take place at one of seven sites throughout the community. The program's goal is to promote a healthier development for these children by providing a caring, compassionate, and consistent adult role model in their lives. In doing so, they hope to alleviate the stress/source of what's placing them at-risk (academic, biological, familial, peer interactions, body image issues, etc.) and to strengthen their self-esteem and confidence so that they can thrive as individuals. CCAK hopes that participating Colby students will find a connection to the community and a greater sense of citizenship and responsibility for others. Further, CCAK looks to strengthen the community bond between Colby and Waterville. After its first semester in existence, CCAK has seen wonderful progress toward the accomplishment of these goals. |