Alumni Council Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, June 8, 2002
|
Report From President Adams Alumni Association President and Chair of the Alumni Council Lou Richardson '67 introduced Bro Adams, who welcomed alumni to the beautiful campus for reunion. This year he spoke of the strategic plan and the directions of the College for the next ten years, including his vision of the future. Bro reviewed the strategic planning process over the last 2 years, beginning with President Cotter's reflections before he left, which marked the transition between presidential tenures. The process began with the creation of large notebooks to review when Bro arrived in Waterville and included wish lists from every department on campus. These wish lists needed focus but included some very compelling ideas. The planning process has tried to bring that initial document together to a plan with set concrete initiatives. At the April 2002 board meeting the Board of Trustees approved the formal plan for implementation. The plan looked at every part and detail of this institution and reduces itself to simple answers to the questions "Who are we?"and "What are our central aspirations for the future?" Some questions it addressed:
Colby will continue to:
To enhance the visions of student life where social restrictions can be challenging in central Maine, we need to highlight:
Opportunity and access to a Colby education are key if we are to have unlimited options for who can come to Colby. Endowment is vitally important to keep us accessible to all. The plan highlights the sense of campus community and the value of being here together. We need to extend this feeling to alumni and to more fully engage our neighbors in Waterville, as they are so closely linked to our fate and can be powerful partners in our future. Colby will be stepping up our involvement locally. What will Colby be like in 10-20 years? It will look somewhat the same, a residential college that is a place of beauty, with strong student-faculty conversation and an interdisciplinary focus. It will be more diverse and require more sophistication. The program will be a success if the infrastructure improves by staying focused on what really matters and if we continue to engage the alumni body. Bro then welcomed questions from the alumni audience: 1. What is the planned future size of student enrollment? Bro: 1,800 undergrads on average or a little less, with no real change planned for the future. 2. How prepared are liberal arts students to work in the real world? Bro: We are career-focussed in that Colby endows students with highly analytical thinking and good verbal and written skills, which are fundamental to any competent professional. The College will be enhancing the career services staff to help students more aggressively prepare for what's next. 3. The goal of diversity seems decades old—what about attrition rates? Bro: Graduation rates remain the same, basically, but attracting a diverse student body continues to be a huge issue for Admissions. The Posse Program is new to us this year. It is a program where 10 inner city students from New York will be entering this fall. We are also making huge strides with cultural diversity on the international front. Twelve percent of the class of '06 (50+ students) will be international and will include 30 students from the United World Colleges/Davis Scholars program. 4.Won't the high cost of college prevent middle-class students from coming here? Bro: If we are not careful Colby (and many other similar schools) will be either all rich kids and poor kids on financial aid. It is a demographic challenge to all colleges now, and a strong endowment allowing for adequate financial aid should address this. Bro conceded this was good point. 5. What drives our expenses beyond inflation? Bro: There is an arms-race mentality that involves all aspects of colleges. For example, health club facilities and student union program expectations are presumed phenomena at our peer schools (which require more staff and more buildings). Even without that race, most of our expenses are people-related; insurance and other benefit costs have risen much faster than inflation. The the expenses of an academic enterprise tend to rise faster than inflation, with costs such as technology, in which we must keep current to remain in a competitive market; this is an issue that worries Bro deeply. 6. How will we gauge the success of our new strategic plan? Bro: We'll measure various areas. The College has a new office of Institutional Research and Assessment; a person has just been hired, and there is an HHMI grant to help. We will look at quality and production, and we will continue to get feedback from students at their exit interviews. Colby will use this data to review our future programs. 7. What about independent thinking and the love of learning? Bro: In a setting like Colby, some forms of assessment are not appropriate, but it is incumbent upon us to find ways to discuss measurement, as fundamentally intangible as it seems. We don't want to be open to public skepticism on this issue, so we must look for ways to review our own distinctive precepts while speaking to the idea of independent thinking. 8. Size of enrollment—how can we compete with distance learning? Bro: We are not concerned with competing with distance learning at this time—there is a categorically fundamental difference in what Colby has to offer; distance learning would entail the loss of student interaction with faculty and other students. We just need to use technology to our benefit as a resource to allow us to obtain exposure to other things. The Web is also full of junk and not real competition for schools like Colby. 9. What about summer sessions? Bro: The plan glanced at this issue, but very few colleges have followed Dartmouth's example here. We have not pursued this seriously yet, although we may in the future. Welcome—Lou Richardson ’67 Lou Richardson then thanked Bro for his time and proceeded with the Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association and the Alumni Council committee reports. Committee Reports/Updates Alumni Fund—Todd W. Halloran '84 Todd reported that currently the Alumni Fund for fiscal year '02 through May is up 7.3% over last year at this time. We all consider this a great achievement considering the uncertainties with the economy after September 11. Todd mentioned that this just shows the passion and loyalty of Colby alums to our alma mater. Participation is ahead to date, as well with the participation goal for FY02 at 9,700 donors, which is close to 51 percent participation. The Alumni Fund FY02 dollar goal is $3.225 million, and we are above that by about 7 percent so far with one month to go. Much of the increase is due to the new President's Circle gift club range ($25K annual gift), which had 13 members in 2000 and 26 members this year! The committee and trustees have also approved a new gift club at the $50K level, and there are 3 members for FY02. The committee is currently reviewing the fiscal year '03 goals. Todd stressed to all attendees the importance of giving something for participation, regardless of the amount. It is critical to participate! Admissions and Financial Aid—Linda Mitchell Potter '66 The Admissions and Financial Aid committee heard a report from Dean Parker Beverage and Associate Dean Judy Brody. To summarize, Colby is still very competitive, and this year's class will be more diverse than ever.
Alumni on Campus—Philip C. Wysor '70 Phil gave a brief report and indicated the new alumni building is one of the first priorities for the College as part of the Strategic Plan, and the committee is gratified the building will finally come to fruition. He also reported that the council will be reorganizing the mission and function of this committee and that there would be more to report in October on the progress of the alumni building. Athletics—Alex Wilson '73 Alex reported that the Athletics Committee met with the C Club officers today. They discussed C Club membership, which is down slightly for this year, and they will be looking for ways to actively promote the C Club in FY03, such as through the Web and at alumni events. On April 28 the Spring C Club and Senior Athlete Awards Dinner was held on campus to allow for more interaction between alumni and current student athletes. The event showed a 50 percent increase in attendance, so they plan to hold it on campus again in the future. Bro attended the dinner and addressed the guests, which meant a lot to the student athletes. Alex reported that the fall Family Homecoming Weekend C Club dinner honoree has been identified but cannot be made public at this time. He urged everyone to attend on Friday, October 18. The C Club and Athletics committee will also be hosting a reception after the Tufts football game at Tufts, the first week in November. More information will follow this fall regarding these events. Bro also met with members of the Athletics Committee on April 27 and discussed the NESCAC presidents' study on athletic recruiting in admissions. They followed up on the topic with Dick Whitmore at today's meeting and enjoyed a vigorous discussion on this hot topic. Alex also indicated this would be his last report as athletics committee chair, as he is resigning to fulfill his duties as vice chair of the council in anticipation of his duties as chair the subsequent year. He thanked everyone for their support and introduced Patricia Valavanis Smith '80, who will assume the chair position. Awards—Hope Palmer Bramhall '56 Hope reported that, as usual, she could not reveal the details of her committee discussions at this point in the year. The formal report with the FY03 award winners will be announced at the January meeting. She hoped everyone was able to attend the previous evening's alumni awards banquet. The committee always enjoys seeing the results of their selections and is very proud of the awardees. In particular, she mentioned John B. Devine Jr., who was the first recipient of the Edson V. Mitchell Distinguished Service award, and longtime Colby employee, Earl Smith, who received the Ernest C. Marriner Distinguished Service Award. She urged alumni present to please consider submitting a nomination of a Colby classmate or family member. One can now submit nominations through a form on the Web. The committee hopes to have a reminder in the next Colby magazine that will also explain the awards criteria and details. Career Services—Frank Finizio ’66 Frank started his report by saying that his committee was a recently reconvened group, and their first formal program, kicking off the re-energized group, was sponsoring a career panel for students in March '02. The committee works closely with Director of Career Services Cindy Parker, who advises them on the current student needs and how to best publicize events to students. He indicated that this year's graduating seniors are comprised of:
Frank asked the attendees for any further ideas for career-related speakers and asked for volunteers for internships and/or job opportunities. Clubs Committee—Kirk Paul '78 Kirk reported that the regional Colby clubs have been very active this year, including activity in several new areas: a Shanghai, China, club; a North by Northwest club (NH/MA border area), a Downeast Maine club (encompassing Aroostook County and northern coastal Maine) and a club in Austin, Texas. There will be eighteen cities in this year's "Welcome to the City" events on September 18, which will welcome the class of '02 to cities all around the country. Events are also planned in London and Tokyo this year with NESCAC colleagues as well as the annual Career Networking nights for young alumni in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Communications Committee—Eric F. Rolfson '73 Eric reported that his committee discussed three main agenda items that morning:
Barry reported that there were no class representative or member-at-large vacancies to fill right now. The nominating committee has begun reviewing candidates for alumni trustees for terms to begin at commencement 2003. The public nominations for the candidates will be announced at the October meeting, with voting at the winter. Financial Affairs Committee— Karl Dornish '54 Karl invited attendees to join his committee that afternoon for a presentation by Administrative Vice President Arnold Yasinski on Colby's Master Plan, the Future of our Mayflower Hill Campus. It will include an overview of the campus plan for the next 30-40 years, including any new buildings and long-term proposed changes to roads through the campus. Student Affairs Committee—Boyd Allen '75 Boyd reported that the Student Affairs Committee would have its informational meeting later that afternoon with guest speaker Varun Avasthi, director of dining services, who will speak about the changes to dining services at Colby and how they are meeting current student needs and preferences. He invited all attendees to join in the presentation. Academic Affairs Committee—Lou Richardson '67 The committee will visit the new Crawford Art Studios later that afternoon. Dean of Faculty Ed Yeterian will join the tour, which will be conducted by Associate Professor of Art Bevin Engman. Lou recommended that everyone visit the studios, as they will be amazed at this new resource for students. |