Today marks one month in office as President of Hanover and I wanted to give you an update on events taking place during that time. I expect to be writing to the campus on a regular basis and I hope you won’t get tired of hearing from me and start deleting my all campus messages!
I have met with all administrative staffs and physical plant and housekeeping staffs in small groups and next week will finish up with the faculty small group meetings. But this will not end your opportunity to talk with me. I am planning to have open office hours twice a month in different buildings on campus when anyone who wants to can drop by for a conversation. I will have soft drinks and snacks to entice you to stop by!
You have seen the announcement about the all campus meeting for the entire staff on Wednesday, August 29th from 3:00-5:00 in the Brown Campus Center Dining Room. I realize it is a bit unusual to actually close offices for a meeting but this will only happen once and for only two hours. I think it is important to have the entire campus community at this meeting to begin the year and I look forward to setting goals for the year with you. By now you have also been notified of the all campus picnic scheduled for Saturday, September 1 after the home football game at the Shoebox. This will be our first opportunity to welcome back our students to campus and will be a very important kick off to the year. Families are invited, in fact, encouraged. I think students like to see families and kids because it makes them feel at home. I will be talking at the all campus meeting about why it is so important for you to show up to the picnic and I hope you will come and bring your family.
I have already mentioned to the campus that we need all your help and ideas about enrollment. I want to thank those of you who have already responded with ideas in emails and conversations. I am considering all ideas carefully and keeping them for future discussion with the cabinet. Some of the ideas have already been implemented.
Besides these two all campus events we are also planning a community open house on October 6th to welcome the local community onto the campus and thank them for their support over the years. You will receive more about this in the mail. All of these events are an effort to build a strong sense of community on campus and in our surrounding area. That will be very important to our future.
We are also starting an aggressive marketing campaign. We will have a full page color ad in Time, Newsweek, US News, and Sports Illustrated. A preliminary version was already published without the complete ad so the magazines are printing them again in August. Watch for them. We have also been selected as one of 25 campuses to be highlighted in a PBS special that will be hosted by Hugh Downs. Each campus will have a several minute feature about some topic on education and get to highlight their campus. We are guaranteed 400 national showings. The TV crew will be on campus the weekend of Homecoming and we will be asking for your involvement. The admissions office is working with an admission consultant to review all our strategies and to increase communication with prospects. I will also ask that each of us become a promoter of Hanover and convince one student to come here. As you talk with friends, family, and colleagues around the country, don’t forget to mention why their children would get an outstanding education here!
In the past month, I have found dedicated employees, supportive alumni, trustees who care deeply about this campus, and on the part of everyone I meet, a true desire to make Hanover College an extraordinary place. Mike and I have enjoyed meeting with folks so please say hello to us when you see us on campus. We truly feel a part of the community and look forward to all the exciting events and times together.
Sue DeWine
President
