Good morning!
Today is football day in Hanover, but first we finish our 207th Council Session with the third Plenary Session.
First up - Bob Lasher '88, our new SVP for Advancement, addressed the Council to discuss Darmouth's efforts at Communication and outreach to Alumni, with particular focus on President Hanlon's schedule to meet with Alumni clubs.
We also heard from Justin Anderson, the AVP for Media Relations. He spoke about specific efforts to reach out to the major media to promote more postive stories about Dartmouth. Acknowleding the pain from some of the recent negative articles, he gave a summary of the many positive stories that have been in other major media.
Board of Directors Report
Steve Mandel and Sherri Oberg talked about Board priorities, and their efforts to work with President Hanlon on many of the initiatives discussed earlier, including their efforts to address affordability. One topic of interest was risk management, incuding internal audits, program audits, and even background checks for Dartmouth employees.
Center for Professional DevelopmentRoger Woolsey, new director of the Center, gave a terrific, energetic presentation on new philosophy, strategies and programming for supporting students in their decisions for professional choices. Bottom line is that there is a total overhaul of the career/professional development function at the College. One tip... joined the various Dartmouth networks on LinkedIn to help engage with the various opportunities to participate in the professional networks.
Committee Reports
A status report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Data presented show significant challenges to attract and retain faculty and staff in minority/diversity categories, showing declines in % in recent years. Dartmouth is in the lower third among Ivy League schools.
Caroline Kerr '05 gave a presentation on best practices among Colleges and Universities, and also in business. Key factors: leadership; focus on the "pipeline" to develop and train people (not just at the job search level); integrate with core mission/strategy for overall success of enterprise; funding & resources for retention strategies; continuing evaluation and feedback on efforts. Report will be posted on-line on Monday, Oct 28 on the alumni.dartmouth.edu/leadership/council page.
Session wrapping up with Committee reports, and open forum Q&A. The Alumni Liaison Committee noted that their annual report is on the Alumni Council web page with a summary of all the communications received and sent via the Alumni Council.
Any comments or questions... please email me at dvanwie@maine.rr.com
I will pass along any comments and questions to the College, and will do my best to respond promptly.
Off to the 79 MINI-REUNION tailgate and football game... let's hope the rain holds off!
Cheers - DVW
