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Freeing the Power of the Individual

July 2008 Archives

Jul
27

Our new website

July 27, 2008 11:01 AM |
In recent meetings about enrollment and recruitment, I had occasion to look at our college website through the eyes of a high school junior or senior. It was rather eye-opening to realize that we had designed our site to make sense to an audience of academics!  Those of us working in higher education know that you find "majors" by looking through the information in the various "departments," but I quickly realized that potential new students might not know that.

I immediately returned and gave our web team an assignment--find a way to make our site more intuitive for those not overly familiar with academic structures and hierarchy.

Our new website navigation was born. Now when you first find the college site, you are invited (via the navigation panel on the left-hand side) to "Find a major, Meet the Faculty and Staff, or Learn More."  We hope it will work well for both potential students and current users of our information.

We invite feedback and your ideas about how we can continue to improve the college website. Email me if you have suggestions!
Jul
17

Going digital

July 17, 2008 8:46 PM |
The College has been involved in the first phase of a two-year communications plan. Our goal was to dramatically improve both the quality of our messages (both what we say and how we convey our ideas in words and images) AND the "reach" of our messages.  Initially, this meant we redesigned our website--which is still a work in progress but we feel is much improved over the old one--and began using a unified design approach for most of the printed pieces we prepare each year.

Phase two of the plan begins this fall.  We've hired an experienced videographer and editor (the director of our university's former Broadcasting and Media Services unit) to help us create and distribute podcasts for all of our programs. Soon these will begin to show up on departmental websites so that we can share our story with potential students and their families.  We will also mail out our first-ever college alumni magazine this fall. One of many truly enjoyable parts of my job as dean is  being part of the team that tells everyone about the engaging and innovative things that are happening in the College of Arts and Letters. 


Jul
09

New students

July 9, 2008 6:47 PM |
We've been busy of late with our Preview (summer orientation) sessions. It is important as we go through each successive Preview that we take a quick look at the availability of classes and make adjustments as needed. This is especially important for our freshman-level composition classes, since most students must take ENG 101 in their first semester of college-level enrollment. It is always exciting to us as we watch these introductory level classes fill throughout the summer, and when we must--as we did last week--add new sections to meet the needs.  It is exciting to us because we know that means many new students will be joining us in the fall.

At the same time that we work to make room for all the new freshman and transfer students, we also take time to check on our continuing students. Have they all managed to get registered for fall classes? Are they still on track to graduate? Summer is a great time to touch base with these students and make sure they have the information and support they need from us so that they, too, can return to classes in the fall term.  It's funny to think about in the heat of July, but "the fall" term is actually just a little over a month away!
Jul
03

Quality of teaching

July 3, 2008 2:26 PM |
In recent planning meetings with a university group (the Action Team of our Strategic Enrollment Planning Council) we reviewed data from surveys of college-bound high schoolers and high school guidance counselors. One area of interest to us was, what do they consider important in their decision-making about where to go for a bachelor's degree?  A resounding majority in both groups stressed that the "quality of teaching" or "quality of the faculty" was very important in their decisions about where to go to college (or, in the case of the counselors, where to recommend that their students should go).  

But how, I wondered, do we demonstrate to the public the "quality" of our teaching? I would resist any effort at calling our students a "product" and so, too, I'd resist efforts to say that our students are the primary evidence of our teaching quality. (Certainly our students' success points to our effectiveness.)  Upon reflection, I think the "quality" of our teaching can be seen in a number of ways. We can show the experience and preparation of our faculty. We can highlight their great care and concern for students both inside and beyond the classroom. We can draw attention to faculty efforts to actively engage students in the research and learning so vital to post-secondary education.

In the end, I also want to be sure that we focus some attention on our faculty as the genuinely kind, helpful, and generous people that they happen to be. I don't believe it is an accident that so many of our faculty take leadership roles in civic, community, and religious groups. They volunteer countless hours to local, state, and national causes. They care, and they care deeply, about improving our world for the next generation. As I continue to develop a communications plan for the College of Arts and Letters, I intend to make efforts at telling the story of our wonderful faculty a central theme. 
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