Minutes of the Hampden-Sydney College
Alumni Council Meeting
April 21-22, 2006
Alumni Association President Charles V. “Chuck” McPhillips
‘82 called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. and welcomed Council members back
to Hampden-Sydney. A roll call was taken to record club attendance:
Clubs Attending and Representative(s)
Atlanta, GA Frank Bedinger ‘76
Blue
Ridge Tripp Butler ‘91
Charlotte,
NC Justin Holofchak ‘99, Judd McAdams ‘77
Charleston, SC Bob Calcote ‘79
Charleston, WV Richie Heath ‘99
Danville Jimmy Bolton ‘78
District of Columbia Jim Young ’87
Eastern Shore Lyn Lewis ‘84
Jacksonville, FL Everette Seay ‘94
Lynchburg John Stone ‘95, John Overstreet
‘69
Martinsville Bill Garrett ‘74
New York Jonathan Hartley ‘97
Peninsula Ray Bottom ‘51, Bert Kelly ‘73, Rick Donaldson
‘74,
Rick Atlee ‘93
Raleigh, NC Michael York ‘98
Richmond Bill Boinest ‘54, Stephen Spraker ‘97, Tom Walker
‘77, Larry Mansfield ‘86, Don Whitley ’59, Aaron Marks ‘98
Roanoke Boyd Johnson ‘74
Southside Eunice Carwile ‘92
Tidewater Bobby Bray ‘60, John Ellis ‘70, Chuck McPhillips
‘82, Shep Miller ‘79, Andrew Sinclair ‘03, Baxter Vendrick ‘98
Winchester Ben Butler ‘63
Clubs Not
Represented
Augusta/Rockingham, Baltimore, Birmingham,
Bluefield/Tazewell, Charlottesville, Dallas, Fredericksburg, Halifax/South
Boston, Memphis, Nashville, Palmetto, Petersburg, Piedmont North Carolina,
Rappahannock
Meeting
Minutes
1. Call to Order/Update
President Chuck McPhillips ‘82 called the meeting to order,
took roll call (see above), and extended a special welcome to Trustees Ray
Bottom ‘51, Bill Boinest ‘54, Don Whitley ‘60, Bobby Bray ‘60, and John Ellis
‘70. The minutes of the Fall meeting were reviewed and approved. Mr.
McPhillips also briefed the Council on progress made on various issues since the
Fall meeting, including the success in preserving College e-mail addresses for
graduating seniors (which will make it much easier to stay in communication with
our youngest alumni). Moreover, many of the Clubs had complied with the
Council’s directive to appoint local Vice Presidents/ Liaisons for purposes of
coordinating their Club’s efforts in the areas of admissions, career
development, financial development and young alumni affairs.
2. President’s Greetings
College President Dr. Walter M. Bortz III welcomed the
Alumni Council to campus and commented on the overall health of Hampden-Sydney.
The College experienced an all-time high applicant pool this spring of over 1500
applications. Applications have doubled in the past nine years.
The public announcement of the Through These Gates Capital
Campaign is set for October 6-7, 2006. The College has raised approximately $58
Million of the $91 Million stated campaign goal. Dr. Bortz thanked the Council
for their support of Admissions, Fundraising, Young Alumni, and Career
Development initiatives.
3. Capital Campaign
Vice President for Institutional Advancement Beeler Brush
gave an update on the Through These Gates Capital Campaign.
The Campaign is broken out in three parts:
1. Endowment: 51.4% of the Campaign- $46.775M
a. Scholarship &
Student Enrichment: $15.25M
b. Faculty Support &
Faculty Enrichment: $15.25M
c. Unrestricted &
Building Maintenance Endow: $16.275M
2. Capital Projects: 27.6% of the Campaign-
$25.1M
a. Library- comparison
& Gift Grid, Kresge, 700K by
May 31, 2007.
b. Gammon- Kirk-Viar
Challenge, $2M by 12/31/06
c. Kirby
3. Annual Fund: 21% of the Campaign- $ 19.125M
So, where are we now?
1. Total dollars in Campaign: $58.8M
2. Where we were a yr. ago: $46.95M
3. Av. monthly gifts needed for Kick-Off: $980K
4. Av. monthly gifts needed to finish Campaign:
$1.6M
4. NSSE
Dean Earl Fleck presented an overview of the National
Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and explained how the College uses this
survey instrument to assess whether it accomplishes the College’s mission. The
NSSE has approximately 80 survey items that freshmen and seniors answer every
three years. This survey address important educational issues such as what
types of intellectual exercises faculty members expect of students, how much
writing and oral communication exercises must students complete, what types of
problem sets and out-of-class assignments faculty members demand, how students
use their free time, and what type of interactions students have with the
faculty, administration, and staff. Hampden-Sydney students did remarkably well
on the 2003 NSSE survey. H-SC freshmen and seniors ranked equal to or higher
than 94% of the other male students from liberal arts colleges. The positive
comparisons were even more striking when compared to men at all colleges and
universities.
Dean Fleck illustrated how he uses the NSSE to assess
particular aspects of our educational mission. He focused on how well our
faculty develops the student skills of critical reasoning. The NSSE data he
showed demonstrated a dramatic enhancement of critical reasoning skills in our
students compared to other liberal arts college males and all college and
university males. Further, the NSSE shows that our students have tremendous
satisfaction with their education at Hampden-Sydney.
Dean Fleck also showed that the NSSE pointed out some
shortcomings that the administration and faculty should address. Chief among
these few deficiencies is the need to prepare our students for entry into a very
diverse world after graduation.
Finally, Dean Fleck showed how the results of the 2003 NSSE
were used to help prepare our reaffirmation of accreditation documents for the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The Council was very pleased and impressed by the NSSE
findings as ably summarized by Dean Fleck. However, the strong consensus of the
Council was that the College needed to distill this valuable information into
“user-friendly” information that alumni (and College staff) can use in marketing
the College to potential students. Properly packaged, the NSSE data could prove
to be powerfully effective in marketing Hampden-Sydney College.
5. National Young
Alumni Taskforce Session Overview
Chad Krouse ‘02 provided an update on the H-SC National
Young Alumni Taskforce Initiative which was held on campus January 28, 2006.
Below are brief descriptions of the issues addressed at the meeting:
Coming
Home: Reunions, Homecoming, and the Dilemma
At Issue:
Homecoming Weekend presents many opportunities to reconnect with old classmates
and our alma mater; however, when it comes to reunions Young Alumni often choose
events held on Saturday (tied to the football game) rather than attend a class
reunion. Additionally, with poor attendance at the 5th, 10th, and 15th class
year Reunions, we must think of new ways to engage our target audience.
Fundraising and the Need for Dollar$
At Issue: “Every time I attend an alumni
event, these folks are always asking me for money!!!” This sentiment is shared
by many young alumni and presents one of several barriers towards charitable
giving. Being private and all-male comes with a price tag, but how we can
respond to the needs of our Young Alumni when it comes to participating in the
Annual Fund Campaign or better yet, change our approach to appeal more directly
to the 80% of our Young Alumni who choose not to give.
Party time! Young Alumni Events
At Issue: Parties and cocktail hours are fun
at first but run the risk of getting too stale. The Young Alumni Golf
Tournament was reinstated in fall 2005 with great success—due in large part to
Young Alumni volunteer leadership. What are the events that will bring
you out at night, during lunch, or on the weekends that will be worth your time
and money?
Career Development and Young Alumni
At Issue: “Our Career Development Office
never helped me find a job!” Have you ever heard a young alumnus say this?
Under the leadership of two new directors, the Career Development Office is
poised to help not only Seniors connect with job opportunities, but prepare
underclassmen to locate quality internships and learn how to network with our
alumni.
Using the Web to Reconnect
At Issue: With the dawning of the
technological age, how can the College use technology to reach out and connect
with its fastest growing constituency?
Building up a Young Alumni Network
At Issue: How many times as a student did
you hear about some elusive “Alumni network” that was looming outside the gates
chomping at the bits to hire all the bright and wonderful young graduates? How
can you as young alumni build a network that supports and encourages our young
graduates to be successful outside the gates of Hampden-Sydney? What are some
ways in which the College can help achieve this?
Trustee Representative John C. Ellis, Jr. ‘70 expressed the
Council’s desire to motivate young alumni to achieve 50% giving participation
for each class (1990-present) and help the College reach 5000 total alumni
donors.
6. Lunch with Athletic Staff
Athletic Director Joe Bush introduced all the spring sports
coaches for updates in their respective areas. All H-SC sports teams completed
the 2005-06 seasons with winning records:
Football 8-2
Basketball 18-8
Soccer 10-7-2
Tennis 10-9
Baseball 23-16 (first back-to-back
20 win seasons in H-SC history!)
Lacrosse 8-5
The Council applauded all coaches and AD Joe Bush for yet
another fantastic athletic year!
7. Alumni Association Breakout Sessions: Following
lunch, the Council divided into the following break-out sessions to discuss
strategies in the Council’s priority areas:
A. Admissions Breakout Session / Small-Market
Alumni Club
In the discussion concerning our smaller alumni clubs,
there were a number of suggestions to help better organize our smaller clubs,
foster relationships to the College, and to facilitate the sharing of
information between all clubs and the Admissions Office. It was determined that
what worked for one club area might not be as beneficial to another. Each club
should take note of those things that work in their area and make progress to
implement them. Most areas wanted to stress the importance of listing and
making available the activities of all clubs so that a “reinvention of the
wheel” does not occur. The hope being that our alumni clubs can benefit from
the ingenuity and innovative ideas of each other.
A brief explanation of the Admissions’ calendar was
presented as well as a small disclosure of the amount of mail and publications
sent to prospective students and their families. It was agreed that our alumni
can and do play an important role in introducing many to the College. The
Admissions Office will work to make sure that each alumni club is aware of
exactly who their Assistant Dean is and when he will be in their area during the
fall travel season. The admissions representative should feel free to ask for
up-to-date information throughout the year and work towards a mobilization
effort to assist the Admissions Office with yield functions. The “yield” time
is when our alumni clubs can have the greatest impact.
Finally, each club was encouraged to organize a “send-off’
reception for new freshman in their areas. A number of clubs, specifically the
Tidewater Club, have had great success with this type of event and feel that
they are very beneficial.
B. Career Development
1. Approved the list of Draft Tasks for Club Career Development
Representatives. Those tasks include:
·
Serve as the Career Development Point
of Contact between the Alumni Club and the Career Development Office
·
Know key alumni and key employers in
the Club area
·
Be willing to talk with students about
career development opportunities in the Club area
·
Work to link students and alums with
alums in Club
·
Identify and provide information to
Career Development Office on potential internship and job opportunities
2. Briefly discussed what seemed to be working at the local club level. Judd
McAdams in Charlotte said that he had developed a list of alums in the Charlotte
Area to serve as contacts in various industries and career fields. This way he
was able to spread the load and link students to alumni in the fields where the
students had particular interests. Richmond is working to develop a similar
list of contacts. The Clubs identified the need to have an update to date
roster of the Club alums, occupations, and contact information from the Alumni
Office so that they could reach out to alumni to solicit their support for the
coming year. The Career Development Office will work with the Alumni Office to
get this information out to the local clubs.
3. Discussed
the items to include the Club Career Development SOP. This SOP will be
electronic and located on the Career Development and Alumni Office Websites.
Initial items will include:
·
How alumni can assist the Career Development Office
·
How to become an Electronic Mentor
·
How to submit a job or internship opportunity
·
Link to Career Development information and brochures
·
Sample Club Industry POC Contact List
·
Link to “What is an internship” or how to set up an internship
4. Discussed the need for periodic updates from the Career Development Office
on what is going on and how alumni can assist based on the time of the year.
The Career Development Office will look to provide three or four updates in the
coming year.
5. Discussed the criteria and the challenges for the Internship portion of the
Waters Cup Competition. So far the Career Development Office has received very
few internship opportunities from alumni. We will need to look at this at the
Fall Alumni Council Meeting once we have better visibility on the internship
results from the summer of 2006.
C. Development
A recap of our Development Committee meeting follows.
Please note that the biggest way alumni can help the College and the Annual Fund
between now and the end of the fiscal year is to host a leadership team meeting
so we can target outstanding donors from your clubs. Each Club should encourage
every member of its leadership team to support the Annual Fund if they have yet
to do so before June 30th. Those closest to the College need to set
a great example!
Development Committee Issues
Recap
- Discussion of the Waters Cup and alumni donor goals for
the Association and each club
- Discussion of increasing the number of donors and
specifically young alumni donors
- Discussion of lining up the clubs development calendar
with the Annual Fund’s calendar
- Discussion of the Young Alumni Task Force and the
subsequent suggestions for increasing young alumni giving percentages
- Discussion of how each club can meet their individual
Waters Cup goals while helping the College meet its Annual Fund goal between
now and June 30th
D. Young Alumni
Young Alumni Break Out Session Summary
National Vice President Stephen T. Spraker ‘97 called the
session to order and immediately began work on a full agenda. Several questions
were asked to group regarding the following topics: Career Development,
Fundraising, Admissions, and Alumni Involvement. These questions began an
in-depth discussion as to how young alumni can help in Career Development by
assisting current seniors and recent graduates with networking opportunities.
It was offered that local clubs should host seniors during the breaks
(Christmas, Spring, Summer) for a networking event.
8. Admissions Update
Anita Garland addressed the Council and thanked several
clubs for hosting Admissions functions throughout the year: She also discussed
matters of rising tuition – approaching $36,000 on 2006-07 – and how that
compares to our peer institutions. We are not the most expensive College in
Virginia but near the upper middle of our peer group. Ms. Garland said the
total applications for the Class of 2010 will exceed 1500 for the first time.
We have a goal of 332 for the entering freshman class and have 178 deposits to
date which is slightly ahead of this time last year.
9. Golf Course
Friday’s Alumni Council session concluded with a tour of
the nearby Poplar Hill Golf Course facility which is nearing completion. The
course has a June 2006 opening target date.
10. Dinner
The Council joined representatives from the Wilson Center
for Leadership for a most enjoyable dinner in the Board Room of Pannill
Commons. Patrick Henry Service Awards were bestowed on several alumni, and
students were recognized for their leadership activities.
11. Saturday Session
with H-SC Student Panel
Dean David Klein ‘78 moderated a panel discussion on
student life at Hampden-Sydney with several student leaders from the College.
Attending were: Matt Weekly ‘07 from Charlotte NC, Jonathan Schaaf ‘07 from
Richmond, VA, Gardner Meek ‘07 from Elkin NC, Fitz Robertson ‘09 from Queens NY,
James Barton ‘06 from Farmville, VA, Graham Smith ‘07 from Atlanta, GA, and
Glenn Carter ‘08 from Williamsburg, VA.
Selected Questions:
Diversity – Is H-SC improving in addressing diversity
issues?
Fraternity Participation – Why did you choose to join or
not join?
Drug/Substance Abuse – Does H-SC have a problem more or
less than other schools?
Why did you attend H-SC?
Hazing – Is hazing a serious problem at H-SC?
Retention – Why do guys leave H-SC?
The Council asked the students to be candid on the
student-life issues facing college students today. Overall, the students are
very happy to be at Hampden-Sydney College and would choose to re-enroll if
given the chance. They feel as though they have gained valuable leadership
experience while attending H-SC. Contrary to some stereotypes concerning
“Generation Y”, these student leaders believe that developing leaders continued
to be a very important mission of the College.
The students feel diversity is an issue the College
continues to improve on. Our minority students feel accepted here and indicate
they would recommend H-SC to their minority friends and prospective student
colleagues without hesitation.
Fraternity participation remains at approximately 38% and
our students feel the numbers reflect the fact that more opportunities for
students exist outside of fraternity circle. Hazing may also be a factor.
While our students say “hazing exists everywhere”, they do indicate that hazing
at H-SC is mild compared to other Colleges.
There is a mixed feeling among our students about the
severity of substance abuse at H-SC. While most of our student leaders view the
H-SC substance abuse problem as less severe than other colleges, a few disagree
and say that there is serious alcohol and drug abuse among students. All agree
that the problem seems less severe this year than in previous years.
Our student leaders say that the academic reputation of
Hampden-Sydney, Honor Code, and small size were the major reasons they were
attracted to the College. When asked about his worst experience at H-SC one
student responded, “That will happen is about three weeks when I have to leave
due to graduation”.
The Council applauded and commended each student for his
candor, insight, and participation in this panel discussion.
12. Closing Remarks
President McPhillips announced that the date for the fall
meeting of the Alumni Council has been set for October 20-21, 2006. A golf
tournament will be part of the fall meeting agenda, and we have a home football
game on campus vs. Guilford. Richie Heath ‘99, Justin Holofchak ‘99 and Chris
Dowdy ’99 have agreed to assist with the tournament preparation.
President McPhillips thanked all for attending and the
meeting was adjourned.
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