The Colgate Alumni Council consists of 55 alumni nominated for their exemplary volunteer service to Colgate. Its members represent the approximately 31,000 alumni in the Colgate Alumni Corporation, and each strives to be a "Colgate ambassador": enhancing the experience of all Colgate alumni by becoming deeply familiar with the state of the college; promoting robust communications, interesting and useful programming, and other modes of connection and engagement; and providing venues for alumni to discuss Colgate issues.
Please read what the council is working on, follow the links to additional information, and feel free to contact us: we're eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
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The Alumni Council met for its first meeting of the 2009–2010 academic year in Hamilton on September 23–25, 2009. The council's work is largely conducted through its seven committees and meetings of the entire council; below is a summary of the council's work.
Discussion with Interim President Lyle Roelofs. The opportunity to discuss Colgate issues with the president is always a highlight of the council's meetings, and the council's time with Interim President Lyle Roelofs — former dean of the faculty and provost — was no exception. Lyle addressed the following issues:
- Budget management. Given the drop in Colgate's endowment wrought by the economic downturn, the Board of Trustees tasked the Economic Environment Working Group (EEG) to develop scenarios that would reduce Colgate's operating expenses by 7.5 percent over the next two years. The EEG's ideas for 2011–2012 will be presented to the trustees at their January meeting.
- Advancement. Lyle discussed giving to Colgate, and observed that we have an extremely high rate of alumni connectedness as compared to our peer schools, suggesting that our alumni giving rate — 46 percent in 2009 — can be improved. He also discussed that, even in difficult times, Colgate must make investments that keep it competitive with its peer institutions. Such investments include the Hamilton Initiative, improving the village to make it a more attractive place for prospective students and faculty, the Colgate community, and village residents; a new fitness center; and the renovation of Lathrop Hall — which is now largely vacant following last year’s completion of the Ho Science Center.
- Admissions yielded 750 freshmen for the class of 2013, just north of its target of 740. The quality of the class is as high as last year, and Colgate offered the largest amount of financial aid ever to an entering class.
- Living Writers — a course offered by professors Jane Pinchin and Jennifer Brice — has been opened to alumni over the Internet to foster greater connectedness with the academic side of Colgate. Each week throughout the semester, prominent authors visit campus, read from their work, and take questions both from the class and from the alums online. For details, and to join the discussions, visit the Living Writers website.
- The search for Colgate's sixteenth president continues. A search committee, under the direction of the vice-chair of the Board of Trustees Peg Flanigan '80, and with the assistance of search consultant Shelly Storbeck, began in May. The committee's goal is to finish its work and announce the successful candidate in early 2010, with a start date of July 1, 2010. Visit the search committee's website.
- Lyle discussed his assessment of the 2010 US News and World Report rankings of liberal arts college, which saw Colgate fall one slot to 19th. Colgate has ranged between 15 and 21 in the last 12 years of the rankings. While Colgate is clearly a liberal arts college, Lyle observed that the majority of our applicants decide between Colgate and Cornell, NYU, Boston College, and University of Michigan, rather than between Colgate and the other liberal arts colleges on the list. This year, our position was sustained by a four rating in the academic quality category — the collective judgment of over 800 college administrators on the institution's reputation — versus 3.9 last year. In alumni participation, Colgate is ranked 34th, and improving participation could directly affect Colgate's rankings in the future.
- Sustainability. Colgate's environmental sustainability initiative continues, and Lyle reported that 70 percent of Colgate's heat is generated by its wood-fired boiler, a renewable, carbon neutral resource that helped Colgate avoid consuming the equivalent of 1.17 million gallons of fuel oil and saved the university more than $1.8 million in heating costs.
- Alumni college. Colgate is planning to introduce an alumni college during summer 2010, which would seek to attract alumni back to campus to take classes from prominent faculty, enjoy the village, and — if the search committee's work is completed — meet Colgate's new president. More news to come.
Advancement. Chair Geoffrey Gold '86 and the committee welcomed Darcy Nolan, director of the annual fund, who led a discussion on fundraising, its importance to the college, and ways the Alumni Council could help to increase alumni participation. First, Darcy reported on Colgate's capital campaign, Passion for the Climb. She said the campaign has already raised $325 million of its $400 million goal. Second, Darcy focused on the annual fund, which is of great importance to Colgate both because of Colgate's need for operating budget support as a result of the economic downturn, and because external measures, such as US News and World Report, use alumni participation as a factor in ranking Colgate and its peer schools. We reviewed cash contributions and participation numbers for 2008 and 2009 at 40 colleges.
- 2009 brought a total of $6,958,446 in annual fund gifts, which is the largest amount ever raised, and up from $6,826,250 in 2008.
- 12,052, or 46 percent of alumni, participated in the annual fund in 2009, which is up numerically (but not as a percentage) from last year, but still off from Colgate's highest numbers in 2003, the year of the Benton Challenge, when 14,200, or 55 percent of alumni, gave.
The council's focus will be to assist the advancement office in increasing general participation, with a special focus on graduates ten and fewer years out, whose rates have been around 30 percent, with the specific goal of raising the overall participation in those classes to 40 percent with extra emphasis on the classes of 2008 and 2009 to reach 50 percent. Alumni can find additional information on fiscal 2009 giving in the Passion for the Climb newsletter, as well as Colgate's Report to Donors (password: 2009ColgateDonor).
Athletics. Steve Solomon ’76 stood in for committee chair Bill Freeborn '76, and the committee welcomed two guests: Doug Johnson, associate dean of the faculty and associate professor of psychology, and athletics director Dave Roach. First, Professor Johnson discussed his review of Colgate's athletic scholarships program, which started in the 2004-2005 academic year. Professor Johnson shared the following findings:
- Patriot League wins are at 54 percent versus 49 percent pre-scholarships.
- Aided athletes who have had four years of scholarships stay on team rosters longer than others.
- While athletes receiving scholarships do not quite achieve the levels of academic performance on average compared with the general student body, 59 percent have a GPA of 3.0 or better and certain teams have achieved national recognition for their GPA levels.
- We were also reminded that Colgate leads the nation in Division I graduation rates for its athletes.
Dave Roach discussed strong showings by football and men's soccer as well as steady progress with volleyball, golf and cross country. He touched on the following news and issues:
- Two evening home football games were played under the new lights at Andy Kerr Stadium, with 1,800 students in attendance for the win over Monmouth. The "Rowdy Raider" fan program — with instrumental support by former council member Lee Woltman '65 — has made a big difference in boosting student attendance. (Home games after September will be played during the day, given the very real possibility of arctic conditions at night.)
- The new gocolgateraiders.com website now has a "video replay" as well as a link for supporters to vote for Dick Biddle as the Liberty Mutual Division 1-AA Football Coach of the Year. (Cast your vote for Coach Biddle on the Liberty Mutual website using this link.)
- Lastly, Dave mentioned that the Patriot League will decide whether to allow football scholarships given Fordham’s decision to offer them. The decision will be made in 2010 and Fordham will not be eligible for the league’s championship and automatic NCAA playoff berth in the meantime.
Admissions. Committee chair Christine Chao '86 invited Lynn Holcomb '92, senior associate director of admissions, to discuss admissions statistics and challenges. She shared the following items:
- The class of 2013 numbers 750, 10 over target, and this includes 22 from the waitlist.
- The ratio is 54 percent female and 46 percent male.
- About 6 percent are international students and 22 percent are multicultural students chosen from 1023 and 2631 applications respectively.
- Children/grandchildren of alumni were 262 applications, 113 accepted and 67 enrolled.
- The overall accepted percentage was 31.5 percent (versus 24.5 percent last year) and the yield was roughly the same at 31.5 percent.
- Applications were down 14 percent from last year at 7,814 versus 9,415 but many peers had a worse result.
- Accepted GPAs averaged 3.73 with mid SATs of 660-740 and 660-750, almost identical to last year.
- In terms of demographics, the class of 2012 was selected from a peak number of high school students, with 55 percent from the northeast and New York State. U.S. demographic trends show that the northeast will have 10 percent fewer high school graduates in 10 years, New York City will have 20 percent fewer, the midwest 7 percent fewer, the west 2 percent fewer and the south flat. So Colgate is building inroads in other areas, especially the South.
- 61 percent are full pays with 39 percent aided. This year's costs are $50,940. Despite economic concerns that all colleges shared in 2009, Colgate chose not to expand the size of its freshman class in order to increase revenues.
Please follow this link for more details about the Class of 2013.
Career Services and District Clubs. These committees met together, under the leadership of Jay Brennan ’81, career services committee chair, to discuss an important Alumni Council initiative: the Maroon Advantage Career Networking for Alumni program. This initiative is designed to leverage the Colgate alumni network, as well as the resources of the career services office, to help alumni who may have lost their jobs, or want to change jobs, as a result of the economic downturn. The committee already sponsored one such session in New York City. The committees plan to have at least six additional Maroon Advantage events, and will tap the knowledge of Colgate's district clubs volunteers to identify facilitators and panel participants in various cities. We are looking for facilitators/presenters for these programs, as well as conference room space to hold Maroon Advantage events. If you'd like to volunteer on either score, please contact Tim Mansfield.
Communications. Committee chair Terry Egler '77 reviewed the results of last year's Gallup survey of alumni. The survey had a 24 percent response rate and 777 requested that they be contacted to further discuss Colgate issues (council members fulfilled 343 of those calls). The statistics in the Gallup results are compelling: 57 percent of respondents consider themselves "highly engaged," and 30 percent "very engaged." The survey was conducted before the endowment suffered its late 2008 declines, it is therefore significant that 43 percent believed gifts were more important than ever while only 5 percent did not. Coverage of the Gallup poll is available on the alumni website.
University Relations. Committe chair Paul Bradley '67 introduced Jill Harsin, interim dean of the faculty and professor of history, to discuss faculty hiring and tenure processes. Ms. Harsin identified several priorities when hiring faculty, including scholarship, ability to teach, research, diversity, and grasp of the liberal arts education. Specific attention is paid to scholars who have expertise in a given field of study, and to help fill vacancies in course curriculum. Robert Kraynak, professor of political science and director of the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization, was introduced to review the process for successful recent hires in the political science department. Included in his remarks were ways that new faculty are mentored and supported through the tenure process.
At our general session, Michael Wenger '09 gave a brief but compelling report on CollaborAid.org — the not-for-profit he founded at Colgate, with the help of faculty and friends. Michael asked for the council's ideas, as well as referrals to computer/internet experts, NGOs, and others. Please take a few minutes to check out his project at collaboraid.org, and e-mail him any suggestions you have at info@collaboraid.org. We also had a discussion with Constance Harsh, professor of English and director of the Division of University Studies, about revisions to the core curriculum made following the periodic 10-year review. The core requires four common courses of study with six courses in humanities, social science, and natural science. Changes have been made to emphasize globalism and diversity. Colgate is one of the few peer institutions with a comprehensive and ambitious core curriculum as many other colleges now require only one or two courses or have abandoned it. Among 36 peer universities and colleges only Colgate, Columbia, and Reed have a common core curriculum. We also reviewed the work of the council's nominations and awards committees.
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The council will meet again on campus on January 15–16, during which it will help to sponsor the Real World program for job-seeking seniors, and again on April 9–10 for its spring meeting.
Questions? Comments? Please write to RuthAnn Loveless, vice president of alumni affairs, or Tim Mansfield, director of alumni affairs.
Best,
Gus P. Coldebella '91
Alumni Council President