October 29, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
As I mentioned at the October 21 faculty meeting and in yesterday’s conversation with administrative and support staff, the College will host an all-employee town hall, which we have now scheduled for Thursday, November 11, in the College Union Building Ballroom. To ensure that the maximum number of people can attend this important discussion, we will hold two sessions and make both available via Zoom. The sessions will be held at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. A Zoom link will be provided closer to the meeting date. Employees are welcome to attend either session.
At the town hall, we will more fully discuss current enrollment and financial trends, speak about our challenging projections for upcoming budgets, and begin to sketch out how we are thinking about the process of reconciling our resources and expenditures. All of this will be within the context of Living Our Promise, the College’s ambitious strategic plan that is designed to enhance our impact while broadening our appeal to students, helping with net tuition, and inspiring greater philanthropy. I am very grateful for the recent conversations with faculty and staff; they help ensure that all of our employees will join the November 11 meeting with a common baseline of information.
Let me underscore an important point I sought to make at both meetings. We have spent the summer and early fall seeking to better understand the dimensions of the challenges and opportunities before us. Having learned from that work, our attention is now turning to determining the best path forward. We do not yet have any definitive answers, and likely will not for some time. The town hall represents a chance for us, as stewards of this institution, to understand our current budget realities and to begin to discuss the process and factors that will inform our decision making as we shape the College’s future.
While there is challenging work ahead of us, I am confident that we will rally around these issues together and develop solutions that ensure our brightest future. I hope you will join us at our town hall meeting.
Sincerely,
Bob Iuliano
President