Allegheny College: President's Office

Every college and university has them: glossy brochures, stunning photos, appealing Web sites, impressive statistics, enthusiastic admissions staffs, and compelling accounts of alumni and student success. Attempts to attract qualified students to college campuses have reached unprecedented levels. Good students are torn both by increasing choices-especially from a growing system of public colleges and universities--and from the wide availability of college-funded scholarships (in effect, price discounts).

Allegheny is not immune to these "market forces." Indeed, in order to continue our long tradition as a strong residential liberal arts college, promotion of Allegheny is vitally important. Your word-of-mouth promotion and our more formal marketing efforts are lynchpins in attracting students to and support for the College. But we will have to do more than just "get the word out" about Allegheny. Promotion is only as effective as our responsiveness to student circumstances and needs-and meeting the needs of students is what Allegheny has done best for decades.

Chances are good that if you are reading this magazine, you are already convinced that a residential liberal arts college--and Allegheny in particular--provides the best undergraduate experience available. Unfortunately, for increasing numbers of families, college choice is too often made on the basis of convenience or perceived cost, with the supposition that a degree is a generic certificate. Studies show widespread misperceptions about the liberal arts among prospective students and their parents. So liberal arts colleges have the great challenge of providing distinct types of educational experiences for people who increasingly have not yet realized their need for them. This means we must be cognizant of and responsive to the changing perceptions and circumstances of our constituency.

Our planning process of the past two years has paid close attention to those needs by delivering a clarion call for entrepreneurial spirit in continuing to improve our academic and co-curricular programs and facilities. Failing to make the value of an Allegheny education truly and perceptibly better, the planning task force reasoned, would lead to fewer and fewer families selecting Allegheny from among many choices. Its conclusions and recommendations led to campus-wide discussions and decision-making that have been chronicled in previous issues of ALLEGHENY. Program and budget decisions are now guided by our five-year plan, New Century Connections, which specifies our institutional priorities (cf. insert in Summer 1998 issue of ALLEGHENY).

Designating "investment capital" from the operating budget made possible a "new initiatives" process that has spurred the creativity of our faculty, staff and students. Programs and projects have emerged over the past year that promise to increase the quality of the educational experience, including:

Our planning initiative is attracting national recognition in higher education circles. The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) invited us to give a presentation describing the results of our planning process at the annual Presidents' Institute in January. Because that presentation led to so many requests for more information, Allegheny received a special invitation to send a team to the CIC National Institute in June to give a workshop on institutional planning. Recognition of innovation and institutional character by our peers contributes significantly to the College's reputation and standing.

Allegheny's "new initiatives"--built upon a foundation of people, programs and history--will better serve the needs of today's student while reaffirming our longstanding values and mission. With your help and support, we will continue to accomplish the goals of New Century Connections in the coming years. As part of this process, we will find more and better ways to demonstrate why Allegheny is the college of choice for bright, ambitious students wanting to reach for a more meaningful future.