3 comments


  • Jessica Mackinnon

    Josh,

    I recently read your blog entry about Dominican University’s educational initiatives for helping students during the current economic crunch. Thanks for the good words about Dominican’s mission and values. We are very concerned with helping our community during the economic downturn. I’ve shared your blog with a number of consituents here on campus and it has really validated what they have been trying to accomplish. Good luck with encouraging Grinnell to follow suit. I’d love to be kept abreast!

    December 01, 2008
  • Jessica,

    I just wanted to thank you for your comment. Thus far, I am actually talking with Grinnell. It’ll be a process, but we’re at least discussing the issues I have raised, as well as others I had not considered.

    Either way, my money is an admittedly small amount. The point is the discussion and getting other people to be aware of the issue and help out as they can.

    As things evolve, I will keep folks in the loop.

    December 04, 2008
  • Like you I also went to a small liberal arts college that is now trying to grow. They used to have a cap at about 1200 students and they are exceeding that now and building new facilities and larger dorms.

    Ego comes into play. Every school president wants to have a building project or addition — something to be remembered for during their tenure.

    I wonder if these schools look at their costs and the number of students they have and and realize that the number of students they have is not enough to support their continued operation long term. Maybe there is some king of magical “tuition to services and programs ratio” that a smaller school would have difficulty achieving.

    It was once explained to me that when you give back to the school and the school grows and improves that long term it will enhance the value of Alumni diplomas as well. Frankly, I would rather see the schools grow better than bigger. I suspect there may be ways to do this without substantially growing the size of the student body, but that it would be the harder path.

    December 16, 2008

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