Olin Developments
Olin College is in an interesting predicament due to the recent economic mess. One of Olin's Founding Precepts (a binding agreement, part of the conditional grant from the Olin Foundation) requires giving full-tuition scholarships to all students (at least through 2020). Unfortunately, the endowment which pays for said scholarships has not fared well.
The precepts can be amended with written consent of the three remaining Olin Foundation directors and a majority of the Olin Trustees. The Trustees met recently and made some secret recommendation to the Directors. I'm hoping the Directors hold out on principle, but it doesn't look good.
Today, Olin's commencement events kicked off with an alumni reception and an alumni planning meeting with Olin's new director of business development (the guy who develops the relationships that provide for Olin's financial future). Being back on campus increased my optimism quite a bit, and the meeting even more so. The initial discussion ended up being quite interesting, then Mel (characteristically) suggested we split up into groups and brainstorm. In the brainstorming session, someone noted the need for a better alumni directory to facilitate Olin getting specific information to relevant alumni about ways they could help. I noted I could implement something basic in Google Docs, and the rest of my group said "well, you do that then". So I did. Worst case, it doesn't work (although I do hope people aren't mad at me for sending too many emails to alumni-all).
Was good to see a lot of the other alumni, too. I had an especially nice conversation with Maria, who was kind enough to give me a ride to the T after the meeting.
The precepts can be amended with written consent of the three remaining Olin Foundation directors and a majority of the Olin Trustees. The Trustees met recently and made some secret recommendation to the Directors. I'm hoping the Directors hold out on principle, but it doesn't look good.
Today, Olin's commencement events kicked off with an alumni reception and an alumni planning meeting with Olin's new director of business development (the guy who develops the relationships that provide for Olin's financial future). Being back on campus increased my optimism quite a bit, and the meeting even more so. The initial discussion ended up being quite interesting, then Mel (characteristically) suggested we split up into groups and brainstorm. In the brainstorming session, someone noted the need for a better alumni directory to facilitate Olin getting specific information to relevant alumni about ways they could help. I noted I could implement something basic in Google Docs, and the rest of my group said "well, you do that then". So I did. Worst case, it doesn't work (although I do hope people aren't mad at me for sending too many emails to alumni-all).
Was good to see a lot of the other alumni, too. I had an especially nice conversation with Maria, who was kind enough to give me a ride to the T after the meeting.