Dean's Perspective

The college’s curricula and disciplines form our foundation. Course development and the assembly of courses into a curriculum and degree program is the responsibility of our faculty, who bring tremendous expertise and a desire to share their knowledge and experience with our students. But it all starts with recruiting students into our programs, and that landscape has changed significantly over time.

We are in a competitive environment for student recruitment, and the world is more complex and noisy than ever before. We want to capture their interest with what we do in the college and match their career goals with opportunities in the disciplines. It’s a complicated tale full of different actors and events, and it’s the story you’ll find detailed in this issue’s feature article.

We’ve assembled a great team to recruit, advise, and support our students. Our Advising Center staff is well recognized on campus for its excellent work. Our new director of employer relations, John Freeborn, is now our primary link to external partners, fostering relationships between students and employers. We want and need your help to provide strong pathways forward for our students upon graduation.

We know that a college experience is more than just course work, and we want our students to experience a variety of perspectives. Our new Visiting Executive program is aimed at bringing in leaders to interact with students, faculty, and staff. Ryan Brown, executive director of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, was our inaugural Visiting Executive, and his visit was a real treat for all of us.

The college has grown wider, deeper, and with more capacity in every way. We will retain our focus on our core business — educating students in the disciplines — while strategizing ways to maintain and increase our margin of excellence in all that we do. Growing our capacity as a college and using a strategic lens to see the future will enable us to be successful as faculty, staff, students, and alumni. We desire to make an impact — and we are.

Best wishes for the beauty of the spring from our faculty, staff, and students. Come visit us during Reunion Weekend June 4-7, 2020. We would enjoy seeing you again and reconnecting.

Paul M. Winistorfer
Dean