Campus & Community

Office of Workforce Development and Community Engagement 

We have begun the search for the founding executive director of this office, which will coordinate new and existing efforts in the areas of workforce development and community engagement. A search committee is being formed, which will include representatives from faculty, staff, students, and the community. We will begin reviewing applications shortly after February 18, though the position is open until filled.  

One early project of this office will be the continuation of the green industry workforce pipeline partnership that we have been exploring with Hiram College, Davey Tree, Arborwear, the Holden Arboretum, and other leaders of Northeast Ohio’s vibrant green industry. The goal of this partnership is to create and communicate ways for students in area high schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges to enter this growing industry. Another project of this office will be the potential establishment of an entrepreneurial co-working space on campus.  

The job description can be found on our Careers page, and the press release about the office and the federal earmark funding supporting its startup can be found here.

ABM

We continue to negotiate a new contract with our facilities provider, ABM, with a lower cost, greater efficiency, and a scaling back of some services, such as administrative office cleaning, that are not critical to our core mission of educating students. More details will be communicated to the campus once the specifics of the new contract have been worked out. As part of the movement toward greater efficiency, “building stewards” have been assigned in each building, who will be trained to use the work order system effectively and communicate both with ABM and with the occupants and users of the building.

Water Issues

With a water main break along Hinsdale Street and the flooding of Dray Computer Center, this has been a challenging week for IT, the other occupants of the Teachout-Price lower level, and residents of the houses and residence halls on the north side of Hinsdale Street. Thanks to ABM, the Hiram Village repair crews, the IT staff, and Student Affairs for keeping us safe and operational during these events.

Office Keys Project

The Office of Business and Finance, Human Resources, and our facilities management partner, ABM, ask all members of the campus community to complete this short survey to determine which office or building keys are assigned to each employee. The data obtained through this process will be used to facilitate a safe and accessible environment for our students, faculty, and staff.

Completing the survey takes approximately five minutes and requires that participants have their keys available for reference during the process. Only ninety people have responded so far. If you have not yet responded, please submit your response by February 10. For the security of the campus, it is very important that we have an accurate count of who has what kinds of key.

Property Sales

We originally listed 12 of the College’s rental properties for sale. We have sold four, and four others have been pulled from the listings in order to deal with some zoning issues. We have fielded a number of questions about why we are selling these properties. Here is our response:

• Many colleges like Hiram which have accumulated real estate over the years have sold it; we are actually behind the times on this.
• Being a landlord is not part of our core mission, and selling the houses will allow us to focus more on that mission. (Part of the strategy in the “Align for Mission” portion of our strategic design is to look for savings in areas that are not part of our core mission.)
• Like many small colleges with financial challenges, we will benefit from these influxes of cash as we implement our post-Covid plans for financial sustainability.
• We are not selling any of the historic homes that house academic programs.

Learning Streams International

Thanks to the work of emeritus professor Denny Taylor ’73, the “Learning Streams International” program, which was active before Covid, is being revived. In the past, this environmental education program has established and trained “Near Peer Mentors” – college students mentoring high school students – both domestically and internationally, with support from the U.S. State Department and private foundations. Denny is now working with Hiram on a program entitled “Tree Canopy Solutions to the Impact of Climate Change,” which will involve Hiram and Cleveland-area high schools. This program will be closely connected to the James H. Barrow Biological Field Station, and it also aligns with the green industry workforce pipeline noted above.

Accreditation of new Academic programs

Two new Hiram academic programs are in the process of being accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The graduate certificate in Trauma-Informed Teaching has been approved, and the master’s degree in Sport Management is in the final stages of review. This will be our first certificate program and our first new master’s program since the 2004 founding of the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Enrollment

Recruitment efforts are underway, with slightly positive trends in applications, admits, and deposits compared to two years ago, when we had a larger entering class than we had this past fall. This is putting us on track to potentially meet our goal this fall. Net tuition revenue work associated with strategic financial aid packaging strategies is currently keeping us within the fall goal of $11,500 net tuition per new student for fall 2023. The marketing and strategic communication team continues to implement internal and external branding efforts along with communication plans for the College and our enrollment practices.

Alumni Events and Donor Visits

Lisa and I attended the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Presidents Institute in San Francisco, where Lisa, a member of the CIC spouses and partners task force, presented on issues affecting presidential spouses and partners. While we were there, VP for Development Walter Williams and I met with two current and former independent college presidents with Hiram connections: Elizabeth MacLeod Walls ’96, president of William Jewell College in Missouri, and Thomas Hellie and his wife Julie Ann Olds ’83. Tom, the former president of Linfield College in Oregon, was a faculty member in Hiram’s Theatre and English Departments from 1980 until 1989. Fundraising trips to Hilton Head, SC; Florida, and New York are planned in next couple of months. We also have alumni events coming up in Cincinnati on February 11 and Hiram night at the Cleveland Cavaliers game is February 26. As always, faculty and staff are invited to attend any of these events. Visit the alumni relations page for more information and registration links.

Cleveland Clinic

We are in discussions with the Cleveland Clinic on three areas of potential support: (1) supplying Hiram with athletic trainers, (2) supporting our nursing program, and (3) supporting our health center. We will provide more information as it becomes available.

Bar

We are moving forward with plans for a bar to be located in the lower level of the Kennedy Center. The liquor license has been approved by Hiram Village and is in process at the state level, and estimates are being finalized for the modifications to the space that will be needed. We have donors lined up to cover the associated costs.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at 330-569-5120 or PresidentsOffice@hiram.edu if you have any questions.

Dave Haney
President