President Judy Rogers' Address

P.E.O. LEAD Conference
July 25, 2008
Des Moines, Iowa

I am also happy to announce that we have hired two new full-time faculty members for our new academic programs in mass communication and international relations and are pleased to have them moving to Nevada this month. We have also employed a new registrar for the position Ms. Janie Harrison vacated at her retirement, and a new chemist for the position left by Dr. Rosemary Fowler's retirement. Two of our new faculty members, the one in international relations and the one in chemistry are international, continuing and increasing our diversity.

Today, my presentation is really a report, not a presentation, and so it is different from the information that I usually share with you. I believe you will have questions, and so I have timed my remarks to leave time for questions. Today, I want to share information on two special topics that are highly important to Cottey's future: The first is our feasibility study, which is now in progress, to assess Cottey's readiness for a comprehensive fundraising campaign to accomplish the goals of the 2011 strategic plan. I would like to share with you the progress we have made to date on the feasibility study and what we anticipate in the immediate future.

The feasibility is designed to answer questions. for an institution. First, does Cottey have the internal resources to conduct a comprehensive fundraising campaign? Do we have the staff, the technology, and the vision and leadership we will need to be successful? We certainly do not want to launch a campaign that will not be successful, and Cottey has never before conducted a comprehensive campaign, and so we need information from the feasibility study.

Second, is the vision for the future of the College that is set forth in the 2011 strategic plan and the new campus master plan, a vision that our constituents will support with their volunteer efforts and their financial gifts.

Third, what should be the campaign goal, that is, what amount of money should we attempt to raise at the present time. To take us to the completion of the strategic plan would require more than $60 million. Can we be successful at that level? Should the campaign be phased with several different goals? The feasibility will allow us to answer these kinds of questions to assess our potential for success.

During 2007, Cottey engaged a consulting firm with a national reputation, the firm is Ketchum, to conduct the feasibility study. In January of 2008, we collaboratively drafted a case statement ( a five page document) for our key constituent groups—alumnae, P.E.O.s, and other friends of the College. I hope you had the opportunity to read and respond to our case statement, which was on our Web site and the P.E.O. International Web site.

The case statement expresses what the College must accomplish over the next five years in order to achieve the goal of becoming a model for women's education and then estimates, and they are just estimates, what additional funding will be required. Our case statement takes into account our goal to grow in enrollment, to add academic and leadership programs, and to improve support services.

Here are the key elements of our case statement: First, we recognize that we must increase our ability to provide scholarships. Cottey's scholarship endowment must grow to stop the drain on the yearly operating budget that now occurs because we must fund institutional aid. We regularly budget $400,000 or more to award in institutional aid. This drain will increase, of course, as our enrollment increases. Therefore, Cottey needs to raise additional funds for endowed scholarships. As I say this, I hasten to also say that Cottey is below the national average in the amount we discount our tuition by giving institutional aid. We are not over-awarding students.

To be a model for women's education, Cottey's programs and curriculum must be exemplary, and this, of course, requires exemplary faculty. The case statement articulates our need for funding for faculty chairs, which is another way of saying an endowment to support faculty salaries, for our two new academic programs, mass communications and international relations. I have said that we have hired one faculty member for each of these programs, but we want at least two faculty in each of these programs. Adding faculty, in these two programs or others that may emerge, will allow us to explore the option of taking carefully selected academic programs from two-year to four-year degrees. We do not envision that Cottey would become a four-year baccalaureate degree granting institution during the next five years, but we do envision that we can select appropriate programs that are unique and attractive and become accredited to offer them as baccalaureate degrees.

Growth and improvement in the area of other support programs and services besides the academic area will require some capital construction, both building and renovation. We have developed a campus master plan that recommends the construction of a new fine arts building. If you recall our campus, you will remember that our fine arts classroom space is spread among five different buildings: dance is in Hinkhouse, music in Main Hall, art is in Neal Hall (the second oldest building on campus), and so on and so forth. We need to upgrade our fine arts facilities and create the synergy of having the fine arts together in one especially designed facility. While these plans were being considered, my staff and I visited several other campuses to get a real sense of what other colleges were providing students, and I assure you that Cottey cannot be a model for women's education in the liberal arts without improvement in our fine arts instructional space, studios, and offices.
Our master plan also identifies the need for upgrading the Ross Library to incorporate new technologies, services, and functions into the library. The case statement includes increasing the library endowment to ensure high quality library technology and acquisitions well into the future.

While instructional space and libraries are vital to the learning experience, students expect college facilities to fulfill social, recreational, and other non-academic needs as well. It became clear during the master planning process that many of our student activities and support functions at Cottey are distributed throughout campus, so there is no perceived “heart” of campus, a logical place for students to gather. Several key student-centered activities occur in facilities that are below ground level (the Chellie Club, Raney Dining Room, the bookstore, the fitness center, and others), prohibiting a visual connection with these spaces and among students. To foster a stronger sense of community on the Cottey campus, our case statement proposes constructing a student center that will become the social and recreational heart of campus. This would also allow us to have a new, enlarged dining area.

In addition, our case statement focuses on the changes needed as Cottey enhances and enlarges our leadership programming. We grew to over 60 students participating in our leadership program this year, and we expect more growth in the fall. We evaluated our programs this year, and we found that our students enjoy them and benefit from them. We need to renovate the interior of the Center for Women's Leadership to make it handicap accessible and to improve our ability to use technology.

I will summarize the case as defining the need for endowments, endowments designated for scholarships and faculty salaries for new programs and to support the staff and programming for our leadership initiative. It establishes, as I have said, the need for limited capital construction.

During the feasibility study, our consultants from Ketchum conducted face-to-face or telephone interviews about this case with selected friends of Cottey. They interviewed over 60 individuals in various parts of the country (our goal was 50) to seek their feedback on our case statement and campaign goal. Only 8 or 10 of those were by phone. At the same time, we conducted an internet survey to also collect feedback on our case study. The time period for responding on the internet has just ended, and we know that we have approximately 1100 responses, the most our consultant has ever had to a feasibility survey. Now all this material must be analyzed by the consultants and objective conclusions drawn to present to the College.

We will learn the result of the feasibility study in August. Just before the Cottey Seminar, the Cottey board of trustees and the Executive Board of the Sisterhood will hear a report from Ketchum of their findings and recommendations.

We expect there to be many recommendations from our consultants about how to proceed, but if we move forward with a campaign, whatever the campaign goal, we will be asking for the support of alumnae and friends of the College. There will likely be a quiet phase during which we solicit our lead gifts. We will go to foundations of all types, including family foundations, that have an interest in women's education. We will be more proactive in fundraising than we ever have been before.

So the conclusion of this first part of my report to you is to say, "Stay tuned; more later."

I want to turn now to my second, entirely different, topic, if I may. I want to begin by expressing my deepest appreciation to the P.E.O.s in your states for their efforts at recruiting for Cottey College. The need they fulfill and the contribution they make are huge: there is no way that a college of 350 students with an admissions staff of six professionals could promote our College across the nation and several provinces to prospective students without the assistance of P.E.O.s Cottey could not be a college that regularly enrolls students from over forty states and 11 or 12 international countries without the assistance of P.E.O.s
I want to share some remarkable numbers with you: From July through January 2008, P.E.O.s attended 498 college fairs, held 323 gatherings for prospective students, and provided 1,466 packets of materials to high school guidance counselors. More that 105,000 brochures, fliers, and DVDs were distributed. It is a clear fact that Cottey thrives because of the dedicated efforts of P.E.O.s

As we have worked with P.E.O.s in various states, we have become aware of a desire for better assistance from the campus for P.E.O. recruitment and scholarship efforts. The issue was raised with me first by Alison Barrett and Donna Dede from Arizona before the 2006 Cottey Seminar. I immediately began work on campus with our Noel-Levitz consultant to learn what type of organizational structure could best be put in place. We knew that we needed to be collaborative, that the campus efforts on this project needed to include representatives from P.E.O., and so I appointed an ad hoc task force on P.E.O. recruitment in 2007 with Alison Barrett as chair and with P.E.O. representatives from four states to study and make recommendations for improvements. Their work was impressive and exhaustive on the topic. It included a survey of all states and provinces to determine their best practices and their problems. The final report of the ad hoc task force observed three thought-provoking points. That:

· State/provincial organizational structures for Cottey recruitment and scholarship support vary widely throughout P.E.O. and have different levels of effectiveness.

· Turnover in state and provincial P.E.O. leadership positions creates inconsistencies that can be detrimental to recruitment efforts.

· States and provinces do not consistently collect, analyze, or share data on Cottey recruitment efforts between P.E.O.s or with Cottey staff to assess the effectiveness of their recruitment activity and to guide future planning.

The report and the recommendations of the ad hoc task force led me to appoint and establish in February of 2008 an on-going, permanent P.E.O. Advisory Committee for Cottey Recruitment. This committee is currently in place and at work. The members are Nancy Hoium, past international president from Minnesota; Betty Stutz from Texas, Quita Nass from California, Jeanne Boltz from Pennsylvania, and Sylvia Popelka from Iowa. The campus staff representatives are Linda Schmitz of P.E.O. relations and Judi Steege from enrollment management. This committee will be on-going. I established terms of service so there will be rotation, and the committee will address various issues as time goes on.

This current advisory committee reviewed the work of the previous ad hoc task force and brought forward a proposal that there be separate recruitment and scholarship committees in each state/province and then recommended a structure for these committees. The members of the advisory committee will attend Cottey Seminar in August to explain and promote these proposed structures. Therefore, today, I am speaking very generally about the committees, to explain their overall purpose and the conception for them. Having never been a state P.E.O. officer, I am not the expert that the committee members are to answer questions about procedure.

Of course, it is the prerogative of the individual states/provinces/districts to organize their committees as they see fit; however, I believe it is Cottey's responsibility to join forces with others to provide a suggested model that we regard as effective and in sync with recruitment and scholarship activities on campus. These models reflect the best practices in states that have been successful in Cottey recruitment and support, and they are offered in response to requests for assistance from particular states.

To enhance promotion and support of Cottey by P.E.O.s, it is recommended that states/provinces work toward establishing a Cottey recruitment committee, if one is not currently in place, that consists of a chairman and area chairmen, and that a board member serve as advisor. The recruitment committee would meet once a year, perhaps electronically or perhaps during the state/provincial chapter convention. It is also recommended that the state/provincial chapter divide the state/province into geographic areas that include all local chapters. An area chairman would then be assigned to cover a geographic area. The number of areas would depend on the size of the state, province, or district. The area chairmen who are members of this committee would work specifically with local chapters in their areas in recruiting for Cottey College.

The model is offered to assist states/provinces in designing and implementing the most desirable structure for their area. The purpose of establishing the recruitment committee is to facilitate and improve communication flow in two directions: from Cottey to the Cottey Recruitment Committee through the area chairmen to the local chapter and then in the reverse order from the local chapters back to Cottey. We would expect the model to be adapted according to such considerations as the size of the state and the number of chapters in the state.

The Cottey Scholarship Committee that is recommended consists of three members, each serving three years, the longest serving member to be designated as the chairman. The committee would meet once a year—10 days to two weeks after the deadline for scholarship applications. The duties and responsibilities of Cottey scholarship committee include providing application forms to students upon their acceptance to Cottey College; selecting the student(s) to receive the first-year award and to notify Cottey College; renewing the scholarships for a second year; and always facilitating communication.

In addition, it is recommended that the states/provinces adopt a uniform deadline for scholarship applications (Cottey recommends March 1). This last recommendation is important. Students are the ones to benefit from this change. They want and need to make their college choice early. Other institutions are making their scholarships offers at about this time, and a prospective Cottey student needs to know what her total financial aid will be in order to know if she should consider Cottey. The state scholarship can be a strong incentive for her. It is also recommended that states adopt one application form. This recommendation was made, in fact, two years ago. We could work collaborative to provide an application form from our office of financial aid that would prevent the prospective student from supplying the same information twice. The committees would be assured that after the student has been accepted that certain information has already been collected by financial aid.

Of course, there are budget implications. To support the recommended structure, the state/province would develop an operating budget for both the Cottey Recruitment Committee and the Cottey Scholarship Committee to cover expenses such as mailing costs, telephone calls, travel to the annual state/provincial convention by area chairmen) and perhaps recruitment activities

I want to say again that this is a suggested model. The state executive boards will need to discuss and think through the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a model that includes these two committees or what adjustments they would make to the model to fit their states. Nevertheless, the two advisory groups that have brought these models forward are experienced P.E.O.s who wish the very best for their states and the very best for Cottey. These two groups believe that efficiency and effectiveness should be improved.

As you can tell from this report, we have sought the opinion of many P.E.O.s along the way on this topic; we have not done this work in isolation. Another issue that came forward loudly and clearly was the need for better information and training for Cottey chairs. The solution recommended is the development of an on-line community, a designated place on our Web site, to place information that needs to be communicated and to maintain an on-going question and answer site to share ideas and strategies. The advisory committee is also working with Cottey staff to create this on-line community. We will be rolling this out at Cottey Seminar also.

The work has taken longer than I wished for many reasons, not the least of which were changes in key personnel on campus and the effort to involve many in the process. It has been a collaborative process, and collaboration always takes time. I greatly appreciate the efforts of all who have participated so far. You will hear much more of the detail of the proposed structure and the on-line community after Cottey Seminar. We are all working toward the same goal—success for our projects.

In January of 2009, Cottey will begin the celebration of a tremendously important year: our 125th anniversary. We have had 125 years of continuous operation as a private educational institution. We were founded as a model for education, and it is our goal and firm intention to be a model for women's education. What other college is like Cottey? What other college is supported by a powerful organization of women who are working continuously for women's education? What other college makes the difference in a young woman's life that Cottey makes. With your help, we will grow to 500 students and offer exemplary programs. The feasibility study, the comprehensive campaign, and the state structures are all tools to accomplish our goal and fulfill our potential.

I would like to take questions now.