Monthly Archives: June 2008

UVa administrator depicts self as “human” by having a blog

Posted on June 3, 2008 by | 2 Comments

I stumbled across this article this morning: “Admissions blog wins over students; “Dean J” puts personality on bureaucracy,” from “C-Ville,” which I believe is the Charlottesville, Virginia newspaper’s web site. It’s about “Dean J,” or Assistant Dean of Admissions at the University of Virginia Jeannine Lalonde and her blog “Notes from Peabody: The UVA Application Process.” Here’s a quote from the article:

Lalonde started the admissions blog on her own, but UVA has since officially blessed it by linking to it from the undergraduate admissions webpage and at the bottom of each prospective student’s status page. There is information about admissions mechanics, but Lalonde offers overstressed readers other avenues, if only to take their minds off the pending, life-changing decision.

Along with shopping tips and life-at-UVA info, she regularly posts pictures of CavDog (otherwise known as Baxter outside of the blogosphere). During the most recent “Days on the Lawn,” when admitted high school students get to play UVA student for a day, Baxter was something of a celebrity. As was Lalonde.

And she’s getting thousands and thousands of hits from UVa readers in the process.

So, in short, LaLonde was simultaneously able to create her own outlet for expression/talk about work and life (and thus prove that the assistant dean of admissions is not just some technocrat wonk but an actual human being), she’s been able to provide some useful information to students and families, and, in a kind of back-door way, she is recruiting students to her university.

Hmm, I wonder if there’s anything anyone in EMU’s administration might learn from something like this?

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Posted in Administrator Life, In the media..., Staff Life

Building better EMU/Ypsi connections

Posted on June 2, 2008 by | 8 Comments

Here’s an example of the sort of thing that I would like to do more of on EMUTalk.org: link to and discuss posts from other blogs, especially posts from EMU and Southeast Michigan bloggers. See this post from Mark Maynard, “emu president dr. susan martin on town/gown relations.” Incoming President Susan Martin did an interview with the Ypsilanti Courier, and one of her “great ideas” for building better relations between EMU and Ypsilanti was to have an Easter egg hunt at the President’s house. Mark has some better ideas:

While an Easter egg hunt on the grounds of the President’s house would be great, I suppose, I was hoping for something more. I was hoping for talk of programs incentivizing new faculty to purchase homes in Ypsi. Or, how about a promise to revisit the development policy that has all new EMU construction taking place on the far end of the campus, away from the City? Or, how about instituting a monthly breakfast meeting with key stakeholders in the community? There are any number of things that she could do that would improve the relationship, and thus both the City and the University. Hopefully she’ll realize that once she’s been here a while.

Ypsilanti doesn’t have to be a negative, holding the University back. It doesn’t have to be something that they hide from prospective students. Ypsi could be a selling point. There are tons of things that college-aged students would appreciate, from the Ugly Mug and bands at the Elbow Room to the Shadow Art Fair and the Dreamland Theater. My hope is that Dr. Martin recognizes this and really gets engaged. What the people of Ypsialnti really need isn’t an Easter egg hunt, but a dedicated partner who sees that our futures are intertwined. We need a partner that wants to be involved in the development of Water Street, the improvement of our public schools, and the betterment of our local economy. We need a President that fights to bring good, sustainable businesses to Ypsilanti, creating jobs for their students and contributing to the economic vitality of our City. We need someone, in short, who gives a damn.

Well said.

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Posted in EMU President, EMU President Search, In the media..., Ypsilanti