Letter from President Henking: alumni gifts up 40%

Susan Henking's latest missive to the external community is worth reading in full, but of particular note is the announcement that Shimer's alumni giving rate is up from 10% to 14%.  Given the unique characteristics of the Shimer alumni community -- particularly its many fractious subsets and Shimer's high historic rate of attrition -- that's quite an achievement.  (And you can be a part of it by donating to Shimer now.)

Among additional highlights, the good Dr. Henking's letter includes an overview of recent personnel changes, which will be of interest to all followers of les affaires Shimeriennes:

[W]e've reconfigured four positions and created two new ones.

• Janet Henthorn's position has been expanded to include additional admissions support.
• Marc Hoffman's position has become more focused and is now renamed Director of External Relations & Chief Information Officer.
• Isabella Winkler has moved into the President's Office; her position has changed to Director of Strategic Communications & Special Assistant to the President.
• Joseph Fitzpatrick has taken on some urgent organizational and managerial tasks and is now Chief Operations Officer as well as Dean of Students.

We've also added an Executive Assistant to the President to handle my travel and calendar as well as to support Development, and will be hiring a full-time staff member responsible for payroll, AP, and parts of HR.

Read more...