PEC Update, June 21, 2007

We are gratified by the outpouring of support we have received since our last update - don't forget that we have just ten more days (until June 30) to meet our matching gift goal of $100,000. We are two-thirds of the way there - please help us collect every penny of this generous matching donor's challenge.

Many of you have expressed renewed distress in the wake of the Board of Trustees' appointment of a male president and the continuing threats to the Maier Museum collection. We urge you to keep the faith that Randolph-Macon Woman's College can be returned to its previous prestigious position as a strong and excellent woman's college. It will take the work of all alumnae and friends of the college but it is still possible - 116 years of excellence cannot be erased in a few months. We will need to right-size the college's infrastructure and operations by focusing on those qualities that are historic strengths and that differentiate us from other colleges (like the art collection), attract qualified female students at a lower tuition discount rate through the implementation of strategic marketing programs that promote the value proposition of a woman's college education, re-engage the alienated alumnae community, and endorse and support academic excellence and the faculty that creates it.

This brief PEC update discuses the status of the two lawsuits, the progress toward meeting the $100,000 matching gift, recent announcements from the college about faculty cuts and the new president, and reminds you of ways that you can continue to take action to preserve Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Your support is essential because our challenges to the actions of the Board of Trustees and the current administration of the college must continue in order to secure R-MWC's future.

Both Lawsuits Now on Appeal - First Oral Argument Set in Contract Case

The Supreme Court of Virginia has advised us that the oral argument in the student contract case Petition for Appeal has been scheduled for July 9 in Richmond. DurretteBradshaw will have ten minutes to present the reasons why the Court should hear the appeal and answer any questions the three-judge panel may have. The Court usually informs litigants within three weeks or so whether the Court will hear the appeal on its merits. We will keep you apprised of the status of the contract case as it unfolds.

The Petition for Appeal for the charitable trust case was filed June 13 (you can read it here). As we reminded you in the June 6 update, the charitable trust case challenges the college's right to use its "assets" - including the art - for purposes other than those for which they were given. Thus if we win the charitable trust suit the college cannot use any assets except for the original mission to educate "primarily women" under the name "Randolph-Macon Woman's College" in the liberal arts without first proving to a court that it is impossible, impractical, unlawful, or wasteful to continue as a woman's college. Thus, your support of the charitable trust appeal is the most visible way that you can express your desire to prevent the college from selling or otherwise encumbering the Maier Museum Collection.

Fundraising - Matching Gift

As of June 19, through your generosity we have received $65,582.35 of the $100,000 matching gift. We have until June 30th - only ten days - to raise the remaining $34,417.65.

Please give today and help us reach the full $100,000 matching gift challenge. You can make your donation via PayPal or by sending a check made out to "Preserve Educational Choice" to:

Preserve Educational Choice, Inc.
P.O. Box 29612
Richmond, VA 23242

PEC can also accept gifts of securities. If you would like to make a gift of securities, please email us at info@preserveeducationalchoice.org.

College Seeks Faculty Volunteers for "Retirement"

Since the June 6 PEC update there have been a few changes at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. A June 8 article in the Lynchburg News & Advance described the efforts to remove the "R-MWC" from most places on campus:

"What else needs new lettering in the coming weeks? Rugs, trash cans, scoreboards, banners, tablecloths, Web sites and e-mail addresses. Plaques, badges, car decals, license plate logos, letterhead and business cards. Buckets, blankets, college vehicles and athletic buses, campus maps and brochures, podium signs, the flooring of the physical education building, and more. "It just goes on and on and on," Edson said. "I'm sure we'll have missed some in the end."

(The full article can be found in the "Press" section of the PEC website).

Of course it isn't just the R-MWC name that is being removed - on June 11 and 15 all R-MWC faculty received emails from Interim President Ginger Worden asking faculty to consider early retirement or "career change" because if the college is "unable to downsize sufficiently through voluntary early retirements, we likely will have to implement involuntary terminations." Granted, the Campaign Strategies financial review quoted in the June 6 PEC update did point out that the college had an employee base 30 percent larger than peers - but the bulk of the "excess" employees were administrative and professional staff, not faculty. Shouldn't the college first figure out how "global honors" affects staffing needs, what departments/programs are going to expand with the influx of new students (that they are sure is going to happen any day now), and what programs are no longer necessary for the college before asking people to leave? What impact will there be on current students if professors who were lined up as academic advisors for Honors projects are no longer there or if specialized course offerings suddenly are no longer available?

Board Hires a Male President

The college had one more major announcement last week - on June 13 John Klein, former CEO of agribusiness giant Bunge North America (his father held the role before him), was named Randolph College's first president (or the college's ninth president according to the college press release).

Klein has spent the past two and one half years as Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration at Washington University in St. Louis. The press release at the time of his hire in 2004 explained the scope of his position at Washington University - "Klein will be the University's chief administrative officer, with responsibility for the University's Central Fiscal Unit, including finance and administration, administrative information technology, facilities, human resources and other administrative units that serve the University. The University is projecting a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2004, of more than $1.5 billion and an endowment of approximately $4 billion. The University has more than 11,000 employees on three campuses..."

Hopefully running a company with "100 grain elevator and grain processing facilities and 4,000 employees in North America" and handling the administrative units for a major university with a $1.5 billion plus budget, a $4.6 billion endowment (the 15th largest in the nation in 2006), and 11,000 employees has prepared Klein to run a struggling, small, liberal arts college that needs to rein in spending.

Although Klein does not officially become president until September, he has already commented on the art situation in an Associated Press article: "The board may be forced to do something with some of the collection," Klein said, but "I'm confident that whatever is done, the college will still have a magnificent collection."

In the same article, R-MWC Alumnae Association President Emily Mills is quoted as believing that with regards to alumnae that oppose the strategic plan, Klein will "help bring the opponents around" and "build a bridge from the past to the future."

Unfortunately Mr. Klein is probably a bit behind on the issues from the alumnae perspective. To aid him in "building a bridge from the past to the future" PEC will be sending him a package to familiarize him with the lawsuits and alumnae concerns. If you would like to email him personally to describe your concerns, his email address at Washington University is johnklein@wustl.edu.

Letters to the Editor

As a final reminder, the most important thing each of us can do as individuals right now, besides continuing to question the strategic plan and its implementation through interaction with the college's trustees and administrators, is to write letters to the editor. For example, the Richmond Times-Dispatch is read by all of the "powers that be" in state government and the state judicial system as well as many alumnae of the college. Like most large papers, the Times-Dispatch will only run letters about an issue if it seems to have struck a chord with the readership - so the more letters the better. Even if your letter is not printed (they can only print a representative sample) the fact that you send a letter at all may make the difference in the issue receiving coverage.

There are many ways to react to the issues at the college. Some may believe that selling the art is unethical while others may be resigned to a sale but believe it should benefit a woman's college not a coed institution. Others may be concerned about the governance structure, how the board is elected, and how this impacts controversial decisions (like changing the mission of the college). Some may be relatively content with the outcome of the decision in September but take issue with the decision-making process itself and how it unfolded with the alumnae body. Some question if women's education is being unfairly blamed for the financial outcomes of years of possible mismanagement (such as the tuition discounting and operational issues discussed in the June 6 PEC update). There are as many perspectives on the issues as there are alumnae. There are several interesting facets to what is happening at the college from a media perspective and all of them are appropriate for letters to the editor and suggestions to individual reporters for coverage.

A final tip: for letters to the editor check their guidelines for length (do not send them 1,000 words if they only want 250) and try to mention an article in their paper that you are responding to (like the Associated Press article by Sue Lindsey that was picked up by newspapers across the nation - you can access links to recent articles about the college and published letters to various publications in the "Press" section of the PEC website). If you email your letters to info@preserveeducationalchoice.org we will post the letters on our website.

Please take action today. Let your classmates, your community, and the Board of Trustees know that the fight still continues and we haven't given up on our alma mater.

Vita abundantior,

PEC Board

Gail Ballou (R-MWC '64)
Carol Curcio Lang (R-MWC '68)
Diane U. Montgomery (R-MWC '85)
Anne Yastremski (R-MWC '05)
Martha McClerkin Durnett (R-MWC '85)
Chantel Sheaks (R-MWC '91)

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