A huge thank you for attending the University Advancement retreat in February and contributing such creative ideas and constructive suggestions. We hope to adopt many of the ideas over the coming year. Others are equally wonderful, but will likely require some additional work and time to implement.

Some of the ideas we hope to enact soon are:

  1. Working with the admissions team to update the tours in regard to the consistency of messaging;
  2. Determining what steps might be taken to conduct weekend tours;
  3. Adding a message from the Alumni Association (i.e. the alumni board president) to the admitted student packet. In fact, we intend to take this a step further and design a University Advancement packet to accompany the other admission materials, rather than just a letter;
  4. Hosting a welcome reception on campus for admitted students who live nearby;
  5. In terms of school spirit, we plan on working with departments on campus to see if a Chapman Spirit Day can be designated for most Fridays during the academic year. We also hope to issue banners to Campus Planning so that Chapman banners can fly on the outside of all Chapman-owned homes;
  6. Initiating an alumni welcome packet to be sent to all new graduates 6-12 months after graduation; and
  7. Establishing an annual advancement training for faculty.

Again, we know these are just the tip of the iceberg, as there were many ideas mentioned. If you have any input or comments, please let me know. I look forward to working with the UA team and our campus partners to transform these ideas into realities; we have an exciting year ahead of us!