1) More
on line courses and other creative solutions to reduce expensive on campus
time. Why is it mandatory that you need four years to have a degree? Fast track
degrees. Partner with lesser expensive
state universities for summer school courses and more. Mid semester one month
course we had (SBC still has this?) make these paid internships to reduce
costs. insidehighered.com
suggests more "low residency" programs that could be offered to a
global audience.
2) Focus on strengths of a rural
campus, more courses/degrees on ecology, alternative energy, animal husbandry,
fisheries, botany, biology, horticulture, make this a specialty, become the
leader in this. SBC has to become number one at something other than campus
beauty.
3) Promote junior year abroad with
programs in India, South America and Asia, emerging, dynamic economies and
lower cost programs if outside the largest cities. If SBC does away with
language courses, it can not be a leader in junior yr abroad, offer on line
language classes, lots of interesting and effective tools on line, I am learning
Vietnamese this week with downloaded "Nemo". Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy
New Year! SBC can be number one in
junior yr abroad with focus.
4) Use solar power and renewable energy
sources, recycle water, compost everything, use recycled materials to build,
use organic material on the lawns and flowers, implement organic waste
management systems, teach how to do all these things, give degrees in theses
things, promote SBC as an environmental friendly campus, a leader in
environmental protection, a leader in virginia. Be number one in environmental
issues. Agriculture and Natural resource degrees are in the top 5 highest paid
degrees per usa today recently : feb 2015.
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/02/02/the-5-highest-paying-degrees-of-2015/
5) Sell Sweet Briar Roses and Boxwoods
on line and develop products with these
(cosmetics, perfume, herbal tea, I make Eglantine tea in France from my
garden..... ),,see wikipedia:
In addition to its pink flowers, it is
valued for its scent, and the hips that form after the flowers and persist well
into the winter. The tea made from the hips of this rose is very popular in
Europe and elsewhere, where it is considered a healthy way for people to get
their daily dose of vitamin C and other nutrients. A cup of rose hip tea will
provide the minimum daily adult requirement of vitamin C.[3]
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_rubiginosa#cite_note-3> During World War II
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II> the British relied on rose hips and hops
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops>
as the sources for their vitamins A and C. It was a common British
wartime expression to say that: "We are getting by on our hips and
hops."[4 <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_rubiginosa#cite_note-4>
In Tunisia, natural flower water is produced from its flowers. In Chile
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile> , Spain and Argentina
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina> , where it is known as
"Rosa Mosqueta", it can be found in the wild around the Andes
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes>
range and is also cultivated to produce marmalades and cosmetic
products.
6) In the summer use SBC for tourism,
it is a beautiful resort like setting, sell programs for riding, birdwatching,
fishing, swimming, tennis, hiking, yoga retreats, cooking classes and more
7) Expand product offering from the
book store to sell on line, only a few tshirts, caps and mugs lately, I need to
replace my light weight sweet briar tshirt and matching pants/pajamas and they
are no longer offered...promote this with alumnae and public. Offer cool things
we can all buy to offer as Christmas presents, long scarves, fun socks, fanny
packs, travel stuff, back packs, pink and green made in Virginia from organic
materials jewelry, research what sells on LLBean....
8) Increase concrete educational use of
the art center, Cissy mentioned art conservation, become the best at art
conservation. Become the best at historic building renovation and conservation.
9) Reopen the dairy, sell nationwide
the best organic yogurt we all ever had promoting that profits to go to the
scholarship fund at SBC, Whole Foods would love this kind of product.....Make
this a real life business project for students to manage,for,course credit.
Teach dairy farming.
10) Partnerships with other nearby
Virginia and DC schools to expand academic opportunities at a low cost, adding
a draw of time at coed institutions, big city and rural locations (UVA,
Georgetown, Hollins? )
11) Partnerships with research and
think tank organizations who could benefit from a rural campus setting, for
example the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is on the Western
shore of the Chesapeake Bay (Edgewater, MD) and might find an inland property
of interest that is working with the students to become environmental experts.
In fact the SI has nine research centers (
http://www.si.edu/ResearchCenters). SBC
could become a training ground for any of these fields (from Art conservation
to Libraries to Biology and Astrophysics). So much could be done to make SBC a
unique institution of higher learning TAKING ADVANTAGE of it’s isolation and rural setting. From Cissy Gott.
12)
Add more masters programs, coed.
MBA.....
13) Partner with a
retirement/real-estate company to build retirement housing small apartments for
alumnae who could live on campus, be part of campus life, contribute and
benefit from academic and physical environment and services already available,
meals, laundry, medical, library, swimming pool, events and more, would just
need to arrange cleaning services.. A win win for all with all the land
available and a wonderful place to retire and still feel at home and connected.
14) Write the book Ellen Brown
mentioned on all our alumnae oral histories and sell through the book store and
amazon.com <http://amazon.com> .
15) Rethink a coed real world education
keeping a focus on empowerment, women's studies, opportunity and gender
equality.
16) Create an active alumnae council
informed and involved in major decisions. Composed of all past student body
presidents or their alternatives as logistics demand? More transparency, more communication to and
input from all alumnae.
17) Review majors offered, do we have
focus for the future following demographics of an aging population and the most
popular majors: health care, computer science, retirement home management,
accounting . Engineering, computer science, maths and sciences, business and
agriculture and natural sciences are the top five highest paying degrees today
per usa today on feb 15, 2015.
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/02/02/the-5-highest-paying-degrees-of-2015/. Healthcare, communication, social science and
humanities were the next four...Do we have too many majors at Sweet Briar as
some have said, more importantly do we have the right majors, do we have the
majors we can excel at and be number one? Question from insidehighered.com:
"What are the weakest academic departments and where are you spending
dollars on non-mission (and non-strength) related activities? "
18) Total merger, beyond just a
partnership, with another university or organization to add opportunities and
reduce costs. Using Edna Ann Loftus' experience at St. Andrews.
19) From Georgene Vairo: Have one of the Land Trust conservation
organizations buy SBC or give it to it, and then use the rest of the endowment
to keep it going. It could be dedicated
to environmental purposes, always an SBA strong point. Have education programs; perhaps even some
sort of science degree programs. Summer
programs like our sister plantation across the street. Keep the name Sweet Briar and keep
fundraising.
20) Reduce costs by increasing teacher
workload and increase student to teacher ratio to a more sustainable level.
21) Request that donors to SBC
endowment unrestrict money so that it could be used for most important needs,
no longer tied to specific areas. How about the money we donated for the
classroom computerization, is it all spent? If not, how do we get it put into
the general fund?
16) Use alumnae connections for more
paying internship programs which could be a real strength for SBC, be a leader
in internships, be number one in giving students real life experience with
internships, I never did an internship during college, there seemed to only be
a few available in govt at the time....at Marie Brizard where I worked
1986-1996, we constantly had French
recent college student interns, pd them 25,000 a year for two year contracts, plus the french govt helped with some
logistics. Summer Internships during college years would also be good for
making career decisions.
22) On twitter people are looking to
foundations like Bill Gates, Clintons, Oprah, movie stars, etc Will the new
legal team be following up with every possible foundation? We need a white
knight with deep pockets to give SBC the
time to implement a successful, long term, sustainable strategy. This will only
happen if SBC has a strong business plan for the future set very soon.
23) What Wilson College did to
avoid closure: Wilson College, founded
1869, is a private, Presbyterian-related, liberal arts college located on a
300-acre (121.4 ha) campus in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, United States. For
144 years, Wilson operated as a women's college. In 2013 the college's board of
trustees voted to make the college coeducational beginning in the 2013-2014
academic year with male residential students beginning in fall 2014.Wilson
College has about 800 students from 17 U.S. states and 14 foreign countries. At
the time the Board made the decision to go Co-Ed the college had 316
undergraduate and 379 graduate students. [3] It's known for its Women with
Children program, which allows single mothers to bring their children to live
with them on campus, as well as for its veterinary medical technician and
equestrian programs, and the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living, which
operates a 7-acre (2.8 ha) organic farm and a CSA (community-supported
agriculture) program that supplies community families and others with fresh,
organic produce.
Although it nearly closed its
doors in 1979, a lawsuit organized by students, faculty, parents and an alumnae
association succeeded in allowing the college to remain open, making it one of
the few colleges to survive a scheduled closing. (It subsequently adopted the
Phoenix as its mascot, to symbolize the college's survival.) Wilson remained
open as a women's college until 2013, despite the trend toward turning women's
colleges into coeducational institutions.
In 1982, Wilson began offering
a continuing studies program (now known as the Adult Degree Program) to meet
the needs of adults seeking post-secondary education. In 1996, the college was
one of the first in the nation to offer an on-campus residential educational
experience for single mothers with children. Beginning in summer 2006, Wilson
offered its first graduate-degree program, a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)
for certified elementary school teachers. The college currently offers six
graduate degree programs.
The first men to attend and to
graduate from Wilson entered at the end of World War II. Men later became able
to earn degrees from Wilson through the Adult Degree Program, although the
traditional undergraduate college remained a College For Women. In January
2013, the college's board of trustees voted to extend coeducation across all
programs; male commuter students were admitted in fall 2013, with the first
male residential students beginning in fall 2014.[5]
The college offers 28 majors,
40 minors, master's degrees in education, humanities, fine arts, accounting,
nursing and healthcare management, and a state-certified Teacher Intern
Program. Majors include Accounting, Biology, Business and Economics, Chemistry,
Elementary Education, English, Environmental Studies, Equestrian Studies,
Exercise and Sports Science, Fine Arts, Foreign Language, History and Political
Science, International Studies, Mass Communications, Mathematics, Philosophy
and Religion, Psychobiology, Psychology, Sociology, and Veterinary Medical
Technology.
Facilities include the Penn
Hall Equestrian Center, Helen M. Beach Veterinary Medical Center, and Fulton
Center for Sustainable Living, which operates a USDA certified organic farm and
demonstrates and educates about ways to live a sustainable life.
24) INDIANA FLETCHER's WILL:
http://www.businessinsider.com/sweet-briar-college-land-cannot-be-sold-according-to-founders-last-will-and-testament-2015-3.
Land can't be sold, but could be leased is huge! Another option! See entire
will at link.
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