NT College of the Atlantic Association Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 1 This publication is the first College of the Atlantic association newsletter. It is not only the voice of people and committees actively involved in association work, it is an effort at promoting better communication between COA and its alumni. Therefore, we welcome your thoughts, dreams, ideas, criticisms, questions, and accounts. Through the use of class correspondents and questionnaires, we will make a more formal attempt at getting in touch with you. But we also love your sideline comments that slip in under the rug or get passed along via blimp, satellite, or alien. Our main objective is to keep in touch, and the purpose of the association? "the promotion of the welfare of College of the Atlantic and the establishment of a mutually beneficial relationship between COA and its friends and alumni." -Megan Godfrey Kraus, Chair of Communications Committee BOARD AND COMMITTEE REPORTS From the Board of Directors submitted by Dodie Jordan The Board of Directors of COAA has met four times since the June organizational meeting at the aquarium. At an initial meeting, we elected John March and Bruce Bender secretary and treasurer, respectively, and began dealing with the early priority of getting ourselves incorporated as a non-profit corporation of the State of Maine. Additionally, we have been engaged in the on-going process of drawing up a set of by-laws for the association. We've also discussed at some length the board's relationship and channels of communication with both COA and the association's committees --Communications, Admissions and Recruitment, and Alumni-Giving -- and are soliciting ideas of ways in which the board might be of assistance to these groups and vice versa. On the social side, we are hoping to organize a Boston-area party for January or February. We also plan to discuss at a future meeting what sorts of annual social events the association might sponsor -- times when we all can get together for fun, relaxation and re-connecting without feeling pressed to discuss business! We'd be glad to hear any/all ideas/suggestions regarding the above items or other concerns. You can contact the board c/o COA, or any of us individually. Board members include: Bruce Bender () , Joan Feely (), Dodie Jordan ( , John March () and Cathy Ramsdell () page 2. From the Admissions/Recruitment Committee submitted by Jim Frick Although the COAA Admissions Committee has not been active as a group, we have solicited some valuable help from several COA graduates. Special thanks go to Tom Fisher, Cynthia Jordan Fisher and Sue Freed for representing us at college fairs in their local areas. Tom showed the kind of initiative we would like to see from more graduates. He discovered that there was a fair going on in his community, registered for it and sent a request to the COA admissions office for recruitment materials. We realize that not everyone has the time or opportunity to represent the college at fairs. There are other ways that COAA members can help in the recruitment effort. By now most of you have received a letter from Jo Todrank, Admissions Committee Chairman, in this regard. From the Communications Committee submitted by Megan Godfrey Kraus Our biggest jobs to date have been: -helping to establish a complete COAA mailing list -getting our association newsletter off the ground -finding a full complement of class correspondents from previous years to help enhance communication between COA and its alumni. We can report that the mailing list will be computerized this winter. If you keep the college informed of your address changes, you should be receiving no end of newsletters and notices from the college. If you or someone you know aren't receiving news from the college, let us know! Our COAA newsletter will be coming out three times yearly: March, July and October. Twelve people volunteered to be group correspondents for the association newsletter. They will make greater efforts to stay in touch with all of us and will submit notes for each issue of our newsletter. Presently, we are still looking for: a correspondent from the class of 1979; a former staff correspondent; and a former faculty correspondent. If you are interested, please write Megan Godfrey Kraus at 36 Joyce Road, Medford, MA 02155. We are scheduling a joint communications committee/correspondents meeting for January 22nd in Freeport to discuss the duties of correspondents and efficient means of keeping communication lines open. **Attention all! We are temporiarily calling this the "Association Newsletter." Can you think of a better name? Please send your ideas to Carole O'Donnell. Missing persons list: We do not have accurate addresses for the following people. If you know of their current whereabouts, send Carole their addresses or tell them to do so. David Andrew Douglas Crawford Elizabeth Lundberg Dianna Ruth Bruce Becque Anne Goodwin Jane Machamer Denise Schlener Peter Carisi Dianna Hallen Leann MacIntire Jim Shamberg Nancy Caudle Emily Kawano Candace Martin Cathy Straka Peter Cohen Ann Kesselheim Whitney Massey Irene Szurley John Cooper Patricia King Allen Kathleen Massimini Kevin Timoney John Cox Steven Long Sydney Rathbun page 3. REPORT ON ENROLLMENT As many of you know by now, enrollment at COA was down this fall for the first time. The reasons are varied and not altogether clear. Certainly national trends, the decline in student age population, concern about tuition and financial aid are all factors. Increases in leaves of absences and the number of students graduating also play into the equation. In a final burst of energy before leaving her post as registrar, Lucy Honig compiled an enrollment report showing trends, attrition rate, number of students on leave, etc. If you would like a copy of this one-page report, it is available by contacting Carole O'Donnell. For those of you who haven't heard, Lucy left the college as of the first of the year. Her plans are exciting though tentative, and include traveling and writing and traveling some more. Be on the lookout for a green Mazda GLC packed to the roof rafters. Sally Crock is our new registrar; requests for transcripts may be sent to her. REPORT ON THE FALL QUESTIONNAIRE Carole O'Donnell of the 300+ questionnaires sent last fall, we received 73 responses, a respectable percentage for a questionnaire of that length. Of those who responded, 12 people indicated interest in serving as correspondents, and a meeting of these people is being scheduled in Freeport for late January. Many other people volunteered their support in fundraising, student recruitment, and on the communications committee. People's various responses to questions on fundraising have been helpful to Albie Smith and others in the Development Office, and there was almost unanimous support for the publication of an association directory. This topic will be raised at a future board meeting. The creation of this newsletter is a direct result of people's responses. Although we won't be able to include all suggestions for the newsletter in a single issue, we will take all comments into consideration in publishing future issues and wish to encourage articles from members of the association. We received good information from our questions concerning the curriculum at COA -- about what was good and not-so-good in one's experience here. Over half of the respondents felt they had received adequate academic guidance at COA, and there was almost unanimous agreement that the degree of academic freedom is a positive influence on one's educational experience. Very few people felt that our limited laboratory and library facilities were a serious liability; in fact several expressed the opinion that limited facilities forced them to fend for themselves, plan ahead, and be innovative. The question on important gaps in the curriculum was hard to summarize because comments were related to years in attendance. For instance, the absence of history, political science, and government were all mentioned, but by people who attended COA prior to the hiring of Sue Mehrtens, Paul DuBois, and Don Meiklejohn. In response to the question concerning the "single strongest aspect of your experience at COA," the most frequently occurring comments were about the close personal contact with faculty and other students and participation in a supportive community. Frequently occurring comments concerning the weakest aspect of the COA experience concerned the isolation of the school and of Bar Harbor and the lack of diversity among the student body. A more formal compilation of this information will be available at a later time. I want to