In-Depth
Percentage of African-American or Latino Students and Faculty is Equal, Faculty is Still 82% White
By EMMA GOLDSTEIN
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20For the first time last year, the percentage of African-American and Latino students was equal to the percentage of African-American and Latino faculty, owing to a focus on diversity within the faculty aspect of the Strategic Plan.
However, the number of African-American faculty members has decreased since 2004. and there are only two more Asian or Asian-American faculty members this year than there were in 2004. The Strategic Goal of attracting and retaining a diverse and well-trained faculty has been well received by faculty members. Temba Maqubela, Dean of Faculty, said, “There is tremendous good will among faculty to embrace this plan...Faculty are the mainstay of this place.”
While Maqubela travels to Georgia every February to a diversity fair to try and recruit more diverse faculty members, he said, “Word of mouth works. Where there’s diversity, there is more diversity.” Maqubela also stressed the importance of geographic diversity for...
Support Systems for Students Expanded Since 2004, Minor Changes Made
By CATHERINE CLEVELAND, MADELEINE O’CONNOR and EMILY SCOBLE
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20In an effort to better connect with students, Graham House met with all incoming Juniors during orientation this year. Counselors introduced themselves and talked about transitioning smoothly to Andover.
Max Alovisetti, director of the Graham House Counseling Center said, “We want kids to feel comfortable reaching out for help when they need it.” “We want students to have support and help before problems become overwhelming,” he continued. Graham House counselors began meeting with the incoming ninth grade boarders two years ago as a direct result of the Strategic Plan.
Alovisetti said, “We feel that whenever we can have students interact with us, whether in our role as teachers, academic advisors, chaperones, dorm visits, or athletics, it makes students feel more comfortable.” “We’re continuing to evaluate how best to provide services at PA and to help students feel comfortable coming to Graham House,” said Alovisetti. Advising System Phillips Academy revised...
Strategic Initiative Fund Lets PA Meet Goals
By ZAINAB DOCTOR and MADELEINE O’CONNOR
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20The Board of Trustees approved the Strategic Iniatives Fund last year to finance aspects of the program that reach beyond the scope of the regular school year program. These include the ACE Scholars program, Math and Science for Minority Students (MS2), and the Institute for Recruitmenet of Teachers (IRT).
To raise the new resource, fundraisers will approach specific donors who would likely support certain projects.
President of the Board of Trustees Oscar Tang said the money will come from fundraising, although it has not been raised yet.
Tang also said, “It will eventually have to be funded by new fundraisers. In order to get moving, we sort of have to start the process before the fundraising [has] caught up.”
He said, “You can take a chance because you know you have the financial resources. If, God forbid, nobody responded to the fundraising, that amount of spending still could be covered [by...
CAMD Addresses Diversity Issues, Preparation Gap
By ZAINAB DOCTOR
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20The preparation gap between incoming Andover students and the challenges of meeting the needs of a diverse group of students, issues raised in PA’s Strategic Goals, caused the Department of Community and Multicultural Development (CAMD) to reevaluate its role on campus because of the 2004 Strategic Plan. Last year, Linda Carter Griffith, Dean of CAMD, along with six students, developed CAFÉ, Community Awareness For Everyone. They decided to establish an environment in which students could talk across cultural groups to learn about each others’ experiences. Griffith said, “Our goal is not to celebrate differences but to see what might make our experiences different.” Through Af-Lat-Am, CAMD has created a mentor program, Big Brother Big Sister, to help students who aren’t of the dominant culture smoothly transition to Andover. The mentoring program began two years ago. Students choose to have a mentor, and are matched with a returning...
PA Still Examining Global Citizenship, Maintaining Contacts Across the World
By CATHERINE CLEVELAND and MADELEINE O’CONNOR
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20Phillips Academy’s partnership with Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of a small Shi’a Muslim sect, is part of an effort to reach out to the global community. The Academy is still in the process of determining how best to take advantage of its connections acrosss the globe.
The contact with Aga Khan began when his son graduated from Andover in 1989. The Aga Khan Educational Network funds the International Academic Partnership, which provides participating schools with information, such as how to use calculators to teach math. Andover’s part in this chain is to contribute knowledge to these schools. In return, Phillips Academy has the opportunity to exchange teachers with the other schools.
Andover has been partnered with high schools Da Tong in Shanghai and Ren Min in Beijing for eight years, before setting the 2004 Strategic Goal to “engage the question of global citizenship and its implication for our...
PACE Class Curriculum Reevaluated
By ZAINAB DOCTOR
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20Lowers attended one term of PACE classes instead of two terms of Life Issues this year to increase felexibility in the Junior and Lower year schedules. The curriculum itself was also re-examined. Carlos Hoyt, Associate Dean of Students and PACE program coordinator, said that they “only kept what was really worth preserving from the old curriculum.” The topics were condensed to fit into the time schedule.
“We are trying this year to use other open spaces in the existing schedule structure to enhance what is done in the PACE Seminar classes,” he added.
Hoyt said, “We want the class to be a less anxiety-filled and less academically demanding atmosphere which can fulfill the knowledge part of the knowledge and goodness equation.” Hoyt said that students need a practical requirement that was flexible, enriching, and engaging. The idea of PACE, formerly Life Issues, originated in 1994, when faculty, including Associate...
Results of the Strategic Plan Since 2004
By Reporting by Zainab Doctor, Madeleine O’Connor and Emily Scoble
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 202004
Admissions Statistics
• $8.9 million financial aid budget
• 36.5% of students on aid
Strategic Plan adopted
2005
• Academic Support Group created
• Faculty salaries increase
2006
• Board of Trustees approves Strategic Iniatives Fund
• Faculty salaries increase
2007
• Four students participate in first term of Flexible Fitness • Full scholarship students receive laptops
•First Academic Support teaching fellow hired
• Summer ACE Scholar Program begins
• PACE class replaces Life Issues, lasts one term instead of two
2008
2009
More flexibility in art and music requirement:
The revised program will still require four credits total, but there will be a minimum of one credit, instead of two, in each subject. This will allow students who would rather focus their attention on one subject spend minimal time on the other. Theater will count as an art class for students who wish to take it.
To be eliminated:
• Theatre requirement • Yearlong art or music requirement...
$2.9 Million Increase in Financial Aid Since Goal Set in 2004 to Go Needs-Blind
By ZAINAB DOCTOR and SUDHANDRA SUNDARAM
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20There are now 1,091 Phillips Academy students from 46 states and 31 countries. The school hopes to increase diversity of the student body by broadening recruitment efforts and eventually admitting students regardless of financial need. Five percent more students are able to receive financial aid since the budget was reevaluated in 2004 as a result of the Strategic Plan. Financial aid funds have increased by approximately one million dollars per year for the past four years. Chief Financial Officer Stephen Carter said, “Considerably more money has been allocated to financial aid, and [the Trustees, including Carter], have pushed for this very aggressively.” Carter also said, “Some of this would have been added each year anyway to adjust for increases in tuition, but a sizeable amount of the increase paid for incremental aid for students.” To allow for this increase, there has been more fundraising and portions of...
Recent History of Strategic Plans and Capital Campaigns
By MADELEINE O’CONNOR
Published on October 30, 2007 in CXXX no. 20Andover’s Strategic Plan is updated periodically as the Academy’s needs and aspirations change or as application of its original mission needs to be reevaluated over time. The current search for a modern definition of “youth from every quarter” is an example of how the Academy must reinterpret its original purpose. Upholding the school’s mission and meeting its evolving goals require money. Capital campaigns often stem from new strategic initiatives.
1994 Strategic Plan To form a closer community and to improve residential life were the unique focuses of the 1994 Strategic Plan. The initiative also sought to maintain the Academy’s resources so that it could maintain programming and continue to attract and retain an outstanding and diverse faculty and student body, and to do all of this without sacrificing the purchasing power of the endowment.
Specific Goals: • decrease student body from 1,200 to 1,025 students • Improve the student:...
PAPS Officer Wendy Cogswell: Teacher at Heart
By EMMA GOLDSTEIN
Published on October 16, 2007 in CXXX no. 18Wendy Cogswell is best known on campus for her smiling face as she ushers students across the road for All-School Meeting and her cameo appearance in last fall’s Grasshopper Night, but Officer Wendy, as she is often called by students, believes she was destined to be a teacher.
Cogswell, the Community Relations Officer for Phillips Academy Public Safety (PAPS), grew up in Tewksbury, MA, a neighboring town of Andover. Her mother was a teacher. “I was very influenced by education,” said Cogswell. She also said about when she was younger, “I didn’t have a direct career path.” After graduating high school in 1976, Cogswell participated in a nursing program and became a nurse, but left to be a police dispatcher. After her job as a police dispatcher, Cogswell worked at a security business for several years. When the business went bankrupt, she found, on a whim, an advertisement...