Megan Robinson

News and Web Editor

In early July, 2 College Hill welcomed two new residents: Dr. Robert Casey and his wife, Robyn Allens. Dr. Casey, the ninth president of the college and the former Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Rollins College in Florida, is the eighth president to live in the three-story home.

The house, completed in 1889, is located across from the theater on McDaniel’s campus. It has housed every college president since the second president, Thomas Lewis. Former President Dr. Joan Develin Coley lived in the house for six years before moving to an off-campus home with her husband, Lee Rice, in 2006.

For all current McDaniel students, this will be the first time that a college president has lived on campus. “The president’s house is an important component [to campus],” said Casey, who also noted that a president’s house was built while he worked at Rollins, and he saw firsthand the positive effect it had on the campus.

Senior Lauren Fischetti also seems to share Casey’s feelings: “It really shows that he wants to be a part of the community. We have a deep and rich history that should be celebrated and he’s jumping all in.”

Casey said he first saw the house October 2009, when he visited the campus for his first interview. He was impressed by the central location of both the president’s house and the office.

Casey’s former home was in a more private location, he joked, so he and his wife have had to adjust to shutting their blinds at night. However, he also noted that he loved the commute. He went home for lunch for the first time ever on his first day as McDaniel’s president. Casey spoke with Dr. Coley about her experiences in the house. They shared one experience in common already; they both got locked out on their first day in the house.

As in previous years, the first floor is used mostly for entertaining guests, the second is living quarters for the president and his family, and the third is a small apartment with an office for Dr. Casey. Casey has plans to open up the house to students and already envisions turning the third floor into a movie room for students’ use, with comfy chairs and a big screen.

Susan Leahy, a local interior designer who previously worked with Dr. Coley on the house, helped Casey and his wife decorate their new home. Dr. Casey said he wanted to maintain much of the original Victorian style. The biggest challenge was integrating his belongings – especially a large collection of folk art– with the furnishings of the home.

Vice president of Administration and Finances, Ethan Seidel said that the operating budget for the 2009-10 school year had already been approved when Coley announced her retirement, which meant it was too late to set aside funds for president’s house renovations. Recent updates were so minimal that the costs fit into the campus improvements portion of the normal operating budget, explained Seidel. However, not all of the additions to the home were financed by the college. Casey said that his wife and he paid for items they didn’t feel were appropriate for the college to cover such as his refrigerator, explaining that Robin and he are particular about fridges.

The couple also hopes to make the house environmentally greener by following the campus environmental plan created by McDaniel’s Greenterra environmental club. Changes linked to this greening effort include removing the garbage disposal and replacing light bulbs with energy efficient ones. Casey’s environmentally friendly plan extends to his presidential car – a Prius hybrid. Casey and Allens look forward to students’ return to campus so that it feels like a “real” campus. They also hope to open doors to their new home soon.

Dr. Roger Casey

President

My name is Roger Casey. Along with my wife, Robyn Allers, and our entire faculty and staff, I’d like to say, “Welcome home, returning students, and welcome to McDaniel, first-years.” When I walk the Hill, you’ll see me proudly wearing a green button that says, “I am McDaniel.” I hope you will wear one, too. Collectively, we are all McDaniel College, and I am delighted to begin this academic year as McDaniel’s ninth President.

What’s so great about McD? We’re one of only forty Colleges That Change Lives, and we do so through our personalized interdisciplinary curriculum (The McDaniel Plan) and phenomenal faculty-student collaborations in teaching, research, advising, and even crab-eating. Our diverse community is engaged in hundreds of opportunities. In fact, we’re ranked as one of the Top Ten colleges in community service. Anyone can get involved in the arts at McDaniel. We host a nationally renowned folk-arts festival, Common Ground on the Hill. Innovative January courses take students to Spain, China, Cameroon, Belize, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Japan, Turkey, Greece . . . . Want more internationalization? Then study all year at our European campus, the only American university in Budapest, Hungary. We believe in environmental sustainability. Even our mascot is green! And speaking of The Green: where else can you tailgate in a drive- in stadium? Finally, location, location, location: we’re an hour or less from Baltimore, DC, PA, WV, VA, the Chesapeake, Amtrak, and the global connections of BWI. And yet you won’t be fighting rush-hour traffic to get to class. So if four years aren’t enough here, stay and get a masters from one of twenty programs.

See what a privilege it is to say, “I am McDaniel.” In just my first week here, I encountered alumni who have argued before the Supreme Court, had books written about them, taught as an endowed professor at Harvard, conducted cutting-edge biomedical research, started Fortune 500 corporations, and won a Pulitzer Prize. That was Week One. Couple such alumni with the amazing accomplishments of our student-centered faculty and staff and your own impressive achievements and it’s easy to understand: 1) Why we have all chosen to be part of this phenomenal college, and 2) Why I am deeply honored to serve as your new president.

I’ve been asking many different people hard questions to gain a clearer understanding of our collective vision for McDaniel’s future. So when you see me, stop me and tell me yours. Two goals are already clearly important to me: 1) Improving the image and reputation of McDaniel, and 2) Enhancing the quality of student life, especially our residential and student-life facilities.

When it comes to the first goal, you can help profoundly. Despite all the great opportunities here, I don’t think McDaniel has nearly enough swagger. So get some swag and swagger. We live in an age of super connectivity. Like me, most of you publish on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. (I invite you to follow my Tweets @DrRog; or friend me, and I’ll friend you back.) How often do you use your social networks to spread the word about interesting things on the Hill? I challenge you to use your status bar or your Flip cam to make the rest of the world as aware of this great community as we are. Every time we post something positive about McDaniel, the value of our college brand and ultimately the value of your diploma rises. (And every time we say something negative, the reverse is true. Let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot!) Wear Green; speak Green; act Green. You are McDaniel; shout about it.

Have a great year, Green! I’m honored to serve as your President.

Juliann Guiffre

Co Editor-in-Chief

On December 17, 2009, the Board of Trustees, in a unanimous decision, selected Dr. Roger N. Casey as the ninth president of McDaniel College.

Casey, who is currently the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost of Rollins College in Florida, will replace current president Joan Develin Coley as of July 1, 2010.

“Never in my life did I see this happening,” said Casey, “but I came to see that I thought I could do good. You have to accept the mantle of responsibility, and this place really felt right.”

Casey and his wife, Robyn Allers, visited McDaniel for the first time in early November, after the committee decided he was the leading candidate in the large pool.

“We had every detail of these people’s lives laid out before us and it was clear,” said Mary Lynn Durham, vice chair of the Board of Trustees, “he is so outstanding so many ways, and fulfilled every single one of our search criteria.”

A week from then they returned for a public visit, including two meetings with the faculty, one with staff, one with student representatives, and a dinner with the trustees. He also attended a dinner at the president’s house and the annual tree lighting ceremony.

“After that visit, I had emails pouring in from faculty, saying ‘go get him!’” said Durham.

Casey joined Rollins College in 2000 as Dean of Faculty and promoted in 2006 to his current position. From 1991 to 2000 he was an Associate Dean and professor at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama. Casey received his M.A. and PhD in English from Florida State University and his BA from Furman University in his native South Carolina.

“Students will like [Casey] because he speaks at your level,” said Dr. Lewis Duncan, president of Rollins College. “When we have our beginning of the year ceremony, he will often break into a rap song. He wants to break down that barrier.”

Casey, a first generation college student, grew up in a small town, and said that his eyes were opened at age 22 when he first traveled to another country. Since then, he’s been to 69 countries. In 1994, he was named a Fellow of the W.K. Kellog Foundation, which sponsored his travel to 16 of those countries over a four-year period, during which he examined the role of vision in the creation of community.

“I spent a lot of time in Bali, which is a mono-cultural society with one belief system, but lots of poverty. In India I spent half the time with the poorest people and half with the richest. This was before the digital revolution, I hadn’t seen that kind of poverty before,” said Casey.

The most important things for Casey to learn about, he said, are who the students are, where they are coming from, and how to make McDaniel a better college.

“I want to be around at events, to be engaged in the lives of people at the college,” he said, adding that he particularly likes how the President’s office is at the heart of the college in the student center, not offsite a mile away. In fact, one of his first priorities will be improvement to Decker as well as the first year dorms.

Casey and his wife are hugely involved in the arts. He has been a theatrical producer, director, and actor, mostly recently in 2006 in a production of “Devotedly, With Dearest Love: The Letters of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.”

Allers served as the interim director of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins, and they were both extremely pleased to have a reception at the Carroll Arts Center, said Casey, “we will not forget the arts.”

“He and his wife are both very present on our campus, and we will miss him. But he’s ready to president. From everything I’ve heard about McDaniel, it will be a great fit,” said Duncan.

Another passion of Casey’s is studying the impact of “Generation X” and “The Millennials.” He is so attuned to a college students’ generation, in fact, that it drives him crazy when professors tell students to put their phones away while in class.

“It’s the same as telling everyone to put their pencil and paper away. I tell everyone to turn their cell phones on and tell people on Facebook what we’re talking about, take a picture, tweet about it, create buzz,” he said.

Casey has his own twitter, with which he posts quotes he admires, opinions on current issues, and even references to popular culture (i.e. “This just in: Paula Abdul will head up “Death Panels” in this fall’s newest hit on the CDC”).

“I love Twitter because it’s like writing a sonnet. You’re limited to only 140 characters,” he said.

According to Durhman, Casey is already talking with Joyce Muller about improvements to the website and how we can further web-based communication.

“He’s very interested in technology we can use to teach, but that doesn’t replace pedagogical techniques,” said Durham.

Casey also has a Facebook account, and encourages students to friend him, saying “friend in my life is more a verb than a noun these days.”

Although Casey and Allers were in Laos the day his selection was announced, he did write a letter to the members of the McDaniel community, which can be found on the website, along with further biographical information.

A Sampling of Dr. Casey’s Tweets:

“Twain: “Commentators have already thrown much darkness on this subject. . . . we shall soon know nothing about it.” Health-care reform?”

“Yeats said that education is not the filling of a pail but rather the lighting of a fire–but is the fire under the pail or in it?”

“Congrembarrassman Wilson still argues the health bill gives illegal aliens equal access to death panels. No. They must work when sick.”

“Greider: we need to build a new economy recycling all the stuff we’ve already made.”

“Nedderman: There are more cures for male impotence than malaria. Isn’t this a problem?”

College Gathers Committee, Consultant, Focus Groups to Learn What to Look For in Next Leader

Juliann Guiffre

Co-Editor-in-Chief

On April 18, 2009, President Joan Develin Coley announced her plans to retire after ten years in service to McDaniel College.

Immediately after her announcement, seven trustees –including Board Member and committee chair Mary Lynn Durham –gathered together to answer one question: how would they find the ninth President of McDaniel College.

This “transition committee” formulated a plan including soliciting proposals from various consulting firms around the country. Most were firms specializing in higher education and by June the committee had over 500 pages of proposals to read.

After on-campus interviews, Myers McRae was hired in a unanimous decision, with their Senior Vice President, Dr. David M. Gring as the main liaison to the school.

“Our role is multi-faceted,” said Gring. “We created materials for the website and went forward with advertising – we wanted a national search that was not limited by any specific region.” There is a big emphasis on the web because, unlike past years, more people can obtain information and follow the search on the internet.

A new committee of 12 was put together by President Coley and Martin K.P. Hill, chairman of the Board of Trustees. Chaired once again by Durham, the committee includes six other trustees: Phillip G. Enstice ’71, Ralph O. Frith ’84, James I. Melhorn, Julie Mercer, Albert J. Mezzanottee, Jr. ’78, and Caryl Ensor Peterson ’58; three faculty: Dr. Deborah Johnson-Ross, Dr. Reanna Ursin, and Dr. Francis Fennell; one from the administration: Joyce D. Muller; and one student: Ben Cowman ’10. The committee also includes Hill, but he will not have a vote in the final election.

Their next undertaking was to meet with Jim Lightener, who put the past eight Presidents in perspective. “He made clear that each person was different and right for the school at that time,” said Gring. “We’re not looking for a clone of past Presidents.”

Within weeks after the advertisements, phone calls, and over 15,000 emails went out, the campaign was known across the country. “Word has gotten out,” said Durham. “My son in California heard about it. The response has just been overwhelming.”

“It’s an indication of the regard with which McDaniel is held,” said Gring. “We’ve been involved in searches where the response wasn’t as strong.”

From the beginning, the committee planned to conduct focus group meetings as soon as everyone returned to campus. Starting on August 31, six meetings were held – two for faculty, one for alumni, one for students, one for community leaders, and one for staff members.

With the students, talk focused on clubrooms, less strict alcohol policies, a better reputation for Greek Life, increased diversity, and the campus becoming more environmentally conscious. There were also large discussions on more resources to keep students on campus over the weekend, and whether freshman dorms should be co-ed or not.

“The student focus group was more fun than I’ve had in a long time,” said Durham.

The overall consensus, according the Gring, was that the students want the new President to be engaged – “and accessible,” added Durham, “They really want someone who cares for the community in a personal way.”

SGA President David Castle concurred, saying, “as much as our school is going to love them, they are going to love us.”

According to Durham, the first half of the faculty meeting focused on Ira Zepp and the deep feelings that he brought out in this campus. “They talked about him as the paradigm for what the best of this community had always been,” she said. “There is a missing spiritual presence in his absence.”

Also discussed were the McDaniel Plan and financial constraints about implementing it, more student-faculty research opportunities, and the need for the new President to fully support student-faculty relationships.

“The alumni session was a love fest,” said Gring. “They think there has been no better influence in their life, and they are interested in the reputation of the college and doing what we can to market the college.”

Durham said during the community leaders meeting, the Chief of Police, William Spaulding, said that he is happy with the mutual understanding and cooperation with he campus, and wants that to continue.

The staff focus group talked about honoring the community feel, developing the athletic programs to keep up with competitor’s upgrades, putting more resources into the Graduate program, retention, fundraising, studying abroad, and the role of the staff at McDaniel.

Some members claimed that it’s important to preserve the ideal of “personal touch and human contact” over electronics and technology. However, others wanted a President “who realizes the importance that students place on technology.”

Both Gring and Durham emphasize that this search should be all-inclusive and a participatory process.

“Our company only works on one search at a time, and McDaniel has my full and unfettered attention for the next few months,” said Gring. “The search is on. And we are looking for the next President of McDaniel College.”

Additional Reporting by Kaitlyn Vadenais and Samantha Lambert