From the Editor

This issue of the newsletter comes to you electronically. There is no printed version - unless you choose to download your own. One of the advantages is that we can get it to you quicker - no need for printer’s proofs, no snail mail delay. On the other hand, it’s not clear the extent the whole newsletter is read versus a printed version.

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Many years ago, when I was working at Princeton, I helped form what has become known as the Ivy Plus Controllers, a group of controllers from the eight Ivies plus Stanford, Chicago, Southern Cal, John Hopkins, Rochester and MIT. One of our initial rules, which is still followed to this day, is that our biennial meetings had to be held on the college campuses, the point of which was that you learned something about the institution from seeing and feeling the environment in which they existed. I was reminded of that recently when the Executive Committee of the EACUBO Board met in Charlottesville, VA, the home of the University of Virginia and our current president, Yoke San Reynolds. In recent years, we have been following the practice of meeting at the home institution of the president and last year it took us to Bethlehem, PA where Lehigh University and Peggy Plympton reside. The year before it was Atlantic City – Atlantic Cape Community College and Terry Sampson, and the year before it was Middlebury, Vermont and Bob Huth, VP at Middlebury College. Each of these places was distinctly different from each other and did offer some insight into some of the issues each of the colleges presented. For example, Lehigh is located on the side of the river dominated by the abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant that seems to go on for miles, as well as the hoses once occupied by the steelworkers. Across the river is the very upscale downtown area. In contrast, Middlebury is Middlebury College, surrounded by rural Vermont. The University of Virginia campus has a fascinating old Southern charm to it, particularly highlighted by The Lawn, originally designed by Thomas Jefferson, whose presence still is a significant part of the campus. I’m sure each of the past presidents can identify the ways in which their work life is impacted by their surroundings. It’s not surprising to read about programs like those described in the September issue of NACUBO’s Business Officer magazine that have the colleges in Baltimore and Philadelphia awakening to the need to become more concerned with the quality of life in their surrounding communities.