<p>Opinions about what is going on at Lawrence University?</p>
<p>DS went to their regional audition this morning and the young lady there from the admissions department could not have been more than 24-25 years of age (she just graduated from there in 2011). The person there from the conservatory was also young. Both were dressed inappropriately (very sheer leggings and long but short sweaters) to represent university admin.</p>
<p>I know that they just hired a new president. His credentials look good, however, I do not agree with his "personal life". His personal life will not break the deal for DS, though. On a side note, I feel that if the university hired someone with his personal history, then they are a little too left-sided for me. But for son, it means more diversity. Also, the young lady from the conservatory is functioning as the 'interim' director of admissions for the conservatory. To top that off, the young man (late 20s/early 30s) who interviewed DS at an earlier date is the associate director of admissions.</p>
<p>All of these ultra young people and new administration is making me wonder if something happened at the university that created a mass exodus of admin/faculty?</p>
<p>How has the administration performed for your children in the past couple of years? Are my concerns unfounded? I like to hear what alumni parents think and what parents whose children are still attending think. </p>
<p>DS prefers to attend college close to home. Lawrence is not close to home, but DS still wants to attend.</p>
<p>I don’t believe there has been any kind of exodus. In my experience, most admissions office people are very young. Go to any top LAC, very often other than the top 2 or 3 people, there are quite a few just a year or two out of college, very often alums of that college. My son just interviewed at a half dozen top LACs, all of the interviewers were either recent grads or students at the colleges. So, I don’t think Lawrence is different than any other top LAC. Your comment may reflect your own inexperience with LAC admissions offices rather than anything unique about Lawrence.</p>
<p>In terms of your comments about Mark Burstein, I doubt that many of the people who look at this site would take your your biases (homophobia) into account when thinking about what school to attend. Mr. Burstein is obviously an enormously talented, highly accomplished person. If there is a problem, it’s your problem, the answer is send your kid someplace else.</p>
<p>MomTeacherNurse, I concur with nepop. There has been no mass exodus. There are still plenty of straight, old, or non-young, and young men and women of various kinds working throughout Lawrence. When we–my wife, daughter and I–did our college search five years ago, almost all of the admissions people (at Yale, Michigan, Carleton, Amherst, Williams, Mac, Reed, MIT, Dartmouth, and Brown) were young–and dressed and acted in age expected ways.</p>
<p>As for the new President, he looks to me–straight old guy that I am–like a great hire.</p>
<p>Let DS decide and, please, try not to let your prejudice sway him. Lawrence is, and will continue to be, a great place for all kinds of young men and women.</p>
<p>nepop - Not to get off topic, but the last thing I am is homophobic. Just because I do not agree with someone’s sexual preference, does not mean that I am homophobic. I prefer that my children not join the military. Does that mean I’m anti-military? I think not. My husband of 25 years proudly served in the U.S. Air Force for 28 years, and I enjoyed every second of being a part of that community. So, do not tag me with your labels because you disagree with MY (not my son’s) concern. FYI - I voted for same-sex marriage because I feel that we ALL deserve the same rights. </p>
<p>You are correct in saying that I have a lack of experience in dealing with admission departments at LACs. That extends to all colleges. This is the first child that I am graduating (home-educated) and the first time I’ve gone through this process. I am not ‘sending’ my child anywhere. My young man will ‘choose’ where he will attend. </p>
<p>If you were to read my original post again and without injecting venom into it, you would see that I did not say anything negative about the new president. I simply said that I do not agree with his personal life. I also said that the college may be a little too left-sided FOR ME, but that it would not break the deal for my young man. </p>
<p>My purpose for the original post was to find out (because of my lack of experience) if my radar should be going off because of the young admissions staff and recent changes in administration (more than just the president). Nepop, I think you read into my post what you wanted to get from it. Sorry that you were offended (or at least you seem that you were offended).</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. Young people working in admin seems to be the norm from all of the responses that I am getting here and another place I posted. This process is new to me and DS, so we have no reference point.</p>
<p>What I want to know most is if we should be concerned about the recent change in president and other admin? I’m not concerned about WHO they are or their qualifications, but the fact that there have been so many (through the eyes of an inexperienced parent) changes. For instance, this year they hired a new Dean of Students, Director of Admissions, and the once associate director of conservatory admissions is now the interim director of conservatory admissions. Associate to interim happened in the past 2 or 3 months. I don’t know if this should raise a red flag for my son, so I was trying to see what others thought.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the other positions, but Jill Beck was the president at Lawrence for I believe 9 years, which is actually much longer than many (most?) college presidents stay at one school. If anything, I would say that Lawrence’s senior administration has been very stable.</p>
<p>MTN, while I don’t know you and therefore have no idea whether you are or are not homophobic, your post most certainly was. I’m not sure what you mean by “not agree[ing] with someone’s sexual preference.” If what you mean is that it is not something you would choose, that’s fine, no one is telling you what your sexual preference should be, and your analogy to the military might hold. But you said something different–"[h]is credentials look good, however, I do not agree with his personal life." The only way that this can be construed is that you would have a problem with him being the president of Lawrence because of his sexual preference, even if he is the greatest college president in the world. If this isn’t homophobia, I don’t know what is. And you pretty clearly are questioning Lawrence’s judgment in hiring him BECAUSE of his sexual preference, as opposed to his qualfications to be president. I apologize if in my original post I only “seemed” offended, I must not have been clear. For the avoidance of doubt, I absolutely was offended by your post, as I am always offended when I see bigotry.</p>
<p>Believe as you must, nepop. You may call me whatever makes you feel better. </p>
<p>I am not questioning Lawrence’s choice of president. I feel that he is highly qualified. </p>
<p>What I was trying to infer was that Lawrence’s philosophy/line of thinking/views (whatever) is/are probably more liberal than mine (not my son’s) being that they hired someone who they had to know was a homosexual. I have no problem with him being that. I was taught to love everyone. To reiterate my concern regarding the new president: based on the fact he will be the ‘leader’ of Lawrence and will take Lawrence in the direction that he feels it should go. I ponder whether that is a direction I will agree with in the future. Simply - I like Lawrence now for my son, but will I like Lawrence in 2 or 3 years? Now, I feel like Lawrence is the best fit for my son. With the direction of the new president, will I feel like this in 2 or 3 years? When my son interviewed with Lawrence in October, and he told me that Lawrence was searching for a new president, I was concerned at that point. That was months before they even named the new president. </p>
<p>I am not going to get into an argument with you nor spend any more of my time trying to demystify my original post. I feel like I made the intentions of my original post clear.</p>
<p>OMG - the HORROR of it… a GAY university president. Run, everyone, for your lives. And young people in their TWENTIES in admissions! And not wearing SUITS! What is the world coming to?!? Sheesh.</p>
<p>Over the past 18 months my son and I visited more than a dozen LAC campuses during his college search (he ended up, very happily, being accepted at Lawrence). Thinking back over the visits, I can think of only two admissions reps who appeared to be over 30. Many, including the rep at Lawrence, were very recent grads. All were casually dressed. Bottom line: There is nothing at all worrisome or unusual about having young, casually-dressed admissions reps. MTN, while I accept your assertion that you are not homophobic, I find myself wondering why you would bring up the president’s “personal life,” as you put it, in this forum.</p>
<p>One other thing, in terms of the age, etc of reps from admissions offices–you said your son auditioned at a regional date. I would imagine that the practice in many schools is to send the youngest and most recently hired staff members to run these regional auditions. When my S (a happily enrolled Lawrence freshman dual degree student) auditioned onsite at Lawrence, we met the senior admissions folks, both from the Con and the college. I was impressed with their professionalism, and they were very helpful as we walked through the process (which is more than I can say about some of the other places he auditioned).</p>
<p>As to the politics of Lawrence, it seems (like many LAC’s) to be a bastion of liberal thinking in a sea of conservative local Wisconsin politics. When we visited last spring, there were many yard signs supporting Scott Walker in his recall election in the neighborhood around the school, which gave me pause. My son’s friends seem to be fairly progressive, but as with any school, there are students of all persuasions/philosophies. Part of the point of college, IMO, is to expose yourself to ideas from all kinds of people so you can better make up your mind as to what your values are. </p>
<p>As to the new president’s sexual identity, I really don’t see what that has to do with his job or his vision for the college. As a faculty member at another small liberal arts college, I can say that although our president’s personal philosophy has had some impact on some of our policies, the way a president’s decisions affect students on a daily basis more often have more to do with his/her success as a fundraiser (the first and most important duty of a college president). Lawrence’s president’s sexual identity is not going to “infect” the students (and geez, when are we going to get over that idea?) any more than our president’s Native American roots have made us a Cherokee school.</p>