Presidential Presence
more personalized instruction while maintaining an active career in research or scholarship. If top faculty seek out Juniata for its more “humane” approach to the “publish or perish” environment at many institutions, then Juniata’s inclusion in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” survey becomes a critical element in how the College is perceived nationally. In the past five years, Juniata has been included every year in the influential poll and made the publication’s Honor Roll in every poll but one. Attention from the national media is not always welcome, but Juniata has so far succeeded in showcasing its distinctive take on higher education on successively bigger stages. Since 1998, the College has been featured at least a dozen times in the Chronicle of Higher Education on topics ranging from fundraising to chemist Richard Hark’s Chemistry of Art course to Office Hours, a video satire of academia. The New York Times has profiled biologist-cum-cartoonist Jay Hosler, Juniata’s short-lived bike share program, and Science in Motion. The College was even able to detail how it handles a multimillion-dollar estate gift thanks to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story that was sent around the world by the Associated Press. And there is scant space left to list some of the other media triumphs in CBS Sports, the Los Angeles Times, Discover, EduTech, the Boston Globe and Newsweek. By themselves, these media mentions don’t push Juniata higher in the minds of presidents and prospectives, but the cumulative effect over a decade
pieces live on the Internet forever. Successful “pundits” include Andy Murray, historian Jim Tuten, politics faculty Jack Barlow, Emil Nagengast and Dennis Plane, chemist David Reingold, education professor Sarah DeHaas, business professor Randy Rosenberger and John Hille. Not to be outdone, students made their voices heard, particularly Ben Waxman ’08 who published about 15 opinion pieces in four years at the College. Politics students who attended the national conventions in 2008 and 2012 also published about a half-dozen op-eds, several of them in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Marketing professors know it’s hard to prove what made a consumer buy a particular smart phone or automobile and the same holds true for Juniata’s long run of success in the media. Can we point to a student who enrolled because she read Tom Kepple’s essay on retiring faculty? No. But taken as a whole these opinions and news items keep Juniata in the conversation. Juniata has long been part of the conversation for internationalization in higher education. This time let’s start with the College’s more recent coups. President Kepple and other Juniatians this summer spent months traveling to China, Taiwan, Thailand and other Asian countries to establish exchange partnerships. In 2013 five Juniata professors and Kati Csoman, assistant dean of international programs, will make visits to establish exchange partnerships with universities in India. These visits followed on the heels of a renewed effort within the international office to create new exchange programs with partner campuses and encourage faculty to initiate
“It’s like reading about a blockbuster trade on the sports pages. It’s a signal to others you’re improving and that the competition has to work harder to keep up.”—Tom Kepple, president
Juniata
or so can certainly account for Juniata being included in the “doing it right” higher education conversation. Another communication avenue that Juniata rolled out during the Kepple years centered on strategic placement of opinion essays in newspapers and magazines. Here president Kepple led the way, primarily writing at the beginning of his time at Juniata about tuition costs in University Business magazine and the New York Daily News. Later, the president wrote on a variety of topics in such influential papers as the Post-Gazette, the Christian Science Monitor, the Harrisburg Patriot-News and Inside Higher Education. The College also encouraged faculty to sharpen their wit and wisdom to write on topics of interest. Although print readership of newspapers is waning, these opinion 40
the exchanges. Ten Juniatians visited all the College’s exchange sites in England, Ireland and Scotland this past summer. In 2012-2013, five faculty will set their sights on a visit to Australia and New Zealand. “Faculty-tofaculty contact is what makes this whole thing happen,” Cushman summarizes about the internationalization program. These are not relatively recent ideas. Indeed, Juniata’s commitment to international education well exceeds President Kepple’s tenure. With encouragement from Provost Jim Lakso and other members of the Juniata executive team, the College innovated its way to receiving the 2012 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization from NAFSA: National Association of International Educators.