Dear Future President,

Congratulations on becoming President of Dickinson College! I am a little biased, but I think that the students, faculty and staff here are top-notch. But there are a few things that you should remember so that you are as spectacular as so many of the other people who keep this college running.

First and foremost, if you want a long-lasting presidency, it is important that you spend lots of quality time with students, faculty and staff. I know you have conferences with other college administrators from around the country, meetings and banquets with donors and many other events on your crazy calendar, but please spend time with people at the college. A common complaint that many students had about one of your predecessors was that the person wasn’t around for students enough. Needless to say, that person’s presidency was short-lived. Don’t repeat that mistake.

By being a consistent presence for students, faculty and staff, you will also make your job easier in so many other ways. If you listen to students and are around for students, that may be the difference between someone donating or not donating to the college after leaving the college. If you listen to faculty, that is a recipe for further improving faculty retention rates. And if you listen to staff, well, that will likely improve staff retention rates. What I’m saying may not come across as rocket science to you, or maybe it will be rocket science because you will be sorely tempted to not spend enough time with people, for whatever reason.

But I want to place special emphasis on the “students” part. Okay, maybe I’m being a bit biased since I am a student at the time of this writing. But you really need to be a presence for students because, if you treat us kindly, you will turn us into future donors (even if we may not realize it at the time of your acts of compassion, kindness, etc.). I am aware of this fact because I know someone who, when he had trouble affording a Dickinson education during the Great Depression, had expenses covered personally by the president of the college. Needless to say, this person became a generous donor to the college. Maybe you can make generous donors out of some of us if you treat us with that level of compassion, empathy and kindness.

One final recommendation for you is that you have a clear vision for the college, a vision that can make us unique. One of many things that made another of your predecessors so special was that the person was able to articulate a vision for Dickinson that made the college unique. It was a vision centered around Benjamin Rush, being a truly revolutionary college, social activism, top-notch sustainability and so on. You don’t need to have the exact same vision, but what’s important is that you have a vision in the first place. If you have a vision and execute it well, you will truly make Dickinson a better college.

I know that I have left out a lot–dealing with politics, alumni donors, other donors, finances and so on. Maybe you can at some point get a letter, open or closed, which deals with these other aspects of being president here. But I think the aspects I touched on here are at least a few that are important from my perspective. I wish you nothing but the best as President of Dickinson College.