Dean of Admission and Financial Aid

Position Specification

This Position Specification is intended to provide information about the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and the position of Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. It is designed to assist qualified individuals in assessing their interest in this position.

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The Opportunity

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts, seeks applications and nominations for the position of Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. Founded in 1997 with a major gift from the F.W. Olin Foundation, Olin College of Engineering seeks to redefine engineering as a profession of innovation encompassing the consideration of human and societal needs; the creative design of engineering systems; and the creation of value through entrepreneurial effort and philanthropy. The college is dedicated to the discovery and development of the most effective educational approaches and aspires to serve as a model for others. Olin’s innovative curriculum and culture prepare students who are well-grounded in engineering and technology, who understand the context that surrounds these fields,

and who work with others to bring about positive change. With a curriculum based heavily on project-based learning, collaboration and a blending of disciplines, Olin has developed an educational program that differs sharply from traditional undergraduate engineering pedagogy. In twelve short years of operation Olin has had considerable success in creating a “lab school” environment for educational experimentation and influencing others to pursue innovation. Olin has established a position as both a catalyst for change and a model for preparing the broadly educated, multifaceted and collaborative engineering leaders the world needs today. Olin enrolls about 350 academically gifted and well-rounded undergraduate engineering students, all of whom attend on tuition merit scholarships, with need-based aid awarded in grant form only. The admission process – geared toward identifying and recruiting creative and innovative students who will thrive in Olin’s enterprising culture – is unique among colleges and universities. Olin consistently retains and graduates well more than 90 percent of its students. Among its many assets are a beautiful 75-acre residential suburban campus adjacent to Babson College and close to Wellesley College; state-of-the-art facilities; a current endowment of $381 million – one of the highest per-student endowments in the country – and 40 entrepreneurial full-time faculty and 80 student-centered staff. Another asset is Olin’s nine classes of alumni who, though early in their careers, are demonstrating leadership and innovation abilities in top companies, graduate schools and entrepreneurial ventures. Olin is seeking a dynamic and collaborative Dean to provide leadership for its efforts to recruit top students who possess “multiple intelligences” and a penchant for risk taking; the dean has the additional challenge of continuing to pursue Olin’s goals of admitting gender-balanced classes and increasing the number of underrepresented minority students. While Olin’s mission

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dovetails perfectly with the societal need to produce engineers with the capacity to create innovative solutions to complex global challenges, its short history can be seen as a hurdle when it comes to competing alongside more established schools such as MIT, Harvard, Stanford and Caltech for top-tier students. However, Olin is operating from an enviable position of strength: the young college has already been the subject of favorable attention from a wide variety of sources. Moreover, the college does not begin this endeavor from a standing position. The Dean will be positioned to not only leverage current academic and student life programs, which are already widely recognized for innovation, but also will be part of the academic leadership team coordinating the first stages of an exciting period of initiatives now underway which will make the special nature of an Olin education even more apparent to prospective students and their families. The Dean will join a number of initiatives already underway, evaluate their progress and effectiveness, shape the strategies, add creative new ideas and follow through with execution. For example, collaboration with colleagues in Marketing and Communication to develop materials and strategies for attracting applicants is seen as critical to the success of this position, as the two teams work toward the mutual goal of increasing the quality and size of the applicant pool.

The Position of Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Reporting to Provost and Dean of Faculty Vincent Manno, the Dean of Admission and Financial Aid is a key leader and academic colleague who leverages the close connection of admission to Academic Life – faculty, students, staff and programs – to attract a highly qualified, diverse student body who use their educational experiences at Olin to become the next generation of innovators equipped to tackle the societal challenges of the 21st Century. The Dean also has a secondary reporting relationship to Executive Vice President and Treasurer, Stephen Hannabury, in recognition of the critical roles that Financial Aid and efficient operations play in the successful recruiting of students and the fiscal vitality of the college. The Dean also serves on the President’s Cabinet and interacts frequently with the Board of Trustees, the President and other senior college leadership. Preferred Qualities and Characteristics: The ideal candidate for this position is someone who:

is high energy and passionate about Olin’s mission, demonstrates quick buy-in and natural enthusiasm as well as having the patience and skill needed to lead a continually evolving program

embraces Olin’s commitment to recognizing merit, need-blind admissions and diversity

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has a track record of success in highly competitive student applicant environments that include international students

is familiar and comfortable with cutting-edge technology for enrollment

has exhibited creative problem solving, innovation and performance under pressure

has strong analytical skills and great talent and finesse as a strategist and leader

is skilled at interacting with a wide range of people from teenage applicants to college leadership and Trustees to corporate and public leaders

is an extraordinary public speaker who engages audiences with sincerity and confidence, accompanied by superb written communication skills

will be an aggressive marketer of Olin’s academic experience at home and on the road, including planning and executing a strategic travel and outreach program

enjoys “the hunt” and places priority on interacting personally with applicants and their families

has a record of strong peer and constituency networking, both internally and externally

enjoys “rolling up their sleeves” in a collaborative and consensus-building environment, working with a modest sized staff and resource constraints

values working closely with academic leadership and faculty

has the ability to recruit and to continually develop a talented staff

is open to and hopefully familiar with assessment techniques that gauge applicants’ multiple intelligences, creativity and intrinsic motivation

has experience with college-level financial aid processes and complexities

exhibits impeccable integrity and personal values

has a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree preferred, with eight to ten years of experience in admission or related field.

Duties:

1. Serves as the chief admission and financial aid officer of the college and leads an enrollment function that is student-centered, innovative, aggressive, forward-thinking, organized and inclusive.

2. As an Officer of the college, a member of the President’s Cabinet and a member of the Academic Life team (the amalgam of academic programs, Olin’s Learning Continuum,

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student life and services) develops and implements strategies for the recruitment and on-going success of Olin students.

3. Directs all activities related to student recruitment, enrollment and financial aid.

4. Routinely requests and analyzes data to shape strategic direction, making data-informed proposals and decisions and linking budgets and expenditures to measurable outcomes, while seeking both standard and creative ways to achieve enrollment goals.

5. Ensures the best data is being used and implements systems and structures to aid in admission and financial aid planning and data-driven decision making at all levels.

6. Works with Marketing and Communications, external consultants and others to produce

and deliver the Olin message through student recruitment publications, electronic, social and print media.

7. Represents the college at local, regional and national events. Develops and cultivates relationships with counselors and teachers.

8. Further develops programs and activities which take advantage of Olin parents and alumni to expand the Admission office reach.

9. Chairs the Admission Committee and manages the process of candidate evaluation, selection and conversion.

10. Manages the college’s nearly $10 million dollar merit and need-based financial aid program.

11. Guides a creative, forward-thinking program of student financial services, maintaining fiscally responsible leadership and tending to the needs of current and new students alike.

12. Leverages, collaborates on and implements currently available technologies to improve processes.

13. Provides mentorship and support for a full-time staff of six plus student and seasonal workers. Manages the Admission and Financial Aid operating budgets.

14. Participates in on-campus committees, as necessary.

15. Other duties as assigned.

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The Admission Program at Olin College Introduction Since the earliest days, Olin College of Engineering’s admission strategies have been focused on attracting students for whom Olin and its unique mission are a good fit: academically accomplished, talented in math and science, but with diverse interests and a risk taking attitude. While the admission process has been intentionally constructed to be highly inclusive, utilizing the talents of faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents at Olin, the faculty retains the major influence on who is admitted. History Starting an admission office from scratch had its challenges. In 1999 the college hired Duncan Murdoch, Vice President of External Relations and Enrollment, and Charlie Nolan, Dean of Admission, seasoned enrollment managers with more than 60 years of combined experience, to attract “MIT-like” students to Olin. One of Murdoch’s chief talents was developing creative and non-traditional print materials that would appeal to high quality students willing to help build a new college from scratch. Nolan’s background included designing and executing communications strategies to prospective students and building infrastructure for effective admission operations. Both knew many guidance counselors throughout the country. Murdoch retired from full-time work at Olin in 2006 but continues to staff a West Coast Office part-time. Beginning in 2003, Nolan took a three-year hiatus from Olin to serve as chief admission officer at Santa Clara University; he returned to Olin in 2006. Attracting top engineering candidates to a new and unknown college was a major challenge for Nolan and Murdoch; but they also had some advantages in the recruitment effort. One was the unique and exciting mission of the college and the fact that the first classes would play a major role in building the college; the other was a full-tuition merit scholarship (now reduced to half tuition) offered to every admitted student. These distinctive features, communicated to select prospective students, led to the recruitment of the “Partners,” 30 gifted students who turned down some of the best universities in the country to attend Olin and help the college prepare for its opening during a special pre-freshman year. The following year, 14 “Virtual Partners” (students on the waiting list who accepted the offer to defer a year) joined the Partners, along with 31 new high school graduates, to form the inaugural Class of 2006. Subsequent classes have continued to partner with faculty and the college to develop Olin’s innovative curriculum and culture, pioneering new courses and approaches that have confirmed Olin’s status as a “lab school” for educational innovation. Olin has become known as an unusually student-centered institution where the student voice counts. It was during the recruiting effort for the Partners that the college established “Candidates’ Weekend” (CW), a feature that makes the Olin College admission process unique. This two-day,

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college-wide program was conceived as a “selling and selection” opportunity for the college. Prospective students – and their parents – have the chance to visit campus and learn more about Olin, and the college gets to know more about potential students than just their paper credentials. The admission process in general, and CWs in particular, has remained largely unchanged and are cherished traditions of the Olin community. A major asset of the Admission effort is the accomplishments of the nine classes Olin has graduated to date. Olin’s graduates are highly sought by leading graduate programs and top employers and command premium starting salaries. Ninety-five percent of Olin’s 2013 graduates were enrolled in graduate school or employed within six months of graduation. Although they are not very far into their careers, Olin alumni are already rising rapidly and demonstrating leadership in their chosen industries and fields. Application History The first five years of Olin’s application flow were relatively constant, followed by an impressive upswing in students applying to Olin. A significant change in the admission calendar led to small declines in the two subsequent applicant pools. The Trustees’ decision to reduce the full-tuition scholarship by fifty percent in June 2009 seems to be the principal cause of a sharp decline in the quantity (but not the quality) of applicants for the Class of 2014. Since that dip, the number of applications has increased steadily, and, in the last admission cycle, reached 998 applications, the second highest number ever received by the college. As the uniqueness of the Olin education and value of its educational outcomes has become more recognized, Olin has risen in rankings and reputation to take its place among the elite colleges and universities. Olin’s admission rate of 10.6 percent places it among the most selective institutions in the country. Today Olin’s chief competitors for students are the top engineering schools like MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, the Ivies and flagship public universities’ honors programs. Another unique feature of Olin’s admission process provides additional avenues for the college to enroll top students: students waitlisted in a particular year have the option to take a “gap year” and join the college within the following two years. Enrollment Aspirations Ambitions for the quality and diversity of the first students at Olin were high. The following were the early hopes (and remain the ongoing criteria) for the credentials and attributes of the students the college wanted to enroll:

GPA and standardized tests: Close to 4.0 (unweighted) for the former and top 1% for the latter

Gender balance Wide geographic, cultural, socio-economic, and ethnic diversity (Note: There is a cap of

10% non-U.S. students)

Appreciation for philanthropy and entrepreneurship Talents and interests beyond math, science and computers Adventuresome and not risk-averse “Get” Olin

The Admission Selection Process From the beginning the intent of the Admission leadership was to involve as many people as possible in attracting and enrolling students to the college. In 2010, Olin became a Common Application (CA) exclusive school. Olin requires a CA supplement with two essays.

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January 1 is the only application deadline date. There is no Early Action or Early Decision. As of the 2014-2015 admission cycle, SAT subject exams are now optional. Olin’s admission selection process has two distinct steps. Students apply for an invitation to Candidates’ Weekends (CW) and admission decisions are made following the Weekends. As part of CW, teams of five Candidates participate in a design and build exercise. This exercise is not evaluated. Following the design exercise, evaluation teams, consisting of a faculty member, an

admission officer and a staff member or alumnus/a, conduct individual interviews and group exercises. The teams rank order their Candidates, with annotations, and forward their rankings to the Admission Committee. The Admission Committee, consisting of a majority of faculty, reviews the data from the interview teams and makes admission decisions. The Admission Committee also determines the wait list, which allows students not provided a place in the current incoming class to defer admission for up to two years. Admission Marketing There has always been a very close relationship between the Admission Office and the marketing function of the college, a relationship that continues to this day. Former enrollment VP Duncan Murdoch had extensive admission marketing credentials and was known nationally as one of the most creative marketers in the business. Until 2010, the Communication Office reported directly to Admission (and its earlier incarnation as “External Relations”), ensuring that Olin’s media relations efforts would have a major focus on student recruitment. Central to Olin’s brand is quirky and risk-oriented print materials. There has always been an explicit intent to stand out from all other college and university communications. Bold and creative messaging was the theme, along with creative and unusual delivery vehicles and materials such as duct tape, static bags and Hollywood movie-style posters. The aim is to attract students who are courageous enough to consider turning down the best colleges and universities in the country to join a new college with an exciting mission and a distinctive living and learning environment. The boldness and risk-taking tone set in the early marketing materials has continued to the present. More recent efforts, under the new Marketing and Communication Office, led by former Boston Children’s Hospital marketing executive Michelle Davis, have revamped the branding of the college, redesigned the website and made extensive use of social media for communication and engagement. The marketing efforts have been helped along by significant media exposure, especially up through the graduation of the first class and accreditation. Local media interest was high from the beginning, and national media interest soon followed. The Wall Street Journal (12/05), Newsweek (8/06) and The New York Times (9/07), ran feature articles on Olin that coincided with the college’s accreditations (NEASC, 12/06 and ABET, 3/07) and that, no doubt, influenced

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the size and quality of the applicant pools, especially in 2007 and 2008. Business Week and USA Today also ran favorable articles during this period. National rankings have also boosted Olin’s reputation. In 2013 U.S. News and World Report ranked Olin #4 among the best undergraduate engineering programs in the country where a doctorate is not offered. In 2014 Princeton Review ranked Olin in the top 20 in 15 categories – more than any other of its 379 “best colleges.” Olin is considered a “Best Value” institution by the Princeton Review and the Fiske Guide for its excellent academics and affordability. Other marketing efforts include high school visits; two admission open houses; participation in the annual Babson, Olin and Wellesley Colleges’ College Counseling Tour; daily information sessions and overnight campus visits. Since Charlie Nolan’s return to Olin in 2006, Royall and Company has been used as the exclusive outreach strategy vendor to help identify and communicate with prospective students. From 2006-2010, the key effort was a student search campaign, implemented annually in the spring, consisting of a several emails and hard copy contacts. Following the application downturn in 2010 during the “Great Recession,” and the Board of Trustees’ decision to reduce the merit scholarship by half, the college initiated a more intensive strategy, with Royall’s help.

In order to reverse the significant decline in applications, the college made the decision to add the “Common Application Marketing Campaign” (CAMC) to the existing student search strategies. In short, this strategy consists of eighteen email contacts and two hard copy contacts with all inquiries, beginning in September, ending just before the application deadline date. While the application pool for men continued to grow, women’s applications flattened out after the initial 56 percent bump from the new campaign. The emphasis over the last several years has been on increasing the number of women applicants. Since there are as many as 20 male applicants for every male opening in the new class and only five female applicants for every female opening in a new class, the need for focusing on women is clear.

Over the last several years, considerable effort has led to refining the Royall outreach strategy. There has been greater emphasis on contacting students earlier in high school, introducing them to Olin and continuing the dialogue for multiple years. There is clear evidence that this strategy has worked, resulting in a larger number of prospective students visiting campus and a 24 percent increase in applications for the Class of 2018. Selectivity for this Class is 10.6 percent, down from 16.6 percent; yield increased from 59 percent to 63 percent.

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Challenges and Opportunities In just over a decade Olin College has established an admission and student recruiting process that is distinctive in its record of attracting extraordinary qualified students excited to experience Olin’s design-centric, project-based learning environment. A challenge for the incoming Dean will be to use this success as a foundation for continued innovation and improvement. For example, the new Dean will need to not only build on our progress in gender balance but also develop strategies for attracting a more diverse – racial, ethnic, socio-economic and geographical – admission pool. Olin’s primary strategic goal to attract the best and produce the exceptional appropriately implies that we will always value outstanding academic achievement. However, Olin is also a learning community that embraces the importance of multiple intelligences to student success. A challenge for the new Dean will be to leverage emerging assessment techniques that elicit these less quantitative characteristics as well as introduce ways to discern additional insight into the intrinsic motivations of applicants. Reporting to the Provost makes clear that the Dean of Admission and Financial Aid is an academic leader. This structure provides an opportunity for the incoming Dean to leverage being fully integrated with Academic Life (the amalgam of academic programs, Olin’s Learning Continuum, student life and services). For example, it positions the Dean to more effectively engage faculty members as resources and partners in the admission enterprise. Like the entire college in its early years, Olin’s Admission operation was a very much a start-up operation, unburdened by the fear of high aspirations that outsiders would see as unachievable. We hope that this entrepreneurial spirit will always be a core characteristic, a workplace environment open to innovation without pretense or fixation on rank and title. Nevertheless, as the goals for Admission and Financial Aid become even more ambitious and complex, the new dean will need to develop a staff and operational processes reflective of this emerging set of challenges.

Olin’s Strategic Plan: A Vision for the Future

Olin College is at a crossroads in its history. As a senior administrator, the Dean of Admission and Financial Aid will be essential to the college reaching its strategic goals in student recruitment, and as a member of the President’s Cabinet, will be a contributor and collaborator in other areas. The college’s strategic goals were outlined in a vision statement prepared in June 2012 by President Richard K. Miller and Provost Vincent P. Manno. This statement is excerpted below and reproduced in full in the Appendix. To fund this ambitious vision, the

college has committed itself to a major fundraising effort. Our vision is that Olin will become the recognized leader in the transformation of undergraduate engineering education in America and throughout the world. To achieve this, we dedicate ourselves to starting a global movement to innovate within undergraduate engineering

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education as our next major goal. This will simultaneously require us to strategically build capacity and strength in critical areas, take risks as we assume leadership as a young institution, and persevere as we undertake a long journey, working closely with partners, domestic and international, to foster change. Why is this so important? While the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century will not be solved solely by technology, their solution and society itself will depend on the creativity of a new generation of leaders whose competencies are rooted in the educational philosophy espoused by Olin. Priorities: To achieve this bold vision, we will maintain three core priorities to drive strategic resource allocation and decision making throughout this journey. 1. Attract the Best, Produce the Exceptional. Our most fundamental commitment is to quality in many dimensions. Olin’s mission is to prepare exemplary engineering innovators who will make a positive difference in the world. To accomplish this, Olin will continue to seek people who are not only academically accomplished but also endowed with multiple intelligences and capable of leading innovation in diverse contexts. 2. Drive Excellence through Innovation. The single adjective most frequently used to describe Olin College is “innovative.” Everything about Olin was created in order to be an example of innovation, and to produce graduates who will become a force for creativity and innovation wherever they go. 3. Maximize Impact in the Academy and Beyond. To fulfill our purpose, Olin must never become content with producing a small number of exceptional engineering graduates each year and providing an innovative, nurturing environment for our small faculty. Instead, we must be fully committed to maximizing our impact on the world beyond our campus borders. Our primary means for achieving this impact is through catalyzing significant innovation in engineering education and through that, engineering practice and education in general.

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Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering: An Overview Few colleges or universities in America have greater overall strength in the core areas of quality, reputation and recognition: Great Students Admission rate 10.6% Yield 64% Median (Math + Verbal) SAT 1480 Female/Male ratio 47% / 53% National Merit Scholars 12% High School GPA (unweighted) 3.9 Great Education and Experience Enrollment 343 Student/Faculty ratio 8:1 National Survey of Student Engagement Students rated Olin significantly above national averages on 13 of 20 engagement indicators Newsweek/Kaplan “New Ivies” (2005) US News Ranking (2013) #4 #1 in US in alumni giving rate (source: CAE) #1 Top Ten Financial Aid Providers (Parents & Colleges) Among most gender-balanced in US (ASEE) Princeton Review (2014) Best 379 Colleges in US Best Value College Best Colleges in Northeast Among all Universities in the US: #2 Best classroom experience #3 Students Study the Most #3 Best Campus Dorms #4 Professors Get High Marks #5 Easiest to Get Around #5 There’s a Game? #6 Students Love Their College #8 LGBT-Friendly #11 Great Financial Aid #12 Best Quality of Life #12 Best Science Lab Facilities #13 Town-Gown Relations are Great #14 Stone-Cold Sober Schools #17 Best Career Services #19 Happiest Students

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72% of students complete internship or research Great Outcomes Among top producers in US of NSF Graduate Research Fellows per capita Four times ranked as a Top Fulbright Scholar producer (Chronicle of Higher Education) 37% of alumni pursuing or completed graduate degree 26% of these attend Harvard, Stanford or MIT 44% attend a top 10 engineering graduate program Companies interested in SCOPE corporate sponsorships exceed the number of available student teams Average starting salary = $81,313 (Classes of 2012 & 2013) Great Financial Position Among Top in US in Endowment / Student Endowment = $381 million (FY14) Remarkable Influence Visited by more than 300 other institutions from 43 countries since 2009 Olin-inspired curriculum now in use at 9 other universities Olin-Illinois Partnership now involves 1,500 students/year Collaboratory Summer Institute: doubled in enrollment in last 2 years Olin leadership won 2013 Gordon Prize, engineering education’s highest award Successfully initiated and/or led: Babson-Olin-Wellesley collaboration NAE Grand Challenge Summit Series NAE Grand Challenge Scholars program Engineer of the Future conferences

History The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering received its educational charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1997, the same year the F.W. Olin Foundation announced its ambitious plans to create an innovative engineering college that could revitalize engineering education and serve as a model for others. At the time, the Olin Foundation grant to Olin College was the largest gift ever made to higher education. By the end of 1999, the new institution's leadership team had been hired, and site development and construction work commenced. Olin's first faculty members joined the college by September 2000. The college officially opened in fall 2002 to its inaugural freshman class. During the prior year, 30 student "partners" worked with Olin's world-class faculty to create and test an innovative curriculum that has continued to evolve and is now seen by many as a viable model for the transformation of engineering education. The college has achieved many significant milestones since then, including the graduation of the first class (2006), receipt of accreditation (2006-07), and the signing of several agreements with other institutions to explore engineering education reform.

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Academic Program Olin College offers B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Engineering. Olin’s academic program is distinctive in several ways. First, the college does not have traditional academic departments. Instead, the internal academic structure involves a multidisciplinary group of faculty whose primary bond is the successful transformation of talented engineering students into

innovators. In addition, faculty employment relations are based on renewable contracts rather than a traditional tenure system. These factors have combined to make Olin a place where educational innovation is embraced and adopted much more rapidly than at traditional institutions. A primary objective of Olin College is to develop this new culture of innovation and continuous improvement, with enhanced entrepreneurial focus and an emphasis on design. Olin's outstanding educational environment is a unique mix of exceptional students, faculty and facilities, combined with a pioneering approach to engineering education. Olin's faculty consists of nationally recognized scholars and researchers from top institutions with a deep commitment to undergraduate teaching. Its students are some of the most academically gifted and enterprising engineering candidates in the country. Its facilities are state-of-the-art, and its curriculum represents the most advanced and innovative thinking about how to produce technological leaders who are both creative and entrepreneurial. The Olin curriculum is designed to educate engineering innovators with the creativity and ingenuity to realize their visions and make a positive difference in the world. While at Olin, each student experiences an in-depth exposure to engineering science, design, arts, humanities, social sciences and business/entrepreneurship. In contrast to the theory-heavy approach of traditional engineering education, the curriculum at Olin is project based; the faculty see their role as serving as mentors and guides in a joint endeavor to foster an intrinsic motivation to learn in their students through a focus on individual interests and passions. In addition to course requirements, a capstone project is required in either Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences or Entrepreneurship; most students also complete SCOPE

(Senior Capstone Program in Engineering), a year‐long project that is sponsored by industry

and representative of authentic engineering problems. (In place of SCOPE, seniors have the option of taking Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship, in which students design solutions that meet needs in underdeveloped and low-income areas.) Throughout the curriculum, the interdisciplinary character of today’s challenges is emphasized through a comprehensive “systems” approach to engineering problems and a focus on

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teamwork. Design and entrepreneurship education each have significant emphases at Olin through early required courses, elective courses and topical threads that highlight design perspectives and entrepreneurial thinking in a wide variety of subjects. Every student has at least four semesters of coursework explicitly focused on design, including collaborative design. Academic partnerships with industry and other educational institutions enhance the learning environment at Olin and advance its aspiration to promote fundamental change in engineering education. Since its inception, Olin has had a strong collaborative relationship with nearby Babson College, ranked number one nationally in entrepreneurship. Olin also has close ties with Wellesley College, Brandeis University, and other top-ranked educational institutions. In fall 2009, Olin announced an expanded partnership with Babson and Wellesley aimed at developing closer academic, social and business ties. These include joint academic programs combining engineering, business and liberal arts. Also in the fall of 2009, Olin launched the Initiative for Innovation in Engineering Education, now renamed the Collaboratory, a series of summer workshops, faculty exchanges and customized co-creation partnerships designed to promote innovation and change in engineering education. In spring 2009, Olin announced a partnership with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign whose goal is to explore whether Olin’s innovations can be scaled up to a large public research institution. A partnership with Stanford University, designed to examine synergistic areas of collaboration, was announced in 2011. In 2013, Olin signed agreements with the University of Texas at El Paso and Insper, a leading Brazilian business school, to create new engineering programs on the Olin model.

Finances The college is in a sound financial condition. The 2008-09 financial crisis impacted Olin as it did all colleges and universities in the U.S. An early and decisive response to the changing conditions allowed Olin to weather the financial storm and to come out of that period with a stable financial model. The financial crisis resulted in a significant decrease to the college’s endowment. Since the college is heavily dependent on the endowment, action needed to be taken. Consequently, the college leadership and Board of Trustees had to make the very difficult decision to reduce the full-tuition merit scholarship to a merit scholarship equal to 50 percent of tuition. This change went into effect with the Class of 2014 and has been in place since. As the merit scholarship was reduced, the need-based financial aid budget was increased and the college expanded the need-based aid program to accommodate the additional students with demonstrated need.

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The additional net tuition revenue from the scholarship changes has replaced the lost revenue from the endowment, keeping the college in a solid financial situation. Olin is one of only a few schools in the U.S with an endowment per student figure in excess of $1.0 million. The current financial summary is:

Endowment: $381 million, June 30, 2014 Operating budget FY2015: $38.8 million Debt: $154.1 million Credit ratings: A+ Stable (S&P), A2 Stable (Moody’s)

The President

Dr. Richard K. Miller was appointed founding President of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering on February 1, 1999. He also holds an appointment as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Before joining Olin College, he served as Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa from 1992-99. At Iowa he initiated a comprehensive curriculum revision, a major facilities expansion and modernization project, the first major private capital campaign for the College of Engineering, an innovative Technological Entrepreneurship Certificate program and an increase in external research funding by more than 50 percent. He spent the previous 17 years on the engineering faculties at the University of Southern California (where he held the position of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs) and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

With research interests in earthquake engineering and aerospace structural design, Dr. Miller has served as a consultant to many aerospace companies and directed research programs funded by NSF, NASA and industry. He has published extensively in the field of applied mechanics, and has won five awards for teaching excellence at two universities. He earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 1971 and is the recipient of the 2002 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from that institution. He received an S.M. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1972 and a Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics from Caltech in 1976. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Babson College, the Board of Directors of The Stanley Group, and serves on several government and private advisory boards for non-profit organizations and universities. He is also a member of AIAA, ASCE, ASEE, ASME, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi honor societies. In 2012, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and in 2013, along with two other members of Olin’s founding leadership team, he won the Bernard M. Gordon Prize, one of the highest honors in engineering, for his leadership role in the founding of Olin. Governance The college subscribes to the fundamental principle in higher education of shared governance. Faculty and students have been deeply involved in decision-making and planning since the college’s inception.

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Ultimate responsibility for the quality and integrity of the college is held by the Board of Trustees. The Board currently consists of 17 members, including two of the three surviving Directors of the F. W. Olin Foundation and the first two trustees who are alumni of the college. The President of Olin College serves as an ex-officio member of the Board. The Board is expected to grow in the next several years to a maximum of about 20 members. The college also benefits from its President’s Council, an advisory group of about 50 distinguished advisors who have volunteered their time to counsel the President on issues of importance to the college. The Community Olin is located in Needham, Massachusetts, a classic New England town complete with a picturesque town common, plus restaurants, banks, excellent public schools, low crime rates and other attractive features. A large mall is about 15 minutes away by car. Boston, New England's largest city and a vibrant center of arts, entertainment and business, is about 20 miles or half an hour away by car, or 45 minutes by train. Much of today's digital revolution was spawned on ”America's Technology Highway,” the Route 128 high-tech belt surrounding Boston (and just minutes away from Olin). Biotech, health care and education are also major industries. Raytheon, Analog Devices, Boston Scientific, PTC Corp., EMC, Google, Microsoft, Bose, General Dynamics and Genzyme all have headquarters or major facilities in the Boston area. Boston is also a major hotbed of venture capital and startup activity, with hundreds of smaller high-tech firms being launched every year. Across Massachusetts, there are some 5,000 high tech companies employing 200,000 people. Olin is committed to having a strong relationship with Needham, and is proud to make its home there. More information on Olin College may be found at its website: www.olin.edu.

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Procedure for Candidacy Inquiries, nominations and applications are invited. Review of applications has begun and will continue until the position is filled. Candidates should provide a resume and a letter of application that addresses the responsibilities and requirements described in this leadership profile. These materials should be sent electronically via e-mail to Olin’s consultants Amy Crutchfield and Robin Mamlet at OlinAdmFinAid@wittkieffer.com. The consultants can be reached by telephone through the desk of Becky Espinoza, administrative support for this search, at 630-575-6134. Applications that cannot be sent electronically can be mailed to:

Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Search Olin College of Engineering

C/O Witt/Kieffer Attention: Amy Crutchfield/Robin Mamlet

2015 Spring Road, Suite 510 Oak Brook, IL 60523

630-575-6130

Olin College is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and specifically invites and encourages applications from underrepresented groups.

The material presented in this position specification should be relied on for informational purposes only. This material has been copied, compiled, or quoted in part from Olin College documents and personal

interviews and is believed to be reliable. Naturally, while every effort has been made to ensure the

accuracy of this information, the original source documents and factual situations govern.

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APPENDIX I

OLIN COLLEGE CORE VALUES

Core Personal Values

Integrity Complete honesty is expected from everyone in every situation. Even the appearance of conflict of interest will be avoided. Successful long-term relationships depend on trust and open communication.

Respect for Others Each person is treated with respect and dignity in all situations. Criticize only ideas—not people, and share responsibility. There is no room for abusive language or arrogance in relationships with others.

Passion for the Welfare of the College Each person will adopt the perspective of the Trustees and passionately pursue the overall interests of the College, while maintaining fairness to all individuals in all transactions. Personal advancement at the expense of others is discouraged and cooperation is expected.

Patience and Understanding Each person will listen constructively, keep an open mind, and take the time to understand with empathy before reaching a conclusion. Effective teamwork depends on the confidence that others care and are willing to take the time to listen.

Openness to Change Continuous improvement requires openness to change, even though this usually causes inconvenience, inefficiency, and risk of failure. Olin College will constantly strive to innovate and improve in every area.

Core Institutional Values Quality and Continuous Improvement

Olin College will strive for quality in all that it does. It will also strive for continuous improvement in all areas, and will measure its progress with appropriate national standards.

Student Learning and Student Development Olin College is a student-centered institution. It will strive to provide educational experiences of exceptional quality and a student life environment that provides for healthy personal development.

Institutional Integrity and Community Olin College will strive to develop long-term relationships based on honesty, fairness, and respect. It will further strive to provide a safe environment that supports freedom of inquiry, protects diversity, and fosters a sense of well-being.

Institutional Agility and Entrepreneurism Olin College will strive to minimize bureaucracy, cost, and institutional inertia in all forms. It will further strive to accept appropriate risks in pursuit of opportunity.

Stewardship and Service Olin College will strive to provide responsible stewardship of all its resources while encouraging a spirit of service to society and a life style of philanthropy.

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APPENDIX II

Sources of Olin applications and reasons for choosing Olin

The Admission Office has carefully tracked the ways in which students first hear about Olin, their first point of contact and their reasons for choosing or declining Olin:

First of heard of Olin (Class of 2017) Friend or Family 35% Miscellaneous 19% Teacher/Counselor: 17%

Mail or email 15% Internet search 14% Total 100%

First point of contact (Class of 2017)

Common Application: 25% Student Search: 20% SAT/ACT scores: 21% Miscellaneous 16% Web RSVP for information session and tour: 12% Asked for more information via Olin website: 8%

Total 100%

Why Students Choose Olin (Combined for the Classes of 2014--2017) Top five reasons:

Women Men Quality of Faculty 17% 11% Quality of Students 23% 24% Sense of Community 20% 16% Project-based curriculum 21% 35% Miscellaneous 13% 14% Cost 6% 3% Total 100% 100%

Why Students Turn Down Olin While the response rates are not as high for non-enrollees, the pattern of responses over the years is consistent. The chief reasons why accepted student do not choose to attend Olin can be summarized in three Ps:

Prestige. Accepted students simply can’t turn down MIT (Olin’s top competitor), the Ivies, Stanford, Caltech or the flagship public universities’ honors programs. Program. Either students were not sure about studying engineering; didn’t want to commit to an engineering specialty school; or Olin did not offer the major they wanted. Price. Students received better merit scholarships and/or better overall financial aid packages; often times full tuition, room and board and other perks. Hidden in the three Ps is another factor: the college’s size. Clearly Olin is simply too small for some admitted students.

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APPENDIX III

STRATEGIC VISION DOCUMENT (Full Version)

Olin College – Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Engineering Education Richard K. Miller, President and Vincent P. Manno, Provost and Dean of Faculty June 2012 “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead, 1901-1978) Vision: Olin is a small school with enormous aspirations, created precisely to make a big difference. Unlike most other colleges that work to develop a campus experience that is deliberately unattainable by their competitors, Olin College was created with an altruistic, outward-focused purpose to help others create and adopt best practices in undergraduate engineering education: “With respect to the Foundation’s reasons for establishing the College, let it be said that the Foundation does not seek to establish a generic undergraduate engineering college—one that will simply offer programs similar to many others around the country. Olin College is intended to be different—not for the mere sake of being different—but to be an important and constant contributor to the advancement of engineering education in America and throughout the world and, through its graduates, to do good for humankind .” –Founding Precepts From our inception, we were repeatedly told that what we were attempting to do was outlandish and unlikely to succeed. Nevertheless, we forged ahead and now, ten years later, we have established a successful and distinctive learning model that is attracting international attention. Olin is now poised to move boldly forward in its second decade of learning, exploring and catalyzing change and to assume a distinctive and pivotal position in all of higher education. Olin has established a foundation for success through its people and its achievements. Our core educational philosophy is to enhance our students’ innovative capacity, intrinsic motivation, and ability to work effectively in teams (while, of course, providing rigorous preparation in the principles of engineering and science). The need for future engineers with greater ability in these areas is widely acknowledged and yet the number of other institutions with a serious commitment in this field is small. Olin’s academic programs are deeply rooted in these concepts. Our faculties are recognized as thought leaders in the application of these principles. Our vision is that Olin will become the recognized leader in the transformation of undergraduate engineering education in America and throughout the world. To achieve this, we dedicate ourselves to starting a global movement to innovate within undergraduate engineering education as our next major goal. This will simultaneously require us to strategically build capacity and strength in critical areas, take risks as we assume leadership as a young institution, and persevere as we undertake a long journey, working closely with partners, domestic and international, to foster change.

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Why is this so important? While the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century will not be solved solely by technology, their solution and society itself will depend on the creativity of a new generation of leaders whose competencies are rooted in the educational philosophy espoused by Olin. Priorities: To achieve this bold vision, we will maintain three core priorities to drive strategic resource allocation and decision making throughout this journey. 1. Attract the Best, Produce the Exceptional. Our most fundamental commitment is to quality in many dimensions. Olin’s mission is to prepare exemplary engineering innovators who will make a positive difference in the world. To accomplish this, Olin will continue to seek people who are not only academically accomplished but also endowed with multiple intelligences and capable of leading innovation in diverse contexts. Olin must always be known for producing engineering graduates who are truly exceptional—not only in academic pursuits, but also in leadership skills and innovative orientations as well as diversity in all its dimensions. Supported by excellent staff and facilities, our faculty must be widely recognized as leaders in their professional fields and carefully chosen for their superb abilities to contribute to our unique educational mission. We must commit ourselves to recruiting people who continually make us better as an ensemble. As an institution we must provide developmental support and opportunity that fosters a productive ecosystem that is marked by opportunity and quality. 2. Drive Excellence through Innovation. The single adjective most frequently used to describe Olin College is “innovative.” Our mission is to “prepare students to become exemplary engineering innovators who recognize needs, design solutions, and engage in creative enterprises for the good of the world.” Our aspiration is “…to redefine engineering as a profession of innovation…” Everything about Olin was created in order to be an example of innovation, and to produce graduates who will become a force for creativity and innovation wherever they go. While there is no one definition of innovation that applies to all examples, it is always characterized by a constant concern for better outcomes, bold vision and an openness to experimentation, and patience and resourcefulness in doing whatever it takes to bring new concepts into reality. The Olin faculty and staff will continue to embrace these characteristics so that Olin always remains an exemplar of innovation in all that we do. 3. Maximize Impact in the Academy and Beyond. To fulfill our purpose, Olin must never become content with producing a small number of exceptional engineering graduates each year and providing an innovative, nurturing environment for our small faculty. Instead, we must be fully committed to maximizing our impact on the world beyond our campus borders. Our primary means for achieving this impact is through catalyzing significant innovation in engineering education and through that, engineering practice and education in general. We must pursue meaningful partnerships and focus on influencing the faculty members and academic leadership in other schools. This is the critical challenge, as resistance to change in higher education is legendary. However, our success to date inspires us to seek to become the best at spawning and nurturing bold educational creativity and innovation in all of higher education.

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