Academic Affairs

Presented by
Irene Herold, Dean of Mason Library
Robert Madden, Special Collections Librarian
Lucy Jones, College Archivist

Mason Library is pleased to present to the College community for your information and comment the mission of the Keene State College Archives. The first sentence is intended to define the functions of the archive and the archive’s intended patrons. The second sentence places the mission within the context of the college, specifying the topics of the records of enduring value and the scope of the holdings by listing all incarnations of the College.

College Archives have three main functions, one of preservation, another of maintaining information, and finally providing access to the information of the institution. While providing access to information is a familiar function of libraries, preservation and maintenance may not be. Preservation refers to the physical condition of what is placed in the Archive. Preservation would be re-housing fragile materials and capturing information produced on materials or in formats that will deteriorate over time so they will be available for the future. Maintaining refers to the organization and development of the collection. Maintaining in this context involves the creation of records management procedures to ensure that the history of the college is routinely captured and placed where future generations can access the information.

New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation (NHHEAF) Network Educational Foundation awarded to Mason Library and Franklin Pierce University’s Library a twelve-month joint grant for the creation and implementation of records management at the respective institutions. The grant-funded archivist, Lucy Jones, commenced her work in January. As she works to establish records management protocols for Keene State College, Mason Library is simultaneously developing supporting documents of policy and procedure to formally establish the College Archives. This mission statement is just the first official step in this process.

Keene State College Archives Mission:

The College Archives preserves, maintains, and provides access to institutional records of enduring value as a resource for Keene State College students, staff and faculty, alumni, researchers, and the interested public. In support of the mission of Keene State College, the College Archives is committed to providing access to information about the College’s origins, goals, and programs, including its former incarnations as Keene Normal School and Keene Teachers College.

Tags: academic excellence, academic priorities, access, accountability, alumni by irene // 3 Comments »

This afternoon I get to spend some time with Judy Cramer, a Keene State graduate from the 1980s. I first met Judy when we became colleagues at Buffalo State College in the mid-1990s. She moved on to a position at another school a few years later, but we’ve remained friends. Last year about this time I received an email from Judy that started, “I opened the new issue of Keene State Today and imagine my surprise….” So, we’ve reconnected as members of the Keene State community.

Judy achieved some degree of fame at Keene State as the first woman to be sports editor of the Equinox and the first woman to be sports director of the radio station. She has since gone on to develop a reputation as an important scholar in the areas of women in radio and women in sports and sports journalism. She’s currently an associate professor at St. John’s University.

So, why is this a momentous occasion worthy of a blog entry? The prospect of Judy’s visit has got me thinking about the role our alumni play at Keene State College. My interest at the moment is a curricular one. Our colleague and Alumni Board president David Gagne speaks often about the interest of our alumni coming back to serve the institution. And they’re on campus frequently. But I wonder about the degree to which we think about our alumni as those who can offer an important classroom experience for our students.

As a faculty member, I was often confronted with this issue. I’d get a call from a dean or someone in advancement that began, “So and so from the class of 19-something or other is going to be on campus next week. Wouldn’t you love to have him guest lecture in your class?” I remember at the time that my thinking along these lines: What am I going to give up if I turn a day over to so and so? Why is advancement getting involved in how I handle my classes? I have a set curriculum and it doesn’t allow for this tangent.

A few short years later, I became the dean who made the phone call to the faculty member. As I began to network with alumni–one of the things I loved about being dean and now about being Provost–I came to realize that these were not just friends of the college who wanted to bring their war stories to classes. These were people who had integrated the knowledge and experiences gained as a college student into successful careers. They were master practitioners who had much to offer our students in the classroom.

It was the theater department faculty who really helped me to change my thinking. They were constantly bringing back alumni, often on no notice, and were marvelously effective at integrating the alumni perspective. Students got a demonstration and testimonial of how college learning is the foundation for post-college success. And they buckled down. The department faculty built a theater–literally and figuratively, by the way–by integrating alumni into their curriculum. They recognized that alumni were a key indicator of the success of their program.

 When we’re asked to engage our alumni in a classroom experience, we should think less about the cost and more about the benefits to our curriculum and to student success. It forces us to be a little nimble, but I like that challenge, too.  And if it supports other institutional goals, well we’re all a part of this community and should support the goals of the institution.

Tags: alumni by enetzhammer // No Comments »