Photo Copyright Robert Caplin.
Elaina Eakle
ehe001@marietta.edu
Marietta College President Dr. Joseph Bruno announced that he will be resigning in a campus-wide email on Tuesday, Nov. 9. Bruno, who became the college’s 18th president in 2012, will officially leave at the end of this academic year.
“I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and I believe Marietta College is embarking on a bright future,” Bruno wrote in the email. “I also believe the time is right for me to pursue new professional challenges, and so I have notified the Board of Trustees that I will be leaving the college at the end of this academic year. While this has been a difficult decision, I believe the college is well positioned for a leadership transition.”
According to Tom Perry, executive director of strategic communications and marketing, the college will select an interim president by June 1, 2016 and a new president by July 1, 2017.
Bruno stated that his remaining time at Marietta College will be focused on ensuring the transition in leadership is smooth.
“My focus for my remaining time as president will include further strengthening the position of the college, in partnership with the Board of Trustees, and preparing for a smooth transition to an interim president,” he said.
Perry expressed confidence in Bruno’s ability to facilitate the necessary changes.
“I think he’s going to do everything he can over the next six, seven months to make sure that things are in place,” he said. “Once they decide who an interim is, I’m sure he will work closely with whoever that individual is to make sure that they are up to speed on everything that is going on.”
This announcement came after faculty cuts and a few days before the Nov. 16 faculty discussion that may have included a vote of no confidence in the president.
Despite the challenges he faced, Perry and Dr. Richard Danford, vice president for student life, both believe that the many changes Bruno initiated during his four years at MC will lead to future success for the college.
“I think that President Bruno has moved us forward on some very important issues, particularly in the area of enrollment management, which of course has been a challenge for us,” Danford said.
One of the initiatives the college has taken to improve enrollment included creating an updated and mobile-friendly version of the college website.
“With our old website, our bounce rate was around 80 percent,” Danford said. “Since we’ve moved to the mobile friendly version, that bounce rate is below 10 percent, so that is an indication of the value of that initiative in terms of engaging interested parties with the college through our website.”
The bounce rate includes the number of visitors who enter and leave the site within a short period of time.
Perry stated that the college is making several other efforts to improve enrollment as well, including implementation of a new Customer Relation Management system (CRM) in the Marietta College Office of Admission.
“We’ve taken a number of new approaches to the way we’re recruiting students, from a marketing standpoint and how we’re approaching them through social media and through traditional marketing efforts,” he said.
Perry and Danford both indicated that they are already seeing positive results from the college’s efforts.
“At the last report the number of prospective students in our admissions funnel was up 45 percent over the same point in time last year,” Danford said.
Senior and Student Body President Kennedy Clyde also noted Bruno’s accomplishments with alumni relations.
“President Bruno understands the importance of the Marietta College community, and believes that alumni are not an extension of, but an active and essential part of the success of our institution,” she said. “It is because of his efforts and work with the Office of Alumni Engagement that Marietta College has accepted over an $110,000 donation from the class of 1965, the largest donation the institution has seen of its kind.”
Senior and Student Government Association Treasurer Daley Buckwell acknowledged the challenges Bruno faced but also believes that he will leave a positive impact on the college.
“President Bruno came into the position at a difficult time, and I believe he did well with what he had to work with,” she said. “He inherited a bad situation and did a great job stabilizing admissions and our endowment. I have enjoyed working with him and Mrs. Bruno and I am sad to see them go.”
