Dana Hall Funding a Mission, Essay Example

Betts: (current headmistress of Dana Hall): “Mr. McMurtrie, thank-you very much for meeting with me.”

William McMurtrie: (chairman of the Dana Hall Mission Committee) “My pleasure. I think we have a lot to discuss.”

E.B.: “We do indeed. I know that you are new to the mission committee and that there is a lot of ground to cover, especially since we are in an accreditation year and need to take the time for all our stakeholders to reassess the mission of the school (McFarlan, et. al., 2007, p.3). Would you like to me start filling you in on the challenges we are currently facing?”
W.M. “Please do. I am already aware of the mission of Dana Hall, that it ‘provides a unique opportunity to prepare themselves for the challenges and choices they will face as women and citizens of the world’ (Dana Hall Website, 2014, p. 4).  I must say that it is a mission that I whole-heartedly agree with.”

E.B.: “I do, too – I don’t think there will be any controversy about that!  But you do see the problems, don’t you? In the past four years, we have had four different headmistresses and this has left the school destabilized (McFarlan, et.al, 2007, p.2) and, due to a number of factors, the enrollment has been steadily shrinking. We are now looking at an enrollment of 374 girls (McFarlan, et. al., 2007, p.3) which is nowhere near where we need to be.”

W.M. “I know that the enrollment poses quite a problem for us.  I also understand that the school has tried a number of strategies to help with its financial health, including annual giving, investment income, and property rental or sale (McFarlan et. al., 2007, p. 4). I realize that this might help us temporarily, but it does not solve the greater problem of how we are going to keep the school afloat and still remain an institution for single-sex education.”

E.B. “This is going to be a challenge for us. I think that we both agree that Dana Hall should be kept as an all-girls school.  There is a lot of evidence to show that co-ed schools are not educating girls as well as boys (Dana Hall website, 2014, p. 1). But it seems that there are a lot of parents who do not find single-sex education as important as they used to.  There are fewer applications for enrollment every year (McFarlan, et. al., 2007, p. 3).

W.M. “So what is your strategy for keeping Dana Hall an all-girls school, but still keeping it financial viable?”

E.B. “I think that we need to reach out to the whole community about this – by that I mean, of course, students and parents, faculty and staff, and alumnae.  But I also think that we need to expand our outreach to include Dana Hall’s greater community – businesses, faith-based groups, civic or professional organizations, anyone who is in any way involved in our school (PDH Education, 2014, p. 2).  And I think it should be part of a bigger marketing strategy.  I think that the strategy should be a multi-disciplinary approach and include “admissions management, outreach to the community, enriched academics and teacher empowerment” (PDH Education, 2014, p.4).  We should find out what it is that parents and students are looking for in a school and try to give it to them!”

W.M. “Mrs. Betts, I think these are some great ideas that would put the school on good financial footing but still hold true to its traditions. Let’s thrash out the details and get this to the committee to we can start work on it right away!”

E.B. “That sounds great!”

References

“A Play of Mission, Marketing, and All Things Female”.  (2014). PDH Education. Retrieved from http://pdhed.com/2014/01/28/a-play-of-missions-marketing-and-all-things-female/

“Dana Hall School”. (2014). Dana Hall School.  Retrieved from www.danahall.edu

McFarlane, F. (2007).  “Dana Hall: Funding a Mission”. Harvard Business School. Retrieved from www.mail.danahall.org/~gscattergood/timeline/cookie.html