From the Editor

Cutting costs not quality

by Sherri Kimmel, Senior Editor

April 1, 2009

It was a sign of the times. There we sat in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, waiting for Pennsylvania’s senior U.S. senator, Arlen Specter, to appear via live feed from the U.S. Capitol. He was to answer questions posed by faculty, staff and students about the stimulus plan, then still being hotly debated.

Provost Neil Weissman paced the ATS stage with members of Specter’s staff, phones to their ears, microphones in hand, as the minutes ticked by. Finally the announcement came. The senator had just gone into a huddle with the other two moderate Republicans who were trying to hammer out a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Though Specter’s aides took questions, the main attraction would not be available that February day.

And so it goes. At the time of this writing, the financial crisis was foremost in the minds of most Americans and the institutions they serve. The watchword was flexibility. That certainly is true in the case of Dickinson College, and more to the point, Dickinson Magazine. The most visible cost efficiency we’ve taken with the magazine is to reduce its page count from the usual 56 or 64 pages to 48 for the foreseeable future. We are not only saving money on postage due to the decreased weight of the magazine, but we are paying less to our printer. And we are being more environmentally sustainable.

As another cost-saving measure, we’ve taken a hard look at our mailing list. How have we winnowed it to achieve greater savings in postage and in numbers of copies printed? We’ve stopped mailing copies to employees who are alumni or are married to alumni, because they receive copies on campus. And instead of multiple magazines going to some addresses, because the recipients are alumni couples, alumni roommates or alumni parents and children, we’ve combined the names on the label so that just one copy goes to an address. If you are in this category and would still prefer a personal copy, please e-mail dsonmag@dickinson.edu.

We’ll also offer international alumni an “opt-in” opportunity to continue receiving the print magazine. Those who do not opt in will not receive a print magazine after this issue, but an e-mail will alert them when the Web edition goes live. We’ve included an explanatory letter to all international alumni in this issue.

Speaking of the magazine Web site, www.dickinson.edu/magazine, you can expect it to become even more robust. During the last year we’ve added new multimedia features—audio interviews, audio slideshows and video—as well as Web-exclusive editorial content. We’ll be doing more of that as we transition to a smaller print edition. As we go forward, we also may need to move stories and photos that normally run in the print edition into the online version of the magazine. Thank you, as ever, for your avid readership.