INTERVIEW


 

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Miller Discusses Joint Appointments  (Play Audio)

     Miller:  Third, we hit upon a new concept and that was, Why don’t we hire faculty dedicated to the Holt School?   But we wanted to make sure that they were every bit as good as the regular faculty.   So, what we did was joint appointments.   So if someone came through the English department, that faculty-those faculty who interviewed become a member of what we call the core faculty.   Those faculty members were chosen by the English department and continued to do some teaching, so it might be half and half or more-a little more in the Holt a little less in the day program.   But that again elevated the quality because now we had more and more full time regular faculty who had been screened and carefully selected who participated.

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Miller Discusses How the Holt School Got Its Name   (Play Audio)

 

Miller: The story of the Holt School getting its name was that I proposed to Thad that we change the name of the school and he said, “Well, who do you want it named after?”  So I said, “Well, how about Hamilton Holt?”  And I know one of Thad’s many talents as president was really recognizing the history and respecting the history of the place.   And so, through him I learned about Hamilton Holt and how important he was in the history of this institution.   So, I said, “Well, what about Hamilton Holt?” I figured why not go to the very top?  And he said, “Well, be patient.  We’ll think about it.”  So, I wasn’t patient.   I was young and I kept pressing it.   Eventually, Thad I think was very pleased with what happened at the school, because his idea of a financially viable, very high academic adult program was realized.   And he did in fact bring it to the Board of Trustees and the Board of Trustees approved it.   That’s how it got the name Hamilton Holt School.

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Miller Discusses the Importance of Private Liberal Arts Education

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Miller: So, those were reasons that I found it appealing to get back (thud) to private institutions and as I look back at my career, I really think of what I’ve done is helping to sustain and advance private (thudding) higher education at small liberal arts colleges.   And these are the places that I think are most precious, most important and with the growth-huge growth-of community colleges, of public universities, and now they’re out fundraising too.   So, in all different ways the competition-and tuition is being much lower-so, private liberal arts colleges have to be better than ever in order to prosper.   And I think since I attended a private liberal arts college, I began teaching in a private liberal arts college, that going back to those roots at Rollins was very, very attractive.   And I was just thrilled to be back here and everything I thought about in terms of this kind of institution I found here, all those positive attributes.

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Miller Discusses the Admission Process for Adult Students

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Miller: Well, I found the Holt students very highly motivated and as the standards went up-because we-one of the things we did with the faculty, great faculty support, was to have an admission standards that was very high. 

 

So, they had to take four courses in order to be admitted.   One was a freshman survey which was taught only by full time faculty.   I believe that was two semester.   Then there was an English course, I believe one other course.   So, it was admission by achievement which for adults is good, because an adult may have been in college and flunked out ten years ago and now they have a seriousness they never had before.   So, how do you judge an adult on how good they are or will be?  So, we developed what we call a behavioral evidence of high quality which was they’d actually take challenging courses and would have to achieve a certain level.   So, the students we found through those processes and those who matriculated through the way I just described were-I think-a higher caliber student.

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Miller Discusses Scholarship Donor Involvement  (Play Audio)

 

Miller: And one of the things we did to attract donors is we permitted the donors-we encouraged the donors to be part of the interview team.   So, we screened our students who applied and they would have to actually visit and talk about why this was important, their background, and so we would have several faculty and a member of our Board of Advisors or a contributor to the scholarship fund.   So, they saw first-hand the quality of the students who were being interviewed and were receiving these awards.   And I think that may have been a little bit innovative to include in the interview process donors, I haven’t seen that elsewhere.   Donors are often included after the fact, invited to meet the students who have received it over lunch.   But to actually be involved as part of the committee it’s a bit unusual.

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