I am writing to share my disappointment regarding Gary Lemon's departure as director of the McDermond Center and Management Fellows Program. To many, this move appears to coincide with changes being proposed to not only the Management Fellows, but all Programs of Distinction at DePauw. I want to address some of the concerns surrounding the Programs of Distinction while offering some insight from my own experience as a Management Fellow.
Let me start by simply saying that I would not have attended DePauw had it not been for the Management Fellows. I did not think DePauw was competitive with other private schools in the Midwest, including the University of Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis. More importantly, I did not think it was competitive with the specialized programs of large state schools, such as the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. My view of DePauw changed, though, when I discovered the Management Fellows Program. I had been looking for a specialty program that focused on providing job relevant skills and included a semester long internship, and that is exactly what I found in the Management Fellows Program.
I recognize that, since I was applying to college nearly 10 years ago, President Brian Casey and the administration have made significant strides in positioning DePauw alongside many of the top private and public schools, making today's college applicants feel much more confident in the quality of every type of DePauw education. However, I believe that the Management Fellows Program remains a significant asset.
One of the biggest misconceptions about the Programs of Distinction is that they hoard valuable opportunities, offer them to a select group of students and withhold them from the rest. That was certainly not my experience during my time as a member of Management Fellows. I found the program to be focused not on excluding students, but rather on providing those students with a fair degree of certainty about their future field and an opportunity to gain significant exposure to it should they be willing to commit the time necessary to do so.
While most students do not share this certainty and do not participate in the program, it remains unclear to me what opportunities are offered to students in the Programs of Distinction that are not offered to the broader student body, should students choose to take advantage of them. Indeed, all DePauw students have the opportunity to take part in a full-time, semester long internship. If students and parents are unaware of that fact, it would seem to me that the communications strategy around that option-rather than the structure of the Management Fellows Program-warrants revisiting. Some students want to study abroad, some want to stay on campus for eight semesters (an experience I still look upon with some degree of envy) and some want to participate in full-time internships. The beauty of the DePauw experience is that each of those options are possible for all students, and those who have a strong interest in pursuing a specific field post-graduation have the opportunity to do that too.
The Programs of Distinction in their current form offer a tailored, career-track experience that provides a counterbalance to the purely liberal arts aspects of DePauw. I would not be where I am today without the Management Fellows. I have now been working at the Brunswick Group for five years, the same firm where I participated in my Management Fellows internship. I have been assured by the administration that the Programs of Distinction will be made "more robust" and "profound support" by not only the administration but also the Board of Trustees. As someone who would not have attended DePauw without the Programs of Distinction and knows many others in that same position, it is my sincere hope that the administration stay true to its word and carefully consider any changes to the Programs that would modify their mission or diminish their value for future students.
Daniel Harrison
Class of 2009