By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer

Faculty members at the College of Charleston recently completed a series of conversations regarding the identity of the college as a liberal arts and sciences institution.

The conversations, a direct result of a motion passed at the Nov. 29, 2005, college senate meeting, arose out of a concern that faculty become an integral part of the institutional decision-making process on the issue of identity.

At the heart of the issue is whether the college should be known as a liberal arts and sciences university. Some faculty members think the institution is too large to use the term. In fact, any language describing the college as “liberal arts and sciences” was eliminated in a recent advertisement for a new dean of humanities and social sciences.

Some of the questions posed during the series of discussions were:

• What does it mean to call a college or university a “liberal arts and sciences” institution?

According to the strategic plan and the Fourth Century Initiative vision, the College of Charleston community is “committed to becoming a nationally preeminent public liberal arts and sciences university for the 21st century.”

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the expression “liberal arts and sciences” to describe the College of Charleston in internal and external documents?

• Should the expression “liberal arts and sciences” continue to be used to describe the College of Charleston?

Mike Haskins, the recently appointed vice president for marketing at the college who oversees and coordinates the institution’s marketing, branding and communications efforts, said the issue is not as much about the use of the expression itself as it is about self-examination.

“It helps to look at yourself and how you view the organization internally and make sure it’s in sync with how it’s viewed externally,” Haskins said. “The college wants to be clear about how it identifies itself to prospective students in particular. We want students that come here to understand what we’re about and that they’re coming to a certain type of institution.”

The college is not changing its identity, Haskins said, but rather is studying what it means to be a liberal arts college.

“The important thing to know about the institution’s identity is that we already have an identity,” he said. “What we need to determine is whether that identity is depicted accurately in people’s minds. We’re not changing it, but rather we’re making it clear, so that when we engage them, they have an accurate picture and we match what their perceptions are.”

Haskins gave his basic description of liberal arts.

“Basically, it means a well-rounded education,” he said. “We help the students prepare not just to move into careers, but to be leaders in society and to deal with the larger issues of society. We’re in the business of educating students to be successful, to contribute to campus community, to be productive citizens.”

What the college is looking at now, Haskins said, is two-fold and inter-related: how to market itself and how to brand itself.

“Branding is the promise that the college makes to its constituents,” he said. “It has to do with what kind of experience the students, employees, faculty and alumni have. Marketing is how we work together to be sure we’re fulfilling and delivering on that promise.”

A great deal of effort is spent on communicating and listening to the constituents, Haskins said.

“Over the next couple of years, a large part of my job will be to look at how the college brands itself internally and externally.”

For the college to look at how it markets itself is not necessarily driven from a need to be competitive with other colleges and universities, Haskins noted.

“It’s actually part of our strategic plan in which we’re focused on improving the overall student experience.”

The plan, called the Fourth Century Initiative, involves improving the facilities, increasing faculty to improve the student/faculty ratio, enhancing financial aid opportunities and providing better student support services in advising, tutoring, career services, student affairs and wellness.

In addition, the college has invested nearly $300 million in new facilities and maintenance of existing facilities, which will significantly increase the overall square footage of the institution.

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