On Oct. 30, President Valerie Smith sent out an email announcing that the special assistant to the President, Susan Eagar, will have a new role as director of events and programs, effective Nov. 20. This role will be to oversee event planning broadly, and it is part of structural changes to the department of events management.
President Smith’s email outlined the responsibilities of Eagar’s new position.
“In her new role, Susan will be responsible for all event operations and year-round logistical coordination of Swarthmore College events including major campus events, prominent speakers, and presidential events, as needed.”
In her current role as special assistant, Eagar provides high-level administrative support to the President and manages the daily operations of the President’s office. The email also outlined that Eagar would collaborate with external clients, oversee booking, and act as the main contact for all scheduling as well as the main point of contact between the event staff, host of the event, and support for events. She will also “implement, execute, and manage” the reservations systems and “provide ongoing training and resources for those scheduling events.” All of these tasks will be done through Swat Central, which is a “new, centralized” online event reservation system.
According to Eagar, Swat Central will replace the current online campus calendar and EMS, the current space reservations system. This new system will put space reservations, setup needs, and events publicity into one place; it will be implemented in spring 2018. Swat Central, like Eagar’s new role, indicates structural changes in the department of events management.
“It will serve as a one-stop hub for our campus community to learn about and reserve space for College events, classes, and meetings,” Eagar said via email.
The department of events management operates under the executive director of auxiliary services Anthony Coschignano. Coschignano mentioned via email that Swat Central will “provide more efficient and effective services.”
The Events Management Department was previously known as “Space and Summer Programs,” but since the department underwent restructuring, the name has been changed. The Events Management Department falls under the umbrella of Auxiliary Services. Other departments under Auxiliary Services include Dining and Catering Services, OneCard, The Swarthmore Campus and Community Store, Office Services, Post Office, and the Inn at Swarthmore.
Regarding the function of her department, Eagar said, “The Events Management Department is responsible for providing quality service to all our customers seeking the use of campus facilities.”
The structure of the Events Management Department includes an events coordinator and setup crew leader. The department plans to hire student workers as well to help with daily planning, particularly relating to summer programs. Coschignano said that this hiring process and structuring will occur over this academic year.
Coschignano noted that the department’s previous structure was similar, the changes are significant.
“The objective is to create an events office that will be best be able to support campus events in a more holistic, efficient, and creative way,” he said in an email.
This objective is reflected in President Smith’s college-wide email, which mentioned that this particular instance of restructuring relates to the 2016 visioning exercise.
On the Swarthmore College website, the 2016 visioning exercise is said to be “an effort … to help [the college] think more holistically about both the nature of students’ lives beyond the classroom and the types of spaces, services, technologies, activities, and campus culture that might support those experiences, both now and into the future.”
The 2016 visioning exercise is a complement to the Strategic Directions plan from December 2011, during the presidency of Rebecca Chopp. Strategic Directions is a 40-page outline of a “strategic plan” to explain core values of the college, evaluate the current environment of the college, outline recommendations for change, lay out commitments to support the work, and provide implementations and future steps for the plan. Other elements of the plan included a campus facilities master plan as well as a diversity and inclusion plan.
A result of Strategic Directions was the development of a Master Plan for the college, which includes plans for the college’s growth, including the expansion of the number of buildings and students. The Master Plan can be found on the Swarthmore College website.
Eager’s new position as director of events and programs is indicative of the college’s efforts to grow and restructure which have been outlined in the 2016 visioning exercise and the Master Plan.
