Missives to and from The Hill
Rather than printing a new Letter from the President in this issue, we have opted to print the full text of President Jasken’s inaugural address for those who were unable to attend or view the installation ceremony in April. You can read those remarks in the Inauguration special section, and you can watch her full speech at youtube.com/watch?v=Fko0ljhk_e8.
We will be running the readership survey again after this issue, so if you did not get a chance to respond earlier this year, please be on the lookout for your email invitation to participate.
Take the 2022 readership survey to let us know:
What you love about the magazine
How you think The Hill could be improved
Stories you wish we’d cover — or not
It’s important to us that we are serving your needs in the pages of The Hill to the best of our ability. Your responses are confidential and secure and will help us make The Hill even better for years to come.
The Mail department is your place to sound off about what you read in The Hill.
Letters should include your full name, address, and phone number or email address so we can contact you for confirmation.
Letters may be edited for length, style, clarity, and/or civility.
Mail: Lindsay Sherman
The Hill magazine
McDaniel College
2 College Hill
Westminster, MD 21157
Email: ocm@mcdaniel.edu with "The Hill magazine" as the subject line.
Thank you to the nearly 600 respondents who shared their thoughts about The Hill magazine during our readership survey this winter. The insights you provided are invaluable and will be helpful as we make decisions about the magazine’s content moving forward. Some highlights of responses are included below.
Not surprisingly, more than 75% of our respondents to the survey said they prefer to receive The Hill in print in their mailboxes. Don’t worry: We plan to continue to bring you the magazine in print for the foreseeable future!
“I like the printed copies and to be able to look back at how the institution has changed. I am a young alumni, but I am very tactile.”
“… to hold, mark up, read, fold, and keep as a reference until the next issue arrives.”
For those who expressed interest in being environmentally conscious and only receiving the magazine online, we need to hear directly from you! If you commented about not wanting to receive it in print on the readership survey, the anonymous nature of the survey means we did not have a way to make that change for you in our database. Please send us an email at alumni@mcdaniel.edu to let us know that you no longer wish to receive the printed copy of The Hill and would instead like to receive notification of the digital edition going live online.
“… waste of paper, prefer online access.”
“I would be happy with an email stating that there is a new issue and link to it.”
For those who liked receiving it both digitally and in print (about 17.5%), we will continue to publish an online edition of the magazine, which will include bonus video and photo content that we cannot put in the printed copy.
One of the biggest pieces of feedback we have heard in recent months about the magazine is its timeliness — or lack thereof. As with many industries, paper mills and printers are experiencing supply chain and labor shortages, which affect the publishing schedule of The Hill. For example, we know that the “Autumn 2021” issue did not arrive at many of your houses until mid-January, and we apologize for that.
In an attempt to have our issues arrive more consistently in the seasons for which they are named, we will be adjusting when issues are published beginning with the Autumn 2022 issue. You can begin to expect your three issues of The Hill to arrive in November, March, and July each year. Of course, circumstances beyond our control may result in delays, and we appreciate your patience and understanding should this occur.