elmsnews

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you had a wonderful and restorative summer and are feeling energized for the start of a new academic year! It has been wonderful to see our student-athletes, resident advisors, first-year students, and others beginning to return to campus. There is something especially exciting about this time of year as our campus comes back to life.

The beginning of the academic year is also a meaningful opportunity to welcome our students and their families to the Elms community. Together, we help families feel confident that their students are supported, valued, and well prepared to begin this next chapter of their academic journey. I am looking forward to welcoming new and returning students on Move-In Day this Sunday! Enrollment Management and Marketing and Student Affairs have collaborated to ensure that the New Student Welcome Day on Sunday is memorable for our incoming students and their families. A great thank-you in advance to Dr. Molly Miner and her team, Dr. Andrew Coston and his team, and all of the faculty and staff volunteers who will be on campus this weekend to help welcome our students with the warmth and hospitality that are such a defining part of the Elms experience. I am grateful for all that you do to help make the start of each year so special.

It was a very busy summer! As we prepare to launch the new academic year, I would  like to go back and provide a highlight of some of the events and initiatives that took place over the summer: 

• Cabinet and the Deans met on July 14 for the annual Extended Cabinet Summer Retreat. The team once again welcomed guest speaker Dr. David Brendel, who led a thoughtful and insightful team-building exercise focused on values-based resilience. The extended Cabinet also provided an update on Year 2 of the PRISM Strategic Plan and participated in a brainstorming session focused on planning for the College’s 100th anniversary.

• The Annual Alumni Cape Cold Luncheon took place on Wednesday July 29th at the Popponesset Inn in Mashpee. Chair of the Board, Kate Kane, and I engaged in a question and answer session to provide College updates to the alumni who were gathered for the occasion. Many thanks to the Institutional Advancement team for another successful alumni event. 

• On Wednesday, August 5, the Board of Trustees met on campus for its annual Retreat. Fr. Mark Stelzer provided a thoughtful presentation on Pope Leo XIV’s Encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (On the Protection of the Human Person in the Age of Artificial Intelligence) and explored how the College can contribute to these rapidly evolving contemporary issues. Additional discussion topics included an update the FY27 Budget and preliminary approval of capital projects, a presentation on the updated PRISM Strategic Plan Trustee Dashboard; and conversations about planning for the College’s 100th Anniversary. 

• On August 6, the Public Safety Office coordinated a cross-agency emergency preparedness table-top exercise on the Elms College campus that included participation from the Chicopee Police Department and the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office. I would like to recognize Director of Public Safety, Kellie Cournoyer, for her leadership in coordinating the training and information session. Many thanks as well to the Office of Marketing and Communications for coordinating the internal and external communication related to the exercise. I also want to thank the rest of the Campus Emergency Preparedness Team and everyone who volunteered to participate in the exercise. The safety of our campus and our emergency preparedness remain top priorities for the College. 

• It was nice to see many of you at the Alumni Summer Social event held on the Sr. Kathleen Keating Quandrangle on Wednesday August 19. Many thanks to the Institutional Advancement team for 

bringing together alumni, faculty, staff, and students as we say goodbye to summer. Another event that brought faculty and staff together was the Employee Luncheon on Friday August 21. Thank you to Laurie Fontaine for coordinating this opportunity to strengthen our community and for the College to express our sincere appreciation for everyone's hard work, dedication, and commitment. 

• As I shared in a previous email, I am pleased to announce that, following a thorough search process Dr. Christina Wynn has been selected as Elms College’s next Vice President of Finance and Administration. Dr. Wynn will begin her new role on August 31. I am grateful to VP of Enrollment Management and Marketing Dr. Molly Miner and Dean Damien Murray, who co-chaired the search committee, as well as all of the committee members, for their dedicated efforts to identify and recruit the best candidate for this critical position. I am also grateful to everyone who participated in the process and provided valuable feedback on the candidates. I know you will join me in extending a warm Blazer welcome to Christina as she settles into her new role.

• Summer is always a busy time of the year for the Finance team and, despite transitions, this summer was no different as they worked to close fiscal year 2026 and prepare the fiscal year 2027 budget. Many thanks to the Business Office for all their work. My thanks as well to Amale Neary who provided leadership to the team on an interim basis. 

• Following a financially challenging year in 2026, the College is anticipating that fiscal year 2027 will present its own set of difficulties. As I have been more involved in the budget preparation than usual due to the vacancy in the VPFA position, I have been working with Amale Neary, Sarah Simard, Dave Legitime, in consultation with the Cabinet, Deans, Division Chairs on finding ways to close our budget gap. Establishing an FY27 budget that puts the College back on the path to financial health remains a work in progress. As in previous years,  this effort may require difficult decisions and campus-wide sacrifices. As I have said in my conversations with Cabinet members, Deans, and Division Chairs, we will navigate these challenges together as we have always done due to  our collective commitment, collaboration, and shared sense of responsibility.

• With that said, the College will be able to finalize the budget once enrollment numbers can be accurately determined following Census Day on September 9. I look forward to communicating updates along the way, especially when the budget is officially approved by the Board of Trustees at their October meeting. The Enrollment Management and Marketing team continues to work creatively in collaboration with Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to recruit new students for the fall semester while also supporting the retention of our current students. As we often say, this is a cross-campus, all-hands-on-deck effort. I want to thank all of you for your collective efforts to ensure that Elms remains successful and continues to provide our students with the best possible college experience.

The joy and excitement of welcoming students back to campus over the next weeks will offer important opportunities for us to connect as a community and will serve as a reminder that we are all here for the same purpose—to advance the mission of the College as established by our founders, the Sisters of St. Joseph. I remain deeply grateful for all that you do to support that mission, our students, and one another.

I wish all faculty and staff a great, invigorating, and enjoyable start to the academic year!!

Harry E. Dumay, Ph.D., MBA

President