Personnel Policies Handbook For Supportive Operating Staff

To The Supportive Operating Staff: 

It did not take me long after I became an employee of Denison University in the summer of 1998 to discover that "community" really is the right expression to describe all of the people - support staff, administrative staff, and faculty - who make this college work. I quickly saw that there is a shared commitment to our students, their families, and the graduates who leave here that binds all of us together in a special relationship. I see this relationship daily in the way in which Denison people feel about one another as colleagues and as friends.

I am convinced that it takes all of us to provide the kind of balanced, well-rounded education to young people for which Denison has been acclaimed for more than a century and a half. We are all "teachers". Many of us interact daily with students in the course of our jobs - in the dining halls, in offices, on the grounds, and in the residence halls and academic buildings. The way in which we, as adults, relate to these young men and women is all part of their learning experience. I know that the Denison community does this well. I hear it each week when alumni talk with me or write to me concerning the good feelings they have about their Denison experience and the many people who touched their lives on campus.

One of the joys of a college campus is that it is full of new beginnings. Each year we start anew with a little different group of young people and new programs and initiatives on the campus. Whether you are a Denison veteran or a new member of the campus community, you have my "welcome" to this new year or to a new job. You have joined a team on which all of us are eager to help one another to feel productive and fulfilled in our work. I hope the Denison community experience is as rewarding and meaningful to you as it is to me. I look forward to our work together.

Best Wishes

Dale T. Knobel

President