ONEONTA _ Hartwick College's next president said she intends to be known beyond the Oyaron Hill campus when she takes office July 1.
Margaret Drugovich was hired by the college's Board of Trustees during its three-day winter meeting that wrapped up Saturday.
"I do have a personal interest in becoming invested in the communities in which I live," Drugovich said Sunday during a visit to the campus.
Interest in the global community, as well as the local community, is something that the colleges should also inspire in their students, the 48-year-old Geneva, Ohio, native said.
Drugovich said she will be spending time in Oneonta every few weeks as she transitions to replace President Richard P. Miller Jr. Miller is retiring after the end of the spring semester.
Drugovich, the vice president for strategic communications and university enrollment at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, said she still has a job to do at that college.
"It's important that you start well and finish well," Drugovich said.
Once in Oneonta permanently, Drugovich said she will be keen to become active in the community outside of her role at Hartwick.
In Delaware, Drugovich is involved with the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce.
She said she'd be looking for nonprofit groups or community organizations in Oneonta to which she can lend her talents.
"I'd like very much to find the right role," Drugovich said.
Delaware is a small city about twice the size of Oneonta.
"I love small communities," Drugovich said. "I think they really are the fabric of America."
Drugovich previously told The Daily Star she does not have an opinion on the fate of Division I sports at the college because she was not part of the process of drawing up the proposal.
