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September 4,
2002
I want to tell you how thrilled
I am to be here, and to be starting this year with you.
Professor Randy Bartlett, who
spoke at convocation two years ago, told me that when he
got up to speak, he remembered the advice that you frequently
get in books about public speaking; if you’re nervous,
imagine your audience in their underwear or their pajamas.
They never tell you what to do if your audience is in their
underwear or their pajamas.
My husband and I arrived here
on May 31st. We decided to make the trip from Berkeley to
Northampton by driving across the country. The transition
was such a momentous one for us, we wanted to give it the
time and space of a long car trip. Those of you who have
driven across country know how moving and powerful an experience
it is. As you see the landscape unfold over hours and days,
you realize how vast this country is; as you pass through
towns and cities, you realize how diverse it is, how differently
people live within it. We drove up to 8 Paradise Road at
about 4 on a Friday afternoon. About a half an hour after
we arrived, a violent, tornado-like thunderstorm hit. I looked
out the window to see a tree branch crashing to the ground.
We knew we weren’t in California any more. We’re
now settled in at 8 Paradise Road. Those of you who live
in the quad can see my husband doing the breakfast dishes
as you walk to class, doing his part to support Smith. (I
love a man with dishpan hands.) We’ve been learning
as much as we can about Smith, and about the community in
which it sits. I’ve been developing my agenda for the
year, and tonight I’d like to tell you what I want
to Smith to achieve, what I hope we together will build for
the College.
My primary goal is academic
excellence. Smith has an extraordinary depth and range of
programs for a liberal arts college, and a distinguished
faculty. I am committed to maintaining the excellence of
the faculty and to stimulating the curriculum development
that will keep Smith at the forefront. This year I am looking
forward to two projects. The first of these is envisioning
the future of the sciences, as we prepare both for the new
engineering building and for a new laboratory building designed
to stimulate collaboration, between fields of study and between
faculty and students. The second is a discussion with faculty
of how best to enhance the study of American ethnicities
across the curriculum. The Grass Roots group was particularly
concerned about multiculturalism in the curriculum. The faculty
has begun the discussion this summer; it will continue through
the year, as we decide what shape it should take and what
kind of faculty development will best achieve it.
A second goal is diversity.
We have worked hard this summer implementing the grass roots
agreements. We have increased structural support to those
areas of the campus most involved with diversity issues.
We have planned the review of policies and procedures, including
Judicial Board procedures, that we promised. We have put
in place the diversity training programs to which we committed
ourselves. Residential life staff has gone through diversity
and conflict resolution training; sections on diversity were
part of the orientation for department chairs and for new
faculty. The Office for Institutional Diversity, Human Resources,
and Staff Council have been working together to design and
implement a diversity training program for all staff.
We all know, however, that
diversity training is not the question of a single program
but a continuous experience of growth and development. The
Otelia Cromwell Day Committee is planning a year-long lecture
series centering on the theme of multi-culturalism and oppression.
I urge you to attend these lectures. Events and programs
throughout the year will help us all better educate ourselves
about diversity and extend our knowledge of cultures different
from our own.
But I wish tonight not to go
through the details of implementation, but to talk about
how we will measure success. We will measure success in part
by numbers. I want Smith’s student body to be even
more diverse than it is. I am particularly concerned about
the recruitment of African American students, whose numbers
have declined in the past two decades. We are working with
pilot programs this year, new recruitment strategies that
we hope will increase the diversity of the student body.
However, the demographic composition
of the student body is only the first step in realizing the
value of diversity. We have to create the kind of environment
on campus, in the classroom and outside of it, in which we
can learn from our differences. This requires respect and
civility. This does not mean that we all agree or that we
all have the same warmth of feeling toward one another. We
want to build and maintain a community at Smith, but a community
that provides space for difference and disagreement. We learn
from understanding difference, particularly difference that
takes us beyond our comfort level. We all need to respect
one another for that kind of learning to take place. We all
have to have the courage to respond to disagreement with
a generous spirit, neither jumping to a negative judgment
of people who don’t share our opinions or priorities,
or accusing them of silencing us if they disagree. We may
dispute opinions, but we should not attack persons. There
are many important, explosive issues on which people of seriousness
and integrity disagree. We must have the courage to ask difficult
questions and to have hard discussions; we can only do this
productively with respect and civility. A diverse community
is not a homogenized community. We will not all think alike,
and we will not share the same priorities, but we have to
respect one another so that we can learn from one another.
Everyone has ideas and experiences that give her a voice
at the table. If you want to be heard, you also need to listen.
We will grow not only by deciding what we ourselves think
but also by listening to what others think.
My third goal—one related
to diversity—is access and affordability. I am proud
of the fact that Smith draws its students from a wide range
of economic backgrounds. 61 percent of Smith’s students
receive financial aid. (That figure compares with about 39
percent of the students at Williams and 43 percent of the
students at Amherst.) Difficulties in the economy have created
even more challenges for students and their families. Today’s
economic climate makes questions of affordability even more
urgent. I am committed both to looking at the expense side
of the ledger so that we can control cost increases, and
reviewing financial aid policies and strategies so that Smith
can continue to attract students from a wide range of economic
backgrounds. To maintain access, Smith must stay affordable.
Another goal on which I want
to work together is community. I’ve been impressed
and moved by Smith’s sense of community in my first
months here. I’ve seen it in the dinners I’ve
been holding for faculty at which they have been speaking
in powerful terms about their shared sense of mission in
teaching at an undergraduate college. I’ve seen it
in the grass roots process in which the senior staff and
students worked constructively together to forge an agreement
that could move the campus forward in its understanding of
diversity. I’ve seen it in the pride that staff take
in serving the college. There are two initiatives that I
plan to undertake this year to enhance community at Smith.
The first is a review of the housing and dining system. Smith’s
houses are among the college’s most distinctive features.
The cottage system, in which residences look like family
houses, was designed both to enhance the sense of community
and to interweave the life of the college with the life of
the town. I think the time has come to ask whether there
are any features we might add to the housing and dining system
that might enhance it. Are there options we should provide
that we do not currently provide? We will begin this review
with a survey that we will ask each student to complete.
We will then have focus groups. A task force, chaired by
Dean of the College Maureen Mahoney, including faculty, students,
trustees, alumnae, and staff, will make a set of recommendations
to me and the board of trustees by the year’s end.
I have no preconceived ideas about the outcome of this process;
I think it is timely to ask the questions.
The second initiative concerns
career development for staff. As I have been visiting administrative
and service departments over the summer, I have been struck
by the length of service of Smith employees. I want to create
more internal career ladders and more opportunities for the
development of skills and leadership. The service and administrative
staff at Smith are a talented and dedicated group of people.
We should strive to be a model employer.
Finally, I am concerned with
public responsibility. Smith exists in a series of concentric
circles -- the city of Northampton, the state of Massachusetts,
the United States, the world. We must be responsible and
active citizens of each of these communities. We are living
in a grave and challenging time. Many critical issues confront
us -- issues of civics, of ethics, of national policy, of
our place in the world. On the local level, cuts in the state
budget have created a very difficult situation in Northampton,
which has been forced to cut back on valuable school programs
and municipal services. On the national level, we face difficult
issues of domestic policy. The September 11th terrorist attacks
and the national response to them have posed questions of
war and civil liberties more serious than any in your lifetime.
Debates about the global economy, international treaties,
the appropriate role for the United States in conflicts between
or within other nations challenge our conception of our place
in the world. I encourage your engagement in these debates,
and I encourage your service to the community. Smith’s
founders specifically rejected designing a college that would
be an ivory tower, apart from the town. They imagined Smith
as part of the practical life of the town. That’s a
vision we must embrace.
Smith has always embraced its
responsibility to the world. The Grecourt Gates that stand
in front of College Hall have come to symbolize that responsibility
to me. The gates were erected in 1924 as a memorial to the
members of the Smith College Relief Unit, who went to France
in the summer of 1917 to rebuild several villages in the
district of the Sommes that had been ruined by the war. As
the Smith women began working with villagers, the German
army swept through again. The Smith women evacuated the villages,
helping old people pack up their belongings, standing at
the crossroads and guiding straggling soldiers from the British
fifth army with shells exploding around them. They worked
in canteens and hospitals until the allies gained possession
of the village. They returned and started to rebuild again,
not leaving to go back to the United States until 1922. The
gates are a replica of the gates of Chateau Robecourt at
Grecourt, where the unit located its headquarters. When you
look at the gates, I would like you to remember that those
who erected them felt that walking into Smith carries with
it the responsibility of walking out into a world that needs
your energy and help. We should each look for the gates at
Smith that lead out to the world around us. Find your own
Grecourt Gates.
In conclusion, I want to say
how excited I am by what the year will bring. I look forward
to working with you as we all help Smith achieve everything
her founders imagined, and many things they didn’t.
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