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A Matinee with Students

By on April 29, 2013

A nice lady took this picture of me and some students

Saturday Rick and I very much enjoyed attending a performance of Coriolanus in DC with Professor Tony Lilly and several students.

Prof. Lilly proudly wears his P&P ribbon

As regular readers of this blog know, Rick and I go to the theater as often as we can. In recent years, we thought we were detecting an upsurge of interest in Coriolanus (based on a very unscholarly review of our own experience!) We’ve seen RSC productions in both Ann Arbor and London, we’ve seen a production at the Stratford Festival, and of course last year there was a filmed version starring Ralph Fiennes. Now this excellent production at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. (I particularly liked the use of sound in this one, which featured drums and other percussion instruments.)

So I asked Professor Lilly and our students why they thought this particular play might have been of special interest in the last decade or so. Here are some of the ideas we batted around:

  • The play starts with hunger and food riots. Perhaps in a time of growing economic  inequality the question of how government should respond to movements like Occupy Wall Street seems especially relevant?
  • Coriolanus hates “celebrity culture.” That is, he resents having to expose himself in what he sees as pandering for public approval. Maybe we’re beginning to wonder whether our own obsession with celebrity in politics has gone too far?
  • We’ve had occasion to consider the relationship between military leadership and political leadership, arising from  experience in Afghanistan as well as from personal scandals. Maybe the play speaks to those issues?

Gathering in the lobby

 

At intermission, some of the students were connecting the play to their reading of the Federalist Papers and the concept of the “mask of zeal,” talking about which characters are wearing the mask of zeal and which are actually zealous and whether there’s a difference.

So, just another day on which I was reminded of what a privilege it is to be in higher education. Sitting in a theater, talking with young women about ideas like these. . . how lucky am I?

This entry is filed under academics, Campus Life, Faculty, Uncategorized.

Brownies Trying Science

By on February 20, 2013

Earlier this month 81 Brownie Scouts from 9 troops spent a day on campus “trying science.” By completing 15 science related activities, participating Brownies earned three badges.

The day was sponsored by our chapter of Iota Sigma Pi, the chemistry honor society, and led by students from Professor Jill Granger’s Service Learning: Science Outreach course, ably assisted by many of their friends and classmates.

Seeing undergraduate students sharing the love and the fun of science with younger girls is utterly delightful. Faces light up, brows furrow in concentration, hugs get exchanged. And little girls get an experience that makes it clear that big girls do science, that doing science is fun, and that college is a place where cool things happen. (And where the food is really good — apparently all-you-can eat of lots of different things in the dining hall is a highlight of the day!)

It’s a win-win-win, and pretty cute to boot.

This entry is filed under academics, Campus Life, Local Interest.

An Academic “Rumpus”

By on February 14, 2013

Audience members arriving for the lecture

This week Sweet Briar’s Lectures and Events Committee and the Tusculum Institute sponsored a visit to campus by Henry Wiencek, journalist, independent historian, and author of “Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves.”

I was pleased that Mr. Wiencek, also the author of books on George Washington and the Hairston family, appeared on campus for several reasons. First, obviously, Virginia history — and Thomas Jefferson’s role in it — is a topic of special interest; Sweet Briar is so close to both Monticello and Poplar Forest that Mr. Jefferson feels like a neighbor. And then, in recent years Sweet Briar and the Tusculum Institute have launched various projects studying enslaved people on the former Sweet Briar Plantation and their descendents in our community; examining the larger context of slavery in Virginia is essential to those efforts.

Henry Wiencek and Tusculum Institute Director Lynn Rainville arriving

But mainly, I was pleased because Master of the Mountain has been the center of an academic controversy — what Wiencek himself refers to as “the rumpus.” Wiencek argues that Jefferson’s management practices as a slaveholder must be taken into account as we assess his public and private statements (and silences) on the topic of slavery. If you’re interested in the controversy, Smithsonian Magazine published an excerpt from Wiencek’s work which you can find here: the New York Times described the controversy here: Annette Gordon-Reed, distinguished author of The Hemingses of Monticello, published a “debunking” of Wiencek’s work in Slate.

I think too often we forget how much academic debate matters. The heart of academic work is not in declaring what is known or has been learned but in marshaling competing ideas, interpretations, observations and analyses and letting them contend with one another. In his lecture, Henry Wiencek openly considered the grounds on which he and his critics differ. He represented himself not as an authority on Jefferson come to reveal the truth but as an active intellectual engaged in thrashing out contentious issues.

Reminding students that ideas are worth arguing for and over is essential to a healthy intellectual community. As is showing them that vigorous academic debate can be conducted without profanity, personal aspersion, invective, or abuse.

Some people in the audience seemed to agree with Mr. Wiencek. Others challenged him on various points. Everyone heard him frankly describe the differences between his critics and himself and explain why they mattered — and why he cares enough about his subject to make the strongest case he can for his views. Whatever members of the audience learned about Jefferson as a slaveholder, they learned something very important about intellectual integrity and what it means to care passionately about ideas.

 

This entry is filed under academics, Campus Life, Diversity, Faculty, Local Interest, Uncategorized and tagged , .

Sweet Briar Creates

By on February 9, 2013

Last week ended on a lovely note — the opening of the “Sweet Briar Creates” exhibit in Benedict.

The strengths of the professional artists on Sweet Briar’s faculty are well known. Their work is a source of pride to colleagues and students alike. But less well-known are the talents of faculty and staff members for whom art is an avocation rather than a primary professional commitment. “Sweet Briar Creates” showcases and celebrates their work.

As everyone moved around the gallery at the opening, I heard many versions of “who knew?” Who knew a professor of poetry was also an outstanding woodworker? Who knew that a housekeeper at the Elston Inn made beautiful jewelry using reclaimed materials and natural motifs?

The VCCA’s Craig Pleasants and CFO Scott Shank: photo by Rob Alexander

Or that a grant proposal writer in the Development Office both painted and made vividly-colored “slumped glass?” (And yes, I had to asked what that meant too.) An Aramark employee creates multimedia pieces exploring consumer lust for technology products. An English professor makes graceful and subtle ceramic vessels. The Master Naturalist creates musical instruments from from things like gourds and deer bone. And so on. . .

ARAMARK’s Kylene Hayslett and Cheryl Warnock, Theater

Talking with the artists and with those who were there to enjoy the art gave me a renewed appreciation for the creativity that runs through every part of campus every day. Art is one reflection of that creativity, of course, but only one — to me, the display represented the way in which  everyone on campus — whatever her or his title and official duties — is seeking to see things from new perspectives, explore additional facets of a topic or experience, and express insights in original and creative ways.

Doing that requires taking some risks.

Studio Art’s Paige Critcher and Environmental Studies’ Rob Alexander

For a professor of environmental studies to display his photographic work (to a crowd that includes professional artists) might, I imagine, be daunting. Having the courage and the vision to take a creative stretch — that what’s the exhibit reminded me is so special about the people who work at Sweet Briar.

 

 

This entry is filed under academics, Campus Life, Faculty, Uncategorized.

Looking Around and Forward

By on January 8, 2013

The time after the holidays and before students return to campus is when many professional conferences and meetings take place. For example, I’ve just come back from the President’s Institute of the Council of Independent Colleges, which was held concurrently with the annual meeting of the Women’s College Coalition.

Like folks in all other professions, college presidents find it valuable from time to time to raise their heads from the daily agenda in order to look around at the larger context shaping that agenda and forward toward whatever might be coming next. There is much to be learned from the experiences and ideas of educational leaders from across the country who share Sweet Briar’s commitment to liberal education and student success. America’s liberal arts colleges share many values, commitments, and challanges. What makes them stronger as a community makes each college individually stronger as well.

Here are things I especially appreciated during my time at the conference:

  • I heard a keynote address by Andrew DelBanco on the value of liberal education. Many of the ideas he shared with the assembled presidents are developed in his book, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be. DelBanco’s main point is that residential undergraduate education plays an essential role in preparing students for citizenship and community life by sustaining an environment in which they can practice leadership, decision-making, debate, and self-government under the guidance of role models and mentors.

 

  • I participated in a robust discussion about financial aid policy. This session has received some press coverage; the question is whether financial aid is appropriately allocated between two purposes — to meet the financial need of families and to provide non-need-based aid to students with particular qualifications.

 

 

 

 

Of course, I also valued the opportunity to pick the brains of other college presidents, hear about interesting innovations moving forward on other campuses, and reflect on the national picture of opportunity for students.

It goes without saying that leading an academic institution in this day and age is challenging work. But a conference like these is just one more occasion on which I realize how lucky I am to have the chance to do it! Providing the kind of education Sweet Briar offers to new generations of women, and advancing the proud tradition of the American liberal arts college as an option for all students, is endlessly interesting and unquestionably important.

 

This entry is filed under academics, Economics of Higher Education and tagged , , .

Re-Connecting

By on October 22, 2012

This weekend was Homecoming/Families Weekend here on campus, and a fine one it was indeed.

The weather was crystalline and mild; this picture taken by Dean Amy Jessen-Marshall gives you a sense of it. The schedule was packed with events, including soccer and field hockey games (which the Vixens played well, although alas didn’t win), a performance (to a packed Babcock) of the King and I, lectures by faculty members Eric Casey (on libraries and archives in the ancient world) and Padmini Coopamah (on China’s interests in Africa), the induction of four impressive alumna athletes into the Athletics and Riding Hall of Fame, a picnic (BBQ pork, macaroni and cheese, corn muffins), a Guion open house hosted by science faculty, a faculty-led “classroom crawl” through newly-renovated classrooms, a networking event hosted by the Black Pearls, the dedication of a refurbished Music Room, hunter trials on the old proving grounds, and probably lots of other things I’m forgetting to mention. Parent and Alumnae leadership volunteers received special updates and training, old friends reconnected, students enjoyed meeting alumnae and one another’s families. A fine time, indeed.

Reflecting on the weekend I found myself thinking about what really makes these occasions so very special. Clearly the beautiful setting and interesting events are important, but in themselves they don’t explain it. After all, on a gorgeous fall weekend in the Blue Ridge there are lots of opportunities to do interesting things in beautiful places.

What alumnae, family members, and students can only do HERE is celebrate connections –  connections forged in and through this place.

Any fine college strives to make its campus an idealistic place — a place where students can experience a bit of the world as they would have it be. Sweet Briar seeks to be a place where ideas are respected, engaged, and lived by; a place where individuals matter and can develop into their own best selves; a place where faculty and students call out the best in each other and in the college. Students who experience that kind of place during their undergraduate years will, I believe, be inspired to work to make the rest of world more like that after they graduate. . . and as the careers of our alumnae amply demonstrate, in fact they do.

When alumnae come back, when parents visit, they are reminded of those ideals. Spending even a short weekend in an environment where the life of the mind is evident, where individuals are valued for their talents and characters, where achievement is nurtured and recognized, where fair play and respect can be assumed — that is, I think, what really makes alumnae and parents most proud of their connection to Sweet Briar. It’s what makes coming home to Sweet Briar truly refreshing.

 

 

This entry is filed under academics, athletics, Campus Life, Faculty and tagged , .

And we’re off!

By on September 3, 2012

Gathering for ice cream after Convocation

Opening Convocation last week kicked off the new academic year and welcomed the class of 2016 — already known as the “Sweet Sixteen.”

One of those addressing the community was McVea Scholar Katie Bitting ’13: she reminded her peers that “Money, time and energy all tend to be limited resources for college students. What we decide to do with these resources is a great indication of what we value in our lives and our education. College is the best time to discover what we enjoy, to find what interests us and what our passions are.”

Remarks were also offered by Cameron fellow and mathematics professor Steve Wassell. Taking up the theme of “value,” which is the focus of this year’s common reading book — The History of Money by Jack Weatherford — Professor Wassell encouraged students “to appreciate the here and now, which is forever becoming the there and then.” Dean Amy Jessen-Marshall noted that in a liberal arts curriculum “every discipline challenges us to contemplate and test our ideas about value.”

Opening Convocation is, for me, always an inspiring affirmation of why we value Sweet Briar and all the people who make the College what it is. Presenting awards for academic excellence is one highlight of the ceremony; you can find the list of honors on sbc.edu. Another is presenting ROSE awards to staff members for “excellence as a team member” and “excellence in service.” And of course we honor the value of an outstanding faculty: this year I had the distinct pleasure of announcing a new endowed chair in art history given in honor of former professors Eleanor Barton and Aileen “Ninie” Laing. Professor Chris Witcombe was named as the first Barton Laing Professor to loud and prolonged applause.

Leading the recessional out of Babcock and toward the ice cream social waiting for us just outside, I couldn’t help reflecting on the value of rituals like Convocation. We come together as colleagues to celebrate shared values, including our respect for scholarship, for excellence, for history, and for the future our students will create. And we come together to celebrate our bonds to each other as members of a community dedicated to the intellectual values of the liberal arts and the daily joys of discovery and creation.

And of course we  join together to share sunshine and ice cream on a lovely late summer afternoon!

This entry is filed under academics, Campus Life, Faculty and tagged .

Who knew?

By on July 23, 2012

I’ve been reading Savage Beauty, Nancy Milford’s biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, which I’m finding to be quite compelling.  Millay’s was not an admirable life, but its themes are resonant — it’s the story of, among many other things, a talented woman trying to craft a new role for women and poetry in the early years of the 20th century. It’s also a story of ego, lust (for fame, sex, admiration), self-absorption, and addiction.

In my reading I had reached what are clearly Millay’s declining years when I ran across this sentence: “She was also in the care of the distinguished Dr. Connie Guion, who had come to Steepletop.” (At which I sat up with a yelp, causing Rick, who was quietly reading the Sunday paper, to wonder whether a bee had stung me.)

Yes, THAT Connie Guion. After serving on the faculty at Sweet Briar from 1910 – 13, which she did in part to help support the college education of her younger sisters, Guion went to medical school and graduated first in her class. She had a long and distinguished career in medicine; in 1946, for example, she became the first woman professor of clinical medicine. Among her many accomplishments were significant improvements in the hospital treatment available to poor and working class patients and creating a new curriculum for medical students at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Guion died in 1971, the year I graduated from high school. Hers clearly was an admirable life.

Several pages in Savage Beauty are dedicated to the story of Dr. Guion’s treatment of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Some of it raises interesting questions about Dr. Guion’s role in treating (or perhaps at some points enabling) Millay’s addiction to morphine. Milford also quotes from Dr. Guion’s notebooks on the topic of menopause, which Millay was experiencing at the time: Guion noted wryly that it is in fact “not necessary to get fat or depressed.” (p. 439)  A profile in the National Library of Medicine notes that Connie Guion was known for her “common sense, perennial good humor and collection of outlandish hats.”

A portrait of Connie Guion hangs in the dining room at Sweet Briar House and for three years I’ve shown it to guests with pride. But I now know much more about her career than I previously did and I admire her more than ever. Although her time at Sweet Briar was short, we remember her for good reason; it’s entirely fitting that our science building carries her name.

May the students who work in Guion Hall daily be inspired by her ambition, dedication, care for the least advantaged, and good sense. . . .

 

This entry is filed under academics, Campus Life, Faculty, Sweet Briar History, Uncategorized and tagged . | 3 Comments

Discussing Educational Leadership

By on June 21, 2012

In the last few days my travel schedule included a couple of events focused on academic and educational leadership, giving the week a serendipitous and interesting theme.

First I had the chance to speak to participants in the Senior Leadership Academy, a collaboration between the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Academic Leadership Institute. (And an excellent program: our own Dean Amy Jessen-Marshall is a former participant.) It was an honor for me to be invited to speak to this group of aspiring academic leaders: my topic was the way a president thinks about making vice-president level appointments and molding an effective senior staff team. Believing, as I do, that higher education will be facing complex and crucial challenges for decades to come, it seems to me that preparing the next generation of deans, vice-presidents, and presidents to address those challenges wisely is an essential priority.

The title for my remarks was “Cabinetball.” If you’ve read the book Moneyball and if you loved the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, you have two essential reference points for what I had to say. In very brief summary, I emphasized two things. First, effective academic administration is a team effort and the team’s success can only be measured by institutional achievements that advance mission. In other words, a good cabinet works together to ensure that students are learning, growing, and moving toward their professional and personal goals. This may seem to be patently self-evident, but I assure you it’s not; sometimes the pursuit of reputation (both personal and institutional) can displace the pursuit of actual mission. I also suggested to these future leaders that they should think less about whether they want to be leaders then about whether they want to do the work that leaders need to do to support student success. That is, I suggested that they’d do well to think in terms of the verb “to do” rather than the verb “to be.”

I also noted that, these days, running a college means negotiating a turbulent and rapidly-changing environment, requiring flexibility, nimbleness, and the willingness to take (prudent, appropriate) risks. The metaphor here was “Calvinball,” which you may remember as the game Calvin would play with Hobbes in which the rules were constantly and mystifyingly changing. . . .sometimes higher education in today’s economy feels like that. Under the circumstances, leaders need creativity, agility, and courage in addition to the integrity, wisdom, dedication, intelligence and other qualities that academic leadership has always required.

In the next post, I’ll say a bit about the Annapolis Group meeting, which is where I went next. . .

This entry is filed under academics, Uncategorized and tagged , , .

Community Update from the April Board Meeting

By on May 3, 2012

As regular readers may know, after each meeting of the Board of Directors I report back to the community by distributing a written report and holding open “town hall” style meetings with faculty, staff, and students. From time to time, I’ve shared those reports with all of you.

I do hope that you’ll take a few minutes to read the report from the April 2012 meeting of Sweet Briar’s Board. Several important issues were on the agenda, including the progress we’re making on the Plan for Sustainable Excellence.

Sustainable Excellence, approved by the Board a year ago, calls for enrollment growth and a review of curriculum undertaken with the goal of achieving a student:faculty ratio of 10:1. (10:1 was selected as the goal because it will allow Sweet Briar to remain among the smallest and most personal of colleges while increasing the financial sustainability of the academic program.) At the April meeting, I presented the College’s plan to achieve that goal within two years.

The plan carefully balances our mission of providing a full range of excellent liberal arts majors and a strong general education program, our desire to preserve tenure and tenure-track positions and retain outstanding faculty, and our need to make adjustments to overall levels of instructional staffing.

In coming months, you will be reading more about this plan — in the Sweet Briar Magazine, in our e-newsletters, on sbc.edu, and in other communications from the College. In the mean time, here’s an excerpt from the community report:

“Sweet Briar, like every institution of its size and type, faces challenges that can be addressed only by making difficult decisions . . . given the reality of our circumstances, we can be very proud of the way we have chosen to meet them – directly, frankly, collegially, and thoughtfully.”

Preserving excellence, increasing sustainability, so that Sweet Briar will be as distinguished for the next hundred years as it has been through the last century. That‘s the plan.

This entry is filed under academics, Economics of Higher Education, Uncategorized and tagged .

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