Welcome Class of 2028

Welcome Class of 2028!

I hope you have enjoyed your first hours on campus and various orientation materials so far…much more to come!

I would like to introduce myself to you and give you a sense of my role at the College. I am beginning my eighth year as President, after twenty-five years at Yale University. Here, I am a professor of Science, Technology, and Society, and Political Science, and I teach seminars in global health and global affairs. I live on campus with my husband John, and we just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary. I met John on the first day of school at the University of Chicago—so watch out. You never know who is sitting near you! We have three adult children—one who is a musician and grant writer in Asheville, NC; one who is a math teacher in Baltimore; and one who is in law school at NYU. They visit from time to time and relish campus as much as we do.

Living on campus is a treat not only because it is so beautiful here but also because I enjoy having students over to the President’s House regularly to talk and interact. We are empty nesters now, so we really like sharing our house with students. I have office hours every Sunday night, which means any student can come and talk with me about pretty much anything. Just email me ahead of time to sign up for a time. And you will receive an email every Sunday night from me with thoughts about the week ahead and the week past.

I am also a voracious reader and am interested in everything. As an undergraduate, I studied economics and art history; I was a hospital administrator for six years; and in graduate school, I studied health economics, health policy, epidemiology, and statistics. I have worked all over the world—and, as I said, am truly interested in everything.

This meandering around a lot of disparate topics was a liability according to some of my mentors. They would ask: but what is your niche? What is your focus? I disappointed them by not naming the content area that would define me.

It took me a long time to realize what interests me is anything that I have capacity to advance, that has positive social impact, and that opens up a new way of thinking about a situation that I (and maybe others) have not seen before.

It’s no wonder that I ended up in a liberal arts college, Vassar in particular, and am developing a Global Collaborative for the Liberal Arts, as well as our new Institute for the Liberal Arts. All of these efforts seek to promote approaches to inquiry that allow people to find their own voices, rather than be dictated to; that engage diverse perspectives to collaborate in new ways; and that are done with the vision of a better collective future—where discovering new ideas and new friendships is at the heart of our time together.

Do any of you relate to anything I have said? Raise your hand if you have diverse interests? Do you like to find new ways of looking at old problems?

So, let’s talk about the mechanics of this approach to learning and living.

Learning and living this way requires a certain fearlessness as one is always delving into new areas (where others may know more) and asking what may be perceived as the “dumb question.” People who live like this question the status quo and explore (what is known as) a “critical stance” toward the accepted way of thinking.

But even more so, commitment to this way of learning and living requires we take the next step—and critique the critique! And so forth. In other words, it asks us to live in a state of inquiry, not a state of knowledge. We never really understand; rather we have the humility to remain always in pursuit of greater understanding. This can be tough to do—especially when issues of social justice and other passions are at stake. It is so easy to become certain we are right prematurely and hence stop challenging ourselves to explore the unpopular viewpoint and humbly learn more. Yet it is these times that greater openness and engagement with different perspectives is most needed.

This summer, as part of the Global Collaborative for the Liberal Arts, I traveled with five Vassar students and two Vassar faculty to Rwanda, where I have worked on and off for about 15 years. Vassar is collaborating with a university there to develop a liberal arts approach in their curriculum, and this summer, we collaborated on a course called “Blue Humanities,” which delved into the importance of water in climate sustainability, the arts, and in people’s lives.

In preparing today’s remarks, I asked the Vassar students who went to Rwanda to reflect on their biggest “aha” moments from their experience. I thought their reflections were quintessential liberal arts, and they gave me permission to share, so here goes. One student said:

“No matter how much prior research can be done, it is nearly impossible to understand a country, its people, and a community until you are on the ground and can talk to people and observe. You will learn so much just by driving or walking around.”

A plug for international travel, and primary sources!

Another reflected on the integration of science and humanities saying:

“I learned that the sciences are deeply intertwined with ethics, art, and politics. We saw this firsthand when learning about the political economy of water in Rwanda.”

And last, a student reflected:

“The relationships you build with your peers (those from Vassar and other institutions) while in uncomfortable or difficult situations will often be the strongest.”

And it is here I want to emphasize that those moments of discomfort—like when we question a prevailing way of thinking—are hard. No doubt. But they are also at the very core of building strong, lasting, and resilient relationships with your peers and faculty—relationships that will last a lifetime, that will travel with you and keep you honest and attentive to what matters in the future.

Before I end, I want to address one more aspect about our next four years together. We will live here together as adults. I am an adult and you are adults. I may be older and hence have more failures from which I have hopefully learned, but we are all adults. This means you have much independence and ability to explore and try out new ideas, activities, and ways of living. And because we are sharing this community, we are mutually dependent. Our actions are interconnected. This is exciting because we will learn from and hopefully inspire each other, and it also means that our individual actions affect the broader community and vice versa. My hope for this year is that we will strengthen many capacities—the capacity to think outside the box, to see the world from new perspectives, to care for one another in new ways, and to trust in community. These are bedrock skills that are fundamental to a liberal arts education and will equip us to lead meaningful lives together.

I am delighted to be here to share this time with you. Please take care of yourselves and each other, accept the uncomfortable moments as a way of life, read my emails, and enjoy your Vassar journey!