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Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, Sweet Briar College
August 25, 2004
Welcome to all of you, and a very special welcome to our newest students,
the Class of 2008. There are not many moments in life so filled with promise
as the beginning of an academic year, and this year promises to be very
special indeed.
We will have among us this fall, for the first time, Sweet Briar graduate
students. Ten students who began our new Master of Arts in Teaching program
this May are continuing this fall. Welcome these pioneers. This program
will certainly grow. I understand that a number of new first year students
have entered Sweet Briar with the intention to remain for a fifth year
to complete the masters program.
Also for the first time this year, Sweet Briar will have program in Engineering—only
the second women’s college in the nation to do so. This program
will grow as well—in fact, I expect that six or eight of you will
decide to major in engineering, and you will be pioneers as well. One
of the most innovative aspects of this new program is that its introductory
courses are designed to serve as general education courses. In fact, the
course offered this fall counts both for Quantitative Reasoning and Written
Communications. So even if a student plans to major in classics or Spanish
or sociology, she can take an engineering course or two and gain something
that few women in the nation have: an understanding of what engineering
is, and how engineers approach problems—knowledge that will prove
very powerful for young women moving into the professional world in a
very wide variety of fields.
This fall also promises a celebration of the Arts, with a wonderful series
of concerts, performances, lectures, and gallery talks that collectively
will bring some of the leading women in the arts to campus. Our October
Waxter Environmental Forum brings Edward O. Wilson, one of the most distinguished
scientists in the world, to Sweet Briar—something none of us will
want to miss. The clarity of E. O. Wilson’s mind, and his grasp
of the relationships between the arts, the humanities, and the sciences
is a living illustration of the power of the liberal arts to illuminate
myriad problems and complexities of the physical world, the body, the
mind and the soul.
And finally, last year’s study and strategic planning, all of the
conversations and discussions we held here and around the country to explore
the shape of Sweet Briar’s future, have borne fruit. This year promises
the beginning of rethinking how we do some of our most important work.
The Board has stated our task boldly: “Recognizing the strength
and quality of its academic program, the Board of Directors of Sweet Briar
College has determined that to claim its pre-eminence as a women’s
college for the 21st century, the College’s faculty and staff will
demonstrate that intellectual and professional endeavors will permeate
our students’ lives. To this end, faculty and staff will extend
their engagement with students in developing a unique vision for each
student’s future that integrates all of her learning experiences
during her college years and beyond.”
The Board has charged the College to “articulate how students can
chart their own learning paths” and to “focus the educational
program” on students’ intellectual and professional achievement
beyond Sweet Briar. To this end, we will be working this year to shape
an advising program that goes well beyond the selection of courses and
academic majors. Advising at the new Sweet Briar will be far more comprehensive.
We will this year be developing powerful new ways to help each student
understand and take ownership of her own college experience, and to guide
her as she moves on to graduate school and professional life.
Our conception of an ideal education for 21st century women has been
forming for several years. Our Natural Bridge vision of the mid 90s developed
into the strategic focus we called NEXUS: the integration of academics
with the development of professional skills and intentional experiences
designed to connect our students with the world beyond Sweet Briar’s
gates. The Board of Directors has asked us to take this one step further,
to insure that Sweet Briar will set the standard for women’s education
for decades to come.
We cannot know exactly what the future will bring for the College, or
for any individual among us. But students, one thing the faculty and staff
know without question is that each of you holds within yourself the power
to develop a network of friends and mentors, to live an honorable and
fulfilling life, and to make your own experience at Sweet Briar intellectually
rich and emotionally compelling. This cannot be done for you. But we pledge
mutually that we will do our utmost to insure that the opportunities you
will have this year at Sweet Briar compel you to aim high, that you will
find here the support you need to think deeply, and that you will, along
the way, have a memorable year filled with many pleasures.
Whether all of the promise of the 2004-2005 year is fulfilled is, of
course, dependent entirely upon our selves. We have our work cut out for
us, but ours is exciting and important work. Let us rededicate ourselves,
every one of us, to the pursuit of truth, to personal integrity, and to
membership in a genuine community of learners. Let the academic year commence!
Thank you.
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