乐播传媒

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Hansen Timeline

October 2002

President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, a scholar of Chaucer and feminist literary theory and former Haverford College provost, is inaugurated on Oct. 26.

January 2003

乐播传媒 hosts a major statewide diversity rally that fills and surrounds Merrill Gymnasium with more than 4,000 participants who show vigorous support for the local Somali community in the wake of anti-immigrant actions.

May 2003

乐播传媒 approves undertaking a Campus Facilities Master Plan to review campus facilities, infrastructure, and surroundings.

October 2004

In a 20-year study of its optional SAT policy, 乐播传媒 finds no differences in academic performance or graduation rates between submitters and non-submitters.

Phase I of the Campus Facilities Master Plan envisions New Commons, Alumni Walk, and a residence at 280 College Street, plus academic renovations to Hedge Hall and Roger Williams halls.

November 2004

The public phase begins for the $120 million Campaign for 乐播传媒: Endowing Our Values.

February 2005

Begun in 1997, the Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Project concludes with some 440 interviews with those who worked with, knew, or were directly affected by Ed Muskie 鈥�36.

September 2005

乐播传媒 announces that Maine students enrolled at New Orleans鈥揳rea colleges devastated by Hurricane Katrina are welcome to take classes at 乐播传媒, without charge. Eighteen Mainers take up the offer.

December 2005

乐播传媒 announces that it will purchase electricity from renewable energy sources such as biomass and small hydroelectric generating plants.

Spring 2006

乐播传媒 breaks ground for a 152-bed residence at 280 College Street.

July 2006

The Campaign for 乐播传媒: Endowing Our Values concludes by surpassing its $120 million goal.

February 2007

President Hansen is among the first to sign the American College & University Presidents鈥� Climate Commitment, pledging 乐播传媒 to become carbon neutral.

May 2007

President Hansen convenes her first Presidential Symposium, on diversity and demographics in U.S. higher education.

June 2007

President Hansen announces the innovative 鈥渟wing dean鈥� program, where a dean recruits students during one year then joins the Dean of Students office to mentor the new students in their first year. The program reflects broader diversity efforts at 乐播传媒.

September 2007

Focusing on writing, quantitative skills, and interdisciplinary thinking, revamped General Education requirements go into effect for members of the Class of 2011.

February 2008

乐播传媒 opens New Commons. Continuing the college tradition of all students dining together, the facility is an 鈥渁rchitectural symbol of what makes 乐播传媒 so special,鈥� says President Hansen.

September 2008

A gift of $2.5 million boosts the college鈥檚 already high use of local and organic food and inspires a yearlong food and sustainability initiative called Nourishing Body and Mind: 乐播传媒 Contemplates Food.

May 2009

Ben Stein 鈥�09 and Amrit Rupasinghe 鈥�10 defeat Bowdoin to win the NCAA Division III men鈥檚 doubles tennis championship.

September 2009

President Hansen announces Choices for 乐播传媒, a strategic plan that is the product of two years of campus discussions. Goals are identified around the arts, natural sciences and mathematics, and the 乐播传媒 learning experience.

October 2009

H1N1 influenza virus hits 乐播传媒 as 250-plus students report influenza-like illness. All students return to good health.

December 2009

乐播传媒 appoints Nancy J. Cable as vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs. Her newly organized division brings together admission, student financial services, communications and media relations, and career services.

February 2010

Burning biomass for campus heat and some electricity will be key to the college鈥檚 newly announced Climate Action Plan, which anticipates college carbon neutrality by 2020.

March 2010

乐播传媒 begins the restoration and expansion of two historic buildings, Hedge Hall and Roger Williams Hall, as academic spaces.

August 2010

乐播传媒 announces creation of an Office of Intercultural Education to coordinate academic, social, and residential programs for underrepresented student populations.

September 2010

乐播传媒 redeploys and expands its career program: the 乐播传媒 Career Development Center.

October 2010

乐播传媒 dedicates a restored and improved Garcelon Field.

March 2011

The 乐播传媒 faculty announces approval of a major in dance.

April 2011

President Hansen accepts the position of executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins.

May 2011

乐播传媒 announces formation of a Presidential Search Committee co-chaired by trustees Michael Chu 鈥�80 and Valerie Smith 鈥�75.

Admission reports a triple crown of gains: record applications; a more selective acceptance rate; and a surge in 鈥測ield鈥� 鈥� the percentage of accepted students who choose 乐播传媒.

July 2011

On July 1, Nancy Cable, vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs, begins her term as interim president of 乐播传媒, through June 30, 2012.

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鈥楢live to Change鈥�

By H. Jay Burns
Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Nine years ago, Elaine Tuttle Hansen based her inaugural address on a line from Emily Dickinson: 鈥淚 dwell in possibility.鈥�

Those four words gave Hansen the opportunity to suggest what she believed was possible for 乐播传媒: that the college could meet the challenges of the era by cultivating its historic and distinctive capacity of being, as she said, 鈥渁live to change.鈥�

In her final 乐播传媒 interview before assuming duties as executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at The Johns Hopkins University, she spoke with 乐播传媒 Magazine editor Jay Burns about her 2002 inaugural vision and the realities that followed during her tenure as the seventh president of 乐播传媒 College.

The key line in your address comes early when you said, 鈥淥ur goal is to be alive to change.鈥� You then quote cultural theorist Gloria Anzaldua鈥檚 comment on personal identity: 鈥淭ransitions aren鈥檛 what we go through. Transitions are what we are.鈥�

The very identity of a college of the liberal arts and sciences is premised on the idea that we are always embracing change. A quarter of our students change each year. At a slower rate, we welcome new faculty and new staff.

A great college embraces new people and their new habits, needs, and expectations. The curricular, educational, and social frameworks of a liberal arts college are just that: frames that contain constant transition.

When I said this in 2002, I had no idea how dramatic the changes were going to be in my nine years at 乐播传媒. The economic upheaval beginning in 2008 demonstrates that the possibility of positive and negative change is always out there, and we have to expect it even when we can鈥檛 predict it.

Early in my presidency we developed a 10-year financial model, which reflects the idea that you have to be proactive and keep adjusting your assumptions as part of the planning process. For example, before the recession, we assumed a 5-percent average annual increase in tuition, which went back to the 1970s. Now we鈥檝e significantly lowered that assumption.

We used to assume an 8-percent total return (taking into account spending) on our endowment; we鈥檝e since incorporated a lower assumption into our 10-year plan.

We had to change our assumptions about campus housing in 2002 because of code issues in our wood-frame houses, and through our Campus Facilities Master Plan, we developed a framework to build the 280 College Street residence, New Commons, and Alumni Walk, and to renovate Garcelon Field as well as Hedge and Roger Williams halls.

We had to learn to make plans. To design yourself as a planner is a little presumptuous 鈥� as Henry James wrote, 鈥淥ne鈥檚 plan, alas, is one thing and one鈥檚 result another.鈥� But I do feel our facilities planning and college planning have been effective.

So we run the college the way we ask students to run their lives. We ask them to develop fundamental skills and attitudes that should help them adapt, be flexible, and learn new things for the new jobs that don鈥檛 yet exist. 乐播传媒 has to do the same thing.

Setting aside the economic meltdown, it should have been clear to anyone in 2002 that liberal arts colleges needed to take steps to face disruptions. We knew the trends putting pressure on liberal arts colleges, such as the decline in the percentage and numbers of students earning liberal arts degrees.

So if we weren鈥檛 alive to change in 2002, we needed to be.

You opened your inaugural with a brief comment about rituals: 鈥淩ituals afford us prospective opportunities for expressing our hopes and aspirations, our desire for change, and our will to improve.鈥�

In one sense, rituals reassure people. They emphasize, again, the framework that will contain future change 鈥� that鈥檚 why they鈥檙e rituals. At the same time, they always mark change. They are interestingly complicated, almost oxymoronic moments.

In a similar way, I have found great pleasure in observing the construction on campus, something I hadn鈥檛 anticipated. Perhaps this is because new buildings and renovations create an image of stability yet they reflect great change. It鈥檚 a nice point-counterpoint.

Every 乐播传媒 president has wrestled in some way or another with the question of diversity and inclusion on this campus. In your inaugural, you described the challenge of creating and recreating a college that feels open both to those who never doubted attending college and to 鈥渢hose who have not been able to feel so confident about their destinies鈥� and who 鈥渂ring a wider variety of experience and perspective to the campus.鈥� What does it means today for 乐播传媒 to 鈥渋nvite those who have not been able to feel so confident about their destiny鈥�?

At our 2007 Presidential Symposium, 鈥淎 College for Coming Time: Diversity and the Changing Demographics of Higher Education,鈥� I noted how many colleges and universities today are able to tell of both aspirations and frustrations around diversity.

乐播传媒 is alive to this challenge. We know what it is to seek change while staying firm. Of all American colleges, 乐播传媒 was among the very few that radically put its stamp on diversity long before anyone used that term. It鈥檚 part of our sturdy framework.

But for a college founded by abolitionists, always open to women, and known for recruiting freed slaves 鈥� what does that foundation mean in the early 21st century, when the world has changed so much around us? The value and definition of diversity and inclusion is very different now than in 1855 or in 1945 with the return of students from World War II or in the 1970s when most of the baby boomers were going to college.

At the symposium, we focused on the changing demographics. We know that fostering diversity and inclusion is as tough as or tougher now than it used to be. The competition for students is tougher. The financial challenge of providing need-based aid for students is greater. Maine is still mostly a white state and located in a region of the U.S. where high school enrollments have been decreasing.

And yet, if I鈥檓 proud of anything during my presidency, I am proud that so many people took on the task of working harder to sustain our principles, and prepare all students for the future. 乐播传媒 is more diverse now than ever before, and our incoming Class of 2015 continues this trend: 103 U.S. multicultural students, up from 86 last year, a number that itself represented sustained improvement from prior years. Our increased diversity will continue to affect the culture of the college in ways we can anticipate and in ways we cannot.

In 2002, you said that while society places value on a college education to an individual, 鈥渢here is no consensus about the social or civic value of higher education鈥� generally.

Society鈥檚 understanding of the purpose and value of higher education has only gotten even less clear.

As an example, recall that in February 2009 President Obama called for all Americans to commit to attending at least one year of college. The statement was met with praise by college leaders; ostensibly, the president鈥檚 speech expressed a consensus that American higher education represents a great public good.

But when you look at reaction to the president鈥檚 suggestions 鈥� one critic dismissed it as just another government subsidy 鈥� you realize there is even less alignment between our view of higher education, as both beneficial to the individual and to society, and society鈥檚 diminishing belief that higher education is a public good that fosters social and human progress.

The call for all Americans to commit to a year of college, while praiseworthy, does diffuse and make much more complex the whole concept of what going to college means in our country. If we have a country that is committed to going to college, yet no agreement on what that means, that pushes us further from a consensus of the public value of higher education.

This lack of consensus of the value of a college education is seen in the national discussion of three-year baccalaureate degree programs, a discussion I鈥檝e joined partly because 乐播传媒 has a three-year option created by President Phillips in the 1960s.

While I do understand that a three-year option is about money, an important consideration, the discussion suggests that a U.S. college education is something that can or should be made briefer. Walking to Gate 4 at LaGuardia Airport recently, I saw a sign in front of a telecom store: 鈥淎nything worth doing is worth doing faster.鈥�

What I view as the purpose of a higher education is opposite from the idea of getting it over with as quickly as possible. If you attempt to measure our value by that idea, you will never believe in 乐播传媒. Among other things, we are trying to cultivate the ability to listen, focus, and slow down in a world of, as writer Linda Stone said, 鈥渃ontinuous partial attention.鈥�

President George Colby Chase, whom you quoted at length in your inaugural, said that 乐播传媒 must safeguard against existing 鈥渢o gratify the selfish instincts of the more fortunate.鈥� 乐播传媒 should develop citizens who are 鈥渇it exponents鈥� to increase the world鈥檚 鈥渟weetness and light.鈥� If 乐播传媒 long ago evolved from the teacher-preacher culture of alumni professions, how does 乐播传媒 prepare people to help society achieve greater 鈥渟weetness and light鈥�?

The teacher-preacher culture has been part of some enduring narratives among 乐播传媒 alumni. One particularly enduring 乐播传媒 story that alumni in finance and business tell with real emotion is their feeling that they somehow fell from the high aspirations of the preacher-teacher model by pursuing lucrative careers. This narrative seems quite strong among alums of the 1980s, though some felt it more than others.

Today, I believe we see absolutely no evidence for this narrative on campus. We see strength in the arts and encouragement for students to pursue great careers in the arts. And we have strength in the economics department and encouragement there.

Through both our heritage and distinctive current programs, like the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, 乐播传媒 will always have a culture of social engagement. We tend to seek and attract students who want to do good work, and our seniors desire to find work after graduation that aligns with their experience of having done meaningful and well-aligned academic work while at 乐播传媒. As President Chase said, our graduates seek work that 鈥渆xemplifies to the less favored the meaning and uses of life at its best.鈥�

At the same time, 乐播传媒 has taken great strides in better equipping students to discover and pursue careers that help them make full use of their new liberal arts habits and skills. This past year, we reorganized the 乐播传媒 career program and redeployed it as the 乐播传媒 Career Development Center. Again, this is part of 乐播传媒 being a place that looks forward, anticipates, plans.

So, in terms of helping society achieve greater 鈥渟weetness and light,鈥� maybe your calling is to a profession directly connected to helping people. Or maybe your calling is to a lucrative profession. Either way, I hear our alumni talking passionately about how their 乐播传媒 education has helped them be principled, bold, and engaged leaders in their chosen field and in their communities. And I hear the impulse to do good work when alumni talk about helping students and young alumni. This is their expression of doing good work.

What I don鈥檛 see at 乐播传媒 is one prescription for how you do good work. And there shouldn鈥檛 be one prescription, in my view.

In 2002, you offered the idea that 乐播传媒 campus life should be about 鈥渆xperimentation and creativity,鈥� with room for 鈥渂oth disagreement and mistakes within a certain zone of temporary safety [and] provisional protection.鈥� What have been the challenges? The successes?

If we look at that statement through the lens of residential life, one challenge is no different than ever before. We have 2,000 students, 1,700 of whom are in residence, all age 18 to 22!

Still, I believe we have altered the atmosphere in our residence halls. This is not about casting aspersions on prior groups of students. It鈥檚 what 乐播传媒 has done to help students themselves take responsibility for improving the reality of their residential life.

It has helped that 乐播传媒 built a new residence hall at 280 College Street. Its flexible, welcoming, and interactive spaces help communicate the fact that a student鈥檚 residential life is fully connected to other parts of 乐播传媒 life.

We have improved the training of junior advisers and residence coordinators, and Dean of Students Tedd Goundie has the perspective that student leaders can and should be empowered to be more accountable for the actions, programs, and outcomes in the residences.

Of course, this is a lot to ask of our students. It can look like 乐播传媒 is abdicating our responsibilities as adults. But the successes, when they come, are proportional to the amount we are asking students to invest in their community. I mean, talk about building!

Being alive to change includes updating our understanding of generational perspectives. In your inauguration, you spoke of young people being highly able and having an extreme emphasis on 鈥渟elf鈥� and 鈥渟elfhood鈥� but not, ironically, possessing great self-awareness.

When I quoted author and child psychiatrist Robert Coles in that part of my inaugural, I was worried about children who grow up having cultivated perfection their whole lives. They have, as Coles said, 鈥渧ery definite notions鈥� of what should come to them. They are attuned to accomplishing tasks but not attuned to self-reflection. So when they fail, as we all do at some point, do they have the ability not only to start over but also to learn something important about themselves?

At our annual mid-May Senior鈥揟rustee Luncheon, over and over we hear seniors reflect on the incredible value of taking risks and achieving 鈥� and the value of not being the best. And these are our stars. They will have great successes in their lives. But what they appreciate, in addition to high-powered academic excellence, is that 乐播传媒 offered a path for them to try something new 鈥� join a club, sports team, or musical group 鈥� that requires them to stretch and risk not being the star.

Sometimes it is a challenge to convey this part of the 乐播传媒 culture and not make it sound like we encourage dabbling. It鈥檚 not that. When you listen to our seniors, they are very intense and serious about what they have pursued at 乐播传媒. Shot put All-American Liz Wanless 鈥�04 used to say that she worked hard at throwing after being inspired by how so many people seemed to have their own passion at 乐播传媒: 鈥淚鈥檓 just another person trying to achieve a goal,鈥� she鈥檇 say.

I can hear in my mind other variations of this 鈥� 鈥淚 learned that who I am includes this passion for doing something that no one else was going to expect me to do.鈥� America used to hold this concept up as something highly valuable: the amateur ideal. By trying many things, failing at some, you get a sense of who you are, particularly in relation to others, and what you really love.

This is 乐播传媒: broad-scale participation, passion, intensity 鈥� our Amore ac Studio.