乐播传媒

During one of the spring 2010 meetings that ultimately produced 乐播传媒鈥� current mission statement, the working group hit a roadblock.

鈥淧eople were going back and forth about ways to look at something, and we were not coming to a consensus,鈥� recalls Leslie Hill, associate professor of politics and a member of the mission statement subcommittee.

Then a student, one of four in the 14-member group, spoke up. 鈥淗e spoke passionately. He articulated the issue in terms that were clear to him and, I think, different for some of the rest of us, but that brought some insight into what we were talking about,鈥� Hill says.

+The 乐播传媒 College Mission Statement

鈥淎nd I just remember thinking, 鈥榃ow, it is terrific that this young person could really open this back up again.鈥� He created an opportunity for us to hear each other better. And I was so impressed by that.鈥�

Adopted 10 years ago this month, the 77-word 乐播传媒 mission statement has become a touchstone for the college community. 鈥淎ny college that leads its mission statement with an affirmation of the 鈥榚mancipating potential of the liberal arts鈥� is a place I want to be,鈥� Clayton Spencer said at the ceremony announcing her appointment as college president, in December 2011.

And as Hill’s story suggests, the statement resulted from a collaboration that, a decade later, remains a bright memory for the people involved. “Other than those wonderful moments I have with students, that process was the most delightful thing I’ve been associated with at 乐播传媒,鈥� says Rebecca Herzig, who chaired the Mission and Purposes Subcommittee that crafted the statement as part of 乐播传媒鈥� decadal accreditation review.

鈥淭he committee was wonderful,鈥� says Herzig, a professor of gender and sexuality studies. 鈥淛ust a marvelous, committed, smart group that represented a lot of facets of 乐播传媒.鈥�

Paul Gastonguay 鈥�89, a committee member and the college’s tennis coach, agrees. 鈥淓veryone on the committee took great care to ensure that all of 乐播传媒鈥� foundational and essential characteristics were authentically represented.鈥�

Settling on a mission statement, whether existing or new, is an essential step in the college’s accreditation review. The statement is 鈥渢he standard by which our performance on all the other standards is measured鈥� during the review process, Herzig explains. (The 2000 review proceeded from the 1990 mission statement. And, yes, accreditation review is happening again now 鈥� but there are no plans to change the mission statement.)

Starting in February 2010 and facing a hard deadline 鈥� that May鈥檚 meeting of the Board of Trustees, whose approval would activate the statement 鈥� 鈥渨e were working fast.鈥� They had just three months not just to forge a draft, but to secure buy-in from 鈥渁s many possible individuals and constituencies as we could,鈥� Herzig explains.

鈥淎nd we did it” 鈥� winning unanimous approval from the trustees.

From start to finish, in fact, the process was painstakingly consultative. 鈥淲e sought out expertise wherever we could find it,鈥� says Herzig.

鈥淲e talked to poets about tone and rhythm. We talked to classicists about various interpretations of the motto,鈥� the Latin Amore ac Studio (鈥渨ith ardor and devotion鈥�). 鈥淲e talked to archivists about text we could mine for ideas, and to alumni about what stuck with them most about their 乐播传媒 educations.鈥�

To reach students, the team held a “Mission Night” in Commons, put a draft of the statement on napkin holders in the Den, ran ads in The 乐播传媒 Student, and got air time on campus radio station WRBC-FM. They even showed the draft to prospective families visiting campus, who were surprised 鈥渢hat we might care what they thought,” Herzig says.

The speed of creating the statement is all the more striking when you consider the thematic burden the Mission and Purposes Subcommittee had to bear. First of all, of course, the statement needed to, er, state what 乐播传媒 does: It 鈥渆ducates the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community.鈥�

But there were aspirational values to assert and to align with that academic function 鈥� imperatives of equity and inclusion and of environmental sustainability, for instance, not to mention the hoped-for ethical posture of 乐播传媒 graduates. And there were guiding voices to summon forth, notably those of 乐播传媒 founder Oren Cheney (whose 鈥渃ollege for coming time鈥� gained an “s” for clarity 鈥� 鈥渃oming times鈥�) and of educator and civil rights leader Rev. Benjamin Mays, Class of 1920.

Mays, in fact, inspired one of the most-cited phrases in the mission statement. In Born to Rebel, his autobiography, he credited the college with 鈥渕aking it possible for me to emancipate myself, to accept with dignity my own worth as a free man.鈥� The mission statement, in turn, leads off with the college’s dedication to 鈥渢he emancipating potential of the liberal arts.鈥�

Equally powerful is 鈥渢he transformative power of our differences,” which is not only a potent phrase in and of itself but, in its context in the mission statement, is revealed as the engine of the 乐播传媒 enterprise.

Not surprisingly, 鈥渢here was some real wrestling around the phrase 鈥榯ransformative power,鈥欌�� as Leslie Hill recalls. The subcommittee needed to reconcile 乐播传媒’ historic invocation of diversity with a contemporary understanding of equity and inclusion. 鈥淚t has a different meaning and, of course, different opportunities and possibilities,鈥� Hill says. Moreover, they needed to make inclusiveness 鈥渕ore substantial 鈥� not simply to add 鈥榙ifferent faces鈥� to the community, but rather figure out how their presences enrich the community.鈥�

Crafting the mission statement 鈥済ave us an opportunity to articulate and debate what we really think we鈥檙e trying to do.鈥�

In short, there was a lot to load into a text that, the subcommittee believed, needed to be much shorter than its 283-word predecessor. “In its conciseness, the new statement gave us bite-sized values, priorities, and action steps that we could look at, understand, recite, and act upon,鈥� says Marianne Cowan 鈥�92, a member of the subcommittee who is now Associate Director of Program Design for 乐播传媒鈥� Center for Purposeful Work.

鈥淎nd it gave us something to talk about to an external audience 鈥� especially, perhaps, the 17-year-old high school student 鈥� so they understand who we are and what鈥檚 important to us.”

It’s a testament to the subcommittee’s powers of perception, distillation, and balance that, 10 years later, the 乐播传媒 mission statement is so present in the daily life of the college. It has been the basis for admission essays and has informed course design. And its language resonates in campus proclamations large and small.

鈥淚’m continually struck by how frequently and how divergently 乐播传媒 people pull on the mission statement,鈥� Herzig says. 鈥淧eople call on it as a tool to crack open conversations, to move forward with ambitions, projects, hopes. They use it to critique things that they find troubling. 鈥榃hy aren’t we living up to the mission in this way?鈥欌��

Part of that utility, naturally, resides in those 77 words themselves. But the process itself of assembling them, she says, also influenced the 乐播传媒 culture. 鈥淚t gave us an opportunity to articulate and debate what we really think we’re trying to do.鈥�

One student on the subcommittee has carried insights from that process into his professional life. Now a postdoctoral research fellow at The New School for Social Research, Mikey Pasek 鈥�12 earned a doctorate in social psychology at Penn State and now studies how people with different ethnic and religious identities cooperate or clash with one another across group lines.

Thanks to his mission statement experience, 鈥淚 pay acute attention to the way that organizations and colleges describe their mission,鈥� Pasek says. 鈥淯nderstanding how a school sees itself tells me a lot about whether it is the type of organization I鈥檇 want to dedicate myself to.鈥�

It’s a harsh irony that the 乐播传媒 mission statement’s 10th anniversary comes just as fate, in the form of COVID-19, is challenging the college and its guiding ethos in ways that could have hardly been predicted. For most of the past decade, for example, one of the statement’s concepts most taken for granted was 乐播传媒’ essential nature as a 鈥渞esidential community.鈥� But no one’s taking it for granted these days.

Still, as another member of the 2010 mission statement subcommittee points out, that statement itself carries the seeds of its own re-invention. 鈥淚t seems like a sort of romanticized or idealistic vision of who we are, but it’s really much more than that,鈥� says Marcus Bruce 鈥�77, professor of religious studies.

鈥淎s we try to get oriented in the midst of crisis, especially one that impacts us on so many different levels, it’s important to have that mission statement as a guide in terms of our history and our vision of ourselves at a particular period of time and what we envision for the future.

鈥淚 think it’s really important.鈥�