What was deemed a “bold step” by the 乐播传媒 faculty in 1984聽鈥� their vote to make standardized tests optional for admission聽鈥� has become a national march 30 years later.

NPR’s reports on a new study of 33 U.S. colleges and universities that yields more evidence to support what 乐播传媒 instinctively knew back in 1984: that standardized tests do not accurately predict college success.

And at their worst, NPR reports, standardized tests can narrow the door of college opportunity when America needs to give students more access to higher education, not less.

Dean of Admission Leigh Weisenburger: Your high school transcript “is a much bigger story” than standardized test scores:

The study’s principal investigator is Bill Hiss ’66, former 乐播传媒 dean of admission and now retired from the college. Valerie Wilson Franks ’98 is the study’s co-author and lead investigator.

Hiss tells NPR’s Eric Westervelt that “this study will be a first step in examining what happens when you admit tens of thousands of students without looking at their SAT scores.”

What happens, Hiss says, is that if students “have good high school grades, they are almost certainly going to be fine” in college, “despite modest or low testing.”

In terms of college access nationally, the authors pose a rhetorical question, asking whether “standardized testing produces valuable predictive results, or does it artificially truncate the pools of applicants who would succeed if they could be encouraged to apply?”

The answer “is far more the latter.”

Specifically, requiring standardized tests for college admission can narrow the door of college opportunity for otherwise capable students who choose submit test scores: “low-income and minority students, as well as more young people who will be the first generation in their family to attend,” reports Westervelt.

“Defining Promise: Optional Standardized Testing Policies in American College and University Admissions,” looked at 123,000 student and alumni records at 33 private and public colleges. Submitter GPAs were .05 of a GPA point higher than non-submitters’, and submitter graduation rates were 0.6 percent higher than non-submitters’.

“By any standard, these are trivial differences,” write Hiss and Franks.

Roughly 3,000 four-year U.S. colleges and universities make SAT or ACT submissions optional.

Study author Bill Hiss ’66.

乐播传媒 has studied its policy on a regular basis since 1984, so the new study is welcomed but not surprising to Leigh Weisenburger, dean of admission and financial aid.

“Prior to this 30-year study, 乐播传媒 had done its own research, tracking the performance of submitters and non-submitters,” she explains. “Students who submit scores at the point of application and those who do not perform almost precisely the same at 乐播传媒.”

“We know that the best predictor of college success is the high school transcript,” she says.

Reciting a sentence that she says is practically a “乐播传媒 bumper sticker,” Weisenberg says that “while standardized tests are useful, we have found that three and a half years on a transcript will tell us much more about a student’s potential than three and a half hours on a Saturday morning.”

Annually, approximately 40 percent of 乐播传媒 applicants do not submit any standardized test scores.

Standardized tests were sometimes “unhelpful, misleading and unpredictive for students in whom 乐播传媒 has always been interested.”

When the 乐播传媒 faculty voted to make test scores optional on Oct. 1, 1984 鈥� with Hiss as admission dean 鈥� then-President Hedley Reynolds said that action was “a bold step by the faculty, reflecting deep concerns with the effectiveness of the SATs.” (乐播传媒 became test-optional in 1984 by no longer requiring SAT I. In 1990 all standardized testing became optional.)

A 1990 乐播传媒 Magazine story reviewing why 乐播传媒 made the change noted that standardized testing by the 1980s was producing a kind of “mass hysteria” among high school students and their parents, “an unholy amalgam of passive surrender and frantic coaching for the test.”

It was also “a growing sense” that SATs were sometimes “unhelpful, misleading and unpredictive for students in whom 乐播传媒 has always been interested,” including students of color, rural and Maine students, and first-generation-to-college students.

In 1984, the Faculty Committee on Admission and Financial Aid offered three reasons for recommending the policy change

1. SATs were an inaccurate indicator of potential.

2. Prospective applicants were using median test scores published in guidebooks as a major factor in deciding whether or not to apply to 乐播传媒. “The faculty realized that 乐播传媒 should be seen first-hand,” said a story in the January 1985 issue of 乐播传媒 Magazine. “Numbers cannot describe the tenor of a campus which has never had fraternities or sororities, a campus where students are respected as individuals.”

3. The relationship of family income to SAT success “worried the committee and conflicted with the mission of the college.” Noting the rise in SAT prep courses, the college worried that if coaching was successful, “it means that students with economic resources will enjoy undeserved advantages in admissions evaluations.”

In fact, the story said that 乐播传媒 had studied the relationship of SATs to academic success for the prior five years, concluding that “the quality of the high school preparation (rigor of courses included) was consistently the best measure of the student’s potential at 乐播传媒.”

乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer

乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer joins fellow U.S. higher education leaders at a White House summit on college opportunity hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama today, Jan. 16.

The event is bringing together college and university presidents and leaders from nonprofits, foundations, state governments and businesses across the country.

It is livestreamed at .

Senior administration officials scheduled to join the discussion include Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

In her first year at 乐播传媒, Spencer announced the Excellence and Opportunity initiative, to be funded in part by the $11.5 million Catalyst Fund gift from current and past members of the 乐播传媒 College Board of Trustees.

The initiative reflects the college’s founding commitment to excellence and opportunity. “It is聽central to our mission and history,” Spencer said.

Established in 1855, 乐播传媒 was from its beginning open to both men and women, recruiting students of limited means and matriculating African American students from the Civil War onward.

鈥淭oday this commitment means attracting and enrolling the very best students from a broad range of backgrounds and marshaling the resources to provide generous financial aid to support their education,” says Spencer. “Our current financial aid聽program of more than $30 million in 乐播传媒-funded grants per year聽reflects our聽resolve to uphold聽these values.鈥�

乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer, who led the establishment of Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy, speaks at the program’s 10th anniversary event on Oct. 30, 2013. (Rose Lincoln/Harvard)

Forty-four percent of 乐播传媒 students receive financial aid, and the average 乐播传媒 financial aid package (grant, loan and student employment) is more than $40,000.

Counter to national trends in student debt, 乐播传媒 financial aid is largely composed of outright grants, and students with loans graduate with an average debt load of approximately $17,000, compared to the national average of approximately $27,000.

鈥淎ny excellent聽liberal arts college, particularly one like 乐播传媒 that has the advantage of a strong tradition of diversity聽matched by equally strong聽resources, has an ethical obligation to聽provide聽access to people who can鈥檛 afford the very high cost it takes to mount a highly personalized residential liberal arts education,鈥� Spencer said.

Spencer, who has served as 乐播传媒 president since 2012, is the former vice president for policy at Harvard University, where she played a central role in the reshaping and dramatic expansion of Harvard鈥檚 financial aid program and in the creation of the Crimson Summer Academy, a program that brings high-achieving, economically disadvantaged local students to study at Harvard for six weeks each summer.

Prior to Harvard, Spencer was chief education counsel for the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources in the mid-1990s under its chair, the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

On Nov. 16, 2013, President Clayton Spencer sat down with Steve 鈥淪tevoe鈥� Woods of southern Maine鈥檚 TideSmart Talk to discuss 乐播传媒 and current trends in higher education.

President Clayton Spencer speaks with Steve Woods of TideSmart Talk. Photo courtesy of TideSmart Radio.

Technology and the rise of online courses were among the trends Woods highlighted in his hour-long conversation with Spencer.

Asked if technology will create a shift away from 鈥渂ricks and mortar鈥� campuses like 乐播传媒, Spencer responded, 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a question of incorporation, not substitution.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 an era in which the small scale of 乐播传媒,鈥� with its small class sizes and ready access to professors, 鈥渃ombined with the global access to content, is a huge boon for the liberal arts. 鈥�

Likewise, she told Woods, where online courses only address part of the educational project 鈥� delivering information, 乐播传媒 embraces the entire process of “helping human beings grow up to understand who they are, what they want to do, how they can make a contribution to the world.鈥�

Spencer鈥檚 comments at various points invoked the college鈥檚 three priorities for the coming years:

• the Engaged Liberal Arts, which includes how 乐播传媒 incorporates technology in the classroom;

• Purposeful Work, to help students explore, understand, and strengthen their relationship to work; and

• Excellence and Opportunity, aimed at increasing resources for financial aid.

Spencer appeared earlier in the semester on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour, a program sponsored in part by Maine Magazine. In the Sept. 8 interview, Spencer discussed the advantages of 乐播传媒’ location in Lewiston, the distinctive community among 乐播传媒 students and how the college is preparing students for the world of work.

Spencer noted a range of statistics that demonstrate 乐播传媒’ commitment to the principles of the Obama plan. Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College

After President Obama announced a plan to create a rating system to gauge the affordability and value of colleges and universities nationwide, and to tie federal student financial aid to the scores, 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer was among the Maine higher education leaders the Portland Press Herald聽 sought out for reaction.

In a written statement, Spencer said, 鈥淚 am very pleased to see President Obama’s focus on access and results in higher education. 乐播传媒 has been committed to these principles since its founding in 1855 as one of the first liberal arts colleges in the nation to be coeducational and to welcome students of color.

鈥溊植ゴ�’ total cost of attendance for 2013-14 is $58,950 but our average net cost, as reported on the White House for 2013, is $21,402. More than 45% of 乐播传媒 students receive financial aid, with an average grant for those on aid in excess of $38,000. We work hard to support all of our students for success, and 93 percent of those who enter 乐播传媒 graduate with a bachelor’s degree.”

In a story the next day, the paper quoted Spencer鈥檚 entire statement, though not in the exact order in which it was presented.

Two related points are that the average聽cumulative聽loan聽debt聽from federal聽student聽loan programs for 乐播传媒 students graduating in 2012 was $17,070 鈥� nearly $10,000 lower than the national average of $26,000 鈥� and that 60 percent of 乐播传媒 students graduate with no loans.

鈥�

Crystal Ann Williams of Reed College has been appointed associate vice president and chief diversity officer at 乐播传媒.

乐播传媒 President A. Clayton Spencer announced today that Crystal Ann Williams of Reed College in Portland, Ore., will become associate vice president and chief diversity officer effective Nov. 4, 2013.

Williams will oversee the Office of Equity and Diversity and the Office of Intercultural Education and serve as a member of the president鈥檚 senior staff.

Currently dean for institutional diversity and a faculty member in creative writing at Reed, Williams is a widely published poet and author who will join the English department at 乐播传媒 as a professor.

鈥淚 am delighted that we have found a person of Crystal Williams鈥� stature to lead diversity efforts at 乐播传媒,鈥� said Spencer. 鈥淪he brings deep experience and passion to the task of reclaiming and refashioning for the present the commitment to inclusion that runs deep in 乐播传媒鈥� identity and mission.

鈥淭hat Crystal Williams is also a poet of remarkable depth and range will add dimension to her work in diversity, while enriching the intellectual community on campus.鈥�

鈥淚 am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Clayton Spencer and to join the 乐播传媒 leadership team,鈥� said Williams. 鈥淚 am excited and looking forward to working with students, staff, faculty and alumni to move the dial forward, truly honor 乐播传媒鈥� tremendous history of inclusion, and collaboratively envision and set forth an exciting and innovative 21st-century agenda for the college.鈥�

As chief diversity officer, Williams will be responsible for advancing the college鈥檚 commitment to diversity and inclusion. Williams will work with the dean of the faculty on academic appointments and retention, and with the Human Resources department on hiring and employment practices related to staff.

She will shape campus-wide initiatives and programming that promote a culture of inclusiveness as well as compliance with federal and state statutes and regulations governing nondiscrimination and equal opportunity.

Williams will work closely with Heather Lindkvist, 乐播传媒鈥� Title IX officer, who has responsibility for all aspects of Title IX programming, training, and compliance, as well as issues relating to policies and practices concerning sexual respect and misconduct. The Title IX officer reports to the president.

At Reed, Williams established the first office for institutional diversity, developing a strategic vision and mission and institution-wide programs. Collaborating broadly with campus colleagues, she designed and put into place training and assessment processes to further diversity and inclusivity. She was instrumental in enhancing faculty search processes, which resulted in a 50 percent increase in faculty diversity in tenure-track hires in the last academic year.

Williams鈥� appointment as associate vice president and chief diversity officer at 乐播传媒 follows a national search carried out by a search advisory committee composed of faculty, staff, students and the president, led by聽Whitehouse Professor of Art and Visual Culture and of Women and Gender Studies Erica Rand, and Associate Athletic Director Gwen Lexow.

Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman provided staff support to the committee. The search included visits to campus by several finalists, who spoke in large forums and small meetings about their experience and vision for developing an environment of inclusion on campus.

Williams is a nationally award-winning poet and author of creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including PEN America, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The Sun and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry.

Williams was raised in Detroit, Mich., and Madrid, Spain. Her fourth volume of poetry, Detroit as Barn, will be published by Lost Horse Press in 2014. She was appointed by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber to the Oregon Arts Commission.

Williams received a bachelor鈥檚 degree from New York University in 1997 and a master of fine arts degree from Cornell University in 2000. She joined the Reed faculty in 2000, where she taught creative writing and received tenure in 2007.

She has been appointed professor of English at 乐播传媒 on the recommendation of the Committee on Personnel and with the approval of the Board of Trustees.

The profile of President Spencer in the April 2013 issue of Maine magazine carries the headline “Grit and Shared Enterprise.”

In the April issue of Maine magazine, President Clayton Spencer talks about her love affair with Maine and her philosophy of “shared enterprise.”

In a profile titled Spencer tells writer Sarah Braunstein, 鈥淚 loved what I did at Harvard. But if headhunters called asking if I was interested in a presidency, I would always say: 鈥楥all me when it鈥檚 Maine.鈥欌��

鈥淢aine,鈥� she continues, 鈥渋s a granite state, not a sand state. What I respect most about New England 鈥� and Maine 鈥� is its substance.鈥�

Substance, she says, is central to the important work that lies ahead for 乐播传媒, particularly her emphasis on financial aid.

鈥淚t鈥檚 critical that we鈥檙e on the side of opportunity, not on the side of greater wealth stratification or income inequality.鈥�

As a leader, she tells Braunstein, she prefers the notion of 鈥渟hared enterprise鈥� over the concept of transparency. The latter, she explains, implies 鈥渙thers on the outside looking in.鈥� She would much rather see the community working together on the issues and challenges facing the college, and viewing the work as a shared experience.

Eric McDonald and Katie McNally. Photograph by J. Michael McNally.

Postponed because of a February snowstorm, the third annual 乐播传媒 College Folk Music Festival takes place at last with three days of contradancing, workshops and performances beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 9, at campus locations to be announced.

The event is open to the public. Admission fees vary according to ability to pay — from $5 to $20 for one day, and $10 to $30 for all three days. No one will be turned away for inability to pay. Tickets are available at the door.

Performers include the Scottish-Latin fusion band Alba’s Edge; the Scottish-influenced, Boston-based duo of Katie McNally and Eric McDonald; the 乐播传媒 student band Chase the Fiddlers; the Midcoast fiddle and mandolin duo Velocipede; Press Gang, an Irish-music trio from Portland; and local string players Greg and Jessie Boardman.

The Press Gang is a Celtic-music trio based in Portland, Maine.

The event is sponsored by the Freewill Folk Society, a student organization at 乐播传媒. For more information, please contact mpickof2@bates.edu or visit .

The event opens Thursday with a 7 p.m. fiddle tune workshop, followed at 8 p.m. by Chase the Fiddlers and Velocipede.

A 6:30 p.m. contradance begins Friday’s activities. Student bands perform from 8 to 9 p.m., The Press Gang till 10:30, and the evening concludes with a singing circle and jam session.

On Saturday, workshops take place from 9:30 till 11 a.m. McNally and McDonald perform from 11:30 to 12:30 p.m., followed by an outdoor contradance until 2:30. Student bands perform until 3:30, and then there’s a break in the action until evening.

A 7:30 contradance runs till 9 p.m., followed by an Alba’s Edge concert from 9 to 11 and a singing circle and jam session until 1 a.m.

About the performers

Alba’s Edge draws on jazz, funk and the music of Cuba and Brazil, infusing traditional Scottish melodies with new ideas. Based in New York City and Boston, Alba’s Edge is led by pianist Neil Pearlman.

Greg and Jessie Boardman play traditional music on fiddle and cello.

Chase the Fiddlers play traditional French-Canadian fiddle music along with Irish, bluegrass and old-time dance music and songs.

Alba’s Edge. From left, Doug Berns, bassist; Neil Pearlman, pianist; Lilly Pearlman, fiddler; Jacob Cole, percussionist. At 乐播传媒, Katie McNally will fill in for Lilly Pearlman.

Katie McNally and Eric McDonald, musical partners since high school, blend Scottish influences with diverse other sounds, and carefully arranged traditional pieces with original compositions.

The Press Gang, composed of squeezebox player Christian “Junior” Stevens, fiddler Alden Robinson and guitarist Owen Marshall, performs all over the Northeast and into Atlantic Canada.

Velocipede, featuring fiddle tunes from around the world, consists of Julia Plumb, a member of the 乐播传媒 class of 2005 who plays fiddle, viola and foot percussion; and Baron Collins-Hill, on mandolin and tenor guitar.

The 乐播传媒 College Board of Trustees has voted to set the fee for attendance for the academic year 2013鈥�14 at $58,950. This single fee, which covers tuition, room, board and fees, represents a 3 percent increase over 2012鈥�13 and is the lowest fee increase in more than four decades.

乐播传媒 presents cost in the form of a single fee for attendance so that students and families can see their entire financial commitment in one number.

In keeping with its founding tradition of active inclusivity, the college offers financial aid to make sure that the 乐播传媒 education is accessible to every qualified student who chooses to attend 乐播传媒, regardless of financial need. Forty-four percent of 乐播传媒 students qualify for financial aid. 乐播传媒 meets 100 percent of demonstrated need, with an average financial aid award for 2012鈥�13 of $38,200.

In June, Student Financial Services will give returning students specific information related to payment options for 2013鈥�14. For students who have applied for financial aid, information about eligibility and award amounts will also be sent at that time.聽 More information about the various ways students and families can finance the cost of college appears on the 乐播传媒 website at Student Financial Services.

In an email notifying returning students and their families about the fee for the coming year, 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer wrote, 鈥淚 know that college costs are of significant concern to our students and families, and I assure you that we share that concern. Managing the relationship among costs, fees and financial aid in a time of continuing economic pressure on institutions and families alike is a high priority for the college, second only to providing the most valuable education possible for our students.鈥澛�

Being ranked fifth in the country is a major achievement for any athlete in any sport. But as the case of Keelin Godsey 鈥�06 shows, talent doesn鈥檛 guarantee progress in sports.

Keelin Godsey ’06 makes a point during the panel discussion “Economic Challenges, Social Justice and the Athletic Experience,” part of the college’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day program on Jan. 21, 2013. Panelists also included moderator Erica Rand, Whitehouse Professor of Art and Visual Culture and Women and Gender Studies; student athlete Jacqui Holmes ’13; and head squash coach Pat Cosquer ’97. Photograph by Mike Bradley/乐播传媒 College.

The most-decorated athlete in 乐播传媒 history, a collegiate and national record-setter in the hammer throw, Godsey for years dreamed of competing on the U.S. Olympic team. He placed fifth at the U.S. track and field championships in 2010.

But when it came time to raise money to train for the 2012 Olympic trials, the sponsors weren鈥檛 as impressed.

Keelin Godsey ’06 was a prominent figure in Sports Illustrated’s feature on transgender athletes in its May 28, 2012 issue.

Godsey believes that snub and his ongoing struggle to secure sponsorship resulted directly from his decision to compete as an out transgender man.

He described 鈥渢he unspoken rule” where “no one would ever tell me why I wasn鈥檛鈥� receiving bids from sponsors. 鈥淏ut I was also the only trans athlete willing to talk about it.鈥�

Godsey shared his story during a panel discussion about economic and social barriers to athletic participation, part of 乐播传媒鈥� annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance.

Joining Godsey were Pat Cosquer 鈥�97, head coach for men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 squash and former student-athlete, and Jacqui Holmes 鈥�13, a tennis player. Erica Rand, Whitehouse Professor in Art and Visual Culture and Women and Gender Studies, moderated.

The panel, titled 鈥淓conomic Challenges, Social Justice and the Athletic Experience,鈥� addressed the challenges faced by athletes from underrepresented backgrounds, many of whom find themselves competing against socioeconomic barriers throughout their careers.

This 2010 portrait shows squash coach Pat Cosquer ’97 and Cheri-Ann Parris ’13 of St. Philip, Barbados, the team’s co-captain in 2013. Cultural differences that create tension within a highly international and multicultural program like squash need to be addressed head-on, says Cosquer. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Cosquer spoke candidly about the diversity of athletes on the 乐播传媒 squash teams, about half composed of multicultural or international students. 鈥淚 like to talk about 鈥榦ne program鈥� and how we鈥檙e all together moving towards common goals of winning and educating and learning from each other.鈥�

But those cultural differences 鈥渃reate some tension sometimes,鈥� he acknowledged.

That is why Cosquer favors addressing those conversations head on, fostering understanding and unity.

Holmes, who wrote her senior thesis on access and achievement in youth athletic programs, recalled coming face to face with her own racial and socioeconomic privilege while working at a youth tennis program last summer.

The Boston-based program catered to urban youth and aimed to empower children through sport combined with academics. Holmes admitted to having a 鈥渉uge vision鈥� for changing these students鈥� lives in just a few months.

鈥淏ut,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hat wasn鈥檛 what they wanted.鈥�

She came to realize that, as an outsider in their community, 鈥淚 was there not only to teach them something that鈥檚 really important for me, but also for them to teach me about what鈥檚 important to them, and what they felt they wanted to accomplish and what success was to them.鈥�

For 乐播传媒 tennis player Jacqui Holmes ’13, a reality check came when her “huge vision” for her summer tennis clinic failed to align with what her students really wanted.

The panel followed the premiere of 乐播传媒鈥� You Can Play video, part of a to increase safety and inclusion for LGBT athletes.

In the video, 乐播传媒 student athletes affirm in a variety of forms and languages the same core message: 鈥淚f you can play, you can play.鈥�

That is, teams want talent regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.

But as Cosquer and others pointed out, sometimes an athlete鈥檚 ability to play matters less than his or her ability to pay for the requisite gear and training. He described students who struggle to afford the necessary equipment and NCAA rules that limit how donations to teams can be allocated.

According to these rules, teams cannot seek support for individual players. Rather, they must raise funds for the entire team, regardless of need, which is often a much tougher proposition.

Economics aside, the panelists were asked what strategies teams could use right now to bolster inclusiveness among players. All three stressed communication and listening.

鈥淓verybody comes from a different place and has different experiences,鈥� said Cosquer. While the team may have a common goal, what 鈥渆ach student-athlete needs to get to that team鈥檚 goal is completely different.鈥�

Reflecting on his personal experience, Godsey believes that progress will depend on changing the broader cultural perceptions of LGBT individuals both on and off the field.

乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer delivered her inaugural address, 鈥淨uestions Worth Asking,鈥� on Oct. 26, 2012. Click this link for a PDF version of the address.

Well, I guess now I really am the eighth president of 乐播传媒 College. It is an enormous honor and a humbling trust. Thank you Mike, Marcus, Umar, Lynn, and Danny for making it official.

And thank you, Drew, for those amazingly generous words. It means the world to me that you are here.

Thank you Jacqui, Michael, Pat, Jennifer, mayors Macdonald and LaBont茅, and Adam for your greetings from many quarters.

乐播传媒 is privileged to be part of a community with a rich history and increasingly vibrant present, and I have felt at home here from the moment the moving trucks pulled up at 256 College St. this past summer. We and our host cities draw strength from a partnership of genuine mutuality. Give us a little time, and I鈥檓 pretty sure that it is our West Coast counterpart that will be known as the 鈥渙ther LA.鈥�

I am also honored to be joined today by my three predecessors 鈥� Don Harward, Elaine Hansen, and Nancy Cable. Their presence marks the fact that this ceremony is not about any given individual, but rather about the institution 鈥� its history, its values, and the mission we carry into the future. Anything we are able to accomplish in the coming years will build on the contributions you made to the fabric of this campus and college. Thank you for your leadership, and thank you for being here today.

I want to welcome and thank, as well, presidents and delegates from our sister institutions in Maine, and from colleges and universities across New England, the nation, and even the Atlantic. Your presence honors 乐播传媒, and we appreciate your solidarity and support at this moment of great meaning for us.

Thank you students, faculty, and staff, who are the heart and soul of this remarkable campus community. Here, I want to give special thanks to the many individuals who have knocked themselves out planning these festivities and tackling every detail so that we would all feel welcomed and well taken care of.

Thank you, as well, trustees, former trustees, and alumni 鈥� those of you present here and those of you participating at a distance. You serve and support the college in so many ways, and we are deeply grateful.

I want to give a special thanks to my friends and family who have turned up in force 鈥� my children, my parents, my brother and sister, my phalanx of relatives, and friends and colleagues from so many chapters of my life. It is such a joy to share this moment with all of you.

It is a special honor for me to wear, on this occasion, the cap that my father wore throughout his academic career, including 26 years as president of two different liberal arts colleges. It is an understatement to say that my parents have made a heroic effort to travel up here to be with us today. It is characteristic of their generosity and their spirit, and I appreciate beyond measure that they are here.

鈥� 鈥� 鈥�

It is an uncommon privilege to be invited to step into the history of an institution. And it is a daunting responsibility to be asked to point the way into an inevitably uncertain future.

It is worth remembering, as we try our best to look ahead and make out the shape of things to come, that our predictions are always defined more by the past we have lived than by the future we imagine. Who among us in the early 1990s would have guessed at the profound reshaping of contemporary life about to be ushered in by the Internet? And who, on September 10, 2001, would have predicted a decade defined by a 鈥淲ar on Terror,鈥� U.S. involvement in two literal wars, and a fundamental recasting of America鈥檚 place in the world?

When George Colby Chase was installed as the second president of 乐播传媒, he described 鈥渁 society so complex that its numberless and every-varying elements with their incessant action and reaction, dizzy the clearest brain and baffle the subtlest power of analysis鈥�.鈥�[1] That was 1894.

In 1920, on the heels of World War I 鈥� the so-called war to end all wars 鈥� our third president, Clifton Daggett Gray, spoke of the future with foreboding: 鈥淭his generation has only to look at what is going on under its very eyes to realize that there is taking place in both hemispheres something, the full significance of which no one is wise enough at present to estimate, but which is bound to affect for good or ill the destinies of the whole world for centuries to come.鈥�[2] Little did President Gray know that the Great Depression and World War II would come along during his tenure to confirm his worst fears.

In 1967, as the civil rights movement shook the nation, Detroit burned, and campuses were torn apart by the Vietnam War, Thomas Hedley Reynolds, our fifth president, noted the 鈥渞emarkable rapidity of change in this country in the last half century,鈥� and worried about the 鈥渕any dangers鈥� confronting 鈥渢his college and 鈥� others of its kind.鈥�[3]

Of course, at that moment, Reynolds, and 乐播传媒 College, stood on the threshold of one of the most stable and prosperous half-centuries in human history 鈥� a period that we may well look back on as the golden age of higher education in America.

We can never know what the future has in store for us. The best we can do is to engage the present and make our way forward with energy, diligence, and authenticity.

鈥� 鈥� 鈥�

乐播传媒 brings to this task a strong history. We are proud of our story of origin, and we tell it often. 乐播传媒 was established in 1855 by Freewill Baptists, who were also abolitionists. We were coed from the beginning; we recruited freed slaves to come here after the Civil War; and we never had fraternities or sororities because they ran against our egalitarian grain. This is a good story, but like any story that we tell over and over, I worry that we may no longer hear its meaning. So I thought today I would share a slightly different story 鈥� one that is familiar in its broad outlines, but revealing to me, and I hope to you, in its particulars.

As most of you probably know, one of our most distinguished graduates is Benjamin Elijah Mays, an American preacher, educator, scholar, and civil rights leader, who was president of Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1940 to 1967. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he was an important mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and an advisor to U.S. presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

The youngest of eight children, Mays was born in 1894 to tenant farmers, and he grew up outside of Ninety-Six, South Carolina, in a county notorious for racial extremism.[4] In 1917, he came to 乐播传媒 as a sophomore, at age 23, after cobbling together a high school education against all odds. You see, black children in Greenwood County were allowed to attend school for only four months a year 鈥� November through February. The rest of the time they were expected to be available for farm work.

Within his first eight weeks at 乐播传媒, Mays won the Sophomore Declamation Prize, and he was then recruited to join the college鈥檚 storied debate team. He graduated in 1920, one of fifteen students awarded honors, and he was chosen by his peers to be the class day speaker. Later, Mays went on to the University of Chicago, where he earned his master鈥檚 and Ph.D.

In his autobiography, written when he was in his seventies, Mays recounts the following story: 鈥淎t 乐播传媒, teachers spoke to Negro students on campus and downtown, especially if the Negro student was in a professor鈥檚 class. I knew one or two professors at the University of Chicago in 1921 who never recognized a Negro student when off campus or on.鈥�[5]

Not all of Mays鈥� experiences at 乐播传媒 were positive. He was 鈥渇urious鈥� when he was not chosen to participate in either of the intercollegiate debates his junior year 鈥� against Cornell and Harvard 鈥� despite being one of the top debaters on the team,[6] and he nearly froze his fingers and toes off while clearing snow at President Chase鈥檚 house on Christmas Day when it was forty-four below zero.[7] But Mays counted his disappointments and challenges 鈥渁s nothing compared to the rich harvest I gleaned from my association with the 乐播传媒 faculty and students.鈥�[8]

乐播传媒 admitted black students, educated women along with men, and banned exclusive social clubs not because it was the politically correct thing to do. Quite the contrary, these policies were seriously politically incorrect in their time. Rather, as the story of Benjamin Mays makes clear, we did it because, somehow, from our very beginnings, we encountered individuals in their full humanity. We took as our task educating them with intellectual rigor, ethical responsibility, and care for their fellow human beings.

These qualities are in the DNA of 乐播传媒 College, and they define us to this day. They also point the way forward.

鈥� 鈥� 鈥�

Last month, Rafael Reif was installed as the 17th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He spoke about our changing world and the implications for higher education. According to Reif, we find ourselves now on the threshold of a 鈥渢echnological transformation [that] has the potential to reshape the education landscape 鈥� and to challenge our very existence.鈥�[9]

乐播传媒 is not MIT. And it is not our first impulse to frame our future in terms of changes in technology. Yet the technology Reif is talking about is more than a tool, it is a cultural force changing the way we live our lives and experience the world. It is reshaping our professional interactions, transforming the nature and structure of social relations, and altering our connection to information and knowledge.

Some believe that the Internet will follow radio and television, bringing broad social change while leaving institutions like ours more or less unperturbed. Others point to the printing press, which made knowledge available to the masses, leading, inexorably, to the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern West. One thing is certain: the context in which we do what we do in higher education has changed irrevocably.

This is partly because these forces hit us where we live in higher education 鈥� some of the most powerful changes are occurring at the heart of scholarship and knowledge creation. And it is partly because the changes happening around us have altered the frame through which our particular model of education is viewed.

In science, for example, online depositories allow scholarly exchange to short-circuit traditional peer review, challenging the role of scholarly journals. The Public Library of Science 鈥� PLOS 鈥� publishes open-access online journals that, in less than a decade, are among the most highly cited in biology, genetics, and medicine.[10]

Rich archives, once available only in person, are being put online. The Library of Congress has digitized historic newspapers, classic prints and photographs, as well as the correspondence of figures ranging from Alexander Graham Bell and Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass and Hannah Arendt.[11] The Google Art Project has brought online over 32,000 works by 7,200 artists, housed in 156 collections around the world.[12] One can explore these paintings in remarkable detail 鈥� down to the individual brushstroke.

These breakthroughs in technology present tremendous opportunities for places like 乐播传媒. No longer does a senior writing a history thesis have to travel to Boston to find materials or wait three weeks to get primary sources through interlibrary loan. Language students can hone their conversational style by watching foreign-language soap operas whenever it suits them on any one of their mobile devices. And our 鈥淧residential Campaign Rhetoric鈥� class can pore over Clinton鈥檚 convention speech, as written and as delivered. For institutions, as for individuals, the world is quite literally a click away.

In their intellectual reach, then, 乐播传媒, and liberal arts colleges like us, have become a great deal larger. Yet enlarging the screen on which we must project our institutional identity and compete for faculty and students makes this tiny campus in Lewiston, Maine, look ever smaller. The liberal arts colleges, taken together, educate fewer than four percent of the college students in America.[13] That fraction shrinks further against a large and growing global denominator.

Beyond sheer numbers, what Hedley Reynolds described as the 鈥渢ough-minded tradition of the small New England college鈥�[14] is at risk of looking dangerously quaint in a world of rapidly growing global populations, hungry for knowledge and credentials. Furthermore, the expansion of knowledge and fields of research renders increasingly arbitrary our choices about the faculty we hire and the courses we teach.

Finally, ready access to the world鈥檚 most enticing intellectual capital at little or no cost makes the residential model of the liberal arts feel ever more expensive. With Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and other leading universities putting highly produced courses online 鈥� often in fields we don鈥檛 even teach 鈥� we can be sure that students and their parents will scrutinize intensely the value proposition of the residential liberal arts model.

鈥� 鈥� 鈥�

We welcome this scrutiny because it forces us to get very clear about who we are and what we do. It challenges us to make a virtue of our scale, delivering our particular model of education at a high standard of excellence. What is this model? It is the compelling paradox of the liberal arts, where we value the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, with no practical aim, and at the same time prize the teaching of values 鈥� of curiosity and empathy, imagination and confidence  鈥� that shape a human being who can in turn shape the world. It is reaching up in pursuit of truth and reaching out in acts of service, and seeing no contradiction between the two.

Here I would like to return to the story of Benjamin Mays and suggest three lessons that it offers to the 乐播传媒 of today.

First, the story of Benjamin Mays is a story about 鈥渕indset.鈥� It is the story of a college that met the world head on from its very beginnings. Bucking history, convention, and the easy path, 乐播传媒 engaged with a very complex social reality and pressed ahead based on a simple conviction 鈥� namely, that all human beings have free and equal access to God鈥檚 grace, and, by extension, to education and human fulfillment.[15]

This mindset 鈥� standing firmly on principle and encountering the world with energy and confidence 鈥� is highly relevant today. If success for colleges and universities was defined for the past thirty years as a niche competition based on wealth and prestige, in the next decades success will go to the institutions that engage most robustly and effectively with the forces that are reshaping our world.

It is not enough, in the liberal arts, to circle the wagons and assume that we can keep doing what we鈥檙e doing, the way we鈥檝e always been doing it. In a world of exploding knowledge, we need to be highly intentional about how we recruit new faculty and how we configure departments to build on our particular strengths. We need to move beyond the limits of disciplinary structures to shape intellectual capacity and curriculum in ways that respond to the evolution of fields and student curiosity, while at the same time maintaining our standards of excellence. And we need to think pragmatically about how to support faculty members who wish to adapt their pedagogy to take greater advantage of the powerful tools that are now available.

With technology turning the world into our library, we must also work with faculty and students to gain access to the range of content and modes of intellectual production that are now at our fingertips. At the same time, the central goal of liberal education 鈥� 鈥渢o nurture the growth of human talent in the service of human freedom,鈥� as historian William Cronon puts it[16] 鈥� has never been more important. Given all that our students have coming at them 鈥� in the classroom, in their lives, and on their machines 鈥� they sorely need adults whom they know and respect to work with them as they learn to navigate complicated intellectual terrain.

The good class is not simply the 鈥渟mall鈥� class, but rather the 鈥渆ngaged鈥� class. Here, faculty, through their own passion and erudition, inspire students to take ideas seriously, and sometimes even to love them. They help students when the work gets hard 鈥� when texts resist interpretation, or require more context than an eighteen-year-old could possibly bring; when experiments fail in the lab; or when weeks of analysis must be scrubbed because of an error in a data set. Working closely with adults and with each other, students learn that although information may be a click away, mastery and meaning are not. Some kinds of knowledge require patience, and perseverance, and close attention.

This is what South African artist William Kentridge calls 鈥済etting our hands dirty.鈥� Last spring, Kentridge gave the Norton Lectures at Harvard, and I was privileged to attend all six of them.[17] He titled the series, 鈥淒rawing Lessons,鈥� and each week he invited us into his studio 鈥� through films, drawings, and reflections 鈥� and showed us how the studio is for him the place where he makes sense of the world. For Kentridge, meaning emerges from making. The making of the object is not a one-way translation of an idea into a visual object. Rather, the process of construction is where meaning materializes. From the act of encountering the world and rendering some aspect of it in physical form, we can then look at the object in front of us, and parts of the world and ourselves are revealed.

College, like the studio, is quintessentially a place of making 鈥� making sense of ourselves and making sense of our world. In this respect, the liberal arts college, with its intimate scale, has a distinct advantage. And 乐播传媒 has a strong tradition of active, engaged learning to build on. All of our students write senior theses or develop capstone projects, working intensively with a faculty member one-on-one over a period of months. A third of our students work in the local community through their courses or the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. Our General Education Concentrations embrace problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approaches. And over sixty per cent of our students spend some portion of their undergraduate time abroad, quite literally engaged with the world.

In short, the mindset exemplified in the Benjamin Mays story is grounded in ideas and values, but porous to the world. For the liberal arts college it means, among other things, recognizing that the line between theory and practice is breaking down. It means acknowledging that our students鈥� work with Somali children and adults in Lewiston is not only an opportunity for service, but also a venue for cultural learning at a very high level. And it means that we see the growing concern of students and parents with employment prospects not as a domain beneath our proper notice, but rather as a deep aspect of our obligation as a liberal arts college to prepare our students for a life of purposeful work. At our best, we challenge ourselves as an institution to wrestle actively and joyously with the world as we encounter it. In so doing we model this mindset for our students as they work to construct their own lives.

Second, the story of Benjamin Mays is a human story. It is as much about 鈥渉eart鈥� as 鈥渉ead.鈥� It illustrates the most distinctive and important dimension of our work at liberal arts colleges 鈥� the project of guiding young people through the passage from childhood to adulthood, to make them not only knowledgeable and equipped to navigate a complex world, but also motivated with empathy toward their fellow human beings. As Peter Gomes 鈥� another of our notable graduates 鈥� once said, we put 鈥渢he making of a better person ahead of the making of a brighter person, or a better mousetrap.鈥�[18]

This 鈥渕aking of a better person鈥� is an important project, and one that liberal arts colleges are positioned to carry out better than any other higher education model 鈥� and certainly better than any machine. To paraphrase a recent Boston Globe headline, 鈥淭here鈥檚 no app for answering deep questions.鈥�[19] Questions, again in the words of Peter Gomes, like 鈥淲hat is my purpose? How can my life be better? How can I help to make a better world?鈥� Gomes continues, 鈥淭hese are the questions worth asking, and college is one of the few places that allows you, even requires you, to do so.鈥�[20]

It is not our job to supply the answers to these questions, but it is our job to create the conditions under which our students will be inspired to ask them for themselves. Learning here occurs in community. We are situated in a particular place, with a particular culture, and a particular set of human beings who come to know each other face to face. Just as all great novels are parochial novels,[21] so the most complete kind of human learning takes place in community, with the solidarity of companionship and the challenge of truth.

The liberal arts college embodies a powerful alchemy of the universal and the particular. The audacity of the intellectual project 鈥� to encompass knowledge across time and the world 鈥� invites our students to grapple with fundamental principles even as they hone their individuality. At the same time, our intimate scale creates a zone of care and concern that 鈥� when it works 鈥� produces graduates with ethical awareness and a commitment to serving purposes larger than themselves.

Finally, the story of Benjamin Mays is, at the most literal level, a story about community 鈥� not only what community is for, but how it is constructed. It is a story of openness and inclusion, well before we had the language for such things.

The genius of American higher education is that it unites excellence and opportunity at the heart of the enterprise, allowing talented students regardless of background or means to attend our best colleges and universities, and, conversely, allowing these institutions to draw from broad pools of talent that are constantly being renewed. This is a historical accident brought to us by the G.I. Bill following World War II and codified in the Federal Higher Education Act of 1965.[22]

Far from turning American colleges and universities into 鈥渉obo jungles,鈥�[23] as predicted in 1944 by University of Chicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins, the returning GIs infused our institutions with talent, energy, aspiration, and grit, producing a higher education system of unmatched vitality and intellectual power. In other words, American higher education is excellent not in spite of its openness, but because of it.

At 乐播传媒, we claim this union of excellence and opportunity as a core element of our identity, and we need to continue to build on this deep aspect of who we are. As a practical matter this means redoubling our efforts to recruit students from a wide range of backgrounds, and it means maintaining an unwavering commitment to financial aid. A residential liberal arts education is expensive for us to offer and for families to afford. Unless we are content to become a luxury good 鈥� higher education鈥檚 version of the 鈥済ated community鈥� 鈥� we must make sure that we have the financial means to seek out and admit talented students regardless of their ability to pay.

And we must make equally sure that, once here, our students encounter a diverse range of adults ready to support them for success, and a culture that embraces diversity across many dimensions, giving richness and power to the educational experience of all of our students.

鈥� 鈥� 鈥�

It is no accident that one of the great technologists of our era, Steve Jobs, titled his commencement address at Stanford in 2005, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e Got to Find What You Love.鈥�[24] He told three stories 鈥� one called 鈥淐onnecting the Dots鈥�; one called 鈥淟ove and Loss鈥�; and one called 鈥淒eath.鈥� In this last story, in which he described being diagnosed with cancer and then apparently 鈥渃ured,鈥� Jobs delivered a simple message to the assembled students: 鈥淵our time is limited, so don鈥檛 waste it living someone else鈥檚 life.鈥�

Likewise, at 乐播传媒, we don鈥檛 have time to waste. In certain respects, we lag our peers in wealth and fame and market position. But we are not in danger of living someone else鈥檚 life. We know who we are and what we stand for, and we stand ready 鈥� together 鈥� to challenge ourselves and to engage the world.

Thank you.

This inaugural address by 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer, 鈥淨uestions Worth Asking,” was delivered on Oct. 26, 2012.

Endnotes

1. George Colby Chase, 乐播传媒 College 鈥� Inaugural Address of President George C. Chase, September 22, 1894, p. 8.
2. Clifton Daggett Gray, 鈥淚naugural Address,鈥� 乐播传媒 College Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 1 (December 1920), p. 35.
3. Thomas Hedley Reynolds, 鈥淭he Inaugural Address by Dr. Thomas Hedley Reynolds,鈥� news release, October 7, 1967, pp. 4 and 8.
4. Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987 (c. 1971), p. xliv.
5. Mays, p. 65.
6. Mays, pp. 58-59.
7. Mays, p. 54.
8. Mays, p. 60.
9. L. Rafael Reif, Inaugural Address, Office of the President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September, 21, 2012, .
10. Thomson Reuters,
11. Library of Congress,
12. Google Art Project,
13. See Helen L. Horowitz, 鈥淏alancing Hopes and Limits in the Liberal Arts College,鈥� Liberal Arts Colleges in American Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities, American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper No. 59 (2005), p. 18, retrieved from
14. Reynolds Inaugural Address, p. 1.
15. Alfred Williams Anthony, 乐播传媒 College and Its Background: A Review of Origins and Causes. Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1936, pp. 81-82. See also, Charles E. Clark, 乐播传媒 Through the Years: An Illustrated History. Lewiston, ME: 乐播传媒 College, 2005, p. 20.
16. William Cronon, 鈥溾�極nly Connect鈥︹��: The Goals of a Liberal Education,鈥� The American Scholar, Volume 67, No. 4 (Autumn 1998), retrieved from .
17. See .
18. Peter Gomes, Never Give Up! And Other Sermons Preached at Harvard, 2008鈥�2010, ed. Cynthia Wight Rossano (Cambridge: Memorial Church, Harvard University, 2011) p. 21.
19. Karen Campbell, 鈥淎nswering deep questions 鈥� there鈥檚 not an app for that,鈥� interview with Howard Gardner, The Boston Globe, October 8, 2012, p. G14.
20. Gomes, p. 41.
21. Ian McEwan, 鈥淭he Lever: Where Novelists Stand to Move the World,鈥� (lecture, Harvard University, April 17, 2012).
22. See, for example, Patricia Strach, 鈥淢aking Higher Education Affordable: Policy Design in Postwar America,鈥� Journal of Policy History, Vol. 21, No. 1 (January 2009), pp. 61-88 (esp. pp. 65-67 and notes 19-28).
23. Robert Maynard Hutchins, 鈥淭he Threat to American Education,鈥� 颁辞濒濒颈别谤鈥檚, December 30, 1944, pp. 20-21.
24. 鈥溾�榊ou鈥檝e got to find what you love,鈥� Jobs says,鈥� Stanford Report, June 14, 2005, .