Fast-changing technological and economic relationships “are changing the place of America in the world, and of higher education in America,” the next 乐播传媒 president told alumni gathered for Reunion 2012. And in the face of that challenge, Clayton Spencer wondered, how should 乐播传媒 respond?

President-elect Clayton Spencer (left) talks with interim President Nancy Cable and Trustee Karl Mills ’82 before the Reunion Address. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

“It’s not enough simply to circle the wagons and insist that small is better, or that nothing can replace the human factor in education,” Spencer told enthusiastic listeners on the Friday evening of Reunion, June 8.

Complete Reunion 2012 coverage

“How do we think about 乐播传媒 and places like 乐播传媒 in the context of this challenging world?” she asked. “How do we make a case that we鈥檙e still important, that it鈥檚 still worth it to come to 乐播传媒, that the education you got here is still worth something?”

Sharing the podium with interim President Nancy Cable at an event launching Reunion Weekend, Spencer was candid in her views about the world for which 乐播传媒 is educating students, as well as the strengths and the needs the college brings to that work.

Sharing the Reunion Address podium with interim President Nancy Cable (right), President-elect Spencer was candid in her views. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Culminating in a standing ovation, the alumni welcome was warm for the leader who will take office July 1. The “standing O” was preceded by whoops of enthusiasm about points she made and appreciative laughter at Spencer’s humor.

Her address followed an opening presentation, likewise warmly received, by Cable, who has led 乐播传媒 since July 2011. 乐播传媒 Trustee Karl Mills ’82 introduced the presidents.

Cable looked back at a year that was anything but a placeholder between “real” presidents: a year marked by the implementation of a dance major, the opening of the renovated Hedge and Roger Williams halls, the emergence of a reinvigorated 乐播传媒 Career Development Center, and an excellent run in athletics.

But if Cable offered the year in review, Spencer looked ahead to the future of 乐播传媒 in an address shot through with optimism, offering two initial recommendations.

Two keys to the future

“We need to make a virtue of our particularity, our distinctive history and identity,” Spencer said. “To engage the large, complex, dizzying forces that are coming at us, we have to stand somewhere, and we have to stand somewhere firm.”

At the conclusion of the Reunion Address, alumni begin to rise for a standing ovation. Photograph by H. Lincoln Benedict ’09.

That solid foundation comprises 乐播传媒’ founding values, its location and its reputation. In a world that, more than ever, demands that liberal arts colleges justify the investment that families and society make in them, these qualities 鈥� in particular, 乐播传媒’ bedrock egalitarianism 鈥� confer institutional significance and distinctiveness.

乐播传媒, she said, practices “not a vague kind of politically correct inclusiveness, but instead the inclusiveness that says, we are here to encounter each other as humans with potential, with gifts; and the greatest opportunity that anybody can have as a human is the opportunity to realize those gifts.

“That鈥檚 in the fabric of who we are.”

She added, “We have been ahead of our time since 1855. And that puts us in a great position to look at a world that is changing very fast.”

Spencer drew especially warm applause as she cited Maine and Lewiston as advantages to 乐播传媒. “There is no place that I would rather find myself than in Maine, which embodies ruggedness and self-sufficiency, the elemental and the substantial,” she explained.

“And that includes Lewiston,” which she described as a fascinating community “that gives our students amazing opportunities to interact with the complicated world around them on a very granular level.”

Spencer said that “the fact that our rigor and our tough-mindedness are encompassed within a community that is kind and respectful is a phenomenal strength.” Photograph by H. Lincoln Benedict ’09.

The third factor in establishing particularity, she said, is an outstanding reputation 鈥� which 乐播传媒 has. But the college must also address the fact that “our reputational capital far exceeds our financial capital.” That’s a serious problem for a college whose educational quality, “with the kind of personal attention at every level that we give, is expensive. It is not going to get fundamentally cheaper in our lifetimes.”

Still, Spencer said, “I would much rather sign up for a job at a college with a fantastic reputation, based on excellent fundamentals, but with money to raise, than a college with lots of money without great fundamentals or a great culture.”

For her second overall prescription, Spencer told the Reunion gathering that “we need to make a virtue of our scale.”

Smallness enables 乐播传媒 to educate each student “in a community…that takes as its project the development of the whole person, and situates the search for knowledge in a framework of values. This is something I think 乐播传媒 does incredibly well.”

Rigor, kindness, engagement

“There are many parts of this world where respect for other human beings is low, where kindness is really undervalued,” Spencer said.

“I think kindness is not to be underestimated. The fact that our rigor and our tough-mindedness are encompassed within a community that is kind and respectful is a phenomenal strength.”

Pursuing the theme of 乐播传媒 progressiveness, Spencer also reminded her listeners that 乐播传媒 is ahead of the game in both interdisciplinarity and in robust engagement.

Students go out into the community and the world, she said, and “they learn. They bring that back into the classroom, and they go out again with an intellectual framework taken from the classroom. It鈥檚 a virtuous cycle,” and “we are ahead of the game in recognizing that.”

“We need to be porous to the world, we need to be intentional about what we鈥檙e doing here and we need to make sure our students go out and get the broadest possible experiences they can,” Spencer concluded.

“Our graduates need to be global participants in a highly competitive world, and it’s our job to make sure that we prepare them for this reality.”

乐播传媒 College, in partnership with Brown University and Northeastern University, will host approximately 200 New England higher education leaders for a Leadership Symposium on College Cost, Price and Financial Aid, featuring an array of national experts on these subjects, from noon to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29.

The symposium will include:

鈥� A keynote address by Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman, authors of the widely noted 2010 book Archibald and Feldman are faculty members at the College of William and Mary, where they teach in the economics and public policy departments. Both have published much research on the economics of higher education, in scholarly journals and for the general public.

鈥� An Update on National Trends in Student Financial Aid by , professor emerita of economics at Skidmore College and a senior policy analyst for the College Board. A sought-after expert who is frequently quoted in the national media and has testified before Senate and House committees on matters of higher education finance, Baum is the co-author of a number of publications for the College Board, including Trends in Student Aid, Trends in College Pricing, and Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society.

鈥� A panel discussion featuring Archibald, Feldman and Baum together with two leaders in college admission: ’69, vice president for enrollment management at Northeastern University; and , dean of admission at Brown University.

Serving as moderator and honorary chair of the event is , a 1986 乐播传媒 graduate and current member of the 乐播传媒 board of trustees who is president and chief executive officer of the Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest foundation dedicated exclusively to increasing students’ access to and success in post-secondary education.

While the symposium is not a public event, it is open to news coverage. Proceedings will also be posted on the 乐播传媒 website following the conference.

, president of 乐播传媒 and a higher education leader for three decades at top liberal arts and sciences colleges and universities, said, “We’re excited that the nation’s leading experts in cost, price and financial aid will be at 乐播传媒 for this event.

“The public has a right to be told accurately what various colleges are charging and why,” she added. “The symposium is intended to help participants think together about cost and value questions the public is deeply interested in, as well as how to most meaningfully present the answers, which usually are not simple or easy.

“For instance, it’s very important to understand the difference between cost and price in higher education.

“In highly selective colleges and universities, which are experiencing ever-increasing public demand for the education they offer, price is directly related to the ability of the institution to create a community that is as diverse in every way as the world its students will enter and help lead; and on the institution’s ability to provide a top-quality faculty.

“The financial cost to the institution of creating and maintaining such communities is very high. But not everyone in such communities pays the same price for the product. Those who can afford to pay full price help make possible financial aid for those who cannot. Yet all benefit equally from the resulting community of great diversity and talent. And without that benefit, you would not have the same quality of education.

“The cost of top-quality higher education is also about investing in an appreciating asset that is highly respected worldwide.

“We hope participants in this symposium will share the discussion here with their counterparts in other colleges and universities outside New England, helping spread the benefits nationwide.”

Nine college and university presidents including 乐播传媒 President Elaine Tuttle Hansen were invited to join about two dozen members of national news media recently in a dialogue on higher education.

The 22nd Annual Higher Education Media Roundtable was hosted by Arizona State University President Michael Crow at the Harvard Club in New York City on Nov. 4, 2009.

National media outlets included National Public Radio, NBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Nature, Time, Newsweek, Kaplan/Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, University Business, The New York Review of Books, Bloomberg News, and Inside Higher Ed.

College and university presidents and chancellors participating where Alice P. Gast of Lehigh University; David W. Leebron of Rice University; Harris Pastides of the University of South Carolina; Freeman A. Hrabowski III of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; John J. Neuhauser of Saint Michael鈥檚 College; Kent Hance of the Texas Tech University System; Robert C. Holub of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and presidents Crow and Hansen. Communications officers from each of the institutions also attended the meeting.

Discussion topics were broad-ranging and included: assessment, access, K-12 teacher education,
the impact of economic forces on higher education, three-year baccalaureate programs, tenure, swine flu, President Obama鈥檚 education policy, and the increasing academic and socio-economic stratification of higher education.

While 乐播传媒 has offered a three-year option for 40 years, an undergraduate education is hard to speed up, says Hansen. “I think too much in our culture is about doing things faster and simpler and easier. And what we can’t let go of in higher education is that slower is actually better when it comes to learning.”

Hansen joined Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University;聽 Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University; Robert Zemsky, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of a new book on education reform; and Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University and former assistant secretary of education under Lamar Alexander.

President for a Day, a tradition started three years ago by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, reinforces the 乐播传媒 goal of learning to see other perspectives.

This year, President Hansen traded places with Walter Garcia ’11 of Stonington, Maine.

A new genre of presidential letters, memos, columns, and blogs has sprung up on most college campuses in response to the ongoing global financial turmoil.

Demonstrating a greater sense of accountability and transparency than ever before, higher education leaders offer different details but all try to balance two messages. On one hand, we speak with both urgency and candor about budget cuts, sacrifices, and contingency plans. On the other hand, we reassure our stakeholders that we will not only survive this crisis but use it to grow stronger, with core values intact.

I have thus far contributed three letters to this outpouring. Each letter emphasizes how our response to rough economic seas is rooted in the character of the College. 乐播传媒 is prepared by longstanding habits of heart and mind to economize and to be entrepreneurial, and our efforts are as always collective and sustained.

In the most immediate term, it鈥檚 all hands on deck to control costs, maintain revenues, and balance our fiscal 2009鈥�10 budget in the face of diminished endowment performance.

This is not new or unwelcome work here; sound fiscal management has earned 乐播传媒 a reputation for academic excellence that far outstrips our financial resources. Every department is pursuing greater frugality on the operations side, for example, through a Cost-Saving Initiative piloted by our Department of Human Resources.

We still plan to invest now in faculty excellence and financial aid. Planning for the next phase of the Campus Facilities Master Plan is getting under way, as we look to future improvements that will be critical to our educational excellence, including space for residential life, for research and teaching in the sciences, and for athletics and wellness.

On the revenue side, we have seen an enormous growth in the culture of philanthropy at 乐播传媒. We have a robustly emerging habit of asking for and receiving your support to keep 乐播传媒 strong for future generations. In the short term, we are focusing fundraising efforts on the 乐播传媒 Fund, whose revenue makes up about 5 percent of the annual operating budget. New and better ways for those who care about 乐播传媒 to give of their time are also in the offing.

For the longer term, thinking and acting strategically have never been more critical, and we know the ropes here, too. Through multiyear budget planning we have a tool for considering multiple scenarios and giving serious thought to an array of options. Following up on the institutional planning work that began last year, three faculty/staff teams are now developing strategic initiatives focused on:

• the innovative learning agenda at 乐播传媒, enhancing the student experience as well as faculty teaching and scholarship;
• the natural sciences and mathematics, strengthening both curricular and physical infrastructure;
• the arts at 乐播传媒 and in the community, extending the reach and visibility of our creative campus.

Around each initiative we will implement short- and middle-term projects by redeploying existing resources and by fundraising. Looking out further, our planning process will help us monitor what is changing in the environment and how we can respond now to be ready for the future.

Lasting change grows organically from the strengths of a culture, as its champions embrace the possibilities always inherent in the challenges. This college has never grown accustomed to plain sailing. The first president mortgaged his house to meet debts related to the institution, which in its infancy could easily have succumbed without the financial support of both Sunday school children and philanthropists like Benjamin E. 乐播传媒.

As Professor Emeritus of History Jim Leamon 鈥�55 notes, early 乐播传媒 students 鈥渇ound moral advantage in their hardscrabble reputation.鈥� At the same time, President Cheney believed in and worked for nothing less than a grand concept. Raising money to build Hathorn and Parker, he reminded the leading citizens of Lewiston that smaller facilities would suffice for an ordinary school but not for an institution intended 鈥渇or coming time.鈥�

During the Great Depression, 乐播传媒 never cut faculty or staff, nor ran deficits. Reacting to increased competition for students and their greater needs, 乐播传媒 doubled its financial aid over a six-year period early in the decade and increased its spending on recruitment later in the decade. In 1936, Harry Rowe 鈥�12, the longtime lieutenant to 乐播传媒 presidents, summed up the 乐播传媒 philosophy: 鈥淎 holding-our-own policy will not do.鈥�

In 2009 we will draw on these inspirational ancestors even as we look forward, not backward, and we will call on our entire community of talented faculty, dedicated staff, ambitious students, and generous supporters.

By Elaine Tuttle Hansen

If you think the current economic recession has prompted finger-pointing, check what Harry Rowe ’12, the first editor of this publication, wrote in 1936: “Higher educational institutions are on trial. They are regarded by the Right as communistic; while the Left considers them to be citadels of conservatism.”

Perhaps Rowe was still stinging from an incident a few years earlier when former Maine Gov. Percival Baxter indulged in some statewide Red-baiting. During a December 1931 speech to the Bangor Rotary Club, Baxter said that “one of our Maine colleges is more deeply involved in [teaching communism and socialism] than the others, and many of its students already have been brought under the spell of these false and un-American doctrines.”

乐播传媒 President Clifton Daggett Gray offered the first bit of payback, which Baxter apparently deemed “abusive,” according to The 乐播传媒 Student. The second retort came from the Student itself. While acknowledging that some 乐播传媒 students were active Socialists, the paper asked, “What of it? They are moved by a wish to alleviate the suffering of mankind.” Furthermore, the Student said, “as students confronted with a sick society…we demand the right to seek our own ideals from the raw materials of truth.”

Around that time, the Student reported on a 1931 economic conference in Augusta. There, a Maine electric company official stated that Maine colleges were teaching “babble” and that unemployment is not the “concern of society or of government.” The official’s comment prompted an immediate reaction from 乐播传媒 Professor of Economics (and former debate coach) John Murray Carroll, attending the conference with nine of his students. “Fiery” is how the Student described their subsequent exchange.

The point of all this is not that Carroll called someone out. And it’s not about specific political or economic beliefs. It’s that Carroll’s students saw that ideas are capable of some heavy lifting.

A Maine native who graduated from 乐播传媒 in 1909, Carroll was described as a professor who “tried to induce the student to see the significance of ideas.” It’s known that he inspired the likes of Frank Coffin ’40, LL.D. ’59, the greatly respected federal jurist who, just last fall, was honored for his contributions to legal aid for the poor here in Maine. And he likely inspired the very Student editor who likely wrote those editorials mentioned above. Valery Burati ’32, editor-in-chief in 1931鈥�32, became a labor organizer who, in post-World War II Japan, helped to establish Sohyo, a major confederation of trade unions.

The legacy of professors like John Murray Carroll is seen on the next page, where you can read how anthropologist Elizabeth Eames’ students helped area businesses identify employment barriers facing Somali residents. And on page 28 is a story about psychologist Georgia Nigro’s work to illuminate why some boys fail to thrive in school.

And if there’s a difference between then and now, at least when it comes to the work that 乐播传媒 people do in Maine, it’s that finger-pointing has been replaced by handshakes and, at times, a nice round of applause.

By H. Jay Burns, editor

In the Sept. 26 story “Want to Go to Harvard Law?” correspondent Elizabeth Bernstein noted that graduate school officials told the Wall Street Journal that, along with the Ivy League schools, the “small liberal arts colleges tend to do a better job of advising their students in areas like picking courses that look good on an application. And when students work directly with professors in small classes, they tend to get better recommendation letters.”

乐播传媒 placed 40th in the list of so-called feeder schools, between CBB peers Bowdoin (19) and Colby (46). Topping the list were Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
In its ranking, the Journal considered graduate schools in medicine, business and law. The selected medical schools were Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UC-San Francisco and Yale. The business schools were Chicago, Dartmouth鈥檚 Tuck School, Harvard, MIT鈥檚 Sloan School and Pennsylvania鈥檚 Wharton School. The law schools were Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Michigan and Yale.
The Wall Street Journal said its ranking compared the total number of a college’s 2003 graduates with the number attending the 15 graduate programs this fall. Of the 417 乐播传媒 graduates in May 2003, eight are attending the selected graduate schools.

Participating in the round-table discussion will be Donald W. Harward, president of 乐播传媒 College; Jill N. Reich, dean of the faculty at 乐播传媒 College; Kenneth L. Brown, professor of philosophy at Manchester College; Parker G. Marden, president of Manchester College; Ruth V. Gross, dean of liberal arts at the University of Texas at Arlington; and Robert E. Witt, president of the University of Texas at Arlington.

The round-table discussion will focus on the role of higher education in the 21st century, the responsibility of higher education to the public and how institutions of higher education should respond to market forces and expectations, as well as rapidly changing social needs.