Now a 乐播传媒 vice president and senior adviser to President Clayton Spencer, Nancy J. Cable becomes president of The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations in spring 2013. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

乐播传媒 College Vice President Nancy J. Cable has been appointed president of , a Florida-based philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting education, theological education, public television and health care.

Cable has built a national reputation in higher education, compiling a record of leadership at highly regarded colleges and universities and in various higher education organizations.

Cable begins her tenure at The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations in spring 2013. Currently a vice president at 乐播传媒 and senior adviser to college President A. Clayton Spencer, Cable served as interim 乐播传媒 president from 2011 into 2012. She first came to 乐播传媒 as vice president for enrollment and external affairs in February 2010.

“Nancy brings deep experience in higher education and a gift for strategic action to this new role,” said 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer. “After joining 乐播传媒 in January 2010 as vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs, Nancy brought energy and vision to the college’s work in admission and financial aid, communications and career development, increasing the effectiveness of our operations in all of these areas.

“When asked by the 乐播传媒 Board of Trustees to serve as interim president during a presidential search, Nancy plunged into the role with characteristic vigor and determination and maintained the forward momentum of the college during a critical transitional year.”

.

Based in Jacksonville, Fla., the A.V. Davis Foundations were established in 1952 by industrialist and philanthropist Arthur Vining Davis. 乐播传媒 is among scores of private colleges and universities that have benefited from the foundations’ support.

With characteristic charm and sense of the moment, then-interim President Nancy Cable salutes Hannah Zweifler, the final graduate to receive her diploma at Commencement 2012. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen / 乐播传媒 College.

Most recently, the college received $250,000 in 2010 to support biology department programming, including student research. Other grants have supported faculty compensation and the renovation of a 乐播传媒 science building.

In addition to the A.V. Davis Foundations appointment, with the support of the foundations’ board of trustees, Cable will travel next summer to China as a Fulbright Specialist. Based in Hong Kong, she will work with a team of scholars on developing liberal arts education in China.

Administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars on behalf of the U.S. State Department, the Fulbright Specialist Program promotes linkages between U.S. academics and professionals and their counterparts overseas.

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.”

Bonnie Bassler (left) is congratulated by Robert De Niro (second from left) after her address at Commencement. Gwen Ifill (second from right) and interim President Nancy Cable add their applause. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

As you might expect from one of the nation’s leading journalists, the advice that Gwen Ifill gave to the 乐播传媒 College class of 2012 was short and to the point: Look up.

“It’s so much simpler to look down,” at our feet and our smartphone screens, Ifill said. “But our fears are down there, too. If you look up and look away from the fears, you’ll see the destinations that you’re headed for, and the opportunities.”

Ifill was one of three prominent figures to receive an honorary degree and to offer remarks to the 463 乐播传媒 graduates on May 27, joining Princeton biologist Bonnie Bassler and actor Robert De Niro.

• Complete 乐播传媒 Commencement coverage

Thanks to the honorands’ edgy wit, energy and well-researched references to insider 乐播传媒 lore like the Blue Goose and Midnight Madness, 乐播传媒 enjoyed an unusual college graduation: one that sent the graduates away with not just an earful of good advice, but stomach muscles sore from laughing.

One estimate had the crowd at 5,000, and with families, faculty and friends filling the Historic Quad under blue skies, interim President Nancy Cable offered welcoming remarks.

“You have given us your good will, your creativity, your humane instinct, your artistic and athletic gifts, your willingness to ask the right set of questions, your sense of reason and your dogged determination to sustain the momentum at the college,” Cable said.

Cable also called for a moment of silence to honor the memories of two individuals the college community lost too soon — economist David Aschauer, who died last August, and first-year student Evan Dube, who passed away May 19 during a Short Term trip to the Shetland Islands.

Bassler’s doctorate of science recognizes her transformational research into bacterial “quorum sensing,” the ability of bacteria to coordinate their behavior through chemical signaling. Hilarious from the outset — “Now, enough about you,” she told the graduates. “Let鈥檚 please talk about me” — she opened her talk with the conceit that the one scientist among the honorands would never have the prestige of a famous actor and a television journalist.

“If only the academic scientist would get it over with,” she said, “Robert De Niro and Gwen Ifill could give their talks, and you could get to what you鈥檝e been waiting for.”

But Bassler artfully steered her address toward the graduation speaker’s prime responsibility, that of sending the graduates off with solid advice. When she was their age, she told the graduates, she believed there were the De Niros and Ifills of the world, and then there was everybody else, including the Bonnie Basslers. Now she knows better.

“So how do you go from where you are sitting to where I鈥檓 standing? You do it by finding, or better yet, by making your own adventure,” she said. “It can be science, it can be acting, it can be journalism, it can be anything, so long as you love it.”

“You do it by jumping in and trying your best. You do it by not saying no because you are scared that you might fail,” she said. “When I don鈥檛 want to do something, I say, ‘No, thank you. When I consider not doing something because I鈥檓 scared that I could fail, I say, Yes.”

De Niro had his own subversive way of commenting on the star power that he and Ifill brought to 乐播传媒. For instance, he offered this helpful advice: become a movie star.

“There may be pressure on you to change the world, but you must find the strength to resist,” he said. “When I started, I wasn鈥檛 a movie star, and it sucked. The moment I became a movie star, things started to get better.

“When you鈥檙e a movie star, you can coast. For example, who remembers the last really good successful picture I made?” De Niro asked, to huge laughs.

“But I want you to know under this movie star exterior is a real person. Just like you — naw, I really didn鈥檛 mean that. That was acting. You see, I still got it.”

De Niro took on the college world, too, pointing out that by dropping out of high school in the 1960s, he saved $6,000 in tuition costs. “I feel a little foolish, because if I had waited until now not to go to college, I could have saved around a quarter of a million.

“But I was in a hurry and, you know, it worked out just fine. I saved the money and I got the degree” — the doctorate of fine arts he had just gotten from 乐播传媒.

He did get around to offering some irony-free advice. “If you’re an actor, always be true to your character. And if you’re not an actor, have character and always be true to yourself.”

Bassler and De Niro were tough acts to follow, acknowledged Ifill, who received a doctorate of letters. “Yesterday I met my fellow honorands for the first time, and I decided that I instantly love them,” she began. “But now I hate them both with a deep and abiding passion that comes from being the third person to speak.”

But she played it mostly straight. “Now there are some benefits to be had in looking down,” she said. “If you look down today you will be able to follow in the footsteps of 乐播传媒 graduates like Ed Muskie and Benjamin Mays and Peter Gomes and Bryant Gumbel. That ain鈥檛 half bad.

“But mostly we want you to unglue your eyes from the screens, to look around and see that the world won鈥檛 get better without you,” Ifill told the graduates. “The news I cover won鈥檛 happen without you. And the learning you have acquired here means nothing unless you apply it to a cause that does not end at your smartphone.”

Thanks to the honorand addresses, as well as weather that couldn’t have been better, it was an ecstatic throng that watched the graduates collect their diplomas. Hannah Zweifler of West Hartford, Conn., was the last, and Cable held Zweifler’s hand high in victory.

Alumni Council President Roland Davis ’92 welcomed the new grads to the ranks of the Alumni Association. And Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace sent the class of 2012 on its way with a benediction that he based on an incident when Southern author Flannery O’Connor declined to meet African American author James Baldwin for fear it would cause the “greatest trouble and disturbance and disunion” in her Georgia town.

Blaine-Wallace urged the graduates to choose the disturbance and disunion, if it’s for a righteous cause. “乐播传媒 has not taught you to be nice and play it safe,” he said. “You’ve learned here to embrace complexity with fiery passion.”

Quoting civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the chaplain said, ” ‘We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers.’ Now and then, here and there, be a beatific pain in the you-know-what.”

Interim President Nancy Cable and Board Chair Mike Bonney 鈥�80 will offer a Year-End Update Teleconference at noon (EST) Friday, Dec. 16.

The 45-minute teleconference, open to all, will touch on the college鈥檚 financial health and endowment performance; offer updates on campus facilities and program improvements; and recap the recent announcement of Clayton Spencer, Harvard vice president for policy and a U.S. higher education leader, as the college鈥檚 eighth president, to begin her term July 1.

In addition, Cable and Bonney will field questions from call participants about 乐播传媒 today.

Hear and Watch a Recording of the Year-End Update Teleconference

To Join the Year-End Teleconference

Most attendees will find it more convenient to listen to the Web-based Year-End Teleconference and view the associated 乐播传媒 photographic slide show on their computers or devices.

But for those wishing to listen by phone and/or wishing to ask Interim President Nancy Cable or Board Chair Mike Bonney 鈥�80 or a question about 乐播传媒 today, a call-in option is available and encouraged.

For those wishing to watch and listen on a computer/device:

• Click on this link, or copy and paste the link into your browser:
  
• Click the 鈥淓nter as a Guest鈥� button.
• Type your name.
• Click 鈥淓nter Room鈥� to open the Teleconference landing page. You can control audio level using the green speaker icon at upper left and your own computer鈥檚 volume level.

For those wishing to listen by phone and/or wishing to ask a question:

To listen by phone:

• Call 866-828-8672 and a live operator will welcome you to the Year-End Teleconference. The conference ID is “乐播传媒 College.”
• You will be put on hold with 乐播传媒 music until the conference begins.
  

To ask a question at any time:

• If you are not already listening by phone, call 866-828-8672 and a live operator will welcome you.
• Once in the Teleconference, press *1 (the “star” key then the number 1 on your keypad) and you will join a queue hosted by a 乐播传媒 staff member who will collect each caller鈥檚 question.
• You will hear the Teleconference while in the 乐播传媒 queue.

Please Test Your Connectivity

To avoid connectivity problems, prior to the Teleconference.

Viewer Limit

The online Year-End Teleconference is limited to 250 viewers, so please join the conference promptly. The dial-in option has no limit.

Devices not supported

iOS platform and Android devices are not support for this 乐播传媒 call.

Featured remarks at the dedication ceremony of renovated Hedge and Roger Williams halls:

• Cosmin Ghita 鈥�12 of聽Bucharest, Romania, president of Student Government
• Michael Bonney 鈥�80, chairman of the Board of Trustees
• Paul Marks ’83 (below), CEO of the global aerospace technology firm Argosy Inc.
• Nancy Cable, president of 乐播传媒

http://vimeo.com/31268424/settings

Video clips of the five speakers at the Leadership Symposium on Cost, Value and Financial Aid at 乐播传媒 College.

• Watch the complete symposium.
• Read the news story about the symposium.

Nancy J. Cable, President

“It is my pleasure to introduce our chairperson for our symposium today, Jamie Merisotis ’86, long a champion of the idea that higher education enhances both society and individuals.”

Jamie Merisotis ’86

“The demand for people with increasing skills, knowledge and experience, as reflected in [college] degrees, is as high as it’s ever been.”

Robert Archibald

“The success of colleges in producing graduates who can do well in the labor market is part of the reason why college costs have gone up.”

David Feldman

“[Robert Archibald and I] are anti-catastrophists. We don’t tend to think that higher education is coming to a cliff and you are about to fall off of it. [But]…we know we are not perfect.”

Sandy Baum

“The headlines are about what will sell and capture attention, and not about what’s really accurate. It’s important to put numbers into context.”

Jane Bode Brown ’69

“We do a lot of work helping families apply for financial aid. It’s tremendously complicated, and there are a lot of misconceptions about how much aid is available.”

James Miller

“More families are concerned with outcomes than in any point in my career. What is the outcome of this four-year commitment? The confidence level of parents has dropped dramatically.”

The Leadership Symposium on Cost, Value and Financial Aid

Watch the full symposium.

Jamie Merisotis ’86, a 乐播传媒 trustee and a dedicated advocate for improved access to higher education, moderated the symposium.

Everyone knows the big story about higher education: The price of college is out of control. That story sets the tone for media coverage of higher education, and it’s the story that keeps parents awake at night.

And it’s wrong.

While the cost of higher education is certainly rising, a group of national leaders in higher education told an Oct. 29 gathering at 乐播传媒, that cost is neither inflated nor out of proportion with the considerable benefits of a higher education.

• View video clips featuring each symposium speaker.
• View the full symposium.

This was the message that dominated the Leadership Symposium on College Cost, Price and Financial Aid, held at 乐播传媒 and co-hosted by Brown and Northeastern universities. Suggested by 乐播传媒 board chair Michael Bonney ’80 and convened by President Nancy J. Cable, the afternoon symposium brought some 100 education professionals to Perry Atrium.

Six national experts in college cost and admission issues addressed the symposium:

• Moderator Jamie Merisotis ’86, a 乐播传媒 trustee, longtime advocate for improving access to college and head of an organization dedicated to producing more college graduates;
• Robert Archibald and David Feldman, economists at the College of William and Mary and authors of the recent book ;
• Sandy Baum, professor emerita of economics at Skidmore College and adviser to the College Board, who gave an analysis of trends in cost and financial aid;
• Jane Bode Brown 鈥�69, vice president for enrollment management at Northeastern;
• and James S. Miller, dean of admission at Brown.

In his welcome, Merisotis sounded a note of urgency about the need to broaden access to higher education. “Today, the stakes have never been higher for our country in delivering the promise of an affordable, accessible higher education.”

The symposium filled Perry Atrium just hours before an Oct. 29-30 snowstorm stunned New England.

Demand for higher education is “dramatically higher,” he said, and the market’s demand for employees with degrees is greater than it has ever been. Degree-holders on average take home 84 percent more compensation than non-degreed workers, up from the 75 percent premium of a decade ago.

Two-thirds of all positions created in the next decade will require at least a bachelor’s degree. And today, without some kind of post-secondary credential, people are much more likely to be unemployed, and to make low wages when they are employed.

More than ever, Merisotis said, post-secondary education is not a guarantee, but “a prerequisite for entry into middle-class life in our country. To put it more starkly, without a college degree, there’s a very good chance you’re going to be poor.”

The benefits of a college education are just one part of the story that needs to be more forcefully told about access to higher education, the panelists agreed. Here are other highlights from the afternoon’s discussion:

College of William and Mary economists David Feldman, left, and Robert Archibald wrote the book “Why Does College Cost So Much?”

The “dysfunction narrative”

Summarizing their data and arguments from Why Does College Cost So Much?, Archibald and Feldman convincingly refuted the common wisdom that college costs are out of control, running away thanks to bloated administrations, effete tenured faculty and “country club” expectations of comfort and service — all of which the economists labeled as the “dysfunction narrative” usually cited in the media and by critics of education.

Instead, these increases result from systemic factors affecting other industries too — for example, health care and legal services — and the increases in educational cost parallel the increases in those fields. All of these services can be delivered only by highly educated, highly skilled professionals whose high salaries are determined by the market; and are fields in which productivity cannot be dramatically improved through technology, unlike in manufacturing. The latter illustrates the phenomenon called “cost disease,” where certain segments of the economy see costs rise as rising productivity in other segments forces prices down.

In addition, higher education is unique in that colleges and universities are obliged to prepare students for the real world by recreating that world in microcosm, incurring expenditures — from travel to technology to financial aid — that doesn’t directly drive productivity but is essential to quality.

Feldman and Archibald offered the concept of an “unholy trinity” or “iron triangle” that rules the college-cost equation. The three elements are tuition and fees, subsidies to schools (whether from government, endowment or gifts) and the quality of education — and you can’t change one without changing another. If subsidies drop, either you raise tuition or reduce quality.

Sandy Baum, professor emerita of economics at Skidmore College, makes a point while Jane Bode Brown ’69 of Northeastern University listens.

The income gap

Currently, about two-thirds of college students receive some sort of financial aid. As demand for higher education grows and the gulf in earnings widens between the richest Americans and everyone else, the resources to support aid will become scarcer and scarcer.

Miller and others pointed out that, despite the common wisdom that college costs are out of control, higher educational institutions are actually serving as a bulwark against the widening income gap: Especially for state schools hard-pressed by falling state appropriations, the rise in the college “sticker price” is driven largely by subsidies, in the form of grants or scholarships, for less affluent families.

The economic context that in past years made higher education seem like a given has changed drastically. As Miller pointed out, middle-class families formerly were able to use home equity to finance a college education because their retirement funds were solid. There were sometimes family financial reserves, such as an expected inheritance, that they could count on. “But all that’s gone,” he said. “The confidence level of parents has dropped dramatically.”

As Miller said, any other industry whose product was as much desired as higher education would follow the rule of supply and demand by raising prices. Instead, higher education is containing price increases.

Baum pointed out that, thanks to a shift in emphasis from need-based to merit-based aid (which favors families that have been able to give their children every advantage in college preparation), a considerable amount of aid is going to students who could afford to enroll without it. Even public institutions, she said, are “giving a lot of money to people who could do without it.”

She said, “We need to talk about whom we’re helping, how and why.”

The symposium on college costs brought about 100 leaders in higher education to 乐播传媒.

The wrong story

The panelists were clear that when the curtain goes up on the topic of access to college, the spotlight is usually on the wrong actors.

Despite the economic advantages conferred by a college degree, as Baum said, the media’s approach seems to be, “We found an unemployed college graduate and we’re going to write a story about him.”

Panelists agreed that higher education needs to take charge of the story. To defend both the costs and the sticker price of higher education, schools need to find a way to measure learning and produce data that make the case, rather than relying on storytelling to win hearts and minds. As David Feldman said, “we need to shape the accountability movement rather than be shaped by it.”

Professor of Philosophy Mark Okrent gets a close look as board chairman Mike Bonney ’80 (left) and President Nancy Cable do the ribbon cutting. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

The journey of Paul Marks ’83 from 乐播传媒 to China, and from being “a fairly unengaged student” to an international business leader, made an ideal narrative for the ceremonial reopening of Roger Williams and Hedge halls, facilities newly repurposed for the academic exploration of border crossings — borders national, cultural, philosophical, spiritual, disciplinary.

• Video: Paul Marks ’83 and fellow speakers at the dedication

Now based in Shanghai and CEO of the global aerospace technology firm Argosy Inc., Marks was one of 乐播传媒’ first students to graduate with a China-focused history major. His address at the dedication ceremony recounted how a Short Term trip to China in 1981, 30 years ago this year, was the challenge that set him on his life’s path.

Remarks by 乐播传媒 board chair Michael Bonney ’80, college President Nancy Cable and Student Government President Cosmin Ghita ’12 were also on the program for the dedication late Thursday afternoon. Two symbolic acts completed the ceremony, as the faculty and staff who are the buildings’ stakeholders received honorary keys to Hedge and the Bill, and a ribbon-cutting made their reopening official.

Paul Marks ’83 speaks to the dedication audience about his defining experience in China in 1981. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

As Marks recalled, his parents were not thrilled about the notion of his going to China. It took the persuasive powers of Professor of Sociology George Fetter, who had arranged 乐播传媒’ first-ever Short Term expedition to China two years previous, to bring them around.

Fetter had promised Marks that the trip would “change his life.” That prediction came true. During five weeks in China, Marks told his listeners, “I became hooked on China. I wanted to understand this chaotic, totally different world.”

Part of the attraction was a spur to his competitive spirit from the group’s Chinese guide, who insisted that the foreigners couldn’t learn the language. Marks rose to the challenge, betting the guide five bucks that he could indeed learn Mandarin. With his first instructor at 乐播传媒 an adjunct faculty member who was the wife of a local Taiwanese dentist, Marks became 乐播传媒’ first student of the Chinese language, and continued his studies as a postgraduate.

In his welcome, Bonney, CEO of the pharmaceuticals firm Cubist, stated the theme for this celebration of two new academic buildings. “Faculty at 乐播传媒 are helping students [prepare] to live, to work, to think, to lead and ultimately to solve problems in the global society. These two buildings are spaces that foster that kind of learning.”

“The decision to renovate these buildings was not an easy decision, Bonney said, owing to their age and condition after years of hard use as residence halls. “And yet we stand here today with two remarkable buildings that do honor to our history, but also position us beautifully for the future.”

Bonney was the right person to situate the buildings’ symbolic role in the context of time, as his family has been associated with 乐播传媒 for nearly a century, roughly the same amount of time that the Bill and Hedge have been here. (And he and Marks, who were both students during Roger Bill’s heyday as a meeting place for, let’s say, joie de vivre, took the opportunity to point out that a benefit of the renovation was the elimination of the spilled-beer smell.)

Board chair Mike Bonney presents a symbolic key to Roger Williams Hall to Spanish professor Claudia Aburto Guzm谩n. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

“These two academic buildings, and the campus at large, are powered by 乐播传媒 faculty,” Cable told the 175 or so listeners gathered in a tent on Alumni Walk, near the Bill and Hedge. “It is the faculty’s attention to the individual that makes the 乐播传媒 experience so vitally special and distinctive academically.

“Paul’s stories inform our sense of what lasts over time, from the simple connection of a faculty member to a student, the heart of what we do.”

The ceremony began with international students Mustafa Basij-Rasikh ’12 of Kabul, Afghanistan, and Romina Istratii ’12 of Athens, Greece, welcoming the 乐播传媒 community in their native languages (Istratii, anticipating Marks’ subject, also offered a greeting in Chinese, which she is studying at 乐播传媒).

Ghita, of Bucharest, Romania, touched on the chilly dampness of the day in his remarks, bringing the thought neatly around to the ceremony’s theme of global citizenship. “Cultures around the world perceive rain as an omen of good fortune,” he pointed out. “I never would have known that had I not immersed myself in the study of another language.”

Led by President Nancy Cable and Chairman of the Board Mike Bonney ’80, members of the 乐播传媒 community participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate renovated Hedge Hall and Roger Williams Hall at 乐播传媒 College.

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.”