Front gate and clock tower at Mount Holyoke College.
Since 1837 Mount Holyoke has borne the responsibility of being first with great success, defining and periodically redefining the importance of being a women's institution in our society. In recent years, while others of the original Seven Sisters chose to admit men, Mount Holyoke has remained steadfast in its commitment to single-sex education and educational excellence.
Front gate and clock tower at Mount Holyoke College.
"As the twenty-first century approaches, Mount Holyoke is poised to take full advantage of its distinguished history as an excellent liberal arts college for women," notes Barbara Rossotti, chair of the Board of Trustees and a 1961 alumna. "As women's colleges are being rediscovered and the value of the education they promote reaffirmed, Mount Holyoke's leadership role in articulating a vision for liberal arts in the next century is vital. The new century will not erase the challenges Mount Holyoke has faced in competing for students and meeting their needs for tuition assistance, in keeping faculty salaries at competitive levels, and in maintaining its physical plant. Astute financial management, concern for long-term fiscal integrity, and, as always, the generous support of Mount Holyoke's alumnae will secure its leadership position."
President Kennan has also presided over the virtual rebuilding of the campus, one of the most beautiful in the nation. New buildings and facilities include the Miles-Smith Science Library, the Equestrian Center, the Blanchard Campus Center, and the Ciruti Center for Foreign Languages. Many other buildings and facilities, including the Williston Memorial Library, Skinner Hall, Mary Woolley Hall, the Newhall Center, the Kohler Building, the Kendall Sports Complex, Dwight Hall, and Clapp Laboratory were significantly renovated, so that, unlike other major institutions, the College faces little deferred maintenance for its capital plant.
On the academic front, Mount Holyoke has seen the creation of eleven new academic chairs, new academic initiatives including the Frances Perkins Program, new majors in environmental studies and computer science, interdepartmental approaches to traditional disciplines, and innovative programs in areas such as women's studies. At the same time, the College continues to attract the best and brightest faculty, committed to research, dedicated to teaching.
Praising the quality of the faculty and noting that the College has been able to raise faculty salaries appreciably during the Kennan tenure, Peter Berek, dean of faculty and provost, looks toward continued academic excellence in the coming years. Included in his vision for future progress, "We will sustain the College's commitment to a gifted faculty who are distinguished scholars and artists as well as distinguished teachers. We will use new technologies to enhance student learning. We will work to integrate opportunities to serve the community into our students' academic and cocurricular experiences, as an affirmation of Mary Lyon's tradition of service to others. At the same time, the College will continue to extend across the curriculum opportunities for collaborative student-faculty research, and the faculty will continue its efforts to teach and advise a diverse community of students in a culturally inclusive way."
"Faculty at Mount Holyoke care deeply about liberal learning and about our students," says Harriet Pollatsek, mathematics professor and a member of the Presidential Search Committee. "Out of that caring has come first class scholarship and creative work and a curriculum of exceptional intellectual vitality."
The faculty's commitment is matched by the College's commitment to making the newest scientific equipment available to students--including transmission and scanning electron microscopes, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, and a Van DeGraaff accelerator. The College is about to begin a nearly five million dollar expansion of its computer networking infrastructure, folding classrooms, labs and every residence hall room into a net of easy access between students and international sources of video, data, and computer information. Mount Holyoke is and will continue to be a leader among liberal arts colleges in capturing and utilizing new technologies.
But, while equipment changes, and while the curriculum changes to anticipate the changing world, the heart of Mount Holyoke College's mission has not. We continue to prepare women for success in the world.
In the area of the sciences, the College continues to be one of the leading American institutions in preparing women for doctoral studies. Twenty-four percent of the class of 1993 majored in the sciences. The College is in the top two percent of 925 four-year, private institutions ranked for science doctorates received from 1920 to 1990. And, from 1970 to 1990, 421 graduates earned medical degrees.
Mount Holyoke graduates also continue to follow the institution's time-honored commitment to service, striving not only to build successful lives for themselves and their families, but to serve the commonwealth of humanity through teaching, volunteer service, and a commitment to effective citizenship.
The College is moving to further ensure that graduates can successfully pursue strong careers. This year the College combined its internship and career resources programs and has committed new resources to this vital area. The College also continues to work hand in hand with the Alumnae Association, a worldwide network of women who are a tremendous asset to advancement for students and graduates.
"The College is more than simply a four year experience--it is a worldwide network of women who share a common experience and often a common vision and esprit de corps that is quite unique to Mount Holyoke," said Margaret Woodbury, president of the Alumnae Association and a member of the Presidential Search Committee. "The Alumnae Association and all of the College's alumnae are committed to active involvement in the success of the College and in the success of young graduates."
As internationalism becomes a current buzz-word, Mount Holyoke is already an international center. The Chronicle of Higher Education ranks the College in the top ten U.S. liberal arts institutions for attracting students from around the globe.
"For over one hundred and fifty years Mount Holyoke has drawn hundreds of women from across the globe to its campus; provided them with a rigorous liberal arts education that challenged them to excel; and sent them forth to create a worldwide network of women who are working from the local to the international level to create a more just and livable world," said Mary Jacob, dean of international affairs.
The College has also been a leading advocate for women and women's education. In 1987 the College hosted the Worldwide Education for Women Conference. And this past November, the College brought nearly 400 educators, policymakers and researchers to campus for the Studies in Success Conference, held in partnership with the Women's College Coalition.
"Women's colleges have arguably never been stronger than they are today, nor more relevant to the nation," observes Jadwiga Sebrechts, executive director of the Women's College Coalition. "Mount Holyoke was a model for dozens of women's colleges that were founded in the first century of women's higher education; it has been a sterling example of educational excellence in the second century of women's higher education; and now with a new president and the renewal of vision and mission that accompanies such a change, it promises to stay at the head of the class."
The College's renowned campus is one of the nation's most beautiful.
Second, while the College has seen its endowment multiply fivefold in the past seventeen years, it faces financial challenges if it is to maintain its standards, its excellence, and its need-blind admissions policy.
Trustee E. William Smethurst, Jr., chair of the board's Finance Committee, praises President Kennan's "determined support" of and success in enhancing the College's endowment in a period of demographic decline and stress in the financial markets, pointing to such decisions as the restructuring of the endowment management process, divestment from South African securities, undertaking the College's first strategic study, and successfully completing--at $140 million--the first $100 million fundraising campaign launched by any women's college.
However, the College's operating budget and particularly the costs of financial aid have seen manifold increases in the last dozen years and are anticipated to escalate for all institutions at a substantial rate in coming years. Smethurst observes, "We all know the facts. Money is not the purpose of an institution like Mount Holyoke, but without it we can not fulfill our mission. Because that mission is deeply imbedded in educating women, our risk profile has got to be higher than coeducational institutions such as Williams or Amherst. As competition for excellent students becomes tighter and tighter, and as we compete for the best faculty, the endowment must be the predominant priority of the College if it wishes to remain a truly first class institution."
Finally, and just as important, the College must continue to map the way for women's institutions and for women to grapple with the challenges of the new century. That has always been the College's responsibility--one that comes with being first.
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