Elizabeth T. Kennan, president of the College

A Message of Welcome

By Elizabeth T. Kennan

I look back over the seventeen years during which I have had the honor of serving as president of Mount Holyoke College and think of many special moments and events. I think of Joseph Brodsky's commencement speech in 1988, of the Worldwide Conference on the Education of Women we sponsored in 1987, of the renovation of the Williston Memorial Library and the addition of the Miles-Smith Science Library, and of the commitment of so many donors and friends who assured the success of the sesquicentennial fundraising effort. I think of Professor Anthony Lake and his move from our community to serve with President Clinton, and of our historic decision to divest holdings in South Africa in 1985. But most of all I remember the students, the continuous succession of young people arriving on our campus and, in the space of four short years, preparing themselves for bright futures.

We have accomplished much together in terms of maintaining our excellence and building our campus. But, more importantly, we have kept true to our mission. We have kept our commitment to serve the world through educating young women from every culture--not only academically, but spiritually and emotionally--to go forward and lead the way in progress and change for women, and for all of society.

There is great responsibility when our alumnae include such women as Virginia Apgar, Frances Perkins, Lucy Stone, Olympia Brown--the first woman ordained as a minister in the United States--and Ella Grasso--the first woman to be elected governor in this country. I think that if Mary Lyon or Mary Woolley could be with us now, they would be amazed at how the College has grown, and they would be proud that the daring experiment begun in 1837 still flourishes today.

They would be proud, too, of the new president the trustees have chosen for the College, confident that under Joanne V. Creighton's leadership, Mount Holyoke will lead the path to the future for women's education just as the College has led in so many ways through the past 158 years.