Well, if nothing else, they are preparing for life in southern California or Portland. They will master the art of the tent.
ETA: If I had a food truck, I would park it nearby. I mean, they’ll have to eat eventually, and convenience is the mother of frivolous spending.
Not sure. Haven’t heard.
Actually, that would be a good sub-thread for this broad NESCAC thread: does everyone like their NESCAC Prez? What is he/she like? Victories. Gaffes. Talents. Etc. It’s an important topic because you really feel the presence of the President at these small schools. They tend to be around a lot (physically) and when operating on such a human scaled campus, the person leading it really has an impact on what it’s like to attend the school. For example, every Wesleyan student will have an opportunity to directly interact with Roth. Many, many of them will be asked to dinner at his home, and there are numerous other forums within which to interact with him.
Roth at Wesleyan has been overall a pretty darned good President. He has a bit of an ego and can at times suffer from foot-in-mouth disease. He’s a talker and you have to have your A game on when conversing with him or he’ll run you over. He’s not a good match for the sensitive wallflower because he tends to be very direct and he’s lightning quick with his thoughts. When you get past all that, he’s actually a very insightful guy who has taken good positions (IMO) on controversial subjects. So, for example, while Wes’ rep may be that of political correctness headquarters, Roth is much more UChicago in his views than people understand. See his talks and writing on “safe enough spaces,” where his position can be boiled down to a view that college is not supposed to be an experience wherein you are never offended or made to feel uncomfortable, but you should also never be marginalized, threatened or made to feel like there is no room for you and your views at the college. It’s a balance, and personally I think that’s the right view of it. He’s also been a good fundraiser and prudent manager of the school’s resources.
His key attribute, in my view, is that he’s an alumnus and truly has the school’s best interests at heart. He loves Wesleyan and wants it to be successful long into the future. But, he’s also courted some controversy over the years, including his handling of the stakeholder reaction to Wes dropping need blind. I also thought he could have better communicated what dropping need blind meant (i.e., that only a small % of the class would be admitted on a need aware basis) and tied the move more explicitly to fundraising (i.e., instead of just saying, “we need more money for financial aid,” say clearly that they need more money to achieve the goal of returning to need blind.)
I’d love to hear about the other NESCAC Presidents and how they’re doing.
Conn just selected a new president, so I guess we’ll see …
Bates’ seems like he’s very present and engaged with the community. I wrote to him right after my daughter was accepted and he wrote a thoughtful message right back. Meanwhile the president of the university where I work has never responded to any communications from me.
It will be interesting to see what Wes does when Roth retires. They’ve never had a female President. For a variety of reasons, it’s time.
Is Bates a challenging desk to run? How activist does the student body tend to be? Is there a routine amount of push-back on the administration there?
I think there will be other changes in the presidential profiles in the future for NESCAC leadership. The President at Hollins University, Mary Hinton, is a Williams alum and African American. She has done an amazing job expanding the academic program and raising funding to recruit first gen and Pell Grant students. Only a matter of time before she gets tapped for a NESCAC campus.
They announced a few weeks ago that Trinity College’s President is going to retire at the end of 2024-25, so they are in the initial stages of a search for a new President.
I agree that Presidents have such a big impact in so many big and small ways at SLAC.
New Amherst prez seems to communicate well, and is constantly seen on campus by students. D27 likes him, and says that the students generally feel very positive about him.
He’s still in a bit of a honeymoon phase. He’s an Amherst alum, and his love of the college is tangible.
Speaks often and eloquently about the need for SLACs to reorient themselves more strongly to focus on the Common Good (rather than just individual enrichment/achievement). First tangible results of this just coming out: group of faculty being given support and incentives to create courses in the various disciplines that promote common-good thinking in the majors. I like where this seems to be going. And he seems willing to pull the trigger on high dollar facilities improvements - most notably the massive investment in carbon neutrality in redoing the entire campus heating system (which is completely non-sexy, won’t make pretty pictures, etc., but is the right thing to do).
He has a very hard act to follow in Biddy Martin, who did a fantastic job in diversifying Amherst’s student body (economically as well as all other sorts of measures), and stewarding them through COVID. But he seems like he might be a keeper. We’ll have to see how he does as a fund raiser.
Bates’ president Garry Jenkins is absolutely LOVED by students. He’s done a great job of attending almost every student event on campus (when he’s in town). Tons of photos with the kids, and very thoughtful posts on social media. He also managed the Oct 25 Lewiston shooting very well, and wrote notes back to everyone who wrote to him (he sent one to me, so assuming he was working around the clock back then to respond to everyone). His inauguration is this weekend and I believe the attendance is expected to be huge. Hopefully he will stay at Bates for a long time. He seems to be a good fit for a SLAC (went to Haverford). He’s also building close ties with Bowdoin and Colby, so it’s nice to see that collaboration (there are joint student groups with CBB already and shared job posting).
He’s a refreshing contrast from the previous president, who I think was well-liked and respected but did not live in town and therefore was not as present in students’ everyday lives, did not go to as many campus events, etc. Garry Jenkins is everywhere (often alongside his husband), which students absolutely love.
I love Hamilton president, David Whippman (called D Whipp), and that seems to be the general consensus among students and parents. My D started in fall 2020, and his handling of COVID was the best that could have been expected. All students could come to campus for the full year, and they were not required to live in singles but could have roommates. (One of the few bright spots for D that summer was planning room decor with her roommate.) Half my D’s classes were in person, dining halls were open, and everyone was tested 3X/week. Although they couldn’t conduct the usual first-year overnight orientation trips, she still had orientation activities in person (outside) and met other people. D Whipp had academic buildings open so students could gather in groups (masked, of course) with their friends. Dorms were restricted to students that lived in the building, but he made sure there were other indoor gathering spots because upstate NY gets cold early. My D had movie and game nights in open classrooms with friends. She even participated in a theater production in the spring. They had to wear masks and parents could only view the play through livestream, but it was so much more than other colleges. When I ran into D Whipp one family weekend, I actually thanked him for giving my D a first-year experience as close to normal as possible during the pandemic.
His communication and leadership are great. He’s retiring next month, but I’m so glad my D had him for all four years.
ETA: He often has articles on higher ed in the NYT and Washington Post you can check out.
Here’s an article that includes some of the initiatives and fundraising he completed during his tenure. Really impressive.
Confirmation of your source in today’s Williams Record. I’m not surprised by this, just hope things stay peaceful.
Yes! I’m an incoming freshman. He mailed me a letter congratulating me although he’s leaving. Seems like a wonderful guy.
Today marks the fourth day of the Wesleyan encampment and this morning’s email from the president includes a reference to some tension, including the first mention of which I’m aware, of bullying “by teachers or fellow students, who are offended by attacks on their identities, or who object to the protesters taking over what is supposed to be public space.”
I find the reference to Brown particularly interesting. Suggests to me that he’s open to conversation about divestment, which has not been his position previously. I think Brown navigated the encampment protest thoughtfully (perhaps learning from some missteps in the fall) and would be heartened to see Wesleyan follow a similar course.
I have no idea. I just no that taking the time to talk to students and faculty and families goes a really long way towards building trust.
It appears they are. For the time being, Wes seems to be doing it right.
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/30/college-protests-response-israel-hamas-war
Roth’s stern tone comes across in both communications, which I think is needed. You’re not in Morningside Heights and it will thus be easier to contain and remove this encampment as compared to what’s gone on at Columbia.
Roth has, in the past, been pretty clear that it pisses him off when students damage school property. It may seem like a weird flex, but it’s his flex and I’m not surprised that the vandalism led to another letter (with, of course, charges of intimidation and harassment).
Wesleyan may be in danger of losing its radical rep if this maintenance of control continues.
Yeah, this is something I actually find off-puttting about him; he does seem to have a bit of an “I’m the boss and you’re not” way about him, which I think is generally counterproductive. And I’ve heard about an obsession with chalking that seems kind of weird.
But he seems to be guided by his better angels in the current environment.
