Fwd: [Colby College] Opening of the Academic Year
Jonathan Forsythe
From: David A. Greene <pres...@colby.edu>
Date: Wed, Sep 4, 2019 at 4:04 PM
Subject: [Colby College] Opening of the Academic Year
To: Jonathan N. Forsythe <jnfo...@gmail.com>
 |
|
Dear Alumni,
Eighty years ago, in 1939, Merton Miller, Class of 1890, laid the cornerstone of what would become the central and iconic building of our campus, Miller Library. These were the early days of the modern era of Colby College, which was founded in 1813 as a Baptist institution. With a grand library defining the new campus, the Colby that had a fresh start in its move to Mayflower Hill reimagined itself as a secular institution fully committed to scholarly pursuits—a commitment that we renew annually through the arrival of extraordinary new faculty and students and investment in our academic programs.
This year we welcome 18 new tenure-track faculty, the largest incoming group in recent history. The size of this cohort is a function of both retirements of long-serving members of the faculty and a deliberate, strategic growth of our professorial ranks. When I arrived in 2014 the faculty size was at 182 members; this year we open with 211. We have had notable success in attracting our top choice in search after search because Colby is a place where new faculty find generous and talented colleagues, deeply intellectual students, and a dynamic environment that supports teaching and scholarship at the highest levels. This attractive environment has allowed us to further diversify the faculty, with a 42-percent growth of faculty of color and more women (49 percent from 43 percent) teaching our students this year than in 2014. The changes in our faculty have provided opportunities to enlarge our curricular offerings and research profile in fields such as computational biology and genomics, environmental humanities, and data science, and to expand many of our departments and programs, including Anthropology, Creative Writing, Art, Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Astronomy, Global Studies, Government, and East Asian Studies, to name a few.
The students our faculty teach have never been better prepared for the rigorous academic program that is central to life at Colby. The Class of 2023 was chosen from a record applicant pool of 13,584, compared to a pool of 5,148 in 2014, and we are seeing major upticks on all measures of academic achievement and promise in our incoming classes. Our investments in financial aid through programs like the Colby Commitment and the Fair Shot Fund are making a dramatic difference in allowing us to enroll the nation’s top students from lower- and middle-income backgrounds. In the incoming class 17 percent are eligible for Pell Grants (a means-tested federal aid program) compared to only 9 percent in 2014. Forty-six percent of Colby students now receive financial aid, compared to 38 percent five years ago, translating to an additional 162 students on aid, and with a more robust financial aid budget (up to $47 million from $28 million) the percentage of students graduating with debt has decreased 25 percent during the same period. Colby’s population has also begun to look more like that of the diverse world in which we live, with a 43-percent increase in students of color over five years.
We are committed to ensuring that all Colby students, regardless of financial means or family connections, have access to the full range of opportunities once they are here. Through the DavisConnects program, launched in 2017, Colby has made research, internship, and global opportunities universal to the student experience. Last year 93 percent of our students engaged with DavisConnects, and to date, DavisConnects has provided $1.5 million in funding for these experiences that greatly enrich our students’ learning and position them for successful and purposeful lives. Many of these opportunities are created through partnerships, and the Linde Packman Lab for Biosciences Innovation and the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment offer students internship and research opportunities at places like Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, allowing our students to make important contributions to areas of critical concern in today’s world. With the opening of the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons last year and the development of a robust program in civic engagement, Colby students have benefited from contributing to the local community (27,000 hours in 2018-19 alone), and we have deepened our connection to the city we are fortunate to call home.
While we have broadened our reach beyond campus, we have focused on the residential and community experience as well. This year we have 81 students across four classes living together in Mary Low in a pilot program we are calling Healthy Colby. These students will engage in training and discussions that facilitate the development of healthy habits—physically, nutritionally, mentally and emotionally, spiritually, and more—designed to maximize their potential and ability to live fulfilling and productive lives at Colby and long beyond. We have expanded our faculty-in-residence program to further connect the academic and residential life of the College, and we added significant resources in areas such as academic advising, counseling, and athletics (including a newly enhanced sports medicine program). With a goal of improving our academic and physical environment and increasing social interaction, we have reimagined spaces throughout campus—the Paul J. Schupf Scientific Computing Center and data visualization lab, along with new technology classrooms in Olin, enhanced social and community spaces, and a beautifully pedestrianized Runnals Drive, which is the first phase of moving vehicles out of the center of campus to support our sustainability program and facilitate the wonderfully serendipitous connections that are made on a walking campus. These projects are important to our campus accessibility efforts, allowing us to create truly universal access to campus buildings.
Our commitment to community, on campus and beyond, is manifest in two projects that will be completed in the next year: our new athletic center, which, along with fields constructed two years ago, will serve not only our student athletes but our entire campus community and the people of Waterville and Maine; and a new hotel downtown, the Lockwood, which is part of a broad strategy to make the city a more vibrant place for residents and visitors. Colby’s investments on Main Street have yielded significant results already, with growth in jobs, population, and real estate values (up 18 percent) at levels the city hasn’t seen in many decades. Importantly, our investments have stimulated a broad array of private-sector investments, including the planned renovation of the long-vacant Lockwood Mills complex to provide new affordable and market-rate housing. We are also in the final stages of planning for the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts, a stunning new facility that will be built on the Mary Low parking lot and, along with the singular benefits of the Colby College Museum of Art and the Lunder Institute for American Art, will place the arts at the center of Colby’s liberal arts education.
These changes would not be possible without the unprecedented support we are receiving from the Colby community and a commitment to strong fiscal discipline and financial management. As we start the fourth year of our seven-year campaign, Dare Northward, we are approaching $500 million in commitments, which currently includes 42,116 individual gifts. Each and every gift is fueling positive change at Colby. While many colleges are struggling with their finances, Colby closed the fiscal year on June 30 with a balanced budget, a healthy balance sheet, and an endowment at an all-time high of $870 million.
I begin my sixth year as Colby’s president with humility about the challenges facing higher education and our larger society, yet my confidence is unwavering when it comes to the College’s essential place in the world and its growing vibrancy and vitality. The acts of generosity that sustain and propel this institution are truly remarkable. The College has never been stronger in the quality of its academic programs and student experience, its facilities and finances, its reputation and the talents of its students, staff, and faculty, and in the exceptional opportunities it provides students of all backgrounds to make the most of their education and to shape our world in essential and inspiring ways.
This daring College has a rich history, and yet each day I see that its best days are still ahead. It is a privilege and a joy to work with you to make that so.
Sincerely,
David A. Greene
|
|
Colby College If you wish to unsubscribe to this group's mailing list, click here. |
