Provost’s 2017 Spring Address to Faculty

Thank you for joining me tonight, once again. I know you’re all terribly busy, and on top of that, it’s been a year of immense change. I’m grateful for the time we have together, and for the people who help make this event possible: first and foremost, Gloria Janas, Laure Bowman, and Jan Jones. I’d also like to thank the Sodexo staff.

Tonight’s address will be somewhat similar to the others: recognition of our past, listing of accomplishments and challenges of the present, and acknowledgement of the work ahead. I hope to honor much of what we’ve done together, because the achievements of the College are your achievements. Yes, we are student-centered, but students don’t come unless you’re here to teach them. And, in the course of doing that, you also serve as role models, leaders, and inspiration for all of us. It’s because of the multiple roles that you play and the impact you have that we honor one person each year as Professor of the Year. This year, that honor is bestowed upon Denise Witzig.

I’d also like to recognize faculty who, after long and esteemed careers, are taking advantage of the voluntary separation opportunities made available to them this year. I hope they remain connected with us. Those faculty who intend to take Voluntary Separation Incentive Packages, please stand and be recognized.

Finally, before continuing, I’d like to pause for a moment of silence in memory of Professor Wesley Gibson….

I often provide something of a year in review, but this time, I’d like to offer a decade, (briefly), on this occasion of my 10th Spring Address to you. During times that seem tumultuous, we can forget that most times at Saint Mary’s are, to some extent, tumultuous. And yet, we get good things done. We endure. The accomplishments I recount tonight are the result of many dreams and discussions, and the joy I take in them comes from working with all of you in listening, in talking, and in synthesizing the best of what you all bring to me. Thank you for your openness, respect, and at times, agreeing to disagree.

The group that I rely on most regularly as my advisors and thought partners are the members of the Council of Deans, which includes members of the Senate Executive Committee. The group includes many faculty who have held various administrative positions as well. I’d like to ask members of the Council of Deans, past and present, to please stand and be recognized. . . .

I interviewed for the Provost position in the fall of 2007. The visit was fantastic. I was impressed by the search committee, and I knew there’d be some challenges, but the mission of the College, the energy of the faculty, and the desire among them for leadership, particularly in the areas of diversity and accountability, were appealing and exciting to me. As was typical for Saint Mary’s (though I didn’t know it at the time), the deliberative process seemed quite lengthy, the position somewhat unclear, and the starting date suddenly urgent. I signed the appointment letter in November; then President Brother Ron asked, couldn’t I start in about a month?

Well, we got here pretty quickly, as soon as we could, in January 2008. Among the things I needed to understand, and very quickly, was the complex and critical role of the Christian Brothers on campus.

…. Brother Donald Mansir . . . was to become the closest Brother mentor I’ve had . . . . though I didn’t know what impression I was making at the time, one of the Brothers told me that they appreciated my honesty and forthrightness. I was clear about where I stood. They were clear in accepting, and respecting, my role as Provost. Brother Donald (2008) wrote, “We are blessed to have you with us, especially at this time. You are present to us, you listen to us, and you clearly love education” (personal correspondence). Thus began a very special relationship with Brother Donald, who passed away in October of 2011. His picture still hangs in our home.

At the same time, I learned the importance of understanding the complexity and depth of our mission, and of speaking about and supporting it in the words of the Brothers and the Church. For Brother Donald, our Catholic identity meant “faith seeking intellectual understanding,” with faith as broader than “commitment to a particular religion,” and more akin to seeking reasons for what one believes, trusting the power of the intellect.

With Brother Donald, I gained deeper understanding of the inclusion imperative for Catholic higher education. He wrote: “From different perspectives we learn that there is a diversity of ways to see the world. We learn that people are different from each other in how they learn and in how they see the world. The Catholic tradition … understands that all cultures have something to offer us…Diversity and openness, therefore, are not at odds with the Catholic tradition. Non-Catholics are not at odds with the tradition. Catholicism embraces all who seek the truth. It embraces a vigorous intellectual life; an intellectual life which strives to identify the good not only for myself but for the community. The Catholic intellectual tradition is one of inclusive excellence” (Mansir, 2008, pp. 1-2).

I miss you, Brother Donald. I may yet write that book we talked about, but it won’t be as good without you.

Those first few years were exciting, and rough. Some of you know about narrowly escaping WASC sanctions and substantial budget reductions that included program closures, layoffs, and cuts to staff and faculty benefits. Our full-time equivalent student enrollment dropped to around 3,400, almost exactly where it is now, not only due to affordability challenges but also with the closure of extended education and nursing programs. There was considerable administrative turnover; six people in Dean positions either changed roles or moved on during my first few years. Despite the turmoil, we emerged stronger as an institution. We introduced a framework and path to inclusion that continues to guide our work. We launched the current core curriculum and first-year advising program, an Ethnic Studies minor, faculty tech camps, and our first summer session. We knew then that higher education was changing, and becoming increasingly competitive and costly. This evolving landscape informed our first academic strategic plan, the Academic Blueprint, which helped define our distinction and direction.

At that point, we set out to do three very important things: bring together our undergraduate and graduate cultures to form one university; build a culture of inclusive excellence; and improve student success. We were challenged by the 2010 activism of “Our Struggle,” when students camped out on the Chapel Lawn. The event bears recounting because it hinted at a possible paradigm shift, a moment in College history when our contemporary vocation as an institution came into view. We began to respond to student protest movements in what David Cunningham (2017), professor of Religion, calls a “third way . . . other than the two that have been employed in most cases (accommodation or rejection).” At that moment, “voices of concern were heard not simply as demands or expectations, but as a form of call that could help (us as) an institution discern possible adjustments in (our) understanding of (our) own vocation.” (p. 264) In 2010, we began to listen differently and understand the inclusion imperative that is inherent in our mission. We must try to do so with every student movement, including #BlackLivesMatter and #EndTheSilence.

Near the end of 2010, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. By the summer of 2011, I had undergone chemotherapy and four surgeries. I remember calling a good friend on the faculty in San Diego, and feeling compelled to reframe my fears of having the “big C.” Cancer can be terrifying, and I didn’t mean to downplay it at all, but I told him, “It’s ok. It will help me relate to more people. I’ll better understand their journey; I’ll become a better person.” The key here is empathy; we can’t build inclusive community without it. Our Saint Mary’s community showed me much compassion and empathy, along with some really bad jokes around hair loss. We all, at some point in our lives, have isolating experiences like dealing with cancer. When we can share those, without shame; reach out for support, and receive empathy, we also build the community that exemplifies our mission.

Over the next few years we realized the goals of the Academic Blueprint. We established new faculty achievement awards. We integrated graduate and undergraduate cultures with a commencement “weekend,” expanded collaborative research grants and support to graduate students, and launched new master’s programs in Accounting, Dance, and Leadership for Social Justice. We enhanced inclusive excellence by becoming eligible for HSI status, creating the Bias Incident Response Team, doubling Jan Term scholarships, holding our first Lavender alumni celebration, and expanding the High Potential program beyond a single mentor system to a network of support based on an asset model, such that students were no longer required to participate due to lower academic preparation or stigmatized as “less than” any other member of our community. We advanced academic distinction and student success by investing in our Performing Arts, launching an Honors Program, renovating the Psych Annex, institutionalizing the annual Writers’ Retreat and summer sessions, and opening Math and Writing Centers. “CaTS” (Computer and Technology Services) moved under the Provost and became IT Services. We supported hybrid Jan Term courses and a new Digital Driver’s License, and we crafted a technology strategic plan. We joined Colleges that Change Lives. We celebrated the College’s Sesquicentennial.

During this time, in 2013, we also welcomed a new president, Dr. James A. Donahue. Within his first two years we wrapped up the Blueprint, having achieved most of its goals ahead of schedule. Our first-year retention rate of undergraduate students reached 90%, and our four-year graduation rate increased from a low around 50% when I arrived to over 60%. Our six-year rate improved 10 percentage points to 72%. We achieved AACSB accreditation and launched the Action Research Network of the Americas. We also received reaffirmation of our accreditation with WASC. As far as I can tell, for the first time in our history, we received that reaffirmation without a follow-up special visit.

We’ve continued to focus on some of the Blueprint themes in the most recent strategic plan. Those themes include raising our academic profile and investing in faculty sufficiency and diversity, increasing institutional support for scholarship and collaborative activity, and enhancing the use of technology consistent with our mission and identity. Our accomplishments have continued. We have opened a new Center for Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, which includes the EdTech Center and an Office of Research, through which we have secured millions of dollars in support of faculty and student success initiatives. We now publish an annual review of faculty scholarship. We’ve graduated our first class of students with the new Core Curriculum, and graduation rates continue to be strong. We have improved our academic advising structures and processes. We united the SEBA faculty on campus and launched new programs in Business Analytics and Management. We added support for faculty in the laboratory sciences. We provided additional travel support for faculty in SOLA. We co-founded the Visionary of the Year Award with the San Francisco Chronicle, which was awarded to Pricilla Chan this year. Our support of the arts has helped result in international acclaim, growth in student exhibitions, and a revitalized Art Museum. We launched our first undergraduate and graduate award ceremonies to bring additional attention and recognition to the achievements of our students, and initiated 86 students into our new chapter of the honor society, Phi Kappa Phi.

I realize I’ve spent considerable time recounting progress in the midst of recent, disruptive changes for all of us at the College. These have been challenging times for our President, too, who not only navigates complex relationships with multiple constituencies, but also has made clear his desire to exercise leadership and be the primary voice regarding institutional vision, planning, resources, and inclusion. You’ve heard for months now about our need to realign our budget and make reductions in staff and operating expenses. Our new Chief Financial Officer, Susan Wallace, began a series of campus presentations about the VSIP program earlier this spring, and last week followed them with a detailed budget presentation to the Academic Senate. As is now clear, we will need to postpone raises, reduce retirement contributions, and reduce operating expenses to balance next year’s budget. We will be delivering a balanced budget to the Board of Trustees next week. We are fortunate to have Susan helping to guide us through this, and I value her commitments to transparency and collaboration.

The College, and in fact higher education, has reached an inflection point. How can we sustain our momentum as we struggle with budget cuts, changing student populations, an aging physical infrastructure, and competing institutional priorities? We are not alone in our challenges. As reported in Inside Higher Ed earlier this week, “Tuition discounting at private colleges and universities is up again. Tuition revenue is straining to keep up. And enrollment is weak… Students and families have continued to have higher financial needs in the years after the Great Recession than they did before it. And competition for new students is growing” (Seltzer, 2017). We have kept our institutional tuition discount rate lower than the average for similar institutions, but we, just like our peers, must learn to live with very small average net tuition revenue increases. For institutions like ours, the average increase in net tuition revenue was just 0.2 percent per freshman this year (Selzer, 2017). Peer institutions in our region are under serious strain. A few days ago, the Mills College Board of Trustees declared financial emergency, projecting a $9.1 million deficit in an operating budget already less than half our size, at $57 million (Deruy, 2017).

There really shouldn’t be any surprise in this; our strategic plan anticipated the need for change. We’ve seen considerable enrollment and revenue fluctuations in the past three years. We knew we would need an infusion of fundraising, particularly for a new library. We knew that students were looking for academic excellence, and they didn’t know whether we had it. We knew that everyone was focusing on post-graduate outcomes and questioning the value of a degree. So our president charged us with drafting a plan for “distinctive excellence” at the College.

This search for distinction isn’t unique to Saint Mary’s, of course. Like us, Notre Dame University conducted market research and asked students to list recognizable attributes of Notre Dame and six peer institutions. The words chosen for Notre Dame were “religion” and “sports,” and Notre Dame was the only one of their peer group for which students didn’t list “academics” (Roche, 2017, p. 70). This is similar to our own research on Saint Mary’s College; prospective students know us as “religious,” and they know about men’s basketball. Thankfully, they do often put academics into the mix. But let’s be cautious, because, as former Dean Roche of Notre Dame says, “If one or the other aspect of a complex identity becomes more recognizable than others, one needs to shift priorities on campus, adjust marketing materials, or both. Still, it is a manageable problem, and it is better to be distinctive than unrecognized” (Roche, 2017, p. 71)….

Although we are certainly recognized as a Catholic institution with a strong basketball program, and both are important to making us distinctive, neither sufficiently distinguishes our calling as an academic institution. Our “manageable problem” is declaring where we hope to be when the dust of this year settles, and shifting our priorities toward academic distinction and recognition. Despite our challenges, we remain strong in so many areas; we have an academic enterprise that can endure, if we remain focused and deliberate about who we are and what we will do best.

Just as we cultivate vocation in our students, we must do so in our College, as an institution. We must cultivate the “capacity to bear—rather than ‘solve’—the grief, regret, and ambiguity that follow from willing (and loving) more than one thing” (Mahn, 2017, p. 60), and recognize that some possible future paths will be closed off. These changes, choices, cause stress, and when that happens, people slide into their default mode, which all too often is fight, flee, or freeze. Those aren’t responses we can afford right now, at the very time institutions around us are struggling, and possibly failing. Now, more than ever, we need to make tough choices based on our understanding not only of who we are, but what we are called to be. This is harder than simply claiming to have plans. We must continually “pay attention to the forces that lie out in front of us, in the future, that may be drawing us forward—and to which we should be responding” (Cunningham, 2017, p. 259). As we give up some things, we must move toward others. Pursuing our calling means that “We are sent out from the past (and) called toward a future reality—something toward which we are journeying, rather than something that lies ever deeper in our history.” (Cunningham, 2017, p. 262)

Here, I propose, are the elements of our distinctive identity and purpose. At a very general level, I continue to believe that our overriding uniqueness is in providing an elite education that’s not elitist. We take some very classic presentations of liberal arts and great works and bring them into conversation with diverse people and perspectives. We extend these values and approaches all the way from the first year of college to graduate programs. We expect that enterprise to lead to the integration of knowledge, collaboration, and action for the common good. We must preserve access to this quality of education and continue to support student success. We’re unique, and our students know it. In a society increasingly driven by consumer values, we cannot afford to have the liberal arts become a luxury good. And, while we know that we provide exactly what the world needs, we must also ensure that we are convincingly relevant.

We must also be clear about our Catholic identity as intellectual, integrative, and inclusive. The Brothers of the Christian Schools called us here to educate students deeply, wisely, and in dialogue that builds inclusive community. They called us here to develop new modes of collaboration, to pursue truth that can lead to justice. They called us here as partners in vocation. But this calling looks a little different now than it did a hundred years ago, or even a decade ago, and will continue to look different as we are pulled forward into the future. It must be different, as we listen to the voices of our students, and attend to the complex problems of our world.

Last year, I spoke a bit about my parents, as my father had just passed away. I spoke about his letter to President Roosevelt, asking to please serve in World War II, as his dream had “long been to strike (an) individual blow for freedom in my country’s battle for life and liberty.” He had served as a Naval Reserve air cadet, passed all tests for enrollment in the Army Air Reserve, and yet was given good discharge for being born to Russian parents. We live in a time that increasingly resuscitates our nation’s history of denying dreams and the opportunity to serve based on one’s race, religion, or gender. I hope we resist being the kind of place that denies the service of, or dampens the dreams of others based on identity, heritage, or faith. Inclusion is our calling; realizing it must be our distinction.

I’m proud of both our students and faculty who worked this year to navigate difficult issues of diversity and inclusion. There remains considerable work to be done, but you managed to both insist upon accountability for yourselves in diversity workshops and recruiting, and continuing to improve what we already do.

Second, we must prioritize our academic enterprise and the facilities that support it. Saint Mary’s College will continue to stand strong and stable as long as we make use of and support our greatest assets—first among them, our faculty. We must include faculty in deliberations about our priorities and resources, and draw from their creative and collaborative thinking to help define our journey forward. One of the greatest shifts during the past decade has come from our phenomenal job of recruiting a talented and diverse faculty. When I came 10 years ago, about 14% of our faculty were assistant professors, with 52% at the rank of full professor. Next year, 26% of tenure-track faculty will be assistant professors, and the full professors will drop to around 40%, without significantly reducing the number of our ranked faculty numbers, because during that same period we added 39 tenure-track faculty lines. In fact, 42% of our tenure track faculty have been hired in the past decade. Think about both the generative power of this shift, as well as the responsibility of more senior faculty to remain open, supportive, and generous with their new colleagues. We may need a new mix of academic programs and pedagogies moving forward, ones which break down the boundaries between education, the arts, humanities, sciences and business. We have the very colleagues among us who can lead the way forward.

Our faculty diversity has also increased, and has highlighted the need for policies and practices that not only continue our efforts at inclusive recruiting, but also support faculty once here. We must sustain resources for scholarship and teaching, and provide support for faculty in preparing for, and assuming, leadership roles at the College.

Third, we must embrace technology in ways that are congruent with our mission and supportive of student success. Most of our students would arguably be considered digital natives; for them, digital presence is so deeply integrated with their daily lives that 83% admit to sleeping with their smartphones (Millennials: Technology + Social Connection, 2014). The ubiquity of, and reliance on digital environments to satisfy all kinds of human needs can be seen as a threat to the immersive, personalized, and intellectually intense type of education that we espouse. Our digital reliance threatens to cheapen human relationships: “sharing” is equated with showing plates of food on social media; “connecting” means building a contact list; “learning” becomes accessing information, and “self-discovery” is relegated to online quizzes. (Not that I mind online quizzes; they can be fun. I found it amusing when I scored 100% on both Catholic identity and Jewish identity quizzes!) Students may be “fluent in using entertainment or communication technologies, but they need guidance (in learning) how to use these technologies to solve sophisticated cognitive problems” (Wang et al, 2010, p.18). And they may be great at texting memes or posting instant articles, but they haven’t learned out to navigate human relationships around difficult issues.

The things that bring us joy and inspire faith aren’t found on a cell phone or in an app. Maybe someday we’ll find joy in a virtual experience or a hologram, but I don’t think so. To the extent that deep learning involves the whole of the person, I don’t think we’re at risk of becoming replaced by the latest adaptive learning technology, even as we move some learning online. Bill Gates (2017), in “Dear Class of 2017,” emphasizes the very blend of liberal arts, social justice, and technological innovation that calls to us. He writes:

“… some things in life are true no matter what career you choose. I wish I had understood these things better when I left school…. I believed that if you could write great code, you could also manage people well or run a marketing team or take on any other task. I was wrong about that. I had to learn to recognize and appreciate people’s different talents. The sooner you can do this … the richer your life will be…..Technology lets you see problems in ways my friends and I never could, and it empowers you to help in ways we never could. You can start fighting inequity sooner, whether it is in your own community or in a country halfway around the world… surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you, and push you to be your best self.”

We need to embrace the use of technology as one of the forces pulling us forward, to be understood and incorporated into our teaching and scholarship. We must become more open and innovative, not as a matter of convenience, but as a calling to relevance and meaning.

So, here’s a challenge I would like to put before you. Our achievements of the past and answers to the call of the future depend on our ability to practice empathy, respect the work of those who have agreed to undertake it, and collaborate and coordinate with one another. We have well-established structures in place for faculty to exercise leadership, such as representation on the Dean’s Council, the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs and Enrollment Committee and the College Committee on Inclusive Excellence. Both this year’s Academic Senate chair and incoming chair have expressed an interest in using All Faculty Day and Planning Day in the fall for substantive discussion of shared governance. We need to stand by the structures and processes that have produced our best collective commitments, and also be bold enough to change those structures that have fallen short. Let’s all plan to begin the fall by closing those gaps in shared governance between where we are and where we need to be.

My time at Saint Mary’s has been rich and rewarding. I am honored to have served you, and proud to be your colleague. You, and working at this College, have taught me many things:

I have learned to give an invocation.

I have learned that the inclusion imperative is a Catholic imperative.

I have learned that empathy is a precondition for inclusion.

I have learned that equity sometimes comes at the expense of relationships.

I have learned that leaders must have both a tolerance for ambiguity and an ability to hold tension, carry competing perspectives, and still move forward. This takes courage.

I’ve kept all of the email correspondence between Brother Donald and me. Shortly before he passed away, I wrote to him while he was abroad: “However you can bridge SMC to the wider world, and to the perspectives of Brothers internationally, the better the College will be. We can say the words of the mission and write (and read) about Catholic intellectual tradition here inside the College, but we also need to show people how to live it, not only in the rituals of faith, important though they are, but in the ways we bridge faiths, dignify others, and lift all.”

May we all carry on this important work. After all, it’s our calling.

References

Cunningham, D. S. (2017). “Colleges have callings, too: Vocational reflection at the institutional level.” In Vocation Across the Academy: A New Vocabulary for Higher Education, David S. Cunningham (Ed), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Deruy, E. (2017). “Mills College declares financial emergency as financial woes worsen.” San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved from www.mercurynews.com, May 17.

Gates, B. (2017). “Dear Class of 2017.” Retrieved from: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Dear-Class-of-2017, May 15.

Mahn, J. A. (2017). “The conflicts in our callings: The anguish (and joy) of willing several things.” In Vocation Across the Academy: A New Vocabulary for Higher Education, David S. Cunningham (Ed), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mansir, D. F. (2008). Remarks to Academic Advising Staff, 11 December.

Millennials: Technology + Social Connection (2014). http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/millennials-technology-…, February 26, 2014.

Roche, M. W. (2017) Realizing the Distinctive University: Vision and Values, Strategy and Culture. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.

Seltzer, R. (2017). “Discounting keeps climbing.” Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from www.insidehighered.com, May 15.

Wang, F. & Lockee, B. B. (2010). Virtual Worlds in Distance Education: A Content Analysis Study. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 11(3), 183-186. Retrieved from: https://careereducationreview.net/2015/08/wired-for-college-how-digital…