President Bergeron Reappointed to Second Five Year Term

In an email to the College last week, Chair of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees DeFred G. Folts III ‘82 announced that the Board had unanimously voted for the reappointment of College President Katherine Bergeron to a second five year term. Bergeron has been College President for over five years now, since assuming the role on Jan. 1, 2014.

While I agree with the Board’s decision to reappoint Bergeron to a five year term, and I believe that her overall leadership has been good for the College, I disagree with significant portions of the rationale Folts’ wrote in the email. Below I have outlined and commented on what I agree, disagree and have no opinion on. I’d note that while it is likely Bergeron’s level of involvement between initiatives varies dramatically, it is her leadership style and focus that ultimately leads to things getting or not getting done at this College.

Due to the length of Chair Folts’ email I have made significant edits to highlight his most important points and save space. Click here for a transcript of the email.

Good

Securing some of the largest gifts in the College’s history…and leading the most successful fundraising year of all time.

Bringing Connecticut College into the American Talent Initiative, with its commitment to enroll and graduate 50,000 low-income students [across all members] by 2025.

The renovation of the Charles E. Shain Library…

Championing the creation of a second cohort of Posse Scholars from New York City…

Adding value to the College’s endowment, with new funds for our endowed centers and new endowed scholarships for low- and middle-income students. – Our endowment is growing as is the stock market.

Inaugurating a dual-degree program in environmental engineering in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute. – Loads of Colleges have stuff like this. Bergeron likely deserves accolades for starting to get the rest of Connecticut College to get with the times.

Completing Building on Strength [the College’s strategic plan]… – While I’m not sure if I agree with the strategy laid out in this plan, the Bergeron administration appears to have been consistent with committing to at least its initial implementation.

Supporting a 10-year campus sustainability plan… – I’m putting this in the good category because it actually lays out a specific plan with deadlines for steps the College will take to become more sustainable. You are welcome to disagree with me on the grounds that these steps are not enough.

Moving our Office of Career and Professional Development to central campus… – Yes this is very needed! However, I’m not sure how necessary spending $2 million and conducting renovations during part of the spring semester to move it is.

Supporting new approaches to financial aid… – Mostly in the form of merit scholarships. It does not seem to have helped Sean Soucy pay his comprehensive fee.

Creating the Presidential Staff Recognition Awards… – This will be a great program as long as the FBI doesn’t continue to initiate investigations for felony level crimes against award recipients less than a year after they receive them. Full disclosure: I have a conflict of interest regarding Kmec’s award because I was the lead author on a letter nominating someone else for the award he won the year he won it.

Launching the President’s Distinguished Lecture Series to bring pre-eminent writers, speakers, and public intellectuals to campus. – Bryan Stevenson was on The Axe Files in December, and while he does a lot of great work with felons he has never been convicted of a felony.

Establishing the President’s Council on Equity and Inclusion… – This committee has been meeting directly with Bergeron since January 2018. It’s high level stuff.

Neutral

Supporting the launch of Connections, the College’s signature approach to the liberal arts that fulfills our mission of putting the liberal arts into action. – I have in past years gone on the record as a supporter of the concept behind Connections, and I remain so. Unfortunately I’ve had several conversations with several faculty who have been involved in elements of the new First Year Seminars, Integrative Pathways, etc. this year where they tell me something around the lines of “I don’t know what is going on here” that suggest that the implementation of Connections may be going through a bit of a rough patch currently. I suspect this is due to the majority of members of the Class of 2020, the first class to have full access to the modes of inquiry and integrative pathway system that replaced general education areas for us seniors, entering their junior year, and the College and faculty realizing that they need to somehow prepare the students in the Pathway system for engaging in and presenting some sort of independent work by November of this year. Whether I’ll consider this a good move in the future or downgrade it further to a bad one will likely depend on how the College reacts to the success or failure of Class of 2020 students experiencing it

Leading the successful reaccreditation of Connecticut College by the New England Commission of Higher Education [formerly NEASC]… – Any competent College administration should be able to achieve this. If Conn had failed to achieve this I might have had to add a “Really Bad” section.

Developing plans for revitalizing the College’s historic Palmer Auditorium…[and] reactivating the College Center at Crozier-Williams. – I am not rating this until I actually see whether these plans actually “revitalize” and “reactivate.” My two cents is the tangible impact of these renovations will come in the buildings’ aesthetics and marketing.

Forming the Council of Former and Emeritus Trustees. – Reading in people with prior experience and knowledge to inform you on your leadership decisions is a good way to broaden your understanding of the Institution you are now in charge of. It’s also bad for the same reason because it can allow old ideas and leadership styles to persist in new administrations when they really shouldn’t.

Securing foundation funding to advance our work in developing promising faculty of color. – Conn has been so successful at developing promising faculty of color and other diverse faculty that they have failed to retain many of the same people they developed (e.g. Etoke, Baldwin, Baker, Manion).

Bad

…Among the first tasks undertaken [by the President’s Council on Equity and Inclusion] were the creation of a new statement on freedom of expression and a new diversity action plan for the College. – Yeah despite what I said earlier about this Committee being high level, based on its actions in its first year of existence it doesn’t look like it’s a conduit for achieving quick change on this campus.

Opening the Otto and Fran Walter Commons for Global Study and Engagement… – Thanks to this renovation I now have to stare at the weird purple glow emanating from the entrance to Blaustein every night I bike from Cummings back to my room in central campus. It’s as poor taste as you can get.

The conversion of Hamilton and Morrisson to all-first-year residences. – I’m waiting to see a major renovation on a dormitory that’s not for first years or is outside of the Plex. Also I chose this school because of the mixed-year housing and then got stuck in a hallway full of obnoxious freshmen; creating all freshmen dorms is just an ingenious way to magnify that experience for more people.

Possibly Erroneous

Forming the President’s Leadership Council – I have never heard of this, it’s not on the College’s website and a Google search reveals nothing. Let your conspiracy theories run wild about why Folts mentioned this mysterious committee because it’s more entertaining than the Leadership Council being a dumb mistake on a long email! •