In light of the College’s decision to schedule a fundraising event at the Everglades Club, a historically and presently racist and antisemitic country club, students, faculty, staff, and alumni have been calling for institutional change at the College. A massive part of the frustration of the community stems from the performative nature of the College’s core values along with its response to this situation. As change will occur on this campus, the College should consider revising its mission statement and core values along with making institutional changes to actually uphold its goals.
The following statements were pulled from the College website and were adopted by the College and the Board of Trustees in October 2004. Now, nearly two decades later, it is time to revisit and reevaluate the College’s goals.
Mission Statement:
“Connecticut College educates students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society.”
In the two weeks since Dean King’s resignation, the students have been doing exactly what the mission statement directs them to. Through a range of classes, students are well-equipped to grapple with the ongoing situation. Classes across the social sciences teach us to examine historical social movements, inspire our organizational strategies, and equip us with the tools necessary to effectively communicate a message.
The students are living up to this mission statement, but the administration is not. While students examine and draw from historical social movements, the administration’s response appears more in line with stall tactics and, as the faculty in their letter to the board of trustees put it, “reputation rehabilitation.” While students articulate their feelings in passionate calls for change and the faculty brilliantly phrase their frustrations and list their demands, the administration refuses to appropriately address the situation and uses noncommittal language while remaining ignorant of the importance of intersectionality. While faculty and staff across the campus continue to do the necessary work to address institutional racism in all facets of life, the College schedules a fundraising event in Florida against the backdrop of its recent history of harmful political rhetoric and the ‘Don’t Say Woke’ bill.
The College’s six core values:
Academic Excellence
“Rigorous academic standards, innovative and engaging faculty members, and a diverse classroom curriculum challenge students to reach their full intellectual potential. The College expects students to learn outside the classroom as well, through such activities as research, travel, and internships. The College facilitates those opportunities in the belief that a diversity of experiences is essential for genuine academic excellence. The College also expects and strongly supports faculty scholarship, research, and creative work that advances human knowledge and expression and informs excellent teaching.”
The current campus climate reveals that extracurricular learning does not have to happen so far outside of the classroom. Our editorial team, for example, has jumped into action to prioritize our journalistic integrity, turning our club into what feels like a full-time job.
Additionally, the College claims that it “strongly supports faculty scholarship, research, and creative work,” yet a year ago, faculty discovered that newer tenure contracts included an at-will clause, which threatened their academic freedom as educators and scholars.
Diversity, Equity, and Shared Governance
“In the early 20th century, Connecticut College was founded in the belief that all qualified students – women as well as men – deserve an opportunity to secure an education. The College strives to be a community in which all members feel comfortable, respect each other’s differences, and seek common ground. The College promotes understanding by offering a variety of academic and social experiences and is committed to building greater access, opportunity, and equity. Students, faculty, staff, trustees, and alumni all participate in the governance of the College.”
Shared governance is an integral value at the College. The core value lists students, faculty, staff, trustees, and alumni as participating groups in the governance of the College, alluding to the fact that when seeking change, these groups should do so together. However, while students, alumni, and trustees are represented in the presidential review process, as seen in the faculty letter to the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff are not part of this vital act of shared governance.
Additionally, this gendered language from 2004 no longer encompasses the range of identities that currently make up the College’s population. This statement is not inclusive of non-binary or gender non-conforming students. And although the value talks about diversity and equity, it does not specifically mention race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, age, disability, or other identities covered by DIEI that suffer the most when the division is not supported. DIEI was formed in 2016, twelve years after these statements were first published, so the College should revise the language to fit today’s community values and prioritize intersectionality.
Education of the Entire Person
“The College supports and nurtures the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, creative, and physical development of its student body. Connecticut College encourages students to engage in a wide range of activities, including academic pursuits, athletics and physical education, artistic expression, and community service. The College fosters an appreciation for the natural and aesthetic connectedness of the mind, body, and spirit. It prepares students to be responsible citizens, creative problem-solvers, and thoughtful leaders in a global society.”
Throughout the College’s history, students have demonstrated that they are prepared to be thoughtful leaders in protesting for what they believe and refusing to comply with unjust systems of power. There have been three Fanning takeovers in the College’s history, first in 1971, then in 1986, and most recently in 2016, during President Bergeron’s first term. Each takeover included specific demands from students to the President and Board of Trustees at the time regarding representation and support of marginalized groups.
The students value being “responsible citizens,” and faculty and staff go above and beyond to nurture their students, both in and out of the classroom. The administration has much work to do to support its leaders and divisions and encourage the development of the entire institution.
Adherence to Common Ethical and Moral Standards
“Connecticut College maintains a strong commitment to its long-standing Honor Code. Students are expected to monitor their own faithfulness to the principles of honesty and moral integrity and to display courage in academic and social interactions. The principles of justice, impartiality, and fairness – the foundations for equity – are paramount.”
There is a clear lack of accountability on behalf of the College If President Bergeron remains in power following her support of a racist and antisemitic club. Further, the history of her continual devaluation of DIEI throughout her tenure does not reflect the expectation for all to monitor their own “honesty and moral integrity” and uphold the “principles of justice, impartiality, and fairness.” If students are expected to uphold these principles, the administration should be too.
Community Service and Global Citizenship
“Connecticut College fosters civic responsibility and enhances academic excellence through a long tradition of community involvement and through courses that provide opportunities for service. The College promotes an understanding of local, regional, national, and international peoples, groups, cultures, and issues, and encourages students to take a life-long interest in them.”
A college whose core values include the promotion of understanding of all peoples shouldn’t be devaluing the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. “In the classes of 2021-2024, the average BLACK student enrolled in 17 out of over 450 students. Just as lonely as in 1976,” wrote former Vice President of the Alumni Association Board of Directors Lois Mendez-Catlin in a letter to former DIEI Dean, John McKnight. BIPOC and multiracial students make up roughly 28% of the student body according to the Demographic Data on Faculty Members and Full-Time Undergraduates from Fall 2022. That is the exact same percentage as 2019.
How can the College promote the furthering of multicultural engagement, intersectionality, and community diversity if they do not support the established division that was created to facilitate this goal? For a school that talks a lot about its diversity, the numbers don’t reflect that. And for the BIPOC and multicultural students already at the College, Unity House has been all but closed since September of 2022 due to plumbing issues. Staff have been spread out to different office spaces across campus. Budgets for the department have not been publicized, but we know several DIEI staff members are on hourly pay rates which typically doesn’t give them the same benefit packages as salaried employees.
In addition, as discussed in Ana Ostrovsky’s article on page X, the introduction of the Manwaring building has brought with it a slew of concerns regarding the relationship between the College and the greater community. Similarly, Caroline Snyder, on page X, describes the Don’t Say Woke bill in Florida and its relation to higher education and censorship.
Environmental Stewardship
“Connecticut College is proud of its pioneering tradition of ecological awareness and responsibility and intends to remain a leader in safeguarding the environment. The arboretum campus is an ecological showpiece, and the College’s procedures and programs aim to preserve and protect the environment, both locally and globally, and to prepare citizens sensitive to the need for responsible environmental stewardship.”
Recent renovations at the College have not been nearly as sustainable as initially promised. Students protested Palmer Renovations in Fall 2019 for the College falling short of their net-zero emissions goals. In Fall 2022, the CC Climate Collective cited the failures of Palmer Renovations to urge the College to prioritize its sustainability goals for upcoming Cro Renovations. Ilan Listgarten ‘25 wrote, “Either the College will act consistently with its values and its commitments and take a big step toward meeting its 2030 net-zero pledge, or it will set a harmful precedent for campus development for years to come.” The College has consistently fallen short in addressing two of the most pressing topics of our generation – racial and environmental justice.
Mission statements and core values are important to an institution as they provide a moral framework through which the College operates. Therefore, it is vital for these statements to not only accurately reflect the College’s current goals but also for the College to take real action to achieve them. •
