Courtesy of @conncollege on instagram
Dr. Leslie E. Wong assumed the position of interim President of Connecticut College on July 1, 2023. Wong has a long history in upper administration, having served as President of Northern Michigan University (NMU) from 2004 to 2012 and of San Francisco State University (SFSU) from 2012 to 2019. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees at Conn for several years prior to his appointment as interim President.
When asked about what drew him to join the Connecticut College community, Wong stated “When I look back at the places I’ve been fortunate to be a part of there are a couple of themes. I’ve always been student-committed and the notion of a phrase called ‘students first’ really dominated where I went.” He continued, “I’ve been super pleased with the quality of students at Conn. The social consciousness, the desire to do something impactful. To be a good president you need good faculty and good students.”
Wong grew up in Oakland, California, where he attended Bishop O’Dowd High School, a Bay Area catholic high school. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington in 1972, his master’s degree in experimental psychology in 1974 from Eastern Washington University, and then his doctoral degree in 1986 from Washington State University.
During the end of his tenure as President of San Francisco State University,
Wong’s administration faced criticism surrounding his response to antisemitic incidents on campus. His administration grappled with the campus’ strong reaction to his response to a 2016 pro-Palestine protest against an on-campus event featuring Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat. Wong initially refused to respond to the protests which was interpreted by some members of the community as discrimination against Zionist and Jewish members of the community. He later released an apology in which he stated, “Let me be clear: Zionists are welcome on our campus.” This statement resulted in additional protest from pro-Palestine community members.
Connecticut College Rabbi Susan Schein disclosed in an email to the Hillel community that she met with Wong over the summer to discuss “the history of Jewish life at Conn. as well as the current needs of Conn. Hillel students.” Rabbi Schein remarked that she, along with Pastor Stephanie Haskins, asked Wong to meet with members of the campus Jewish community and to support the College’s “critical DIEI initiatives.” These sentiments also speak to the DIEI-focused protests that occurred on campus last Spring semester.
Naturally, the elephant in the room since Wong’s appointment has been the nature in which his predecessor, President Katherine Bergeron, resigned from the position in light of the now infamous planned fundraiser at the Everglades Club last February, and the ensuing protests occupying Fanning Hall several weeks later.
On the protests and their aftermath, Wong stated:
“I’m a big fan of resilience. I think college students have been told too much about finding something that you’re proud to do and you know, that kind of stuff. I actually think life is about handling difficult things and developing skill sets that build resilience, and Conn was not alone in the spring. There’s campus disturbance across the country, big campuses, small campuses, campuses closing because of financial issues. So there’s a challenge out there. Personally, I thought the management of last spring was respectful. I thought the students did a great job. I think the faculty and staff did as well. And I thought the issues were brought out clearly. And honestly, I have a lot of respect for that.”
Wong, additionally, expressed an eagerness to approach issues of accessibility on campus. He described his experience touring the Health Center, “I was disappointed that the first and third floors are inaccessible.” Wong recognized that many faculty and staff members cherish their offices, and he acknowledged that it can be difficult to ask people to move for the sake of campus construction. He outlined a plan he hopes to implement as a means of addressing inaccessibility on campus, “I want to be able to put some proposals in front of faculty, students, and staff that announces that down the line, if we move this unit to this building and made some minor changes, we could improve service. Like, counseling and mental health ought to be on the ground floor.” Wong expressed interest in learning about every inaccessible space on campus with a focus on speaking with students, faculty, and staff who identify as disabled. Wong has continued to navigate learning curves such as this as he adjusts to working for a small, private liberal arts college.
Wong mentioned that being on the board offered him a learning experience of being at a private college, professionally and personally. He said, “My whole career has been in public institutions, and they’ve ranged from small like 1500 students [to big], San Francisco was 31,000 students and urban. So, this is really a different environment. And I’m intrigued by those kinds of things. And I thought – well – I’m just kind of a learning junkie, I thought I could keep learning by being at Conn College and that’s coming true.”
A key topic for Wong was his goals for moving Connecticut College forward during his interim presidency. On this subject, he provided that:
“One of the aspects of the strategic plan I want to push on is the question of how to extend connections into the junior and senior year and how we stabilize the funding and the staffing of it. Those are questions we can get going on this year. And then when the new President is here, he or she can push that along as well.” Additionally, he said, “I’m also working with the Board to look at the potential of a staff-trustee subcommittee. Students have one, faculty have one, there is no staff-trustees committee…They’re absent from that. So it’s hard to have shared governance when one of the major pieces is absent.”
When asked about his adjustment from life in the San Francisco Bay Area to southeastern Connecticut, President Wong said that he was enjoying the transition, citing that his children and grandchildren are now based in the northeast. He also added that “The smell in the air from the water is just wonderful…The forest is close by. I’ve been pleased with how diverse New London is.”
In light of last semester’s protests and the occupation of Fanning Hall, Connecticut College is experiencing institutional change on a series of levels. Wong commented on this shift and the systematic changes being made, “To use a baseball analogy, I’m just the middle reliever, or the setup man here. I’m setting it up for whoever the next president is, because they are going to be our closer.” Effectively, he’s Taylor Rogers (the SF Giants’ setup man) to the next President’s Camilo Doval (the Giants’ closer). In his concluding thoughts, Wong drew attention to the position of student voices on campus: “You gotta be present at the table. And I hope to set a culture, or at least an environment where you all can speak your mind intelligently, and forcefully if you have to. And I’m going to listen. And if I make a mistake, because I didn’t listen, you have to call me out.”
