Photo Courtesy of Olga Nikolaeva
It all started with Katherine Bergeron’s announcement at convocation to the entire campus community. A surprise event, to be held on Tuesday, Sept. 8, promised exciting news to shape the future of Connecticut College. Each passing day saw levels of excitement and interest grow, especially the day before, when staff began setting up a large stage and an even larger television screen on the front steps of Shain Library. When the day finally arrived, the campus community gathered in anticipation to hear President Bergeron speak (and enjoy some of the free ice cream and cupcakes provided).
Prior to the event, rumors swirled. Some seemed more likely (a new academic building, perhaps, or updates to some of the pre-existing and older campus dorms), while others were more outlandish, nearing on ridiculous, such as a covered bridge connecting Blaustein and Shain Library. The news, whatever it was, promised to transform the future of the College, and when the blanket was lifted from the hidden stand on stage, the amount was hard to imagine.
Robert Hale ’88 and Karen Hale’s generosity towards the College resulted in the largest donation in our history: 20 million dollars. President Katherine Bergeron explained the breakdown of the donation, with half going towards scholarships in financial aid, one quarter towards CELS, and one quarter towards athletics. President Bergeron called this the beginning of a “new chapter” in the College’s history.
Though the Hales couldn’t be at the announcement in person, a pre-recorded video was shown immediately after the announcement. “I feel that we’re very fortunate to support Connecticut College. We feel like the school helped us, and in return we’d like to help the school,” said Mr. Hale via the video.
Mr. Hale, who is also a member of the College’s Board of Trustees, is the CEO of Granite Telecommunications. According to their website, Granite manages telephone services for some of the nation’s largest companies, especially those that have hundreds of individual branches. Though Granite has grown into a company that earns millions of dollars in sales, Mr. Hale hasn’t forgotten his roots at Connecticut College.
“Financial aid enables kids to go to Connecticut College,” said Mr. Hale, discussing his family’s decision to allocate half of the donation to financial aid. “We want to make sure a variety of kids who will excel in a variety of capacities get those opportunities.”
“It’s really important for us to be able to continue to attract the most impressive scholar-athletes to our campus, and that’s what I think the Hale gift is going to allow us to do,” said President Bergeron in the video. Mr. Hale, who played for the College’s lacrosse team, reflected on his time spent as a member of the athletic community, saying it “shaped [him] in many ways. Winning and losing and understanding and handling them both with grace is very important and people build momentum and enthusiasm both as students and alumni with athletics.” As the video rolled through images of many of the College’s varsity teams, athletes from the teams who had gathered to hear the news together cheered with excitement.
The Hales believe that the College is one of the leaders when it comes to career counseling for students but want to continue to “build on that strength.” Recently, Connecticut College was ranked as one of the top 20 schools in the nation when it came to CELS, and we were the only New England liberal arts college to be included.
Ken Koopmans, the new Hale Family Director of Career and Professional Development, told the Voice that he is excited to see where CELS goes from here, citing not just the gift from the Hales but also the new College curriculum, which will better integrate CELS into students’ academic lives at the College.
The Hales ended their video reflecting on the changes made to the College since Mr. Hale graduated in the late ’80s: “the school that I graduated from in 1988 was a wonderful school. The school that we view today is better.” •
