We Begin Again with Possibility, Commitment, and Courage

Dear Friends,

Whether you were on campus over the summer, you are returning to Smith after a restorative break, or you are joining us for the first time—I am so glad you’re here! As new connections are made and friends, co-workers, and colleagues reunite, the bright colors and the cool, crisp air of fall in New England greet us. Discovery of new ideas and new friendships await us around each corner.

We all know, of course, that reunions and discoveries never take place in a vacuum. Our challenging context includes serious headwinds facing higher education.

Smith faced a different set of challenges on September 9, 1875, when we officially opened our doors in an era when providing an education to women equal to that available only to a select group of men was considered experimental at best. Since that beginning, Smith has transformed the lives of generations of students and always aspired to be the “perennial blessing to the country and the world” for which Sophia Smith hoped.

I invite you to join me in this work, and I look forward to sharing with you how Smith is doing so in more detail at our first virtual community meeting of the semester on September 5 from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m.

I imagine our founder would be thrilled that her namesake college has become one of the country’s premier higher education institutions and its largest women’s liberal arts college. I also think she’d want us to celebrate this milestone and fill ourselves with both the energy to fuel the work ahead and the whimsy to enjoy it along the way. We’ll have an opportunity to do just that on September 9, when we’ll mark the college’s 150th birthday with thousands of cupcakes. Make sure you stop by Chapin lawn for a noontime birthday party.

The celebrations will continue throughout the fall:

After more than a year of construction, the new Kathleen McCartney Hall will open its doors as another space to prepare students for lives of distinction and purpose. Join us for a campus community open house on September 25 and the official dedication on October 17 with former Smith College President McCartney. Working in concert with our curriculum, this beautiful building will serve as a wonderful hub for our leadership and career development centers.

October has been designated Come Home to Smith month, which will include reflection on the defining moments of the college’s history. We’ll welcome leaders, thinkers, and change makers whose work speaks directly to today’s most pressing issues. On October 16, Deborah Archer ’93, president of the American Civil Liberties Union and the first person of color to hold that role, will give a presidential colloquium. The following week, I will join former Smith College President Ruth J. Simmons and Provost and Dean of the Faculty Daphne Lamothe for a conversation about Meridians—the groundbreaking journal founded at Smith 25 years ago. Meridians created a scholarly space for global intersectional analyses by and about women of color. With each issue, we’re reminded that one of the enduring values of a liberal arts education is to seek out and welcome voices that broaden our perspectives, deepen our knowledge, and expand our understanding of the world. The celebrations will culminate on November 1 with Family Weekend and a homecoming event for alums.

The start of each academic year invites reflection and recommitment—a deep breath, if you will—before putting our minds and shoulders to the hard, but rewarding, work ahead. This year, it also reminds us of the privilege and responsibility of our work and the courage it may demand to stay true to it. We have a past worthy of both celebration and instruction, a present that demands our deep and collective attention, and a future that will require strategy, cooperation, and investment.

I look forward to continuing to build Smith together, and I wish you a wonderful start to this new academic year!

Sincerely,
Sarah Willie-LeBreton