Past Issues:

January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002

Trinity College has been challenged by a wide range of difficult academic, social, and personal issues this year, and there have been many isolated conversations and meetings across campus where different groups have discussed different sets of issues. The faculty, for example, has engaged in numerous academic discussions that make up the formal curricular review. In their dorms and school-wide meetings students have confronted the complex social and moral issues that make up a kind of informal curricular review. The administrative and academic staff, at the same time, contend with their own array of complex operational, logistical, and human-resource issues. 

It would be easy to see Trinity as an archipelago of different interest groups that seem only loosely connected with each other. My hope, and my determination as president is that all groups that make up the community that is Trinity College find a way to respond to each other that transcends the point of view of the group they represent. 

I have addressed each group individually, and, although the specifics vary, my message isn’t that different from group to group. At the risk of repeating myself, I would like to say that Trinity College has a tremendous opportunity this year to realize the sum of all of its parts and truly become a just and caring community. 

What we read, write, and discuss in the formal classroom curriculum directly affects and is affected by the diverse array of extra-classroom activities that constitute the informal curriculum lived in the residences, dining hall, athletic fields, parties, rehearsal halls, e-mails, and community action.  

Racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, and cheating, for example, cross all formal and informal academic and social boundaries. Most colleges and universities have failed to adequately address these issues. We are better than that. 

The many issues before us are tough, but I believe strongly that the only way for us to become the best each of us can be—no matter what our role is on campus—is to confront these issues openly, honestly, and directly. We need to think about them, talk about them, act on them—together and individually. This kind of self-analysis requires tremendous commitment, but it is how just and caring communities are built and sustained. In the process, we will make Trinity College a model of the liberal arts ideal that sustains and enhances not just a challenging curriculum but a caring community.

We can do this. The discussions we’ve had to date make it clear that we possess the requisite intelligence and passion. Together we can achieve a new level of excellence that will distinguish Trinity not just for its academics and athletics, but also for its heart and soul. 

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