关于我们为什么做我们所做的事情的一些观点

Sometimes you just have to step back and remind yourself of what really matters. 观点可以决定一切.

The academic year at 十大菠菜台子 kicks off with a half-day 教师 and staff retreat that we call Fall Conference. Of course, the sole topic of conversation this year was the work of the 贝洛伊特 Forward Teams. 大家都知道, these are the teams that spent the summer responding to the enrollment declines of the last two years. Fall Conference was less than 24 hours after the campus (and alumni) had received updates from those teams, so there were billions of details—large and small—that people at the retreat had questions and concerns about. You can imagine Richardson Auditorium jam-packed with anxious community members.

然而,, I had been asked to start off the morning with a short set of remarks focused on why we do what we do? 多聪明. The team of 教师 leaders who are collectively serving as the college’s acting provosts had asked me to kick off the day with some perspective.

So instead of wading through a fraction of the thousands of details connected to the 贝洛伊特 Forward teams, I am also going to attempt to offer some perspective in this space.

在几乎座无虚席的伊顿教堂, 在秋季会议前五天, new students and their families congregated to be welcomed by several of us. This was just a few hours after the new class had moved into their new homes in the residence halls. 其中一位演讲者是Lisa Anderson-Levy教授. The thesis she took up was “What is it that 十大菠菜台子 does best?” What she said was that 十大菠菜台子’s secret sauce is its ability to meet students where they are and provide them with pathways to imagine themselves and their futures in new ways; to help them see what they cannot yet see.

这有多重要?? To meet students where they are and to help them see what they cannot see.

事实证明, I had recently received a note from an alumnus of about 10 years ago who was reflecting on his 贝洛伊特 education. He wrote: “贝洛伊特 understands where young people are in their journey.” From this he writes about being prompted by his advisors to take a Chinese culture class, 从那里开始, 几个汉语班, 从那里开始, 在中国生活和教学的工作, all the while expecting to return to the States for a secondary school teaching position in the sciences, 他现在有了. 然后他的倒影变成了一个美丽的卑洛人:

“One of the best interview questions I have been asked in the hiring process as an educator was, “你还教什么?, 除了科学?’ Thanks to 十大菠菜台子’s understanding of where I was on my journey, 而且, where I could go and with whom I could learn from on that journey, 我可以自豪地说，我是一个品格老师, 用同理心倾听他人, 在面对新事物时保持开放的心态, 即使有一定程度的恐惧或不确定性. 而贝洛伊特无疑点燃了学生们热情的火焰, the light cast by the glowing fire reveals new and unexpected paths that beg to be explored.”

然后, 几天后, I got another reflection from a 贝洛伊特er about five years out: “贝洛伊特 changed my worldview, period … I was challenged both within my friendships and in my classes because of people who were different from me with different experiences. 我需要这个，因为我只知道一个美国. I didn’t even know that I only knew one United States until someone told me … 十大菠菜台子 students, 教师, and staff helped me in a way that I do not see [other institutions] doing for their students. 十大菠菜台子 is selling 更多的 than an education; they are selling a way of being. 在这个世界上移动的一种方式.”

I get reflections like these regularly, as 教师 and staff will attest. 我一遍又一遍地给他们读学生和校友的笔记. 我在毕业典礼上读过. 我在秋季会议上读过. 我在年度员工表彰早餐会上读过. 我在学术会议上读过. 为什么? Because the words of our students and our alumni are the most genuine reminders of why we do what we do.

最让我震惊的是，这是同样的故事, 只是用词稍有不同, 我从各代的贝洛伊特人那里听到的. 再三. 这意味着, 重要的是, across massively different college financial resources at different points in time. 这所大学的财政历史是一段千变万化的历史. 我保证，促进差异不应该是一个目标. 恰恰相反. 但, it is what it is, and the DNA of the college transcends that variance. 理解这一点非常重要.

Yes, we have to go from a college with a $49 million budget to one with a $42 million budget. 这是非常非常痛苦的. 但, 从……的角度来看,200 students who will be advised and mentored and cajoled and challenged and prompted to imagine their futures in ways they cannot currently see, in all the ways that have made all the difference to generations of 贝洛伊特ers, 他们对贝洛伊特经历的反思, 我预测, 听起来和我刚才跟你们分享的很像吗. There is nothing in the transition from a budget of $49 million to a budget of $42 million that gets in the way of what 十大菠菜台子 does best, what Professor Lisa Anderson-Levy argues is the secret sauce to a 十大菠菜台子 experience.

观点有时可以决定一切. As I sit at President Chapin’s desk in the President’s House and look out the window, I see 贝洛伊特ers walking to advising meetings and back to their friends in their residence halls and over to the library and into Java Joint—all the time learning “a way of being.“就像你一样。.

——斯科特·比尔曼总统
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