David K. Lewis, Ph.D.

Sharing the stage with four seniors this spring during "open house" presentations for students who have been accepted into the Class of 2005, I was struck by the unique way each student combined a major with a variety of other academic experiences. The combination led to a unique end result that was bigger than the sum of the all the pieces. Enabling each student to create custom educational experiences without missing out on the richness of a traditional liberal arts education, is a distinguishing feature of Connecticut College. Does this happen because we attract unusually creative students? Does it happen because the faculty and staff at the college encourage that kind of creativity among students? The answer to both questions is most certainly "yes."

With more than 4,000 applicants each year from among whom to choose, the college is able to offer admission to an increasingly diverse group and is able to select those who have shown that they have the motivation to make creative use of the opportunities we offer. These opportunities: travel in a wide variety of configurations; internships and research assistantships on campus or abroad; interdisciplinary courses and independent study; participation in the governance of the college; and significant community-based experiences have limitless possibilities for enhancing the traditional academic major. Faculty actively encourage students to build interesting combinations of experiences from among those the college offers. As we hire replacements or additions to the faculty, we especially look for faculty who are not only strong teachers and scholars in their disciplines but who are also interested in reaching out to other areas. In fact, in hiring, we encourage new connections among the traditional areas of study by requiring that each search committee include one or more representatives from other departments that have a potential relationship to the field of the candidate. Many candidates remark that it is refreshing to be interviewed by a committee that represents the college rather than one department.

Students actively participate in the interview process through student advisory boards, and their impressions of faculty candidates carry considerable weight in decisions about faculty hiring. This year, at the same time we were admitting the Class of 2005, we were hiring five new tenure track faculty, bringing to 40 the number of tenure-track faculty hired in the past four years. In government, we are bringing in a specialist in environmental ethics whose undergraduate major was chemistry. In anthropology, the interests of the new faculty member combine anthropology, medicine and technology. In computer science, the new colleague is also an expert in the physics of sound. These are examples of the wide-ranging interests that make faculty at Connecticut College responsive to the creative combinations of interests shown by our students.

We place a large part of the responsibility for wise use of these educational opportunities on our students. With guidance from faculty and deans, they must seek out the opportunities and make certain that they meet the requirements for the programs that interest them. Our students need to understand, too, that it is not possible to take advantage of every opportunity the college offers. Their task is to link together a combination of challenging and rewarding experiences that have continuity, that build to a unique goal. This is more important than collecting a series of courses and activities for a résumé. Learning to choose wisely is part of the learning process. Our campus is an exceptionally lively place. We attract capable and motivated students, put them together with creative and experienced faculty who have wide-ranging interests, and then we get everyone involved in campus-wide decision-making. Perhaps this is why the student retention rate is so high at Connecticut College: we can honestly say "never a dull moment."

David K. Lewis P'95
Interim President