Connecticut College and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy sign new Memorandum of Agreement

Connecticut College and the United States Coast Guard Academy signed a new Memorandum of Agreement that renews and reinvigorates a nearly 40-year partnership between the two institutions. 

The new MOA was signed by Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron and the superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Rear Admiral William G. Kelly, at a ceremony today in the Academy’s historic Hamilton Hall. It establishes a firm commitment from both institutions to continuing regular dialogue on opportunities for collaboration; establishes a governance structure to identify, examine, propose and implement new resource-specific sharing arrangements; and continues long-standing arrangements for cross-registration of students and sharing of campus facilities.

Bergeron said the new memorandum, which replaces the original, signed in 1983 by the College’s President Oakes Ames and the Academy’s Superintendent E. Nelson, Jr., will result in increased opportunities for collaboration and “brings our two institutions even closer.”

“Already, I think the work we are doing is proving fruitful. There’s nothing like developing collegial relationships to help spur ideas and activity,” Bergeron said at the signing ceremony, adding that the two institutions had already implemented new policies on campus access and were discussing opportunities for summer sessions and collaborative programming.

Bergeron also noted that, when combined, the Latin mottos of the two institutions create a powerful new one.

“Tamquam lignum quod plantatum est/ semper paratus,” she recited. “Always ready, like a tree that is planted.”

Kelly said he was a first-year cadet when the original MOA was signed, and the initiative to create the new one started the day before he took over as superintendent, when he met with Bergeron to discuss the opportunity for new collaborations with “our partners and colleagues from across Route 32.”

“I don’t know if you know what you sparked,” he told Bergeron, “but folks are already coming to me, whether it’s cadets, or our faculty and staff, and they are saying, ‘We could do this with Conn College’ and ‘We could do that with Conn College.’”

Kelly added that several students had approached him during his office hours last week with ideas for collaborating on activities and intramural sports.

“When our students begin to see opportunities, that’s when the real magic happens,” he said.

At the conclusion of the signing ceremony, Kelly presented Bergeron with a coin as a token of appreciation for her leadership on the initiative. 

Next week, the College and the Academy will jointly host bestselling author and director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University Ibram X. Kendi.  A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, Kendi is the youngest ever winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction for his acclaimed and best-selling book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. He will speak about his latest work, How to Be an Anti-Racist, at 7 p.m. on Feb. 12 at Leamy Hall Auditorium, U.S. Coast Guard Academy.