To: Wellesley College Faculty and Staff
From: President Paula A. Johnson and Andrew Shennan, Provost and Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Dean of the College
Re: Milestones in planning for Wellesley in the World
Date: May 17, 2023
As we approach the end of this academic year, we are pleased to report significant progress in our efforts to elevate the College’s role in the world, as our strategic plan calls upon us to do.
The goal we label with the shorthand of “Wellesley in the World” touches virtually every aspect of our collective work here. It is about increasing our impact as an educational institution dedicated to the mission of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It is about preparing our students to act in the world ethically, responsibly, and effectively. It is about amplifying the visibility, reach, and impact of this academic community and of our faculty members’ scholarship and research. All of these aspirations are in play in the progress we are reporting today.
The Hillary Rodham Clinton Institute
In April, the board of trustees voted to approve a plan to move forward with creating an institute celebrating the legacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton ’69. This institute will engage our community in continuing her life’s work to strengthen citizenship, leadership, and democracy here in the U.S. and globally, and to advocate on behalf of women and vulnerable communities.
The overarching goal of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Institute is to prepare the next generation of civic leaders and changemakers across every field and discipline. The institute will also enable Wellesley to serve as a convener and catalyst to address the most pressing issues of our time by serving as a hub for faculty research and collaboration on issues related to democracy and gender equity.
When operating at full scale, the Clinton Fellows program will be open to all sophomores, across all disciplines, enabling them to develop essential skills related to citizenship and civic engagement. Key elements of the fellows program will include:
- Civic Action Lab, a three-day retreat before the start of the fall semester for all sophomores, designed to foster connection, constructive dialogue, and learning across difference.
- The monthly Changemaker and Scholar Series, which will bring together scholars, including humanists, scientists, and social scientists from Wellesley and other colleges and universities, as well as community leaders, artists, and other changemakers, for conversations and workshops addressing the most pressing issues of our time.
- Shared service experiences with fellow students, which will provide opportunities to put community-building skills into action.
- Over time, we also hope to link academic programs such as the Calderwood Seminars in Public Writing and the Maurer Public Speaking Program with the Clinton Fellows program.
In addition, the institute will host an annual Clinton summit that will bring together scholars, policymakers, artists, practitioners, and advocates to focus on an urgent social, cultural, or political challenge. The inaugural summit, in spring 2024, will address strengthening democracy at home and abroad, a fitting topic for a U.S. presidential election year. In the future, topics might include climate change, the ethics of AI, and criminal justice, among others. Secretary Clinton has indicated her interest in participating both in the summit and in activities with the Clinton fellows.
We plan to implement the institute over five years, giving us the opportunity to learn and adapt as we go. Community participation and input will be essential to its development. We are now focusing on fundraising, with the plan of launching the institute at the inaugural Clinton summit next spring.
We want to acknowledge and thank Tracy Gleason, professor of psychology, and Pat Berman, Theodora L. and Stanley H. Feldberg Professor of Art, who have been instrumental to the development of the institute thus far and will remain deeply involved. Jen Pollard, executive director of Career Education and associate provost; Heidi Johnson, director of civic engagement; and Tara Murphy, chief communications officer, will also continue to work with the institute. We look forward to engaging with a broader group of faculty and staff from the humanities, social sciences, and STEM, as we move into implementation planning.
Wellesley Centers for Women
Wellesley is proud of its many centers and institutes, which enliven and enrich the intellectual experience on campus and advance the College’s mission. For almost five decades, the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) has achieved national and international prominence for its research and action programs relating to women and gender, yet it is unfamiliar to many on our own campus.
We hope to change that. In the summer/fall of 2024, we plan to relocate most of the WCW researchers and staff from Cheever House (along Washington Street beyond the President’s House) to a central campus location in Simpson Cottage once the new building for Health Services and the Stone Center Counseling Service is complete.
Layli Maparyan, Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Executive Director of the WCW and professor of Africana studies, has been a strategic partner in planning this move and in reimagining the role the WCW can play in the life of the College. We are hopeful that this relocation will lead to opportunities for Wellesley faculty and WCW researchers to collaborate on new research relating to gender and intersectional inequality. We would also like to integrate the WCW’s administrative infrastructure into the College’s to increase efficiency and enhance our capacity, per the strategic plan, to project our faculty’s and centers’ research to reach a wider audience.
Structure and leadership for Wellesley in the World
Elevating Wellesley’s role in the world requires focus, structure, and leadership (including faculty leadership). To that end, we are delighted that Stacie Goddard, the outgoing faculty director of the Albright Institute and Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science, has agreed to take on an important new role. As associate provost for Wellesley in the World, she will integrate faculty research and professional work into our more externally focused centers (including Albright, WCW, and eventually the Hillary Rodham Clinton Institute); developing partnerships with other universities and research institutions; and strengthen institutional support for global projects and programs conceived by centers and institutes, academic departments, or individual faculty.
As the strategic plan states, Wellesley is more than a college; it is an intervention in the world. We look forward to working with members of our community to bring these initiatives to fruition in ways that enhance the student experience, increase research collaborations among faculty and the WCW, and amplify Wellesley’s broader impact in the world as a changemaking institution.
