Dear Southwestern Community,

These last remaining weeks of our 183rd academic year have been thoroughly enjoyable and incredibly impressive. All around campus, our students, both current and former, display the finest of the University’s core values, from the excellent senior capstone presentations to our new Student Life recognition award—Five Points of Pirate Pride—followed by the Honors Convocation and our annual alumni awards banquet.

During the lovely class ring ceremony, the last student in line was one I have come to know over the past three years—he was among the first students who showed up when I began my Friday morning walks at Southwestern. It has been inspiring to share in his college experience and hear about his future plans, and now as he prepares for graduation I feel a bit verklempt, realizing he was the first student I was able to follow throughout his Southwestern Experience.

The end of the academic year is a good time to reflect on the events and accomplishments that have touched and transformed so many lives here. This year saw key hires in administrators and more unusual weather.

Since Vice President for Student Life Brit Katz arrived last October, there have been a number of key changes in Student Life. The University held its first Mardi Gras ball for seniors, which was well attended, and a student formal is being planned for the fall. RAs starting in the fall will receive a pay increase and a room charge decrease due to their multiple responsibilities. Co-curricular life is returning to Southwestern after a long pandemic absence, with an increase in intramural activities and the establishment of the outdoor recreation program. Brit has made great strides in establishing excellent faculty, staff, and student relationships.

There has also been a restructuring of various units under the direction of Vice President for Finance and Administration Lenora Chapman. A new associate vice president and chief information officer, David Sanchez, is addressing areas of great need in IT, including instituting better protection of our data from phishing attempts and creating stronger firewalls. David has created our secondary data center, completed website migration to the cloud, and replaced the network infrastructure in all of the residence halls—a very welcome change, as I have not had any complaints about bandwidth this year.

Ken Ralph, our director of intercollegiate athletics, came to Southwestern in September with extensive experience in the liberal arts, including serving as athletic director at Colorado College for thirteen years. Ken’s leadership has been embraced by the coaches, and as I visit with student-athletes across campus, I am often told that they both notice and appreciate the real improvements in the program and regard Ken as an effective advocate. When Ken celebrates his one-year anniversary at Southwestern in September, he will also celebrate our football team’s new era in the Southern Athletic Association, a much better fit as it includes national liberal arts colleges such as Millsaps, Sewanee, Centre, and Rhodes, that are also a better competitive match with our team.

Reverend Doctor Ron Swain was the first community leader I met when I arrived in Georgetown, and I was immediately impressed with his dedication to both the city as well as the University. The position of chaplain and director of spiritual life had been vacant for some time, and based on his extensive expertise and knowledge of Southwestern, I was pleased to offer him the position. He, too, has hit the ground running. For the first time in a long while, regular services are conducted in the Perkins Chapel, and he is engaging with students, faculty, and staff on a daily basis. He is a campus leader, and the Southwestern community has been glad to welcome him back as part of the administrative team

Over the course of the last two and a half years, I have noted the considerable portfolio carried by Dean of the Faculty Alisa Gaunder and have concluded that the demands of the position and the strategic needs of the University require a new configuration. Therefore, Alisa will serve as vice president for academic affairs starting July 1, 2023. Over a two-year period, she will focus on projects that benefit faculty and students and will have external, strategic, and fundraising responsibilities. The process to select the next dean of the faculty has been successfully completed with Sergio Costola being named for a three-year term starting July 1, 2023.

The Office of Enrollment Services has had a strong year with a dramatic increase in applications, which now stand at nearly 6,500, the highest number in institutional history. This means we will go from a 50 percent acceptance rate to a high 30 percent rate within three years.

The University has had a successful year in fundraising, with generous bequests coming as well as new gifts and significant pledges. As of April 30, cash raised exceeds $16,238,000, including more than $5 million in new endowed scholarships, a new endowed chair in business and economics, and hundreds of thousands of dollars for funded high-impact experiences. A ceremonial groundbreaking on April 14 marked the beginning of more than $120 million in capital improvements, and later that day we hosted a celebration of the public launch of “Thrive: The Campaign for Southwestern University,” a perfect evening highlighting the storied history and bright future of the University, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display. To date, we have raised more than $122 million toward our $150 million goal. Check out the beautiful Thrive website to learn more about the campaign’s initiatives.

University Relations, in partnership with the entire campus community, also conducted two extremely successful Days of Giving, one in the fall focused on support for our Pirates Athletic teams and one in the spring focused on broader support for University priorities, including scholarships, the student emergency fund, campus initiatives, and student organizations. Between the two Days of Giving, spanning a total of 60 hours, more than $832,800 was raised from 1,985 donors!

After a blizzard and two ice storms over the course of three winters, I have come to suspect that this freezing weather is no longer a blip but a trend. This last ice storm meant the University was closed for four days, our board of trustees meeting had to be rescheduled, and there was more than $350,000 in tree and landscape damage. The good news is that none of our generators failed, our IT system remained unscathed, and there was only a brief interruption of electricity late in the evening. I’m keeping my snow shovel close at hand, ready for next year!

Spring is fully here, and summer is threatening to follow perhaps too quickly, however, the biggest event of the year arrives just a few days after Late Night Breakfast (where I will be stationed at the dessert table, no surprise there). Saturday’s Commencement, on May 13 at 6 p.m., will be the first on campus in four years and the first evening event since 1937. We are poised to graduate 391 remarkable young people who will go out into the wider world and live amazing, socially responsible, and caring lives.

As for the rest of us, we will roll up our sleeves and prepare for a new academic year, a year that will mark a new era for Southwestern.

We continue to make strong progress on the Tactical Plan as we complete its second year. Although the plan was announced as a five-year effort, I am happy to report that we are on track to complete its goals and objectives a year early. As of March 1, 2023, 33 of 36 tactics (92%) have been completed or are in progress, with 15 of 36 tactics (42%) entirely complete.

A core theme of the Tactical Plan is Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Equity (DIBE). Earlier this semester, I formed a Commission, representative of the Southwestern community, to work on defining a new senior staff position that will expand current efforts already underway to increase recruitment and retention of students, faculty, and staff from underrepresented communities, along with measurable action plans. A search for this position will be initiated in fall 2023, with the successful candidate to start July 1, 2024. A new DIBE initiatives webpage has also been created that offers a progress report to students as well as to faculty and staff.

Of particular significance is the letter we recently received from the Department of Education. We were informed that as of July 1, 2023, we will officially become a Hispanic-Serving Institution, making us the only top 100 liberal arts university in the U.S. News rankings to hold such a designation. We are already writing our first grant under Title V, Part A of the Higher Education Act due in June. This will be a significant asset for admission efforts and will increase federal aid and paid internships for qualifying students. This coincides with the acceptance of our membership to Excelencia in Education. Also, in the fall of 2022, thanks to the significant efforts by trustee Jorge Diaz Cuervo, we are now in a strategic partnership with Ricardo Salinas and his foundation, Fundación Azteca. We have signed MOUs with two high schools he funds, Plantel Azteca and Humanitree. We are also creating a partnership and exchange program for faculty and students with Universidad de la Libertad, a liberal arts college established by Mr. Salinas that will open in the fall in Mexico City.

Other initiatives in conjunction with the Tactical Plan include increased wages for non-exempt (hourly) staff, the creation of an IT master plan, and a very successful 10-year reaccreditation review. Retention is a key element of the Tactical Plan, and an active co-curricular life adds to the student’s Southwestern Experience. An expanded Mosaic 2.0 has been developed specifically for first- and second-year students, our outdoor recreation program is officially underway thanks to over $400,000 in generous donations, and Southwestern will offer a hiking trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro over the winter break for ten lucky students.

Next year will see the most construction ever on campus. Mood-Bridwell Hall, built in 1908 to serve as a men’s residence hall but also did duty as a women’s residence hall and as WWII housing for naval trainees, will undergo an extensive renovation—to be completed in summer 2024— that blends 21st-century technology with the building’s deep history. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, Mood-Bridwell will provide inclusive community gathering areas, an exciting performance space, electronic classrooms, and the “Sharon” coffeehouse. In addition, the historic upper terrace, which has charmed generations of students, will be reopened for outdoor classroom use and social gatherings. Connected to this project, Associate Vice President for Facilities Management Rick Martinez and his dedicated team have prepared an attractive “swing space” in Mundy for faculty and staff temporarily displaced by the Mood-Bridwell project and where our Upward Bound program has been permanently relocated.

On the east side of campus, construction will begin on a first-year, mixed-use residence hall and a new welcome center that will include study/lounge spaces and meeting rooms, a screening room, yoga and pilates studios, an art gallery, and the return of the beloved Korouva Milk Bar Café. In June the campus will say goodbye to the Kyle E. White Activities Center and the McCook-Crain Building, which will be demolished to make way for the new residence halls. As the new construction will be located in my backyard, so to speak, all the action will be of great interest to Twinkles and Ernest (my two getting better behaved all the time bulldogs). Work will also begin on a new, mixed-use residence hall for second-year students to be located just south of Ruter Hall. This building will include amenities similar to those found in the first-year residence hall.

Work is also proceeding on the Smith Library releveling project and a new campus storage facility. In Robertson, athletes will benefit from a women’s locker room upgrade, a new team meeting room, and an audio/video studio. Campus amenities planned for this summer include two pickleball courts. Speaking of Athletics, we are in the planning stages of a new, multi-use sports complex that will bring football back to campus for the first time in 75 years.

For additional details, I invite you to check our progress on the Five-Year Tactical Plan. 

If you attended the fantastic Research and Creative Works Symposium on April 14, you will appreciate why Southwestern is among the top ten liberal arts institutions in undergraduate-faculty research. Over the past year, our students and faculty have presented at national and international conferences and symposia. 195 students presented their research and original works, including 53 oral presentations, 51 research posters, 26 high-impact experience posters, nine exhibitions, and a special performance of the spring musical, Ride the Cyclone. The topics were, as ever, fascinating and original. One student’s poster sought greater insights into the human nervous system by asking the question, “Are You Smarter Than an Octopus?” Another student’s poster probed the effects of mask-wearing on anaerobic exercise—it turns out that you can exercise just fine in a mask; however, according to other student researchers, when it comes to respiration, ducks and whales have all of us beat. Many thanks to the Center for Integrative Learning for organizing this wonderful event. 

The list of faculty-student collaborations this year is breathtaking. Biomedical students in San Antonio, chemistry students in Indianapolis, psychology students in Atlanta, and student members of the Texas Alpha chapter of the Alpha Chi Honor Society at the Alpha Chi National Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, presenting research and creative works from several fields including computer science, biochemistry, and music. Our students and faculty also presented their research abroad, including Allison Hentges '24 and Education Professor Michael Kamen, who presented Allison's King Creativity Project, "The Reasons for Seasons," at the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education in Panama City, Panama.

To best serve our students and community, a new smartphone app designed especially for Southwestern will be available to students as well as to faculty and staff on July 1. The app will include many features requested by students, including campus events/announcements, individual academic schedules and access to grades/assignments, mental health resources, the Pirate Dining menu, and emergency contact numbers.

This summer, our new food provider, Aramark, marks its first year on campus. Our food service has steadily improved, and the menu has been adjusted to meet student demands. Aramark’s efforts have been greatly enhanced by our student food committee’s regular meetings with management. This summer, Aramark will be spending $3.2 million refurbishing the Commons, renovating and redesigning the servery, upgrading The Cove, and outfitting the dining patio on the south side of the McCombs Campus Center with new furniture and outdoor shade structures.

The Real Estate Development Committee met throughout the year to consider options for the undeveloped 500 acres east of campus. They have learned a great deal about revenue generation—housing, businesses, retail, restaurants, and hotels—along with asset generators such as a concert hall and outdoor amphitheater. After much due diligence, a development partner has been selected and an agreement will be signed in the coming months. We have moved carefully and steadily to reach this point, particularly considering that the concept of developing the acreage was introduced to the board of trustees just a little over a year ago.

The plans to redevelop the University's property across from the Cullen Building at 1205 Maple continue to move forward. The City of Georgetown Planning Department has reported that their questions regarding the demolition of the stucco storage building have been satisfactorily answered. The next step in the process is to meet with the Historic Architecture Review Commission (HARC) to obtain demolition approval and I expect that by the time students return in the fall, the existing buildings will have been demolished or moved off the lot. We have more due diligence and permissions ahead, and a local restaurant group is very interested in moving as quickly as possible.

This fall we will welcome familiar and new faces at our Faculty/Staff Welcome Reception Thursday, August 31, where the next editions of the Faculty Excellence Brochure and Institutional Excellence Brochure will both be available. Also, this fall, we are very pleased to be welcoming exciting speakers to campus. I am looking forward to my good friend Kevin Young’s visit, The Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, who will be our keynote speaker for the Shilling Lecture on October 13. He is best known as a poet, author, essayist, and poetry editor of The New Yorker. He recently published a fascinating non-fiction book called Bunk about the U.S. history of lies and hoaxes.

Respected educator and author Ainsley Carry has been invited to be the keynote speaker at our third annual SUnity Day on Tuesday, October 31. His most recent book, Washington Next? Disputed Monuments, Symbols, and Honorees on Campus, examines the rapid rise of disputed memorials on campus and devises strategies for negotiating memorial disputes. 

Also in October, AI expert Diana Gehlhaus, currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology and the Senior Advisor for Talent in the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office in the U.S. Department of Defense, will be speaking about AI and its effect on basically everything, and specifically on higher education.

Finally, I am thrilled to be hosting a PEN America Author’s Evening with Julia Sweig, whose recent book is Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight. Julia’s work has changed and enhanced the way that Lady Bird is now viewed by biographers, and her work is a multi-layered interpretation of Lady Bird’s importance to the 36th president.

I close by thanking everyone who is part of our community for your goodwill, expertise, and dedication on behalf of Southwestern University and its remarkable students. As authors of the latest chapter in Southwestern’s history, we can look back with pride at our accomplishments, and look forward to the exciting year ahead. 

 Sincerely,

Laura Skandera Trombley
President, Southwestern University