The below message was sent to faculty, staff, and students on November 17, 2025.
Dear Bryn Mawr Community,
In 1947, when he was just 18 years old, Martin Luther King Jr. published a short essay in the Morehouse College campus newspaper, the Maroon Tiger. In it, he argued that education has a two-fold function of utility and character. "To save man from the morass of propaganda ... is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction." But this is not sufficient, he wrote. "Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate."
I think about these dual functions often, especially King's thoughts about "worthy objectives on which to concentrate." We live today in an environment of extraordinary external upheaval, disruption, and change, which challenges our ability to "sift and weigh," as King put it, to separate the distracting from the significant, the transient from the enduring. Examples of disruption are all around us: the federal government shutdown, new caps on educational loans, and the climate surrounding immigration and international visitors. We take the long view as we navigate together, grounded in the College's mission, and committed as an institution to teaching both how to "sift and weigh" and how to determine "worthy objectives" on which to concentrate.
I see you doing this work everywhere I go – in department meetings, at athletic events like field hockey, soccer, and volleyball games, at campus celebrations like Day of the Dead and Haunted Park, and across classrooms, fields, offices, and dining halls. It was especially on display at the Failure Monologues earlier this month where members of the community bravely shared their own failures. In the words of one speaker, "Failure is feedback. We can do something with it." I am grateful to so many of you for the everyday hard work of teaching, learning, and supporting others in their processes – when we succeed and when we fail.
I am grateful for your daily work and for our work thinking together about the College's next ten years. Thank you for participating in steering committees and workshops about the comprehensive campus plan. Thank you for reviewing the draft strategic plan (and submitting feedback by the end of the semester!). Thank you for attending important conversations about holistic student advising, the library of the future (send Chris Barth ideas and photos from libraries you visit in your travels!), and curricular thinking. Thank you for submitting proposals for pilot funding and Bi-Co collaborations – decisions will be made by the end of the month. Thank you for attending Samir Datta's excellent Town Hall about the fiscal context in which we work – you can view his presentation here.
A highlight of my last few weeks was Lantern Night, which returned to the Cloisters on a beautiful evening in a cast of red light. Special thanks to the Trads, Kathleen Tan and Eleanor Sullivan, and to Conferences and Events, the Owls Programming Board, and Student Engagement, who made this evening special for our community. The knowledge passed between generations, symbolized by the lantern's glow, remains a personal anchor for me, alongside opportunities every day and as we dream the College forward to watch the Bryn Mawr community – past and present – use our knowledge to define worthy objectives through which to change the world.
Thank you - in these shorter darker November days - for the light you bring to one another and to all of us.
Wendy Cadge
President and Professor of Sociology
Bryn Mawr College
101 N. Merion Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Pronouns: she/her
brynmawr.edu
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