On Community

Dear faculty, staff, and students,

In an email to students at the start of last week, I shared my strong belief in the power of talking and listening as the best way to help us live together in a community that is strengthened by, rather than divided by, our differences. I so appreciate the students who signed up to meet with me and shared with honesty and vulnerability the ways they have been experiencing life on campus over these past weeks and months or who just stopped by to talk. I know these conversations take a great deal of trust, and I am grateful for them.

These conversations were private, so I won’t say too much other than that they made clear to me that some members of our community are feeling exposed, misunderstood, targeted, or fearful. Hateful anonymous posts on social media, reported cruel in-person comments, and some material shared on campus have generated hurt, anger, and distrust.

I can’t tell you how much I wish this wasn’t the case. Hate has no place on campus and is unacceptable.

We need to do the work to strengthen and rebuild our community collectively, through relationships, through listening to one another with generosity and curiosity, and with empathy. One of the ways to do this is by expanding opportunities to connect within our community. With this in mind, in addition to meeting with students, I am adding office hours to create space for dialogue and engagement with my faculty and staff colleagues. Please use this link if you would like to meet. If signing up via the link doesn’t work for you, please contact Monica Brennan directly. Students can continue to sign up for office hours using this link.

In my inauguration speech, I talked about a line from an Elizabeth Alexander poem in which she asks, “Are we not of interest to each other?” As I said then, we must be. Being of interest to each other is a core value of the liberal arts. Bowdoin people make it clear all the time that we are of interest to each other. What I came so quickly to love about this college is its palpable sense of community. It is the biggest gift of a place like this.

But community and connection are fragile things. They can be damaged, splintered, and fractured. And they can also be mended, nurtured, and rebuilt. That process of mending, nurturing, and rebuilding requires that we take interest in, care for, and trust each other.

I look forward to listening and working with you.

Best,

Safa