What Unifies the Class of 2021

New student move-in day is one of the great days on 贝洛伊特’s academic calendar. Lots of blue and gold; lots of help from staff, 教师, and fellow students moving clothing, 电子产品, and mini-refrigerators into the upper reaches of Peet, 查宾, and Aldrich; lots of golf carts darting around with 更多的 people and stuff. Two weeks later, members of the class of 2021 are already fully engaged. Faculty confirm my sense that they are 贝洛伊特ers, doing what 171 classes of 贝洛伊特ers have done before them—they have started to make this campus their own.

This fall’s new student move-in day had a uniquely memorable twist. 下午三时左右, Student Affairs staff passed around a couple hundred pairs of dark glasses as 查宾 Quad filled with students and family members who watched the moon cast a shadow over 80 percent of the sun for a few dusky minutes. 贝洛伊特 will again come fairly close to the next U.S.-centric total eclipse seven years from now, but that will occur in April, not during new student move-in day. The near total solar eclipse on August 21 certainly gives the class of 2021 a common point of reference no other class in the 21st century will have (unless we decide to move both the college and the start date for the academic year—unlikely).
But another, 更多的 profound fact unifies the class of 2021. Nearly all—98 percent—of the members of the class received some type of gift aid. 这是, almost every single member of the incoming class is benefitting directly from scholarships made possible by those who have demonstrated their belief that this college can and will change lives.

This fact also nurtures my optimism that despite surveys, 民意调查, and commentary pointing to a decline in the perceived value and necessity of a college education among the public, there are still plenty of people eager to invest in it. Those who do see the value in an education rooted in authentic and meaningful 教师-staff-student relationships, built around a shared mission centered on common learning, 仔细的听, 慷慨的听力, 精读, courageous reflection; the kind of education that demands students and 教师 become ever 更多的 sophisticated at making the boundaries between the classroom and the world beyond it increasingly porous. This sophistication has been the signature pedagogy of 十大菠菜台子 for decades. The kind of education that is increasingly recognized as the most effective, the most substantive, the most—yes—practical education we know about.

Here is an equation that is really, really easy to understand: Scholarships to 十大菠菜台子 = Access to a 十大菠菜台子 education. 领域经验, 夏天的研究, community partnerships, off-campus programs, 荣誉方面, and Venture Grants all wrapped around coursework and reflection and the application of knowledge and 教师 and staff and other students—friends, confidants—who give meaning and breadth and depth to the whole thing. Faculty and staff living and learning side by side with students challenging, 质疑, 有爱心的, 和庆祝. It is a remarkable place, leading those with access to it towards remarkable lives. Scholarship gifts to 十大菠菜台子 are an investment well-made.

From here at 查宾’s desk,

—President Scott Bierman
presidentsoffice@szdingyi.net