My First Week at Trinity College

July 9, 2014

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,

Yesterday marked the end of my first full week as president of Trinity College, and if one week can serve as a harbinger of our future together, then I could not be more optimistic.

First, I would like to thank you for the very warm welcome that I have received from so many of you since my arrival on July 1. I am filled with confidence and high expectations for the future of our great College, and I look forward to working together with you in these coming months and years. Each day I have left my desk to walk around campus, visiting different buildings and stopping to talk along the way. I have met faculty and science students at work in the Clement chemistry building, dropped into the impressive Raether library, seen a movie in Cinestudio, and stopped into McCook to see classrooms and the auditorium, which I can imagine filled with students and faculty beginning in a few short weeks. Even during the quiet summer, there is activity in every corner, and I relish the thought of fall when many of you will return.

My family, too, is settling into life at Trinity. My daughter, Clara, is involved in the summer chemistry program, and my son, Tommy, is enrolled in a Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy summer writing program that takes place here on campus. My family and I are learning about the many summer offerings here in Hartford, and we look forward to our first carillon summer concert at the Chapel. You may even see my husband or me walking our dog, Minty, around campus in the evening. If you see us on campus, please stop and say hello.

I have met faculty, staff, and some students during my first days here, and I look forward to meeting many more of you as you return to campus. Plans are already under way for the convocation and matriculation ceremonies that will welcome our newest students, and I extend an early invitation to all of you to participate in the College’s inauguration activities that will take place on Family Weekend, October 24 to 26.

From the window of my office in Williams Memorial, I can see Trinity’s beautiful Main Quad overseen by the statue of Trinity’s first president, Bishop Brownell, and I am honored to be a part of Trinity history. Let us engage together as we begin this new chapter of Trinity’s history.

Sincerely,

Joanne Berger-Sweeney
President and Trinity College
Professor of Neuroscience