Welcome to the Bicentennial Year!
September 5, 2023
Dear Members of the Trinity Community,
As the new academic year begins, our students once again are bringing the campus to life with energy, enthusiasm, and an unwavering determination to succeed. My favorite aspect of this time of year is getting to know our newest community members: students, faculty, and staff. The incoming Class of 2027 and new transfer and IDP students bring a diverse range of academic talent, lived experiences, and backgrounds. The Class of 2027, the first to matriculate in our College’s third century, comprises 590 students who come from 36 states and 46 countries of primary citizenship. To our newest students, we are so glad you’ve made the decision to call Trinity home, and we’ll celebrate you throughout your time in Hartford and beyond.
The celebration of Trinity’s 200th birthday is well underway. Our Alumni Bicentennial Celebration in June was an overwhelming success, with more than 1,500 attendees reconnecting for festivities and for sharing a proud moment together. In the year ahead, we will have many more celebrations of our historic milestone. We invite you to attend the Bicentennial Fall Weekend (October 13–15), which will combine Homecoming and Family Weekend and will feature a special performance of JOY!, a spectacular combination of circus, dance, and music for all ages. I encourage you to visit our Bicentennial website to learn about these events and about free screenings at Cinestudio, special athletic contests and receptions, and the Bicentennial Symposium on November 14.
With much to celebrate—and much to do—in our 200th year, it’s also important to pause and appreciate where we are as a community and the incredible work we’ve accomplished through our strategic plan, Summit. Considering the Bicentennial’s theme— “Committed to the future since 1823”—Summit is a statement of Trinity’s forward-looking commitments. Our remarkable progress is the culmination of a community hard at work. So many of you give your time and talent to Trinity, allowing us to reach for more. At a time when the politicization of higher education has raised challenges to our time and energy, we have remained steadfast in how we deliver on our mission. Here are some highlights and reminders of recent work:
• With the goal of recruiting for academic excellence, we welcome nine outstanding tenure-track faculty members this year (and a 10th hired to begin next July). These, and all of our faculty, are talented teacher-scholars who bring a passion to engage, connect, and transform young lives. With pride, we have successfully fulfilled our commitment to make 18 tenure-track faculty hires in three years through a special opportunity hiring initiative, supporting our goals of a diverse faculty of excellence and of being a first-destination college.
• Building on 53 years, Trinity’s Rome Program continues to thrive. Last spring, many of us traveled to Rome to celebrate more than 50 years of the Trinity College Rome Campus and the importance of global study in a liberal arts education.
• Curricular and learning enhancements continue to be made. Distinctive opportunities for students to conduct research with faculty mentors expanded as part of our forward-looking Trinity Plus Curriculum. Trinity faculty also strengthened inclusion and wellness in the undergraduate curriculum, advancing the College’s learning goals; and they developed Connecticut’s first master of arts degree in urban planning. A new Entrepreneurship Center further complemented the core liberal arts education.
• Students meet successes beyond the classroom. Student successes inside and outside the classroom abounded last year with several students winning prestigious Fulbright and Beinecke awards. Our athletic teams were wildly successful, with eight NCAA berths, an undefeated season for football, and two squash national finals appearances. And six months after graduation, 96 percent of the Class of 2022 knew their next step: employment, graduate education, or a fellowship. This speaks highly of the quality of the Trinity experience and of our connected alumni network.
• Our alumni are engaged. The College’s recently completed alumni survey came back with positive returns. As a follow-up to a 2018 survey, it was designed to help us learn more about our proud alumni and how we can connect more to their experiences. The depth and volume of responses from our alumni were phenomenal, showing a deep level of care for the College’s mission and its future. The fall issue of The Trinity Reporter alumni magazine will have more on this.
• Facilities are enhanced. New for fall 2023, Mather Dining Hall has been renovated, with new ceilings, floors, countertops, and furniture, along with a new high-performance kitchen and an enhanced, healthy menu. Additionally, we continue to make progress on the recommendations from the Title IX audit of the athletic program. Renovations to the Softball and Sheppard Fields are well on their way.
• Progress continues in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Trinity’s Action Plan for Racial Justice was released, highlighting many of the steps we’ve already taken as a community so that all students, faculty, and staff can feel they belong and contribute to the mission of the College—as well as to the work yet to be done. Our community DEI goals remain strong despite national external pressures and this summer’s Supreme Court decision.
• Trinity College campus is designated an arboretum. In March, the independent accrediting agency ArbNet approved Trinity’s arboretum status. Trinity becomes just one of 11 accredited arboreta in Connecticut.
To maintain our ambitious trajectory, we continue to operate sound financial discipline. I shared with you previously that our FY24 budget is the first to surpass our pre-COVID FY20 budget. This doesn’t mean that we can return to pre-COVID operations, but it does signal careful financial planning and restraint. As such, we continue to prepare for the public launch of the All In comprehensive campaign, which you’ll hear more about this fall. The campaign is a major lever that will enable Trinity to achieve its strategic priorities fully and will lead us into the third century. We will honor the life and legacy of Michael Casey, the late vice president for advancement who passed away unexpectedly on August 22 and whose tireless efforts made the campaign possible. It would be wonderful if our community pledged to honor Michael’s life’s work by supporting and participating in the campaign. Every gift counts when we are “all in.”
This year, we also will explore how we can improve upon shared governance in our structures, policies, and processes to benefit the future of our institution. If we aspire to lead with academic excellence in our third century, then we are called to examine which policies and practices require updating so that they meet the standards, expectations, and compliance requirements of contemporary academic communities.
Please join me as we welcome the fall semester of Trinity’s 200th year! Here’s to a promising start, and I look forward to celebrating our Bicentennial with you. This surely is an extraordinary time as we prepare bold, independent thinkers to illuminate Trinity’s third century of academic excellence!
Onward,
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
President and Trinity College Professor of Neuroscience
