Trinity College President on Return to Classes

am doing well. Thank you for asking. I'm doing well because I do think this is a time of hope and a time of potential change. It is we hope and and tell us why tell us why you're you're hopeful? Because I have to say, Joanne, you are in the midst of so many things in the world of higher education. Just to start, when you're thinking about coming back to school,

let's start there. What is that like right now for students at Trinity Right So, we are planning for a robust experience for our students, taking into consideration health and safety as a priority. Our students will be meeting regularly and have safe interactions with their professors. We think with coaches and staff, we are also ready to pivot if we need to again to have remote learning. So we are preparing to engage our students in new and interesting ways,

even if that needs to be remote. UM. We're planning to support them because they need help in figuring out how to navigate this new normal. And then, you know, on a practical basis, of course, we are planning to have face covering, physical distance, reminders of hand washing, self monitoring of symptoms, and mandatory public health education for when they come back to campus. But you're going to be

on campus. It is certainly our plan to be on campus. UM. We were very fortunate to determine that we had seventeen hundred individual beds behind doors. Now sometimes it's off of a suite, but we had seventeen hundred UM individual bed spaces here at Trinity, and generally we have two thousand students, so that allow will allow our students to come back

and UM also have UM private or individual rooms. And we thought, with those circumstances, and with the guidance that we've been provided by the State of Connecticut, that we are planning for a reopening. You know, recognizing of course that if conditions are such that we cannot open UM, you know, will have to then pivot to remote learning. And so, what are you hearing from students, especially incoming

students sort of news? The first year students, I would imagine, I have to think they're the most both apprehensive but also maybe the most eager at the same time, Joanta, what are the conversations like there with them and their parents? Right, It's it's amazing how eager they are to come to college. Um. We had one of our largest classes, more than six hundred students who accepted Trinity College, which we thought was surprising given the pandemic. But I think that people really

want to come back. We did a survey of students and even before we had given them you know what health and safety measures were going to look like, it's just what's your likelihood of coming back? And eighty five of our students and parents said they were either very likely or likely to come back. And then there was another, um, you know, almost ten percent that said, well, we're waiting to see you know what health and safety measures you have,

so people want to come back. UM, And I'll share with you that I'm the parent of a college age student. He wants to go back, and I want him to go back already. So are our students to go back, aren't we? So as you know, Jason has two teenagers UM and also a little one, but two teenagers. He and I both have UM kids who are going to be seniors in high school. And I gotta tell you, I cannot. I love my daughter, I cannot wait for her to kind of be back within school and she

misses it a lot. So we totally get it, absolutely. You know. When I talked to parents, they all get it, and they laugh when I say, oh no, no, no, everybody one, yeah, no, no, you're right there, wagon for sure.

All right. One interesting sort of pivot point is the s A T and standardized test because in the midst of this pandemic that's obviously been turned upside down Carol, as she alluded to, and I are very aware of this UM having rising seniors, But there are bigger questions about standardized tests and the s A T as it

relates to access and diversity of candidates and fairness. Tell us how you've come down on that, right, So UM Trinity College is test optional, which means that you don't have to turn in either an S A T or an A C T. And now the majority of our students do not turn in standard dive test um. One of the reasons we decided to eliminate the necessity for standardized test is because of the very, very high correlation between your test scores and your income level. So it's

I mean, think about it. If you can take the S A T three or four times and your family can afford a tutor um, do you think that you have a greater likelihood of having a higher S A T or someone who has to come in take it cold gets to take it once, you know, at their high school for free, and that's it. So how long before most colleges and universities get rid of it? Because when you say that, like, then why would you why would any university or college want to keep it? Right?

You know, it's interesting because people originally thought it was an equalize when there was such a variation across in institutions, you know, about what courses you could take or what does the NAIM mean at this school versus that school. But so we instituted the standardized tests and now we're finding that they are as problematic. But what I want people to understand is there are ways that you can determine um a person's likelihood of succeeding in college, and

the best is great and their teacher recommendations interesting. So it just requires a little bit. It sounds like it requires just a little bit more creative thinking. So Joanne, I have to ask you. You know, I mentioned at the end of the last segment, you're the first black and first female president of Trinity College. I'm sure you're getting questions like this all the time. What do we do to make this more than a moment? M hm um.

I think already it is more than a moment, And somehow people are listening to each other in a different manner than happened six months ago. Now, I believe that here at a place like Trinity College, where we offer a liberal arts education, it demands that people have a sense of humanity, a true understanding and compassion comes from listening to one another with an open heart and empathetically imagining what it's like to experience the world through someone

else's perspective. And I think that then demands that you act empathetically. So I think what is happening right now is people are listening differently than they did six months ago. I suspect it's something to do with the interaction between COVID people being stuck at home, um, maybe not being able to go out and interact in the same way.

And that meant that every single person saw that George Floyd video, and think about it, that may not have happened if everybody hadn't been sitting at home right and we would have all been so quick to rush off to the next thing, which is which which is if you think about it, like if you get kind of whoa, you know, where we are in this world, like on a grand scale like this amazing you know that these two things crossed one another at the same time. Um, so how do we how do we be better off

of this? Then? Okay, so we have you know, we we've been able to experience this unfortunately altogether. But if it does get us to a better place, But how do we make sure we get to a better place and that we're not having this discussion in another year or two years or five years. Yeah, that's a great question,

and thank you for asking. I think we have to agree to act, And so yesterday I sent out a letter to the entire Trinity College community, everyone on campus, but also our entire alumni network, and I made some commitments and some action steps that I was going to follow. Um I talked about requiring all campus members, trustees, all key volunteers to complete anti racist, unconscious bias equity education.

In the fall. I asked our Education Policy Committee to create special opportunity hires because we need to increase our faculty diversity. Our students of color need to see themselves here in the academy. Um I decided to fund particular activities that students were requesting us to do, and more than anything, our board of trustees, over a two day retreat, spent approximately four hours discussing these issues, listening reading the comments that the students of color had unfortunately going to

be different. Yeah it is. We could talk to you for the rest of the night. Uh. We hope you'll come back, especially as the school year hopefully gets underway. Joann Berger Sweeney, President of Trinity College, joining us on the phone from Hartford. Such a thoughtful conversation