That's the Spirit!

Dear Saint Mary’s Friends, 

Last Sunday marked the launch of “Spirit Week” at SMC—a student-planned week filled with daily community-building events that began with Mass and cupcakes on Sunday evening and will culminate with “Smick Day” on Friday afternoon at Lake Marian, complete with canoe rides! I’m so proud that our students remain focused on the important qualities of community, even when our broader world is polarized around so many issues. This isn’t a blind “Pollyanna-ism” on their part. It’s a deliberate choice to build, together, something enduringly positive at Saint Mary’s. As one student leader said to me at the start of the semester, “Whatever our differences, we agree on one thing: we all love Saint Mary’s.”

This past week, I listened for the second time to an excellent podcast in which Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist in the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, is in conversation with Danielle Allen, a professor of public policy and political philosophy at Harvard University. In a wide-ranging conversation about contemporary challenges to higher education, they discuss the importance of free inquiry in colleges and universities. They also explore serious concerns about academic freedom and free expression on today’s campuses. College campuses are places where students, faculty, and staff want to belong and where the speed of communication and information sharing can be torrential, and thus confusing and potentially divisive. This can create an environment where people don’t share diverse perspectives and where discussion and debate disappear before they even get started. 

Allen points out that free expression and inclusion shouldn’t be positioned as a trade-off; rather, they should be “mutually reinforcing.” She says that for all to feel included, we must make space for all arguments to be possible. And precisely because these conversations can be difficult, it is in moments of disagreement that each of us needs to show our trustworthiness to people who hold different perspectives—our good intention to be in curious and open dialogue with others in our community. That makes it possible for us to challenge each other toward more deeply thoughtful arguments for our different positions, which is something a Saint Mary’s education has always encouraged.

So, I started thinking about the small and large ways we can all reflect our trustworthiness. At the individual level, we need to show people—by our words and actions—that they are seen, heard, and known. A culture of accusation, Allen points out, “never produces bridge-building or collaboration.” We need to be better listeners. We need to be capable of acknowledging the complexity of views that differ from our own—and of sometimes even changing or altering our own positions as a result of that listening. And it helps if we have forged relationships across difference before we find ourselves in moments of debate, disagreement, or conflict.

Which brings me back to Spirit Week. This particular celebration is not asking anyone to take a position or to express any identity except their SMC identity. It’s about valuing the rich array of talent and character that individuals bring to our community and about activating our collective strength and vitality. It’s about working together to create a responsive institution. The activities that are scheduled for this week are not about problem-solving or about generating new ideas for our College. But the first step to a strong community is bringing people together and creating an atmosphere of good will. It’s about affirming that everyone here belongs here. 

If forging that atmosphere means sharing a firepit with people you don’t know and making s’mores—that’s a great start! If it means attending a volleyball match and raising school spirit, that’s all to the good! If friendship bracelet-making produces new friendships or strengthens old ones—-hooray! If a “candy salad bar” sweetens the mood of the student body, let’s have a sugar high! And if “Smick Day” reclaims the word “Smick/SMC” and celebrates the multitude of people that belong in the Smick family, well, the “Head Smick” (as I was dubbed by the SGA leadership when I was inaugurated) is going to show up to celebrate that rich multiplicity.

So, here’s to Spirit Week and to the students of SMC who planned and executed it! As I often tell students, they are the co-creators of their Saint Mary’s experience, and I am so pleased that they intend to take a high road—or maybe we should just say “take the Avenue”—toward building a vibrant, strong, supportive, and loving community.

Warm regards,

Katie Conboy, Ph.D.
President

September 25, 2024