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Dear Members of the Sarah Lawrence Community,
As March comes to an end, signs of spring are emerging throughout our beautiful campus. The next six weeks will, no doubt, fly by as classes, conference work, performances, events, and co- and extra-curricular activities all intensify. In other words, in so many ways, it feels like a typical post-Spring Break at Sarah Lawrence, even as reminders abound that this is our first taste of “typical” in more than two years. We know the pandemic is by no means over; I am grateful that our community continues to exercise common sense and care for one another as we adapt and adjust policies as necessary to safeguard our collective well-being.
We are also painfully aware of the many pressing issues our world is facing. Co-existing on a daily basis are the experiences, big and small, of life on a college campus very much in bloom, and the realities of a world very much in crisis.
How do we approach these dichotomies? Above all, we remember the purpose of a college education, and, more specifically, the promise we make at Sarah Lawrence to prepare students to tackle the problems of, and thrive in, a complex and rapidly evolving world.
Last week, German/Literature faculty member Roland Dollinger and Associate Dean and Russian/Literature faculty member Melissa Frazier organized a Zoom call with faculty and students at a university in Dnipro, Ukraine. Dozens of students, faculty, and staff filled the Library’s Pillow Room, eager to connect with and show support to counterparts in a country under siege. Hearing firsthand from those living the realities we too often see secondhand on the news was heart wrenching, but invaluable. Roland and Melissa hope to continue this new relationship, and keep this dialogue open into the future.
Our efforts to educate our students and the community at large about the ongoing Ukraine crisis will continue on April 5, when Dr. Donald Jensen, director for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace, will deliver this year’s Bozeman Lecture – named in honor of the late Adda Bozeman, a renowned scholar of international relations and a member of our faculty for 30 years. Dr. Jensen’s lecture on “Putin’s War in Ukraine” will draw from his diplomatic experience in Russia and his work at the Institute of Peace. This will be a hybrid event, with our guest and audience in person, and the ability for those who are unable to attend on campus to join via Zoom.
Among its many complexities, the war in Ukraine is foregrounding our continuing global dependence on fossil fuels and the ongoing climate crisis. This week, students, faculty, and staff, led by our colleagues in SLICE (Sarah Lawrence Interdisciplinary Collaborative on the Environment), will be taking part in the Worldwide Teach-In on Climate and Justice. At Sarah Lawrence, this will include a talk on climate justice mapping, a reading featuring work by students in Marie Howe’s Ecopoetry class and guest David Rothenberg, and a panel discussion titled, “From Climate Anxiety to Climate Action.” The “theme” for all of SLICE’s work this year is moving from a place of anxiety to a place of action, helping to empower our students, through their education, to understand the challenges and opportunities ahead of us, and how to create change.
Finally, as you know, March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance that has its roots at Sarah Lawrence; in 1979, Gerda Lerner, the co-founder of our Women’s History graduate program, chaired a Summer Institute that convened influential women from around the country, leading to the creation of National Women’s History Week, which ultimately became Women’s History Month. The institute was also a precursor to SLC’s annual Women’s History Conference, established by long-time Women's History Program Director Priscilla Murolo. This past weekend, the 24th annual conference was held on the theme, Gender & the Covid Crisis. Dr. C. Nicole Mason, President and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, delivered the opening keynote.
This is just a glimpse of this very atypical yet typical March on campus. On the lighter side, as we continue to enjoy being back together and to build community on campus, we had a little bit of our own “March Madness” with a basketball game between students and members of our Campus Safety staff. A great time was had by players and spectators alike – a win-win all around!
I hope you will join us, in person or online, for the many and varied events planned in the weeks ahead as we together harness the power of a Sarah Lawrence education.
Yours,
Cristle Collins Judd
President
president@sarahlawrence.edu
Instagram: @slcprez
Recent Announcements
In Our Galleries
Tomorrow, March 29, we will mark the opening of Song of Songs: The Bible's Great Love Poems in Calligraphy, an exhibit by Margaret Shepherd ‘69 that will run in the Barbara Walters Gallery until June 12. Margaret will be in conversation with Religion faculty member Ron Afzal at 4 p.m., with an opening reception following at 5:30. All are invited!
Last week saw the opening of a new exhibit in the Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center. Yevgeniya Baras and Pete Schulte – a joint effort between two artists that encapsulates the power of communication through art alone – will run through June 5.
Climate Change with Bernice Rosenzweig
Earlier this month, Environmental Science faculty member Bernice Rosenzweig delivered an excellent talk to a local community group titled, “Cities, Cloudbursts, and Climate Change.” It’s an enlightening discussion, and I encourage you to watch it.
Belonging Series
March featured four events in our Belonging series, and April is shaping up to be just as busy, with three final events in the works. If you’ve missed any of the Belonging events so far, you can watch them on our website.
CURB News
This month marked a milestone at our Center for the Urban River at Beczak (CURB): a team of staff, student, and community volunteers counted the 10,000th eel as part of its work with the state’s American Eel Migration Project, which plays an important role in monitoring the health of the Hudson River.