By Emily Glory Peters
This past weekend, the ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ community from ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄. While we couldn’t be together in person, we shared in our students’ achievements at home and abroad.ΜύIn commending our seniors, ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Board Chair and involved alum Lynne Thompson β72 reflected on the difficult circumstances surrounding their graduationβand how her own time at ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ prepared her to face lifeβs challenges.
βWhen I graduated, the womenβs movement was growing, the civil rights movement had suffered major losses with assassinations, and the Vietnam War was raging,β says Thompson. βAs daunting as all of it was, the Ellen Browning ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ quote on Honnold Gate about courage, confidence, and hope really embodied what I took from my ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ experience. Every generation has its own fight to endure, but ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ taught me to remain confident that weβll get through.β
As Board Chair, Thompson has been involved with ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ leadership in developing its strategy to steer the College forward as COVID-19 evolves. All planning has centered on fulfilling ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄β mission and safeguarding the wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staffβand while transitioning to temporary distance learning this spring was the best way to sustain both, Thompson explains, it cost the College millions in refunded room and board, travel and moving aid for students, canceled events, and unanticipated investments in distance-learning technology. Preserving βwhat makes ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄β amidst these losses, Thompson shares, remains paramount.
βWeβre looking at several models on how we protect what is most treasured about ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄: the academics, the relationships with faculty, the grounds, the intimate residential experience for students. Weβre reassessing where we can save or move money and exploring every possible partnership. Everything is on the table as to how best to meet our mission,β she says.
The College created the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to address areas under the greatest threat due to budget losses. Thompson hails support from the ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ community, especially in the form of unrestricted gifts (gifts not designated to narrow areas) as a prevailing force to sustain the College as we adapt to a new reality.
βWhen alums, parents, and friends make an unrestricted gift to the fund, you enable us to meet the greatest needs of the College and make speedy day-to-day shifts to improve support for our students and faculty,β she explains. βThat flexibility is powerful, especially in an emergency environment.β
ΜύEven with the sea changes brought on by COVID-19, Thompson emphasizes that the Collegeβs missionββto educate women so they may contribute to society through lives of leadership, service, integrity, and creativityββremains central to any plan to move forward. Itβs a mission, she says, that guided the College through the Great Depression, World War II, and countless moments of social turmoil; established lifelong friendships for students; and unified a diverse sisterhood of alums who are βintelligent and generous of spiritβ with the tenacity to surmount even the most extraordinary hardships.
βΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ graduates powerful women who make a difference. Itβs why I will always support the College, and even more so in times of difficulty,β says Thompson. βIf I could say one thing to our ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ community, itβs this: Weβve survived other changes and survived them well. Continue to believe in ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄.β
ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄β Day of Giving on May 27, 2020 is an opportunity for our community to sustain βall that makes ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄β and help offset the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. To make a gift, click .
Interested in learning more? Check out our latest giving and impact news here.