Dear Pomona College Community,
I enjoyed welcoming new students this past weekend and look forward to seeing returning Sagehens on campus. We come together with great hope for the academic year ahead, to a college community that is curious, kind and passionate about changing the world.
Throughout the year, you will be hearing about the College’s strategic priorities. We continue to make progress on Pomona’s Strategic Vision, most notably recently with the Global Pomona Project. This month, Kara Godwin officially joins us as the inaugural senior global fellow, and I hope you will have the opportunity to meet and share your ideas with her. Planning is well underway for our Center for Global Engagement, which will be integral to the College’s larger effort to ensure that every Pomona student meaningfully engages with global learning.
Another area of focus for the College is Pomona’s Middle Income Initiative. This effort aims to expand the College’s reach, provide greater access to Pomona for students from middle-income families, reflect broader socioeconomic diversity and further our commitment to serve as an engine of opportunity.
Campuses can be models for meaningful exchanges on complex topics when we hone our abilities to listen deeply and engage in constructive dialogue. This vital, challenging work is community work and is especially pressing during this contentious presidential election season and as we acknowledge the borderless impacts of global crises. We can cite several current approaches at Pomona as we aim intentionally for greater progress throughout the year. For example, this summer, incoming first-year students participated in a pilot program, our first dialogue mini-series. Pomona students have launched a campus chapter of BridgeUSA, and they provided comments to National Public Radio while attending a recent national summit on constructive dialogue. Our partnership with the Sustained Dialogue Institute, an initiative for faculty, staff and students now in its sixth year at the College, continues this fall.
As noted in my June message to our community, we are planning a return this fall to addressing the College’s investment policies, including a process that will include community input. More to come about this effort in the coming weeks.
An important update for this academic year is that I will be taking a sabbatical in the spring of 2025. Claremont Colleges presidents have long joined our faculty colleagues in taking one-semester sabbaticals to foster intellectual renewal, scholarly research and professional development. Following this tradition, during this Board of Trustees-approved sabbatical, I will focus on my next book manuscript dealing with the importance of the arts in human life and learning.
Bob Gaines, Edwin F. and Martha Hahn Professor of Geology, will serve as acting president during my time away from campus. Bob has demonstrated exemplary service and leadership within Pomona College and is uniquely qualified to lead the College during this period. He will focus on continuing our work in realizing our strategic vision and advancing our fundraising to realize the initiatives. Our Dean of the College, Melanie Wu, will oversee our reaccreditation process and the scheduled review of academic affairs. The entire senior team will work together to keep moving us forward, and I am grateful to them and to the Board for this opportunity.
I look forward to joining you for Convocation during the first official week of the semester. We will share in a tradition that underscores Pomona’s values and reminds us anew of our great privilege and responsibility as members of this college community.
Sincerely,
Gabi