by President John E. Jones III '77, P'11
I hope you can feel the energy and the momentum growing across all corners of this campus. Keeping you informed is one of my top priorities, because we can’t continue to move Dickinson forward without you. I ask you to stay involved, share your thoughts with me and to support us with both your time and treasure. Think about what your Dickinson experience will be this year. How will you be enriched by this great college, and how will you leave your imprint on it?
So far, working together, we have accomplished much. We continue to raise funds for our Campaign for Scholarships, the inaugural Dickinson Forward initiative that seeks to provide a scholarship for every student with a demonstrated need for one. We want to make sure that a lack of resources will never prevent a qualified student from attending Dickinson. And that’s just one of our successful fundraising efforts. You’ll also see in this report that follow how your gifts to the Dickinson Fund have contributed to all areas of the college.
I hope this progress makes you as proud of Dickinson as I am to lead it.
Thus far this year, we’ve also launched several initiatives to enhance the Dickinson experience. We’ve broken ground on the new John M. Paz ’78 Alumni & Family Center, which will greatly benefit our alumni as well as our students and their families. We’ve brought our distinctive College Farm to campus with the opening of Farm Works, which sells products from the farm and serves salads and soups made from farm-fresh ingredients. The store, at the corner of High and West streets, also serves the Carlisle community.
In addition, we’ve partnered with a local business, Denim Coffee, which has opened a coffee shop in the Quarry. The location provides a modern and vibrant meeting space for faculty, staff and students.
We’ve hired an experienced chief diversity officer who will work with our community to make sure that all Dickinsonians are seen and respected and feel a sense of belonging.
And we’ve jumped headfirst into a new initiative that is particularly important to me. Our Dialogues Across Differences project will take a multifaceted approach to teaching and promoting the ability to talk about even the most challenging issues—the ones in which difference in perspective can lead to polarization and inflammatory “road rage” rhetoric. Make no mistake. This is not about surface-level politeness. It’s about creating a campus culture in which students learn to listen fully to each other’s points of view, ask each other curious questions and think critically about each other’s perspectives while reflecting on their own. This kind of learning is much needed in society today, and I think Dickinson is uniquely positioned to facilitate this.
All of these efforts are part of Dickinson Forward, and I hope this progress makes you as proud of Dickinson as I am to lead it. I also hope it keeps you looking for more, and that you ask yourself what more you can do to contribute to our progress. I love this job and feel privileged to lead our alma mater.
We are moving Dickinson forward, and it will take all of us to create a bold and innovative future.
Read more from the winter 2023 issue of Dickinson Magazine.
Published February 24, 2023