Some Perspective On Why We Do What We Do

有时候你只需要退后一步，提醒自己什么才是真正重要的. Perspective can be everything.

伯洛伊特学院的学年以半天的教职员工静修开始，我们称之为秋季会议. 当然，今年唯一的话题是伯洛伊特前进团队的工作. As you know, 这些团队花了整个夏天来应对过去两年的入学人数下降. 在校园(和校友)收到这些团队的最新消息后不到24小时，秋季会议就召开了, 因此，静修会上的人们对数十亿大大小小的细节都有疑问和担忧. 你可以想象理查森礼堂挤满了焦虑的社区成员.

Yet, 我被要求以一组简短的评论来开始今天上午的活动，重点是我们为什么要做我们正在做的事情? How smart. 作为学院代理教务长的教师领导团队让我以一些观点开始这一天.

所以，与其在与伯洛伊特前进队有关的数千个细节中涉猎一小部分, 我也将尝试在这个领域提供一些观点.

At a nearly filled Eaton Chapel, five days before Fall Conference, 新生和他们的家人聚集在一起，受到我们几个人的欢迎. 就在几个小时前，新班的学生搬进了他们在宿舍的新家. One of the presenters was Professor Lisa Anderson-Levy. 她的论文题目是“十大菠菜台子做得最好的是什么??” What she said was that Beloit College’s secret sauce is its ability to meet students where they are and provide them with pathways to imagine themselves and their futures in new ways; to help them see what they cannot yet see.

How important is that? 满足学生的需求，帮助他们看到他们看不到的东西.

As it turns out, 最近，我收到了一封大约10年前的校友的来信，他回忆了自己在伯洛伊特的教育经历. 他写道:“伯洛伊特了解年轻人在人生旅途中的位置.在这篇文章中，他写下了自己被导师建议去上中国文化课的经历, and from there, several Chinese language classes, and from there, a job living and teaching in China, 一直期待着回到美国担任中学理科教师, which he has now. Then his reflection makes a beautifully Beloitish turn:

“作为一名教育工作者，我在招聘过程中被问到的最好的面试问题之一是, ‘What else are you a teacher of, besides science?感谢伯洛伊特学院对我人生历程的理解, and moreover, 我能去哪里，在旅途中我能向谁学习, I can proudly say that I am a teacher of character, of listening to others with empathy, and keeping an open mind in the face of something new, even if there is a degree of fear or uncertainty. 而贝洛伊特无疑点燃了学生们热情的火焰, 炽热的火焰所投射的光揭示了新的和意想不到的道路，值得探索.”

And then, a couple of days later, 大约五年前，我从一位贝洛伊特人那里得到了另一个反思:“贝洛伊特改变了我的世界观, 我在友谊和课堂上都受到了挑战，因为那些与我有着不同经历的人. I needed that because I’d only known one United States. 我甚至不知道我只知道一个美国，直到有人告诉我……伯洛伊特大学的学生, faculty, 工作人员给我的帮助是我在其他学校没有看到过的. Beloit College is selling more than an education; they are selling a way of being. A way of moving through this world.”

我经常得到这样的思考，教职员工可以证明这一点. 我一遍又一遍地给他们读学生和校友的笔记. I read them at Commencement. I read them at Fall Conference. I read them at the annual employee recognition breakfast. I read them at Academic Senate. Why? 因为我们的学生和校友的话语是最真实的提醒，提醒我们为什么要做我们所做的.

What is so striking to me is that these are the same stories, with only slightly different words, that I hear from Beloiters across all generations. Over and over. And that means, importantly, 在不同的时间点，通过大量不同的大学财政资源. 这所大学的财政历史是一段千变万化的历史. I promise, promoting variance should not be an objective. Quite the opposite. 但是，它就是这样，大学的DNA超越了这种差异. This is really important to understand.

是的，我们必须从一个预算为4900万美元的大学变成一个预算为4200万美元的大学. That is very, very painful. But, from the perspective of the 1,200名学生将得到建议、指导、哄骗、挑战和鼓励，以他们目前无法看到的方式想象他们的未来, 以各种方式改变了几代贝洛伊特人, their reflections on their Beloit experience, I predict, will sound much like those I just shared with you. 从4900万美元的预算到4200万美元的预算，没有什么能阻碍伯洛伊特学院做得最好, 丽莎·安德森-列维教授认为这是十大菠菜台子生活的秘诀.

Perspective can sometimes be everything. 当我坐在总统官邸查平总统的办公桌前，看着窗外的时候, 我看到Beloiters走咨询会议,回到他们的朋友在他们的学生宿舍和图书馆,为Java Joint-all时间学习”的一种方式.” Just like you.

—President Scott Bierman
presidentsoffice@hntcwedding.com