The Learning Process Continues

A Message from the President — Steven Weiner

The pandemic disrupted education at every level. Menlo College, like so many schools, moved at lightning speed in order to continue delivering a quality education while also adapting to our students’ accelerated needs for resources, some as fundamental as access to good technology and a good internet connection. Students across the globe stepped into a new world that required technical skills and new social abilities. The young fantasy writer Kara Barbieri wrote in her debut novel White Stag: “The oak is the strongest tree in the forest, but the willow bends and adapts. When the fires and storms hit, it is the willow that survives.” In that context, the pandemic was our equivalent to fires and storms, but we oaks proved Ms. Barbieri wrong – we bent and we adapted. Adaptation became our watchword. Throughout the pandemic, we redoubled our commitment to pay attention to the whole student. Shortly after the onset of the pandemic, we identified a panel of public health experts to advise us on a testing, tracing, and quarantine program that would best protect those members of our community who needed emergency housing on our campus; we chartered a Pandemic Planning Team under the leadership of Vice President Angela Schmiede; we implemented a Covid-19 ambassador program to promote safe behaviors among our students; and we created multiple opportunities to engage and support Micah Ka -ne, Chair of the Menlo College Board, Ka’ilihiwa Ka -ne ‘20 and President Steven Weiner on the our students, independent of their location.jumbo screen at the 2021 commencement ceremonies. Throughout the year, faculty and staff volunteered to call students for informal check-in discussions. Dean Melissa Michelson and our Student Affairs team hosted weekly Community Circles to provide a safe space for students to express concerns about barriers to their success, and all of our student support services – mental health counseling, librarian assistance, academic advising, and tutoring – provided virtual support to ensure our students had access to needed resources. Our Distance Learning Committee held professional development classes to help faculty get the most out of features on Zoom, the testing program called Respondus, Google drive, and countless applications and platforms. Six of our classrooms were fitted out with new cameras and connections to allow faculty to teach from campus in safe isolation, and our coaching staff found new ways to engage our student-athletes through Zoom teambuilding events, virtual workout sessions, and more. To adaptation, we added assessment of student and faculty needs as another watchword for the Covid-19 era. Through surveys and social media outreach we were able to understand what was working for our faculty and our students, and what wasn’t, and to modify our efforts accordingly. We were not alone in recognizing the challenges that were confronting young people everywhere. The

question that kept surfacing across the globe was Are the kids OK? Increasingly, the answer was no, in no small part due to the shock of life without the education infrastructure we had known. We were determined to do everything possible to cushion that shock for Menlo students. But our work – and theirs – is not over. As we recruit the Class of 2025, we are preparing for the possibility that some of our new students will have suffered learning losses. To address this, we will place more emphasis on our pre-term Rising Scholars program and will augment our tutoring services. We recognize that our faculty and staff need recovery time as well. No one knows what the needs of our students will be next year. With the students, we will be figuring it out together. I am proud to lead an organization that is committed to all students, however much bending and adapting that may require. Menlo is a place where students test out their talents, find colleagues in our diverse community, and develop new dreams. That’s been our credo for 94 years, and it will remain our focus as we move forward into our second century.

President Steven Weiner enjoys a laugh with student Jordan Broughton Bell ‘21 and friend Ace.