Did you miss the CU Community Day: Connecting with Gratitude held on December 2 and sponsored by the Pathway to Graduation Project? Then you also missed some inspiring words from our soon to be interim President. Want to know what he said? Read on! Below is the text of the speech delivered by Provost Tom Mauhs-Pugh at the event:
I’m Tom Mauhs-Pugh, Provost and Chief Academic Officer.
We’re gathered today to connect with each other, to make explicit the gratitude for each other’s work, and celebrate the connections across the campus that make Castleton work so well for so many students. President Spiro, in the remarks we just heard, emphasized the reality of everyone on campus being an educator. He also described how the new General Education program – Connections – intentionally helps students see the connections across campus and between the General Education curriculum and their academic major.
While Castleton has always emphasized the holistic nature of our community and the ways in which we all contribute to the success of our students, the past couple of years have presented unprecedented challenges as well as exemplary responses to forge even stronger connections and more powerful and effective support for our students.
Jonathan mentioned the 3.0 GPA of all fall athletic teams. We should also add a 6% increase in first to second year retention and strong recruitment of new students as well as the many individual successes achieved every day. We do amazing things so that our students can do amazing things.
I want to share a poem by Marge Piercy called To Be of Use:
The people I love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight. They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of submerged seals bouncing like half-submerged balls. I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who stain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again. I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident. Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums but you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.
That is what we do, “work that is real.” We jump into work head first, strain to move things forward, submerge in the task, and move in a common rhythm. And what a joy that is.
On these icy snowy days, I walk from the parking lot to my office along well-cleared paths and smile, thinking of salt brine that saves money, is highly effective, and reduces the environmental impact of our snow removal efforts. What a delight to benefit from the ingenuity and care and pride of our facilities staff and to know we are all just that much better cared for due to their efforts.
I wait in line at the coffee cottage and look around at students of all ages working away with open laptops, notebooks, books, in a comfortable atmosphere with staff who know them by name and know what they’ll order before they speak.
Upstairs is the McNair Scholars program where Amanda Richardson helps students connect with faculty mentors and produce excellent research and prepare for graduate school. Earlier this fall I attended the presentations of these McNair scholars and marveled at the poise and skill of these students.
In the same space, Adrienne Matunas helps our international students and non-native speakers of English adapt and succeed. And many of these students go out of their way to engage the community, to share a bit of their background, culture, and experience, enriching all of us. Most recently, this has taken the form of public events at the Castleton Public Library.
A few weeks ago I attended an open house at the innovation lab in Leavenworth to check out state of the art virtual reality programming and 3-d printing, a joint project of Student Government, the Upward Bound Program, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Pathway to Graduation team, and the creative vision of Matt Moriarty. My head spins imagining the kinds of simulations that can be used for nursing students or science labs, for creating precision models of archeological finds or museum pieces or our own archives.
And that makes me think of all of the grants Matt has helped us get, from more than $2 million for Title III to the $500k for the Granger House historical work. I met with Andre Fleche, Scott Roper, Paul Derby, and Matt to discuss the Granger project, which will pay all expenses plus stipend for 40 students to study and do field work to build an amazing local history space that builds their employable skills while also creating an excellent learning opportunity for area residents and local school children. This is an amazing project that will do wonders for our students and for the community.
The Pathway To Graduation team – Kelley Beckwith, Jessica Duncan, Chris Boettcher, Amanda Richardson, Sarah Chambers, Gillian Galle, and Matt Patry – have lead efforts across campus to improve the experience and success of all of our students. [Read accomplishments from the typed list on the tables.]
When the NECHE visiting team came, people pitched in to make it a memorable visit that impressed the heck out of the team. I want to give special recognition to Meredith Fletcher for her excellent work on that visit. I also salute Lori Phillips. Lori knows exactly what people need to be comfortable and well-cared for. Lori is constantly behind the scenes making so many events, not just the many summer programs, sparkle with CU excellence.
It has been a rugged couple of years. Budget cuts, the pandemic, leadership turnover, the merger and transformation work, NECHE. But we “move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.” We do it, humbly, with grace and skill, good humor and excellence.
Dennis Proulx and Kathy Letendre and the wellness Center Staff: Martha Coulter, Amy Bremel, Jeanean Dunlap, Sara Stearns, and housekeeping and custodial staff, and the efforts across campus to do the right thing and take care of ourselves and each other has made the pandemic manageable. A huge debt of gratitude to all, and most particularly to Dennis.
We often don’t recognize the role coaches and athletic staff play in the lives of students beyond the playing fields and practice sessions. There is much that is learned beyond the classroom, about being a good person, and capable, and doing the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reasons. These coaches and staff know many of our students like few others on campus and provide myriad supports.
As sports is one venue that immerses a student into a group with incredibly close relationships, so too do music and theater. I saw The Mousetrap a few weeks ago. A fantastic production with a great set – thanks Steven Gross – and excellent acting – thanks Harry McEnerny. Angela Brandt and MacArthur Stine work behind the scenes to provide costume and technical support, but the mere recitation of roles misses the incredibly important role each plays in providing a haven and a resource for students, helping them grow and mature in ways too varied to document.
In warm weather, I hear student ensembles rehearsing in front of the fine arts center. Or, I wander over to take in the student art work hanging in the Price Gallery and to hear the incredible singing coming from solo or group rehearsals. These are all part of the Castleton experience, whether as listener or participant, we weave a web of rich experience and opportunity for all our students. From the student researchers collaborating with Preston Garcia on grant-funded work, to the students working with Rich Clarke to produce and analyze a survey, to the upper level Psychology students getting teaching experience, to the many students doing field placements in area schools.
85 faculty from CU, VTC, and NVU spent this summer working together to figure out how to merge or align or extend their programs as we move toward extending Castleton’s reach across the State. This gave me an opportunity to dive deeply into most programs, to better understand not just the curriculum that’s listed in the catalog, but to understand the overall context of our programs and how they intentionally and systematically build relationships with students, bring them through a thoughtful series of formal and informal educational experiences, assess how they do, and then adjust so as to better serve the next cohort. I am incredibly proud of Castleton’s faculty.
And it is not just students that we help. 30 CU faculty and staff are actively working on one or more VSU Transformation teams. If you have questions about the VSU presidential search, talk to Sherrill Blodgett, who serves on that committee. Or to Kelley Beckwith regarding advising, Maurice Ouimet for admissions, James Lambert for marketing, Cathy Kozlik or Dennis Proulx for facilities, Gayle Malinowski for all things IT, Chris Boettcher for teaching, Francesca Catalano for DEI, and her and Ric Reardon for Work Force Development. Andy Alexander found himself on the library group and General Education. The former along with Miranda Axworthy and the latter with Phil Whitman. Phil has been doing absolutely incredible work over the past few years, along with colleagues on the General Education Committee, to bring the new Connections program into being and making this first full year of Connections is a success.
The list goes on, and they are all doing stellar work representing CU and helping build the best possible future. But I want to express particular appreciation for Deanna Tyson. She has the incredibly difficult job of working with athletic leadership across the VSU to craft a vision of what athletics will look like under the VSU.
Castleton University is full of people, across all staffing areas — administration, staff, and faculty – who are educating and connecting, and producing an exemplary education for our students. We do work that is real, and we do it well.
Thank you for all that you do.
