September 2022
Dear Faculty, Staff and Students in the Klingler College of Arts & Sciences,
I hope that your semester is going well and that, amid the many demands on your time,
you are seeking some space for reflection. Recently I’ve been listening to a leadership
podcast by Judy Sorum Brown; one of the insights she shares is to ask oneself what
one is seeing, then ask again from a different perspective. “What do you notice?”
“What story do you tell yourself about that?” “What other story can you tell?” I think
a similar spirit animates a recent message from Marquette’s Vice President for Inclusive Excellence, Chris Navia, who invites
us to reach out and seek understanding from different perspectives rather than settling
more deeply into entrenched mindsets. Let’s never presume that we have the “whole
story.”
This admission that our own perspective is always necessarily partial is one impetus
behind the tagline we have adopted in the College of Arts & Sciences, “the difference
is in the and.” Through a collaborative process that sought broad input, and with help from our
colleagues in the Office of University Relations, we formulated this phrase in spring
2022. It points to integration, a hallmark of Catholic education and a central characteristic
of our college. We seek integration across mind, body and spirit. We work collaboratively
across disciplines and with community partners to pursue goals greater than those
we could achieve alone. Many Arts & Sciences students double major and pursue a minor.
The grand challenges we face call for a multi-faceted approach that does not rely
upon just one perspective. The difference is in the and.
Integration was front and center in the Catholic Immigration Integration Initiative
Conference hosted at Marquette this month. There, many of us became more familiar
with local organizations like Casa Romero Renewal Center, which supports youth and families and builds community in the Ignatian tradition.
Integration this month also meant piloting our Faculty In Residence program, thanks to which I have had the pleasure of meeting many students who live on campus,
including residents of Nuestro Hogar Living Learning Community. Together with the Office of Residence Life, we are working
to solidify programming and future planning.
Across our campus, September has brought many reasons to celebrate. The recent release
of this year’s U.S. News rankings entailed great news for Marquette overall, including high marks from peer evaluators
in both teaching and innovation, as well as for our College’s Computer Science program.
The coming academic year will also provide occasion to celebrate the 35th anniversary of our trailblazing Les Aspin Center for Government with events planned
in Milwaukee and in Washington, D.C. This month’s campus celebrations included Family
Weekend as well as our first annual Arts & Sciences Bash for students, featuring a
DJ and a variety of games (hats off to the student who crossed the finish line well
before I did as we faced off in the giant tricycle race) leading to prizes like A&S
branded t-shirts, coolers and blankets.
This academic year, I intend to use my monthly messages to help illustrate why for
the Klingler College of Arts & Sciences “the difference is in the and.” I hope you will join me in thinking about how integration may inform and infuse
our efforts even more deeply as we follow the Universal Apostolic Preferences to walk
with the excluded and to accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future.
As always, please feel free to contact me with questions, concerns or suggestions. I appreciate hearing from you and exploring
ways we can all work together for the common good.
Dr. Heidi Bostic Dean, Klingler College of Arts and Sciences
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