Hobart and William Smith Colleges

HWS Trustee and former Dean of William Smith Rebecca MacMillan Fox L.H.D. ’95 reflects on her years at HWS, the evolution of Hobart and William Smith’s coordinate history and the future of higher education.

Thinking about your years as William Smith Dean, what stands out?

I came to William Smith in 1981. It was an incredible place to be at that time in higher education. It was in some ways the beginning of the women’s movement’s impact on higher education. It was only recently that larger numbers of women were being admitted to law schools, business schools and medical schools. “Feminism” was still seen by some as a dirty word. It was a time when women were taking their places in the world in a very different way. And I wanted students to be aware of all that. The fact that William Smith was a women’s college but in a coordinate structure made it an ideal place to have conversations about these broader cultural changes and how they impacted young women — and young men. I saw it as an opportunity, and an important part of students’ education, to question the roles they saw themselves occupying in society.

What are you most proud of during your years at HWS?

It’s certainly not something I would have expected of myself, but one of the things that makes me most proud is to have helped bring one of the first Title IX reviews in the nation to our athletic department and build a Division III powerhouse. When I got to William Smith, there were very strong coaches and programs but there was a big difference in institutional support between the Statesmen and William Smith athletes (they weren’t Herons yet). Using Title IX to support the development of a program that could give women the incredible benefits and opportunities of everything that athletics brings to young people was really important to me. To see that happen while I was there was really exciting. And what it also did was reinforce a connection between Hobart and William Smith and create another way in which there was appreciation of the Colleges for each other.

Hobart and William Smith have a relatively unique history as a coordinate institution. How do we think about this legacy in today’s world?

Just as it was critically important when William Smith founded a college for women, it’s critically important 100 years later to have conversations about where the coordinate structure fits into today’s very different society. That’s an imperative for us, including educationally. All of the questions it raises have to do with the education that we’re providing our students. We have to create an environment in which conversations can be had about the most important things that are affecting our society. Academic institutions have to be those kinds of places, and that comes from leadership — from the president and the Board, all the way through the faculty and the student body. It involves the entire community. The more we can put students in situations in which they have to confront and deal with these kinds of issues that are roiling our country, the better we prepare them to lead us in the future. And I think that’s the real value that a liberal arts college brings.

You’ve had a long career in higher ed, in various roles at large and small schools. As you begin your first term on the HWS Board, what do you see as the most pressing priorities facing colleges and universities today?

There are different challenges for universities than there are for colleges because of the resources they have, but there is a demographic shift happening, and declining enrollment nationally is going to be a real issue for everyone. In part, that’s because of the cost of a college education, which is unsustainable at the moment. For families, it is a decision about what is most valuable, so the value proposition from colleges and universities will have to evolve.

Online education is going to be an issue, particularly for large universities outside the top 50. Students and their families—and institutions—are going to see value in at least a hybrid kind of education.

A.I. is also going to have a big impact on higher ed, and not only in the classroom. I spoke with the college president on the West Coast at a big state university who has already seen the impact on staff with layoffs because of efficiencies provided by A.I. That’s really worrisome when you talk about community, because in all corners of the university, there are staff members who have an impact on students and faculty and on the sense of community and belonging that we count on.

With these changes, it’s incumbent upon academic leadership to have really hard and deep conversations about what an education for the middle and the end of the 21st century ought to look like.

Where does a liberal arts institution like HWS fit into that educational landscape?

When you’ve got a small community like HWS, the impact on students is enormous and the transformation is just extraordinary. The value is the interpersonal connection between the people who are teaching the people who are learning. We have to find ways to make the case for what four years in this environment does to prepare human beings to lead and to make a mark and to shape society. We have to make an imperative for this kind of education and be able to articulate that in as forceful and engaging a way as possible.

Colleges and universities will have to look at the curriculum. Do we keep a curriculum that looks very similar to one that existed, 50, 75, 100 years ago? There will be areas where we can distinguish ourselves from other small liberal arts colleges — that’s going to be important. One of the things that I found incredible about Hobart and William Smith was how early we got into the environmental space. It’s not surprising given the location, but the fact that we were very early on that scene means we can be early on other scenes as well.

What it ultimately comes down to is creating a community that helps students grow into a world that is changing more rapidly than at any time since the industrial revolution. It’s both the strength of HWS and also the challenge.