Dear Friends,
As we begin another academic year, there is a lot to be excited about here in Salem. While higher education continues to change, our focus remains clear: providing students with an exceptional liberal arts education that prepares them for meaningful lives and careers.
Here are a few developments in Arts & Sciences that I’m especially excited about at the outset of this new academic year:
- Welcoming new faculty: Four new tenure-track faculty members join us this fall in scientific and professional writing, public health, environmental science and psychology. We’re also welcoming five new visiting assistant professors across theater, studio art, psychology, chemistry and Japanese. They bring new expertise, ideas and energy to our classrooms and community.
- Adding new majors: Students now have two new options—Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Quantitative Economics. Both build on existing strengths within our curriculum and create new opportunities for students to connect disciplines and pursue their interests.
- Connecting academics and careers: We are partnering with our colleagues in the Renjen Career Center to build career preparation more intentionally into our academic programs. We want students to recognize the skills they’re developing, understand how those skills translate to different professions and become more confident in communicating their value to future employers.
- Creating new pathways to Willamette: We’re developing partnerships with community colleges that provide students with a clearer path to transfer to Willamette and complete their degree. Areas under development include Biology, Pre-Health, Business, Psychology and Public Health, Ethics, Advocacy and Leadership.
- Responding thoughtfully to AI: We’re working with academic departments to develop clearer policies pertaining to artificial intelligence use, as well as adapt curricula in appropriate ways to the rapidly evolving AI sphere. Because appropriate AI use can look very different across disciplines, our goal is to help students understand both how these tools can support their education and where boundaries are necessary.
Across all of these efforts, we’re asking an important question: How do we preserve what makes a Willamette liberal arts education distinctive while helping students clearly connect that education to their futures?
I’m excited about the work underway and grateful for the many ways our alumni remain connected to and strengthen the Willamette community. I look forward to sharing more with you throughout the year.
Warmly,
Kelley D. Strawn