Convocation Speech 2004

Spelman ALIVE: The Journey to “Nothing Less Than the Best”
Convocation speech by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, delivered on August 25, 2004

Convocation 2004 Photo Gallery

Good morning! It is great to see you all here. I traveled a lot this summer – to South Africa and Hawaii, to name just two places. But each time as the trip drew to an end, I got restless in my desire to return to Spelman. I can honestly say I am glad to be back in Atlanta, here to greet all of you, and glad that you returned safely from your summer travels to be here with me this morning.

I want to extend a special welcome to our honoree this morning, Ms. Xernona Clayton, as well as to her family members and friends. Thank you for being with us today.
Greetings to the Class of 2005 – this convocation marks the beginning of their final year at Spelman College! A special welcome is due as well to the newest members of our community – the class of 2008. The class of 2008 is the largest class in the history of Spelman College, and we are glad that so many talented young women wanted to be a part of the Spelman tradition of excellence. We also have new transfer students, Gateway students, and exchange students here (I’d like this special group of students to please stand so we can acknowledge you.) We don’t just have new students but we also have new faculty and staff for whom this is their first Spelman convocation. Please stand so we may acknowledge you as well. I would also like to acknowledge the presence of my family – all three of the Tatum men are here. I am pleased to tell you that both of my sons graduated in the spring – Travis Jonathan from college, and David from high school. Travis Jonathan is now a graduate student at the University of Michigan in social psychology, and David is on his way to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a Meyerhoff Scholar on Saturday. Some of you know that I have been waiting for our youngest to graduate from high school, so my husband could join me here in Atlanta, and I am delighted to say that day has come. Please welcome the other Dr. Tatum, my husband, Travis Tatum, to Spelman College.

In the fall of 2002 in my very first convocation speech, I talked about Spelman College as a place that our students can claim as a “place built for them”, a place where young women of African descent are not on the margin, are not an afterthought, but a place where talented young women, like the ones seated before me, can clearly see that they are at the center of our enterprise.

Ladies, it is your education that is the reason for our being!

Your families have sacrificed for you to be here, because we have prepared a table of knowledge and wisdom that has been set just for you. It is a privilege for you to be here, and we are privileged to be part of your development.

Back in September 2002 I said that it was our goal for our students to say not only that “this place was built for me,” with the pride that comes from a sense of belonging – but to be able to say that this place was built for me, and it is nothing less than the best. Becoming “nothing less than the best” is a journey, as much as it is a destination – and I am pleased to say that in the last two years we have covered some important ground together.

As part of our institutional journey, we have reorganized our admissions effort –as part of an overall enrollment management strategy - to better coordinate our enrollment processes and increase our yield of excellent students. We have succeeded this year beyond our highest expectations with this group of more than 600 students.

Our newest students may remember the signs of construction on our campus when they visited as prospective students last year or perhaps the year before. The signs of construction though bothersome at times, are signs of progress and there is much progress to report. We have renovated buildings – Packard Hall, the site of our streamlined registration processes, financial aid, admissions and the controller’s office – allowing us to improve our services to students and their families, Bessie Strong (the first of our residence hall renovations and the home of the living-learning project known as Sisters Center for WISDOM – women in spiritual discernment of ministry, a dynamic multi-faith residential opportunity) and Sisters Chapel, the heart of our campus, soon to be completed. We are holding a vision of this year’s Christmas Carol Concert back in its Sisters Chapel home!

The summer saw not only the demolition of Upton Hall, a building unfortunately beyond repair, but also saw progress toward the acquisition of the Milligan building, a transaction we expect to complete very soon. The Milligan building will help provide some much needed “swing space” as the next construction project begins this spring – that will be the renovation of Rockefeller Hall. Like a stack of dominoes, these projects have a ripple effect. The completion of Packard allowed some offices to move out of Rockefeller, but now to use those spaces effectively, renovation of that building is needed. Once completed however, the temporary residents of the Science Building (the Office of Sponsored Programs and the Office of Communications staff) will be able to move in to their permanent homes in Rockefeller. The Web masters who have been working in Giles Hall will be able to move into Rockefeller as well, relieving some of the pressure on office space in our academic buildings.

While we don’t expect next year’s class to be as large as this one, the reality is that Spelman College has grown in the last few years – at a rate that has outpaced our housing capacity. There was a time when most Spelman women lived on campus, but in recent years only slightly more than half have been able to have a residential experience at Spelman. We want to recapture the residential dimension of Spelman, and assuming Board approval this fall, we will begin planning for a new residence hall (to be built in the vicinity of Howard Harreld Hall and LLC I and II) and in the process put in the infrastructure needed to bring air conditioning to our existing residence halls. This project, unlike academic buildings, is self-funding because the occupants will pay room and board, which allows us to begin planning for that project right away.

Academic buildings are a little more complicated. Nevertheless, our most important building project on the horizon is a new Art building, and I am pleased to say that last year a lot of the initial planning was done with the help of the visual and performing arts faculty. We now have a better understanding of the specific space needs for each of those departments. We have a commitment from the Board of Trustees to take this project on, and we are now in the programming phase. We will begin the selection of architects this fall. Once we have drawings, I can take them with me on the road to share with potential donors. But we have already begun the process of raising money for what will surely be close to a 40 million dollar project by identifying potential supporters and beginning conversations with them about our vision for this project.

Last year, at this time, I introduced the acronym Spelman ALIVE as short-hand for our strategic goals.

A – Academic Excellence, best represented by the recruitment and retention of excellent faculty, staff and students – and a cutting-edge curriculum

L – Leadership Development, a 21st century reaffirmation of our commitment to our 123-year history of preparing women for leadership in their communities and around the world

I – Improving our Environment, strengthening our infrastructure and deepening our commitment to our community

V- Visibility of our achievements, serving as a beacon in higher education

E- Exemplary customer service – an ongoing commitment to an atmosphere of hospitality, and graciousness not just for our visitors, but for each other as well.

There is much that can be said about each of these elements, but I want to highlight just a few things here.

A- Academic Excellence - I am happy to say that we were able to make some improvements in our compensation for faculty and staff, and in our scholarship support for students last year (important for both recruitment and retention), and we want to continue in that direction.

Last spring I had a number of conversations with faculty and department chairs across the campus about their vision for curricular development and expansion, and we know that in order to accomplish these objectives we will need additional faculty. Raising funds for new faculty lines is a high priority. Improving our library has also been part of our vision for academic excellence and those of you who have been following the developments at the Woodruff Library know that we are making steady progress under the leadership of the Interim Library Director, Dr. Elaine Sloan. I am delighted to announce the appointment of a permanent librarian, Mrs. Loretta Parham – a librarian with a distinguished reputation. The fact that she has agreed to take this post, effective November 1, bodes very well for the library’s bright future.

L- Leadership Development: Perhaps the most tangible manifestation of our commitment to leadership development to date was the birth last year of the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement. We got off to a great start last year under the leadership of our alumna Kimberly Davis and her associate, Pamela Carlton. The Leadership Conference in May was a huge success, and plans are already underway for the second annual conference next May. Our founding co-directors, Kim and Pam, have returned to their corporate assignments, but I am delighted to tell you that we now have a permanent Executive Director of the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, Dr. Jane Smith (C’68). Those who know Dr. Smith’s bio know that we could not have found a more suitable person to continue the development of the Center – a former faculty member and Dean at Spelman, past President of the National Council of Negro Women, appointed by President Carter and President Clinton to positions of leadership, and most recently the President of the Business and Professional Women’s Association USA – we are thrilled to have her here with us. Dr. Smith, please stand so we may acknowledge you. Welcome back to Spelman! One of Dr. Smith’s goals is to strengthen the linkages between the Center and the curriculum and I know she is eager to talk with faculty, staff and students about the goals of the Center. Indeed, those conversations have already begun.

I – Improving our environment – Of course, we can see the changes in our buildings. And perhaps you have taken advantage of our new wireless capability in the Manley Campus Center. The smoothness with which we were able to process the arrival of our incoming class and the registration process speaks to the hard work of many, and the continuing improvements in our behind-the-scenes processes. I am pleased to announce that on Monday, August 30th a new and improved web site is being launched as well, the product of months of hard work and consultation, led by our Web team and the staff of the Office of Communications. Check it out at www.spelman.edu! In terms of deepening our commitment to community – we will see this year the increased visibility of community service with more institutional support. Thanks to a generous gift from the Bonner Foundation, we have been able to move the Community Service office out of Upton Hall, and more centrally locate it in the Manley Center. The Office has been renamed with the approval of the Trustees as the Bonner Office of Community Service and Student Development, acknowledging both the gift of the Bonner Foundation and the important role of community service in the development of our students. Some of you may recall that at the time of Dr. Cole’s retirement from her presidency, a fund was established in her honor in recognition of her commitment to community service. Those funds will be used to support an endowed annual lecture, bringing a community servant of national prominence to campus to encourage and inspire our students. I am pleased to announce that the inaugural Johnnetta B. Cole Lecture will be taking place this year – and you will be hearing more about that in the coming weeks.

V – I hope you all know how much the visibility of our achievements has increased in the last two years. The increase in our media exposure has been rising exponentially, and we certainly want that to continue. The fortunes of Spelman College are on the rise, and perhaps the best evidence of that is our new ranking in US News and World Report. Last year we were very excited to be included on the list of the top 100 Liberal Arts Colleges, ranked at #81. This year, I am very excited to tell you that we are now ranked #66 on that list. Moving up 15 points in one year is incredible! Now, we do not want to overvalue these college rankings – many educators are critical of them for some good reasons – but I have to say that I am truly delighted that the excellence of this institution is getting this kind of increased recognition. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Gwendolyn Johnson, Associate Director of Institutional Research for her role in preparing the survey responses for the U.S. News and World Report 2005 college rankings. Gwendolyn worked many long hours to develop appropriate entries for the survey of over 600 items. She coordinated data collection from other offices on campus, reviewed and updated our responses to ensure that we reported the most complete and accurate data, and ensured that Spelman's survey was submitted to U.S. News in a timely way. Please join me in thanking her for thorough and accurate external reporting that enhances the image of Spelman College.

I also want to acknowledge that much of the credit for our increased visibility goes to our own Tomika DePriest, Director of the Office of Communications. Tomika’s efforts have been recognized nationally by the industry trade publication PR News, and she is a finalist for the PR Person of the Year in the Education category and will be honored this fall at a luncheon in New York City. (Tomika, please stand!) Please join me in congratulating Ms. Tomika DePriest.

Our students were international newsmakers in the spring with their protest of degrading images of Black women in music videos. This was certainly a proud moment for all of us, and I want to be intentional about continuing the dialogue about this topic this year. In collaboration with the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, we hope to have a number of guest speakers here this year to explore the messages we take in about ourselves, what we can do to resist them and create more positive images. We want Spelman College to continue to be a visible voice for change in this regard and hope that you will take advantage of the opportunities that will be provided to continue this important dialogue.

We also want to be visible in this election year. The Atlanta University Center represents more that 10,000 voters. The Spelman Student Government Association is organizing voter registration. Be sure you claim your right to vote. Exercise your power by voting in the upcoming election.

We must also be visible in the dialogue about the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the Black community. Under the leadership of Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall and the Women’s Studies Research and Resource Center, Spelman hosted a fabulous international conference on Women and Girls in the African Diaspora and the impact of HIV/AIDS that took place here in June. A multi-lingual event, we had women and men from Africa, from the Caribbean, from Brazil, as well as other parts of South America. We need to keep our attention on this issue here on this campus as well, recognizing the increased incidence of HIV/AIDS among Black college students – and the reality that Black women are among those most affected. Our silence places our students and our community at risk and so we must be visible in our efforts to educate our students, our alumnae and the community at large about this important issue, and we will be using multiple venues – convocations, panels, and other programs to address this. Please make it a priority to educate and protect yourself!

E – Exemplary customer service. This may seem like a strange item to have as one of our strategic goals, but I am convinced that improving our customer service to each other as well as to our external community is an essential element of making Spelman College “nothing less than the best.” I am already receiving feedback from alumnae and parents that they have seen positive change in this area. However, I know that we still have room to grow, and our Human Resources team is working to put together training opportunities to help us all improve. But there is something that we can all do immediately that can help us build our momentum. Just add these five words to your vocabulary: How may I help you?

When we have problems that we are trying to solve, we often come up with our own solutions. Sometimes those solutions work, sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, we don’t always know who is the right person to call or what to do next. If someone calls you with a problem, even if you are not the right person to solve it, just asking the question, “How may I help you?” with sincerity can make a difference in that person’s experience – and then responding with your best effort. A welcoming environment and generosity of spirit should be a hallmark in every corner of the College – and I hope you will join me in making that a priority. Look around and you will see faculty and staff wearing buttons that say: “Spelman ALIVE – How May I Help You?” Let these buttons be a tangible reminder of our priority.

Spelman College is an institution on the move – exciting things have happened here, and there are more to come. Most of my remarks today have focused on our institutional journey – but I am mindful that we have students here who are embarking on a journey, too. The college years are among the most important years of your life in terms of shaping who you will become. Students, it is one reason why your choice of Spelman College is such a pivotal one. The habits you develop here will be the habits of your life. Becoming a Spelman woman means becoming a woman of excellence. We want you to be successful, but successful with integrity. Without integrity, there can be no true success.

I mentioned earlier the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Certainly we want you to protect your health. But there is another epidemic I must warn you about – and it is the epidemic of academic dishonesty. All across the country colleges and universities are reporting an epidemic of cheating – cheating on exams, and plagiarizing papers. Spelman College is not immune from this disease. I know that we have recruited talented students with lots of potential to be the leaders of integrity this world needs. Let me say again the habits you develop here will be the habits of your life. Cheating and shortcuts will lead ultimately to dead ends. Resist the temptation to take them. And if you see your sister cheating, take action. I want to repeat that: If you see your sister cheating, take action! Talk her out of it before she makes that mistake. If she already has, turn her in. She degrades Spelman with her academic dishonesty, and none of us should tolerate that. The Spelman sisterhood means supporting each other in our pursuit of excellence, not protecting dishonest behavior. A Spelman woman protects the name of Spelman. Let’s work together to prevent the epidemic of academic dishonesty. Help us build and maintain a community of integrity and you will get the best from Spelman. Students, we have buttons for you, too. These buttons read: “A Spelman woman is a woman of integrity.” I hope you will wear your button with pride as an expression of your commitment to this core value of Spelman College.

In closing, I want to share with you one last thing. I am reaching a personal milestone this year – on September 27, I will be 50 years old. And like Oprah, I am having not one birthday party, but a few. The purpose of these birthday parties, which will take place around the country throughout the year, is to generate funds for the college. As the invitation will read, a gift to Spelman is a gift to me. It is an opportunity to take the Spelman message to people who know me but don’t know Spelman as well as I do, and to introduce me to people who may know Spelman, but don’t yet know me. So far there are parties being planned in my home town of Northampton, MA, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and of course, Atlanta. The Atlanta party will be right here on campus at homecoming, and I hope you will all turn out for what promises to be a lot of fun, and hopefully profitable for Spelman.

We ended last year with the great momentum of boosting our alumnae giving rate from 16% to the all-time high of 21%, with alumnae contributing over $1,000,000 to the college, the highest giving level in Spelman’s history. We are delighted by this progress, but we know we can do much better. This is just a start! We plan to build on our momentum this year, and I look forward to help from each of you. I am delighted that we have a new Vice President for Institutional Advancement arriving on September 1st, Ms. Rosalyn Hines, who will help me lead our fundraising effort. Everything we hope to accomplish in the next few years requires new revenue – millions of dollars – and generating that revenue is at the top of my list of priorities. But I cannot do it alone. I am very excited about the possibilities before us, and look forward to giving you updates. But rest assured, this is a collective endeavor!

“How may I help you?” you might ask. Students, faculty, and staff – you are Spelman’s best ambassadors. Tell the Spelman story – the story of our mission, our achievements, and our ambitions for the future. Help me polish this jewel that is Spelman College to gleam so brightly – it will dazzle beyond compare.

Thank you for being here this morning - on our collective journey to “nothing less than the best.” Welcome back!