Third time’s a charm
Philosophy professor Walter Wright, who began his third term as Dean of the College this fall, reflects on almost four decades at Clark and discusses aims for the University’s future
By Tammy Griffin-Kumpey M.S.P.C. '06 | Photo by Tammy Woodward M.A. '98
Walter Wright remembers with clarity when he first arrived on Clark’s campus as a young philosophy professor in September 1968. That was nearly 40 years ago—39 to be exact, but who’s counting?
At that time, the old president’s house was coming down and the new Goddard Library was going up in its place. The gymnasium for men was where the main dining hall is now. And a separate women’s gym was located in what is now a classroom in Jonas Clark Hall. Basketball was “a whole different game” in the women’s gym, says Wright laughing, as players had to dodge the support pillars in the middle of the court.
Wright also recalls that America was in the final phases of the Vietnam War and in the middle of the “summer of love” in San Francisco. He speaks fondly about meeting students who were thrilled and excited and covered in mud, having just returned from the famous Woodstock Festival of 1969.
“The cultural situation then was very, very different, than it is today,” says Wright. “It was a time when many students were in situations of profound conflict with their parents’ values and worldview. It was a time when young people were spreading their wings and seeking independence—flying in all kinds of directions, some constructive and some not.”
He notes that Clark students have changed over the last 40 years. For the most part, Clark students today have better relationships with their families, he says. Then, students were predominantly first-generation college students mainly from New England. Today, Clark draws significant numbers of students from much wider areas and substantially fewer first-generation students than was the case in 1968.
Managing to survive “Stepping into an administrative position today is much different than it was then,” says Wright, who came to Clark just past the end of Howard Jefferson’s presidency. Clark was entering a period of administrative instability. After Frederick Jackson’s brief presidency, a shifting set of short-term administrations ensued, beginning with an ad hoc group of faculty under the direction of Seymour Wapner that provided leadership as a provost’s council, followed by Glenn Ferguson’s brief tenure and Alan Guskin’s year as acting president.
Although admittedly very young at the time, Wright eagerly became involved in a University-wide planning effort led by the Board of Trustees, serving on the Joint Educational Directions Subcommittee of the University Planning Council chaired by Wapner.
“Sy was one of the great Clark faculty members, historically speaking,” says Wright of his mentor. “He took me under his wing, and I worked very closely with him on the editing and preparing of the committee’s report, which contained a lot of the elements of what has continued to be Clark’s definition of itself, including the integration of graduate and undergraduate activities, building around areas of particular academic strength and the concept of active and engaged learning.”
Partly because of Wright’s contributions to the committee’s efforts, incoming president Glenn Ferguson tapped him for a one-year appointment as acting dean of the college in 1970. The academic administration at that time consisted of only two people, Wright and physics professor Roy Andersen, who became the dean of the graduate school.
“Roy, who I met recently at an alumni event, reminded me of our first meeting,” he says. “He described us sitting across a table, looking at each other, and asking, ‘Well, so what are we going to do?’”
Because there was only the two of them, their responsibilities were extensive, ranging from preparing the next year’s budget to overseeing programs. Wright remembers it as an extremely busy year, but a tremendous learning experience.
“What was on the agenda for Roy and I was to get us all through a transitional year and to survive. Clark’s still here, so we got through it,” says Wright.
Being involved in administration at Clark in 2007 is very different than it was then, he says, nodding to Clark’s academic and financial plan. Twenty years in the making and formally adopted in its current version in 2005, the plan guides the fundamental decision making in the institution and defines a set of values and directions.
“The administration today is much more complex,” says Wright. “It has patterns and rhythms that have been established over some time, so a newcomer is not sitting at a table asking, ‘What do we do now?’ Instead Clark is a multifaceted system with an established identity and clear direction. Our task today is not to build foundations, but to strengthen our identity, improve our processes and give good students reasons to select Clark from among the many excellent institutions with which we compete for their attention.”
“Clark is now a very different place than it was then. The times are different, the culture is different, and the challenges are different.”
Heart remains unchanged Despite all these changes, Wright says Clark’s core identity and fundamental values—which emphasize intellectual independence, asking questions, and letting the inquiry go where it may—have remained the same.
“Clark is not a place that stands on established pieties. It’s a place of active questioning and inquiry, where from the standpoint of intellectual life, anything goes. The fact that we encourage students to think independently, to identify and ask their own questions, and to pursue those questions where they lead, is something that is as true today as it was then.
“The commitment to providing excellent undergraduate education that gives people an opportunity to work up close with excellent faculty has been a value at Clark as long as we’ve been here,” asserts Wright.
Clark’s core identity has only been enhanced throughout the years, he says. One example of this is the transformation of the town-and-gown relationship between the University and the city of Worcester. When Wright arrived in 1968, he says the atmosphere between Clark and the city was sometimes oppositional. Many people in the city viewed Clark “as those reds down on Main Street.”
Hard work by many people at Clark has substantially changed that perception. Wright tips his hat in particular to the work done by former Clark president Dick Traina, President John Bassett and Vice President for Government and Community Affairs Jack Foley. Working together and with the support of faculty from many departments, including Education and IDCE, among others, this group has addressed neighborhood issues and emphasized Clark’s commitment to making a difference in the Main South neighborhood.
An eye to the future With Clark’s foundation firmly in place, one of Wright’s primary goals is to enhance the overall academic environment of the campus over the next year.
“Clark is a place where we have exciting things going on with faculty and students, and I want to encourage more serious student engagement with the major cultural issues of the day and with learning not just in the classroom, but in all the things that go on here throughout the year. I’m hoping to encourage a campus culture of engagement and involvement with the life and mind with fundamental questions about where we are and what we’re doing,” he says.
Given that it’s almost 30 years since Clark has seriously re-examined the fundamentals of its general education requirements, Wright would also like to initiate a visible public discussion about the aims of education at the beginning of the 21st century. He would like to help move the Clark community to a consensus about what are the key aims of undergraduate education at Clark. He hopes that “these discussions would provide the basis for a rethinking and strengthening of the fundamentals of Clark’s curriculum.”
“What is a Clark education? What should we be about? What is it that our students need to be learning, and how can we organize things to help them and give them the best opportunity to become the creative, contributing men and women that they have the potential to be?” he asks.
“The faculty is in a period of change and renewal. We have many important senior faculty who provide leadership, but we also have a large cohort of really exciting and interesting junior faculty coming to join us. And this is a good moment for us to rethink the fundamentals of what we do.”
As Wright embarks on his third term as Dean of the College, he, like Clark, has changed a bit, too. He’s older, of course, and notably wiser—today he can draw from insights gained from past experiences. Today he knows first-hand where Clark came from and has a tight grasp on where Clark is going. But like that enthusiastic young professor who hit the campus running in 1968, Wright is eager to get going.
Some things, happily, never change.
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