Rebecca S. Chopp was inaugurated president of Colgate University on September 29, 2002. Chopp’s scholarship in religion, women’s studies, higher education, and American culture; her wide experience as a leader in academe; and her pragmatic outlook are among the many forces that have shaped her dynamic and innovative role as Colgate’s fifteenth president.
Chopp earned a B.A. from Kansas Wesleyan University, an M.Div. from St. Paul School of Theology, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. She has served as director of graduate studies for the Institute of Women’s Studies, dean of faculty and academic affairs at the Candler School, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs—all at Emory University, and then as dean of Yale University Divinity School, before coming to Colgate.
As a pragmatic thinker, Chopp pioneers innovative programs and policies that build upon traditions of the past while anticipating novel challenges of the twenty-first century. Those challenges, she says, are a result of the accelerated advancement of technology—its increasing role in daily lives and its transformation of diverse societies into one globalized community, a community described by Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).
This is a world that has been “flattened” by the diminishing distances between nations as they become either willing or unwilling participants in a global supply-chain of services. As head of one of the leading liberal arts colleges in America, Chopp cautions that colleges can no longer be content with merely reorganizing existing structures, that is, with just “moving around the furniture”—they must adapt in more fundamental ways to this increasingly smaller and complex world that is rapidly evolving.
She insists that the liberal arts curriculum can help more than ever to prepare and motivate students to “engage responsibly” in this world. In her inaugural address, Chopp maintained that too many institutions of higher education allow students just to take courses “they want” instead of holding “fast to the hard work of an interdisciplinary core that provides a common conversation, a common focus of knowledge, and ongoing spaces of connection and intersection.” The core liberal arts curriculum motivates students to “engage in critical thinking,” to consider “different perspectives,” and to ask questions and seek answers regarding the “great mysteries” of life. The scientific laboratory is a place of critical investigation that casts significant light on the wonder and marvels of the world, she acknowledges, but so are the theatre, the concert hall, and the art museum. Chopp points to the fact that in the latter part of the last century, the “pendulum of higher education” swung in the direction of isolated specialized disciplines, but in this new century, increasing numbers of universities are seeing the benefits of interdisciplinary approaches.
Another important responsibility of the college and university is character development. Human character, Chopp explains, is not just a product of “genetic design.” Communities and societies need people of high moral character to lead them, and students need to develop a deep moral sense in order to become responsible participants of their communities and society. Students may enter Colgate with exemplary “moral values, but they often lack the skills” to put those values effectively into action. By becoming involved in volunteer service programs (which she calls “social entrepreneurship”), such as the program offered through Colgate’s Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education (COVE), students can learn to commit themselves to responsible action, she explains.
Chopp also adds that the university should not only encourage students to become involved in a life of service, but should also encourage its faculty to become socially active. One example of faculty “social entrepreneurship” is Colgate’s “Upstate Institute.” This organization serves as a resource for organizations and individuals looking for information and help on regional issues relating to upstate New York. The institute offers regular conferences and exhibitions that advance the understanding of how educational institutions can work to foster sustainable development in their communities.
In addition to a life of service, a deeply spiritual outlook can also affect the development of students’ moral characters, she notes. Yet college faculties are “often unprepared to relate to the spiritual needs of students today.” The academy must realize, says Chopp, that religion (and/or spirituality) is an important element in students’ lives. Students are “hungry” to develop a strong awareness of what she calls “internality.” In a sectarian institution, there may be clear guidance and direction for students’ religious and spiritual development. But in non-sectarian institutions there has been a notable lack of encouragement for the cultivation of students’ own “particular spiritual paths.” A sense of internal self development must be fostered, Chopp contends, in order for students to achieve wholeness of character.
According to President Chopp, her role as an educational leader requires her continually to ask, “What do students need today and tomorrow?” She echoes political philosopher Hannah Arendt in admonishing us to invest in our young people and to prepare them in advance so that they will not be left without vision or resources to respond to the needs of the world of the future.
Rebecca Chopp, President of Colgate University, feminist, theologian, philosopher, scholar, and community activist: the Institute on College Student Values is proud to welcome this charismatic and deeply thoughtful leader to the 2006 Conference on “Finding Wholeness: Students' Search for Meaning and Purpose in College.”
See President Rebecca Chopp's biography and curriculum vita at Biography
