Last August the President of Haverford, Wendy Raymond, announced Meeting the Moment: Communities in Dialogue. The initiative, which will run through the end of the academic year, aims to create dialogue-focused events and advance skills that help foster deep conversations. Events have included trainings, vigils, dinners, panels and a voter registration drive leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
I sat down with President Raymond to learn more about the inspiration for the initiative, and what to expect this semester.
Meeting the Moment was first conceptualized last June during a conversation Raymond had with Nikki Young, the Vice President for Institutional Equity and Access, about the challenge of bringing people together during the 2023-2024 academic year.
The summer following their discussion, senior staff came together to form the initiative. The stated goal was “bringing people together in dialogue across difference,” President Raymond told me. Student input has been limited and spontaneous, though, explains Jesse Lyte, Chief of Staff, who joined us in the conversation.
Dialogue occurs in many ways and the goals for conversation are personal to everyone. President Raymond believes that “productive dialogue starts with listening.” She describes a reciprocal approach to discourse in which questions are asked, and subsequent answers are said in a way to facilitate learning.
This type of dialogue offers the possibility to change perspectives, simply understand different opinions and build empathy, she notes. Through the Meeting the Moment Initiative, President Raymond hopes to build up the community alongside strengthening discussion and emphasizes that “we learn through dialogue, through listening.”
In hand with President Raymond’s announcement of the initiative came the news that she would no longer be making official communications; since the start of the academic year, she’s only issued messages to welcome the fall and spring semesters and only commented on events impacting the world of higher education. It’s notable that this decision follows an academic year in which her emails commenting on the war in Gaza received lukewarm reaction from students.
President Raymond has been at Haverford for six years. Her inauguration took place in September of 2019, and the following year saw much historic upheaval, both on Haverford’s campus and globally.
In the 2020-2021 academic year, a strike from classes was held by students across the bi-co, partly in reaction to an email sent by President Raymond discouraging participation in Black Lives Matter protests. Thus, the decision to omit commentary on events beyond higher education and campus events is a stark contrast to when she began at Haverford and commented on how students should or should not engage with social movements.
Considering the drawbacks of college presidents eliminating their commentary on world events, President Raymond says it’s possible that “members of our community may not feel seen by not hearing from the president in a formal way.”
“We understand that’s a risk,” but she says that Dean’s office has taken on the responsibility of reaching out to students impacted by things beyond the college, such as students from “Los Angeles during the fires, for example.”
A secondary risk of limited presidential communication is the community being unaware that the administration is reaching out to students, only behind doors instead of through public methods. But she says that the risks are far outweighed by the benefits, which is the removal of any parameters or tones set by reacting to events beyond education, thus, she explains, “dialogue can thrive without any presidential influence.” And lastly, she says that not issuing statements allows her to focus on her job—working within the framework of higher education and Haverford only.
Removing framework or models of how community members should interact with world events seems difficult when campus life is not insulated from world or political events. In fact, the bi-co community and higher education is being impacted by the current presidential administration. Considering the politics of education, President Raymond reflects that the foundational value of education in the United States has decreased, resulting in its politicalization and says she’s “not happy about that change, because I believe in the value of education.” She continues, saying “I don’t think that my job in supporting education is inherently political other than [that] in the United States it has become now politicized and certainly higher education as a component of education has become a political target for many, and that is so unfortunate.”
Though President Raymond has rolled back official communications, the Meeting the Moment Initiative offers the opportunity for students to connect with her through discussion. President Raymond has attended a handful of workshops since the initiative began last August, including the October 7 candlelight vigil, the James McBride reading, an anti-Islamophobia event and the Antisemitism 101 led by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
There was student backlash to the event led by the ADL, with the Bi-Co group, Jewish Voice for Peace, writing a letter to the administration calling for the event to be cancelled and, on the day of the workshop, holding a protest that created disruption to the event. President Raymond told me that she did not speak directly with the student body about the event, explaining that it did not come up during events such as Wawa with Wendy. However, she held conversations with the Students’ Council Co-Chairs about the ADL and the Meeting the Moment Initiative. The Student Council confirmed speaking with President Raymond about the ADL event with Bi-Co News.
Continued participation in the Meeting the Moment Initiative can help facilitate dialogue between the administration and students. President Raymond explains that the events she attended were mostly joined by staff and faculty compared to student attendance. Beyond events for the initiative, President Raymond says she’s accessible to students through e-mail, in the dining center, walking around campus, and Wawa with Wendy.
This spring, students can expect new programing, including conversations around artificial intelligence and national security, dinners with 12 strangers—which are held in the President’s home—and possibly events proposed and created by campus community members. President Raymond explained that they “haven’t gotten a lot of proposals, so I’d love to invite students into making proposals.”
The Meeting the Moment Initiative formed following campus actions during the last academic year in the bi-co in reaction to the war in Gaza, but President Raymond says the title isn’t alluding to one singular moment. Instead, she explains, it’s referring to many moments—be that the presidential election, or day-to-day stress: “we are meeting the moment every day. In our classes. In your classes in your co-curricular activities, organized or not, and then in your friendships and that you’re developing relationships with people. The foundation of Haverford is a meeting [of] the moment.”
