First Word

Spring 2018 Issue

Working Together to Advance Stewardship Goals

Dear Susquehannans,

During my first year at Susquehanna, I have used four themes to focus our work together: 1) Citizen Leadership, 2) Global Citizenship, 3) Engagement, and 4) Access. These four thematic foci are really facets of the common theme of stewardship.

At the laying of the cornerstone of the Missionary Institute, now Selinsgrove Hall, Joseph Casey, Esq. stated, “Education, in its legitimate sense, includes not only the cultivation of the mental powers, but the proper training and development of the moral sentiments and faculties, and its true object is to ‘make us not only wiser but better …’”

On that very first day, Susquehanna embraced stewardship in all its forms as the cornerstone of our institutional identity. Like the actual cornerstone of Selinsgrove Hall, our commitment to stewardship remains strong and central, and as a beautiful, diverse, and complex campus has grown around the once singular institutional building, so have the forms and depths of the stewardship that is a fundamental part of being a Susquehannan.

This issue of Currents is a celebration of our ongoing efforts to be “not only wiser, but better.”

The David ’69 and Sharon Johnson Center for Civic Engagement has become a signature initiative that provides opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to develop as citizen leaders in service to the campus and our broader community. Achieving, leading, and serving are the goals we all share.

Our cover story provides an overview of the many efforts Susquehanna is undertaking around sustainability. Global citizenship is built on international cooperation and stewardship of the single planet we call home. As the university continues to reduce its carbon footprint, we are developing more cost-efficient operations and using these efforts as a learning laboratory to prepare our students to be informed and experienced sustainability advocates in their communities.

Our Women’s Leadership Initiative is already proving to be an invaluable engagement effort. Guided by the leadership of successful alumnae, this program is providing Susquehanna women an opportunity to engage in critical networking and professional development opportunities that will prepare them to pass through the glass ceiling that still limits women to only 5 percent of corporate CEO positions. We will do better, and SU women will provide the leadership to make that happen.

Access was a founding principle of Susquehanna. We were established to provide an education for those who were called, and we have welcomed generation after generation to one of the nation’s most economically diverse student bodies. Through the generosity of alumni and friends of the university, we have made it possible for deserving young people to have a transformational educational experience. As you read their stories, take pride, as Lynn and I do every day, in the remarkable ways Susquehanna is helping them to be “not only wiser, but better.” Our collective effort to continue making that possible is truly the best stewardship imaginable.

Yours ever,

Jonathan D. Green, President

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