The Voice’s editors sit down with The College’s president to discuss her goals for the upcoming school year
Tristan Lopus
Editor-in-Chief
This week, the Voice’s senior editors — Editors in Chief Meg Itoh ’18 and Tristan Lopus ’18 and Managing Editor Mackenzie Clark ’19 — sat down with President Sarah Bolton to take stock of what is on her mind as she enters the second year of her tenure.
The interview took place at noon Friday, Sept. 15 in the president’s office. Earlier that morning, an anonymously published pamphlet, criticizing the College’s policies regarding illegal drugs and implicating Bolton directly, had been distributed on tables in the Lowry Pit and in several other campus spaces. Later that afternoon, a surge of visitors would signal the beginning of Black and Gold weekend.
The questions began with, “What is good about The College of Wooster?”
After an obligatory, “Oh, so many things!,” Bolton said, “I think this is a really unusual community. It is unusual in many ways; some of them, I think, root in this core principle of welcoming everyone to the community of learners on equal terms.”
Bolton said that this is clearly exemplified by the College’s hallmark Independent Study project. It is quite remarkable, Bolton explained, for a College to hold and to act on the belief that all students are capable of rigorous, original contributions to their fields — not just special, honors students or those who had exceptional opportunities to prove themselves in high school.
Bolton said that this environment, in which students are all offered the best opportunities as opposed to being made to compete for them, fosters a body of students that are uniquely compassionate and attuned to each other’s well-being.
“People tend to say, ‘Oh, it’s a small college campus and they’re all like that,’ but I’ve actually been on other small college campuses, and this community is unusual,” Bolton said. “I think it’s unusual, in part because of its history, but also because of who’s here right now and the way that people are committed to one another — the way faculty and students are committed to one another, the way staff are committed to the well-being of students and, particularly, the way that the student community is committed to everyone who is a part of it.”
While she sees the College’s