Winter 2003 Feature

Brown Foundation Awards PMC $3 Million Challenge
To Enhance Education for Inclusive Leadership and Social Responsibility

[ return to Brown Foundation Challenge page ]

The Brown Foundation Inc. Houston has awarded a $3 million challenge grant to Pine Manor College, continuing its support of the College’s mission “to prepare women for inclusive leadership and social responsibility in their workplaces, families, and communities.” The challenge for PMC will be to raise matching funds of $1 million each year from 2003 to 2005, for a total of $6 million for the College. The Foundation, which also awarded $1 million to PMC in 1999, distributes funds principally for education, community service, and the arts, especially for projects having a long-range impact on communities. The following pages describe many of the initiatives and programs that interested the Foundation and that will be enriched with its generous support.

Background

Although the US system of higher education offers an abundance of options, for those with limited means to pay and for those who have yet to flourish academically in high school these options are often restricted to community colleges or public universities. These institutions do not suit all learning needs. They generally involve large numbers of faculty and students and rely on the student to find her own community within an environment of anonymity. For many women this perpetuates a sense of marginality that is not conducive to finding one’s voice, passion, and abilities.

Four years ago, PMC embarked upon a bold initiative to expand our student body, strengthen the education we offer, and bridge the widening gap in educational choice. With a $4 million unrestricted bequest from Frances Crandall Dyke, an alumna of the Class of 1925, the College created the Fund for Affordable Education, whose purposes are threefold: to make a Pine Manor College education accessible to the diverse mix of women who can benefit from it; to redesign our educational programs to more effectively meet the needs of our students and of the communities and organizations in which they will participate; and by these changes to assure the future of Pine Manor and bring it to its next level of development as a women’s college.

In 1998–99, the College reduced tuition by 34 percent, from $16,700 to $11,000. This more affordable level has been sustained by maintaining annual increases below the national average, which, with tuition at $12,964 for 2002–03, places PMC among the most affordable four-year private colleges in the country. This planned reduction has sent a strong message about the College’s mission and, along with other community outreach initiatives, has led to a substantial increase in enrollment and in the diversity of the women we serve. PMC ranks third in student diversity among all BA liberal arts colleges in the country, according to US News & World Report “Best Colleges 2003.”

Most important, Pine Manor students represent a wide range of economic backgrounds and social experiences. A substantial number are first generation college attendees and 80 percent receive some financial aid in order to assure access. “We believe we have chosen wisely to use precious College resources to help bridge the widening economic gap in higher education,” stated President Nemerowicz.

As a result of these efforts, enrollment at Pine Manor has grown by 70 percent from 1996 to September 2002, and is expected to increase another 22 percent in the coming two years. The College population is now more than 450 full-time students. “This growth not only indicates that PMC is addressing a significant educational need but also demonstrates the power of institutional renewal as this 91-year-old organization redefines itself to be responsive to current social needs,” stated President Nemerowicz.

As it reached out to new populations of women, PMC sought ways to better serve students and prepare them for the future. Retaining a firm commitment to the value and necessity of the liberal arts as the foundation for learning and to maintain small class size and low student-faculty ratio, the College adopted the integrative framework of “inclusive leadership and social responsibility” (ilsr) to bridge learning in the curriculum and co-curriculum (learning outside the classroom) and to bring coherence to the learning process. This framework is reflected in the College’s mission statement, which was approved by the trustees in 1998.

The College continues to build the programs and experiences that allow students to explore issues and perspectives associated with inclusive leadership and social responsibility. It is committed to helping students and those who work at the College explore and participate in this new kind of leadership. With a model that is still being developed, PMC is seeking alternatives to the traditional, top-down, authoritarian models of leadership that rely on individuals with presumed
special talents to make decisions for others.

“Women can and should be central to the movement to formulate new kinds of inclusive, socially responsible leadership, but this will only occur if the institutions in which they participate model and provide opportunities for them to explore such leadership,” commented President Nemerowicz.