The Little Girls Are Watching Us
President Morris reflects on an impactful moment that took place during her inauguration ceremony.
I have the pleasure of attending many alumni gatherings through the year. When I travel around to speak with groups of Laurentians, I usually start by telling a story about our students—like the six who came to my house for pancake breakfast a few weekends ago.
I typically speak about all the great things happening on campus—the fact that in the last two years, we’ve recruited the St. Lawrence students with the highest academic profile on record; that over 10% of the current first-year students have expressed a primary academic interest in one of our six new academic programs, created by the faculty to engage students of the now and the future; how we’re investing $30 million in the campus infrastructure and making significant improvements in our residence halls and other student spaces. I’m always happy to talk about any of those things. But recently, I attended a Laurentian event that was quite different than the norm.
This particular event wasn’t about campus updates. In mid-January, a group of Laurentians gathered in Washington, D.C. to celebrate our new—and first female—board chair, Jennifer Curley Reichert ’90. As founder and CEO of Curley Company, a D.C.-based strategic communications firm, Jennifer is a business strategist, author, and entrepreneur who advises Fortune 100 companies, large trade associations, and nonprofits on thought leadership, reputation management, and risk mitigation.
Most importantly for St. Lawrence, Jennifer is a dedicated alumna. Prior to being elected as chair of our Board, Jennifer served as board vice-chair for five years, has been a trustee for 18 years, and among other things was a founder of the SLU Connect program, which started in Washington, D.C. and expanded to cities across the country. Jennifer has been a career mentor to countless Laurentians and has hired 22 Laurentians as either interns or full-time staff members at her company.
Though I am not the first woman president at St. Lawrence, Jennifer and I represent the first pair of women to lead the institution as board chair and president. As a team, not only do we enjoy mutual respect, care, and concern, but we complement each other in important strategic ways that move the University forward. I’m more of the scientist while Jennifer is more of the humanist. I have learned much from her expertise in business and communication, and I hope she has likewise learned from my expertise in data about human behavior (I am a psychological scientist, after all).
Between the two of us, both educated in the liberal arts tradition, we have a broad array of strengths and dispositional approaches to call on to address any problem at hand. The most special moment I’ve shared with Jennifer occurred as we approached my inauguration ceremony in October 2022.
We were the last two people in the procession to walk into Gunnison Memorial Chapel that day. As we turned the corner to walk in, we passed by Ed Forbes ’02, Emily Hunt Forbes ’04, and their three girls—all under age 10. I leaned over to Jennifer and said, “Look Jennifer, the little girls are watching us.” And they were intently watching us. I have no idea what they were thinking, but hopefully part of it was, “Wow, that’s something I could do someday.”
The reality is that the world is indeed watching Jennifer and me. Higher education is incredibly difficult these days—between demographic shifts, societal economics, multiple and conflicting demands about what higher education is and should be—we and our counterparts around the country have challenging jobs.
And yet we persist. Why? Because higher education matters, because we have the experience to do it, and because it’s worth it. St. Lawrence is worth it. Our students are worth it. Our faculty and staff are worth it. And our alumni are worth it. Our community is worth all of our hard work. It is an honor and a privilege to do this work, in general and at St. Lawrence, even with all the eyes upon us. And I never will forget the simple fact that as women leaders, the little girls are watching us.
