Transparency at Sage

After a week of fairly gloomy news in my house, I wasn't surprised to open the Times Union today and read that Moody's had downgraded Sage's long-term debt rating. Sometimes you have one of those bad weeks and this news was just par for the course. However, the fact that it wasn't surprising to me is also a tribute to the administration at the Sage Colleges. Our leadership has been committed to transparency on an ongoing basis, so little information that was in the article was news to me. Someone once told me, "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't." In my eight years with the institution, the financial news at Sage has rarely been good. We all personally know what this stress and frustration feels like, perhaps having struggles with a household budget or simply because we live in New York State. What I admire about our administration is their willingness to be open about money issues, the steps being taken to correct problems and even regularly seeking advice of employees. There is comfort in shared knowledge.

Sage has had many triumphs recently, including both good news in admissions and development. On a faculty level, I work with many happy students (I wish there were many more) who love their experience at Sage. Students are expected to complete high levels of research, performance and scholarship before graduating and they rise to that challenge. Their attitude and accomplishments reflect well on our commitment to their learning and I wish a Moody's rating could show that, too.

I am now serving on a task force to redesign the first year curriculum. Our work has been very ambitious, making great steps towards developing a more focused and creative course of study for freshmen. The efforts will reinforce our already excellent retention rate, but also help our students to see themselves as part of a global learning community. This comes from the use of shared texts in core classes, including The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World, by Joni Seager; and Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sherry WuDunn. It also comes from placing students in Living Learning Communities, where they share a common living space and a core of common freshmen classes. What is exciting to me is when, through classes like English 101, Nutrition 101 or Physics 101, students see knowledge and ideas being shared across many disciplines. We are breaking down learning silos at Sage and developing students who will think both broader and deeper.

Still, the Moody's rating is a reminder of work yet to be done. I don't think Sage has ever figured out its "unclear niche", which encompasses two colleges, both co-ed and single-sex, and a graduate school, having different programs offered on each campus, in two cities separated by one river. It is a puzzle that, while it fits in theory, doesn't create a clear picture. Until that puzzle is figured out, we can't count on admissions to be the driving revenue source of our institution. Also, cosmically, Sage is simply in need of a break, some piece of luck that will help to move the institution on to the next level. I know we create our own luck, so I am hoping that the strong work being done to shore up the financial and academic picture at Sage will allow that cosmic magic to happen--soon.