Circle of Gratitude
President Audrey Bilger, Dean of the Faculty Kathy Oleson, and Associate Dean of the Faculty Suzy Renn discuss the nurturing of student and faculty research at Reed.
During her first days at Reed, President Audrey Bilger attended a poster fair showcasing student research—and left the event profoundly moved by the passion Reedies expressed for education and communication.
“I was told, ‘Oh, you should just walk through and maybe take about 10–15 minutes,’” Bilger says. “I ended up staying probably closer to a couple of hours—because when you stop to hear a student talk about their research, you are enraptured.”
Events like this express Reed students’ commitment to both the pursuit of knowledge and the joy of discovery. “What is it that makes Reed so special?” Bilger asks. “You go to something like this and you see how passionate rigor is, how excited people are about doing excellent work.”
Reed students and faculty undertake a staggering array of research projects, from Joshua tree root excavations to studies of rat learning to searches for elusive oak hybrids. These and other projects are made possible because of institutional funding, an umbrella term for donor gifts utilized by the college to support the work of students, faculty, and staff.
“Fundamentally, you put money toward things and that shows what you value,” says Kathy Oleson, dean of the faculty and Patricia and Clifford Lunneborg Professor of Psychology. “Investing in faculty research, that’s investing in the college. We’re going to have people that are involved in their field and are better teachers.”
Institutional funding has tangible benefits for Reed community members, whether or not they are engaged in research. It is what enables a department head to undertake comprehensive leadership training, a staff member to show their support for a student worker by taking them to lunch, or a student to expand their intellectual horizons by attending a conference.
“When students get to go to conferences, it introduces them to a professional context that they can imagine themselves entering into,” Bilger says. “It also allows them to feel a sense of agency, particularly if they are presenting.”
Institutional funding also encompasses financial aid, an area in which Reed is nationally recognized. With 100% of need being met for first-year students who receive need-based aid, the college was recently ranked as one of the top five colleges in the country for financial aid based on student surveys by the Princeton Review.
“We want to support the values of our community,” Bilger says. “We believe in the value of education and critical thinking and lifetime learning. That’s what we do here.”
Institutional funding at Reed is possible because of benefactors such as the late Dan Greenberg ’62 and his wife and philanthropic partner Susan Steinhauser (whose gift enabled Reed to create the Greenberg Distinguished Scholar Program) and the late trustee John D. Gray and his wife, Betty Gray (who originated the Gray Fund, which supports out-of-the-classroom activities ranging from athletics to the arts).
“The strongest motivator for people who contribute financially to Reed is gratitude for the opportunities that they received—and a desire to ensure that students coming after them will have those opportunities too,” Bilger says.
The fruits of institutional funding were on display at the President’s Student Showcase last September, which exhibited summer student research—with a dramatic increase in the number of humanities and internship participants, who represented nearly half of the presenters.
“For many students, that’ll be their first opportunity to really present their research,” says Suzy Renn, associate dean of the faculty and Roger M. Perlmutter Professor of Biology. “It’s students from across campus—who have been supported by staff, faculty, and the Center for Life Beyond Reed—and we’re bringing them all together.”
That work creates a circle of gratitude, sustained by alumni who support higher education out of gratitude for their own experiences—and by Bilger herself, who notes that institutional funding can be a potent defense against attempts to devalue, degrade, and defund higher education.
“In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed the attrition of public funding and support for higher education,” Bilger says. “We have gratitude for those who recognize how deeply meaningful this education is—how rare and precious an institution like Reed is. That, in this moment, is something I’m acutely aware of.”
Tags: Academics, Professors, Research, Students