Today, Bryn Mawr named Kim Cassidy (affectionately known as K-Sass, K-Cass, and a variety of other creative nicknames) as the 9th President of the college. My first reaction to this news was: yess!! I really wanted her to get it! My second reaction was: wait, Bryn Mawr has only had 9 presidents? The college has been around since 1885, or 129 years. That means that up until President Cassidy took office after the 2012-2013 school year, each president served an average of 16 years. The longest term served is a tie between Presidents M. Carey Thomas (1894-1922) and Katherine McBride (1942-1970). Both presidents were at the helm for 28 years. This isn’t your President of the US 4-year term (unless you’re FDR), this is a long-term commitment.
When I think about this, and the commitment that President Cassidy is making to the college, it makes me think of my own relationship with the college. I’m not just a Mawrter for the 4 years I study here; I’m a Mawter for much longer after that. I can’t think of anything I’d rather be. When you stand in Thomas and look at the portraits of all the Presidents of the college, you see lots of strong, smart women. Many other colleges didn’t have female presidents in the 1800s. When women at those colleges look at the portraits of people important to their college, they see much less women than I do. And even though it doesn’t consciously affect me, it’s much easier to feel like I belong when I’m surrounded by other women than if I were surrounded by a bunch of old guys.
Back in the present day, to when President Cassidy is setting her own portrait appointment (do they still do that?), I am very excited to spend the rest of my days at Bryn Mawr under her leadership. She is a Swarthmore graduate, so she understands the Tri-Co life, but more relevant to me, she is a psychologist and an athlete. I am an aspiring psychologist and a student-athlete. She has been very welcoming to the athletic community at Bryn Mawr. She participates in the BMC community relay challenge, an event put on by the swim team to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. She probably won’t brag about this, but she is always on the winning relay team. She also invited athletes over to her house for a dinner (I talked about it in this post). As a psychology major, I have actually learned about some of her research projects in my classes, and will not be surprised if I stumble over a citation of her work in one of my textbooks.
Overall, President Cassidy seems to be a true Mawrter in that she knows what is important to us (to read some of her thoughts on her view of Bryn Mawr, read her blog) . She also knows what is best for Mawrters. It seems that President Cassidy is one of our biggest advocates when it comes to having fun. She is involved with many events aimed to let us take breaks from studying and enjoy the wonderful community that exists at Bryn Mawr with events such as the upcoming Valentine’s tea, or the various pop-ups that have sprung up on campus recently (for more on pop-ups and K-Sass, read this post). In short, I’m glad to have Kim Cassidy at the helm; congrats, K-Sass!