A Message from the Dean

As we hopefully arrive at the end of this difficult period in our global history, we in Pennoni can look back with pride as well as relief at having arrived at this point, settled in our new home at Bentley Hall and graduating our latest class of Custom-Designed Major students.

It’s hard, given the toll taken, to speak of a silver lining to the last two years. But valuable insights have been gained by weathering this storm. Our COVID years have helped us deepen our mission, gain new skills, and learn how to cope better with the unexpected.

You, our Custom-Designed students, were at the vanguard of this learning process from the beginning. You are forerunners of what education will look like in the future — more tailored to the individual but also more expansive and eclectic.

You are a group inclined to be flexible, to think across difference, and be unsatisfied with the status quo. You embrace unpredictability and the unconventional. You know that everything can be made to fit together if you apply your imagination and your will. You know, in the words of the novelist E.M. Forster, that the trick is to "only connect."

I look forward to watching you navigate this strange, complicated, surprising world we live in and come back to us to tell the tale. Please don’t forget who nurtured and believed in you. As you start the next lap of your journey, please be sure to join us for the Custom-Designed Major Commencement ceremony on June 8. Your CSDN team: Kevin Egan, PhD; Katie Barak, PhD; and the whole Pennoni Honors College wish you the best on the next lap of your journey.

Sincerely,

Paula Marantz Cohen
Dean
Distinguished Professor of English