A month into the job, Molly Easo Smith is getting settled into her role as Manhattanville College”™s eleventh president while preparing for the influx of students for fall semester.
Selected over a group of almost 100 candidates, Smith”™s appointment was announced in January. She arrived on campus in the spring and has been spending the past few months working on a smooth transition from past President Richard Berman and moving into the president”™s cottage on the Purchase campus.
She also took time to meet with all of Manhattanville”™s living past presidents for some advice.
“I stand on the foundations that they”™ve laid,” Smith said. “Manhattanville is not just a community, but a place that becomes much more than just buildings. It”™s a way of thinking about life. It”™s a commitment to service and social responsibility and it”™s living in a global world.”
Smith said her own commitments to increasing global diversity and opportunities to study abroad are at the heart of Manhattanville”™s interest ”“ making the interview process for the job “more like a conversation.”
Smith, who was educated in her native India, said American higher education allows for more freedom of exploration than in India.
“One of the biggest differences in the educational system was that in India, which sort of followed the British tradition of education, students decided very early about the direction they were going to take,” Smith said.
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“With the American system, in the first two years you can explore many disciplines, find your preferences and things that you like most, then decide what you want to actually study. In some ways there was something more rigid about the kind of educational system that I went through; it meant that you started early and had greater depth in a particular field, but you did not have the breadth that the American education system provides.”
A global education is an integral part of Manhattanville”™s identity, and Smith already has a few ideas about how to expand the college”™s study abroad programs.
Currently, the college offers cooperative programs with other institutions that provide study abroad, as well as short-term study abroad programs with Manhattanville faculty.
“What I”™d like to be able to do is create very deep connections between Manhattanville and institutions abroad,” Smith said. “Globalizing means much more than simply a student going to a program abroad; it means infusing a global perspective into everything that we do.”
One college that Manhattanville has already formed a connection with is Australia”™s Sancta Sophia College, part of the University of Sidney.
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“It has a strong commitment to service and residential campus life,” Smith said. “We connected deeply, not simply through outside bodies, but directly and closely, based on values that we share. I”™d like to be able to do that with many institutions across the globe.”
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Long-term study abroad programs are costly, Smith said, which can limit the number of students able to participate.
“One of the things we”™re going to have to do is look at how we can facilitate travel abroad,” Smith said. “We also have a large number of international students here, so when you talk about globalizing, it”™s not only traveling abroad but it”™s also the extent to which global perspectives influence the way we look at curriculum.”
Prior to joining Manhattanville, Smith was provost at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. Prior to that, she held the position of dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.
“We”™re a college with a long, rich history and I hope that I can continue that visibility in the future,” Smith said. “Richard Berman has put Manhattanville on the map more than ever before, and I hope that I can continue that trend. I haven”™t been here long, but I”™ve been here long enough to feel that I”™m very much at home.”
