Dear Friends,
There are many challenges facing our country and our world today. Living through this two-year pandemic, coupled with the political and cultural discord that often seems worse than at any time in living memory, has so many people despairing for our future. At the same time, the value of a college education, particularly a private, liberal-arts-based education, is now questioned on many fronts.
Most of you reading this magazine are Wagner alumni. You know about our 139-year history of providing a college education rooted in tradition while always looking toward progress and the future. That is why we were one of the first liberal arts colleges to offer professional majors in both business and nursing and to enroll women alongside men in the first half of the 20th century. Embedded in our mission has always been the noble aim of producing leaders who, to borrow a somewhat quaint but valid old phrase, strive to do well and to do good.
The Wagner College of today is as passionately committed to our mission as it ever was, and that is the reason I am optimistic about the future. Our faculty remains dedicated to student learning and success, and our students are just as committed to becoming future leaders while remaining civically engaged citizens, passionate about creating a better nation and world.
When you walk around our beautiful campus on Grymes Hill, you see students heading to class or the library to study and learn and, yes, even debate. You walk into Main Hall, and the sights and sounds of our performing-arts students in theater and music greet you. The Spiro Sports Center and the stadium feature student athletes preparing for upcoming competitions. And just spend some time on the Oval or in the dining hall and you will see a very diverse group of young people laughing and engaging in the way college students always do. I am positive that the goals, ambitions and enthusiasm of our students are very similar to those of the Wagner students on this same campus many decades ago.
Yes, there are serious and unique challenges today. But did students 80 years ago not face the challenges of totalitarianism and World War II? Did the students of 50 and 60 years ago not face the challenges of potential nuclear war stemming from the (not so) Cold War or from Vietnam and the civil unrest of the 1960s? But through all of that, American higher education was the backbone of American progress and the remarkable spread of democracy throughout the world.
It is my firm belief that colleges still provide that pathway to a better future. With your support, and through the great work of our faculty and staff, and with the determination of our students, Wagner College will continue to be a leader on that road to a better future.
Angelo Araimo
Interim President
