My name is Debbie Sackman and I’m your Parent-to-Parent contact person. I look forward to answering your questions and concerns about sending your daughter to Sweet Briar College. ☺
So let’s get directly to the million-dollar question: If Sweet Briar was closing due to “insurmountable financial challenges” and “declining enrollment,” why am I allowing my daughter, Julia Rhinehart, a rising sophomore pre-vet student, to return to Sweet Briar College? Sooo many reasons, but for today, let me focus on one — Sweet Briar’s new leadership.
An impressive, dedicated team with experience turning around organizations is now running the school:
• New President Phillip Stone is a man of many accomplishments, most importantly turning around Bridgewater College. During his tenure, Bridgewater grew in stature and saw great progress and expansion in all areas of campus life, including undergraduate programs, athletics, facilities and technology. In his first 10 years, enrollment increased by 78 percent, according to the BC website. After reading multiple sources about President Stone, including his message to the Sweet Briar community, and hearing that he didn’t need a contract to get started because he would stay as long as Sweet Briar wanted him to, I become more impressed with this man every day.
• The chair of the board of directors, the Honorable Teresa Pike Tomlinson ’87, is a visionary leader who is taking on the position, in addition to her responsibilities as mayor of Columbus, Ga., because she loves Sweet Briar and can see its potential for future generations. I recommend you listen to her commencement address from Sweet Briar’s graduation in May – that speech says it all. You can also read it here, but I recommend listening to the audio – this is an impressive and impassioned woman who is determined to rebuild Sweet Briar to be here another 114 years and beyond.
• The new board of directors is composed of leaders who get things done. These individuals took these unpaid positions, which have already required many hours of their time, because they heard the Sweet Briar story and wanted to be part of helping the new Sweet Briar to not just survive, but flourish! There are so many great people on the board, it’s too much to include here so I’ll talk more about them individually in future postings.
For these people, failure is not in their vocabularies. And the staff members who remain at the College feel the same way. When you combine talent, experience and motivation, great things are achieved. I know firsthand that these people, plus Sweet Briar staff, plus LOTS of volunteers are working around the clock to make Sweet Briar not just survive another year, but to make Sweet Briar flourish more than it ever has before.
What an exciting time to be part of Sweet Briar history! Do you want your daughter to go where she’ll be one of many other students, or do you want her to be part of a tight-knit community dedicated to your daughter’s success? And not just academic success (although that is extremely important), but also her personal and emotional growth. To become a Sweet Briar woman is to be a confident, strong and independent leader, ready to become whoever she wants to be. Isn’t that what you want for your daughter?
I and others have so many more reasons to tell you in upcoming posts, so please stay tuned! Keep your questions and concerns coming. The staff is working like crazy seven days a week to get you answers, and as your advocate, the parents’ advocate, I will be helping too. My goal is that you will be as excited as I am to have your daughter be part of this amazing time in Sweet Briar history.
As President Stone said, “I want us to have fun doing this. Sweet Briar was not only saved, it will be renewed.”
Until next time ☺ …
Reach me at SBCParentToParent@gmail.com