Of the things that you hope to achieve in the next capital campaign, what are you most excited about? “Well I think the components of the whole Strategic Plan are really very exciting. In a sense, for Andover, it’s really not new. It’s really a much deeper interpretation of what we’ve always been about, which is the youth from every corner, excellence, which is dependent on faculty, and program.” Mr. Tang also said, “I think also a little bit more flexible program will deal with the fact that we have such a diverse student body.” “It’s one thing to be need-blind without reaching out. It’s much more challenging to be need-blind while you are ever-broadening through reaching out to the greater community.” Do you have a prediction or goal of when we’ll be needs-blind? “Well, we’ve made…very good progress, I think…in either two or three years, depending on how you measure it, without going into a capital campaign. So as we reach out to all the supporters…hopefully we can keep that up. If that’s the case, maybe we can get there in another three or four years.” “But…it’s an ever-rising hurdle, because the first year…takes care of just one class…as we reach out ever-more broadly, that means that the needs will increase, as well. So it’s somewhat of a moving target.” What do you consider Andover’s values? “It may be a corollary of excellence…I think Andover either pushes or instills in its students the joy of rising to a level of accomplishment that I think perhaps can even surprise [the students] themselves. But the other value, I think, is that we should do this not only for ourselves, but that we should do it for the community or society we live in…We are so fortunate to be given whatever native talents we have, but also the opportunities that a school like this can provide.” He continued, “So, the concept of not for self, the non-sibi spirit- that is extremely important. And…just as it’s our obligation to offer this opportunity to the most talented kids, it also therefore follows that the beneficiaries of these gifts, if you will, should feel the same sort of obligation.” “You know, that’s in our constitution. Knowledge, I’d say, you could equate that with excellence, and goodness, that’s the other part of it.” Are you happy with how the Strategic Plan has been implemented so far? Do you think we’re making good progress? “I think we’re making progress…as I look at some of the things that have been happening…the faculty has modified the program slightly [and the school is] trying to determine what would make this continue to be an attractive career for talented people…[by] trying to push compensation as aggressively as we can. And in the student area was the greater reaching out as well as the move towards need-blind. So think we’ve made progress. We’ve got a lot more to go.” [What is left to do?] “One of the areas…we’re trying to flesh out more is the concept that we’re a private school with a public purpose, and that’s not in the constitution, but it is something that we’ve sort of developed a sense of and [relates to] setting the standard of excellence in education combined with offering this in as egalitarian and as broad a basis as possible. That in itself seems to me a public purpose, but we go much further than that…there has always been this instinct at this school to leverage those same values and offer them more broadly.” Mr. Tang referred to the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers, “which is very much focused on developing of teachers, especially in…more traditionally, the minorities areas where there’s a crying need for role models.” He also mentioned the MS2 program, “where we’re basically taking the standard of excellence and the sense of service and projecting what we have to offer for students who, I’m told, after three summers here, really believe that they are Andover graduates.” Students come from inner-city schools and indian reservations, among other environments. “I think they really get a sense of…a whole new level of achievement,” said Mr. Tang. New Task Force: Trustees and some administrators compose the Task Force on Outreach and Institutional Identity, which studies what it means to be “a private school with a public puspose and deals with programs that “are not part of the normal school year program,” said Mr. Tang. The Task Force is relating to outreach programmers at Breadloaf, MS2, IRT, and the Peabody Museum and Addison Gallery.
