News

Winter 2024 Trustees Weekend: Enhancing the Student Experience

As Winter Term nears its end, the Board of Trustees assembled on the Andover campus for a series of meals and meetings as part of their second Trustee Weekend of the 2023-2024 school year. Trustees discussed a variety of subjects, including updates to the Campus Master Plan, the core values of Andover, Financial Aid, and promoting Student Wellness.

Amy Falls ’89, P ’19, ’21, President of the Board of Trustees, described the importance of balancing educational rigor, complexity of curriculum, and fun for students, as well as maintaining the value of diversity of thought.

“We focused on three topics, all to do a bit with balance. How do we maintain a really complex curriculum and school with a lot of complexity of Andover… but also make sure that there’s balance and wellness and joy? A little bit of joy is good, same with excellence. We know that [Andover students] are all amazing students, or you wouldn’t have chosen to go to Andover, and we want you to be prepared to take on the leadership roles that you undoubtedly will. That requires a lot of preparation but that has to be balanced with wellness and a little bit of fun,” said Falls.

Falls continued, “First of all, education is being criticized all over the place, higher education mostly. I think it’s a time for Andover to really stand up for what it believes in, which is deep inquiry, both academic and interacting with people who think differently and come from different places than you do… At Andover, you learn from each other and it’s such a gift to be in a school with really intelligent, thoughtful people of your own generation who have really different experiences, different points of view, and different backgrounds. But you come together around some common objectives, which is to make the world a better place.”

Similarly, Head of School Raynard Kington provided an overview of the topics discussed during the Board of Trustees meetings, such as long-term community and campus planning, as well as assessments of current Andover metrics.

“The winter board meetings focused on a number of critical areas, from long-range strategic planning, including academic excellence and student wellness. Agenda topics also included academy finances, fundraising, enrollment strategies, the college admissions landscape, and faculty recruitment and retention practices,” stated Kington through a release from the Office of Communications.

Commenting on the Campus Master Plan, which details the renovation and construction of buildings on campus, Falls noted how Falls Hall will not only promote the accessibility of music for every student at Andover, but also create additional spaces for students to study and socialize.

“[Falls Hall] will have some beautiful interior spaces just for hanging out. The hope is that more students do music because it’s more accessible and easy and fun, and it’s not just the musicians, but people who just want to play music… So [with] the facilities, we’re all really devoted to enhancing student experience, not just having a beautiful building, and so that was a big worry,” said Falls.

In previous renovations, the Trustees strove to embody Andover’s values of diversity and inclusion. Falls highlighted the recently built Pan Athletic Center and Snyder Center as celebrations of women in sports, creating new opportunities for female athletes to pursue sports and have equal facilities to practice in.

“We hadn’t done anything in Athletics facilities since the ’70s, before Andover was [co-educational] and before Title IX. In a way, the sports facilities are almost a tribute to women athletes, because it’s like ‘we’re here and we’re good, and we need equal time’. We had it, but the equal time was someone practicing at nine o’clock at night, or, you know, worse. [Additionally], the wrestlers with the dancers and [there was] just not enough space,” said Falls.

Additionally, Falls commented on how the Board pays close attention to the use of Andover’s endowment. As part of their mission to maintain equity of enrollment and experience on campus, the Trustees seek to preserve tuition costs and the school’s ability to provide Financial Aid to all students.

“Financial aid remains a priority… The Andover cost per student is a little over 100,000 dollars. So nobody pays the [total] cost, nobody, but then we also want to be sure that nobody can’t come to Andover because they can’t afford whatever the cost of tuition is. So the way we can make that happen… is through the endowment. That’s predominantly what makes up the difference. If you spend your endowment too fast, 20 years from now, you won’t have one. So you have to spend at a level that you can earn the money back and investments, it’s kind of simple math, but very hard to do,” said Falls.

A large part of the weekend involved Trustees meeting with faculty and students to discuss topics they felt were pressing to the campus community, such as the number of courses and over-commitment of faculty. Sonia Appen ’24 spoke on how the meeting focused largely on support for students and teachers alike, such as potentially changing the faculty triple threat system — in which some faculty may serve as a House Counselor, a coach, and a teacher.

“[The meeting’s] topic was about students’ wellbeing and health, academic success and academic rigor… [The Trustees] asked about my experience taking six courses, if I felt I had adults that I was supported by, and what the consequences, from our side of things, would be if they changed things, like if they banned taking six courses, if they got rid of the triple threat system and hired individually for roles,” said Appen.

Correspondingly, Kington also emphasized the importance of faculty and student perspectives in formulating the Trustees’ plans as they look into the future of Andover.

“As always, trustees most enjoyed spending time and breaking bread with students and campus adults. They expressed gratitude for the many conversations that will inform their work in the months ahead, particularly our perspectives around long-range strategic planning,” stated Kington through a release from the Office of Communications.