Bryn Mawr College, which is nearing its 140th year, celebrated the inauguration of its 10th president, Wendy Cadge, on Saturday, Oct. 26. Highlighting the transformative power of a liberal arts education, the inauguration featured a community of scholars, including Bryn Mawr students, alumnae/i, trustees, faculty, and staff as well as speakers, delegates, and representatives from academic institutions spanning the country.
President Cadge, a nationally renowned expert in contemporary American spirituality and religion, began her presidency on July 1, 2024. She joined Bryn Mawr College following her time as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis University. A public intellectual, she has written more than 100 scholarly and general interest articles, many in collaboration with students and colleagues across disciplines, and four books on issues related to spiritual care across settings, religion in hospitals, and Buddhism in the United States. Cadge’s presidency also returns her home, as she grew up in Delaware County and graduated from Springfield High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree with high honors and majors in sociology and anthropology, and religion from Swarthmore College; she received her master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton University.
In her inaugural address, Cadge said, “Bryn Mawr College is very clear about what is central for us; the light. Across generations, we embody the pursuit of knowledge and the power of ideas to light and to change the world.” She spoke of one of Bryn Mawr’s symbols, the lantern, comparing it to the role of the college in holding and making the light accessible to the world through generations of women with a zeal for lifelong learning.
Cadge also spoke to one of her first initiatives – a commitment to accelerating Bryn Mawr College’s sustainability work over the next five years. “To help catalyze Bryn Mawr’s work to date, we will be increasing resources to support faculty, staff, and students working on these issues and create a new position in 2025 that is 100% focused on sustainability at the college and in our local communities,” she said. More information about this work can be found here: https://www.brynmawr.edu/about-college/sustainability-bryn-mawr
Cynthia Archer, a member of the Bryn Mawr Class of 1975 and chair of the college’s Board of Trustees, said about Cadge, “As a community, we have searched for and found a leader who understands and deeply believes in the global importance of the liberal arts, who embodies the academic rigor and excellence that have been the cornerstones of Bryn Mawr’s long legacy, and who has the courage to carry Bryn Mawr’s mission forward, fulfilling our generational commitment to uplift women, foster equity and access, and create sustainability for ourselves and for all Bryn Mawr community members to come.”
Delegates of more than 30 colleges and universities across the country were in attendance, including the ceremony’s keynote speaker, Barbara Savage, representing the University of Pennsylvania. Savage is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought, Department of Africana Studies at Penn. In her remarks, Savage spoke of her friendship with Cadge, which spans 25 years including time together as part of a weekly colloquium at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton and later as co-researchers and authors. She said Cadge has built her career as “an exceptional scholar of religion with the rare combination of capacious intellectual curiosity and panoramic conceptual imagination, anchored by honoring people’s lived experiences – and always, always linking her piercing questions to pressing contemporary matters.”
In addition to Savage, other speakers from academia included Wendy Raymond, president of Haverford College; Valerie Smith, president of Swarthmore College; Jeffrey Shoulson, dean of arts and sciences, Brandeis University; Sava Berhané, an alumna of Mount Holyoke College; and Frederick Wherry, vice-dean for diversity and inclusion, Princeton University.
Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija was also in attendance and issued a proclamation in support of Cadge’s presidency.
The inauguration ceremony was immediately followed by a community block party, part of the college’s “Owls Fest” weekend, which included two days of programming and activities for alumnae/i, families, and friends.
Inauguration ceremony remarks are available to view here.
About Bryn Mawr College
Since its founding in 1885, Bryn Mawr College has been the preeminent college for women interested in the pursuit of wisdom necessary to challenge the world’s expectations. The Bryn Mawr College community has repeatedly broken barriers to achieve greater equity through exceptional academics and a deep dedication to learning. Its more than 35 undergraduate majors span the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and arts. Two co-educational graduate schools offer selective master’s and Ph.D. programs across the Arts, Sciences, and Social Work, and the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program is one of the most successful in the nation for placing students into medical school. Bryn Mawr is dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, which serve as the engine for excellence and innovation, helping pave the way for gender equity and inspiring brilliant minds who find life-long community as part of the college.
