Reunion weekend 2026 marked the conclusion of Wellesley’s yearlong 150th anniversary festivities, featuring the capstone event on Saturday, “Shaping the Future: Presidents Reflect on Higher Education.” Before a standing-room-only audience, President Paula A. Johnson and three renowned alum leaders in higher education took the stage in the Alumnae Hall auditorium to discuss the challenges facing liberal arts colleges in 2026.
The panelists received a standing ovation before the session began, with members of the 50th, 60th, and 65th reunion classes cheering loudly for their classmates: Alecia A. DeCoudreaux ’76, Diana Chapman Walsh ’66, and Nannerl “Nan” Overholser Keohane ’61. Many attendees had been students at Wellesley during the tenures of presidents Keohane (1981 to 1993) and Walsh (1993 to 2007).
Moderator Robin Sparkman ’91 opened the discussion by asking Johnson about the value of a liberal arts education in 2026. Her emphatic response: “The value of a liberal arts education—the kind that we have on this campus—could not be more important today.” Citing threats to America’s democracy and unchecked technological advances, Johnson said a liberal arts education teaches students to think critically, to be empathetic, and to understand history, which allows graduates to become “civically minded citizens, not just of the United States, but of the world.”
Walsh agreed wholeheartedly, riffing on the famous line by Nora Ephron ’62 from When Harry Met Sally: “I’ll say what she said!”
“I think Wellesley really has a uniquely compelling story to tell about the value of liberal arts education,” Walsh continued. She referred to the report compiled as part of the College’s 150th anniversary, The Wellesley Effect: Career Outcomes and Professional Achievement of Wellesley Alumnae, that found Wellesley alums are excelling in every field compared to peers from a dozen other colleges and universities. “Wellesley alumnae stand out in all the ways we want them to,” said Walsh. She also recognized her friend and classmate Lulu Chow Wang ’66 for establishing the Lulu Chow Wang ’66 Center for Career Education, which has helped so many Wellesley students and alums.
Keohane, who led the team that formally articulated Wellesley’s mission “to provide an excellent liberal arts education to women who will make a difference in the world,” added that “a liberal arts education has always provided a breadth of context to our experience, by making us familiar with the works of human beings, with the wonders of nature, with the fantastic record of history.” She emphasized that a liberal arts education teaches young people how to home in on a problem, take it apart, figure out a possible answer, and judge the value of that answer.
“In a world where we’ve got misinformation, disinformation, and generative AI giving us images that never existed, perhaps it is analytical intelligence that is the most important skill a liberal arts education can provide,” Keohane said. “I think of it as a different AI, analytical intelligence.”
DeCoudreaux, president emerita of Mills College, which is now Mills College at Northeastern University, brought a slightly different perspective, as she described Mills as a college for “women with broken wings.” Many students worked full-time, supported children, and even lived out of their cars while attending Mills, DeCoudreaux said; they came to college to “get healed.” She emphasized the value of the community one finds in a liberal arts college, and said Mills students “knew they could make it because they had so many people supporting them.”
Alums had submitted questions in advance, which Sparkman read. For example: “No offense, but from the outside the top job in higher ed institutions doesn’t look all that appealing.” Why, the question continued, would one want to lead a liberal arts college in this day and age?
Johnson responded that she has heard this question a lot since becoming president of Wellesley in 2016. “Of course it’s hard,” she said. “There is nothing that is worthwhile in life that is easy. … Hard does not mean bad. Hard means worthwhile. Hard means complex. Hard means facing challenges we might not have expected to face.”
“And,” added Johnson with a smile, “these are great jobs. These are jobs of hope. Higher education is the business of hope. It is hope for the future.”