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Dear alumnae and friends, we’re living in a time of tremendous change. So many trends and tendencies that were visible over so many decades are accelerating. We don’t know where we’ll end up, but there’s one thing that we’re sure: we need to examine who we are, where we’ve been, what we’re good at, what we stand for. We ask ourselves what made us strong over the last century and more.

We’ve always been a college that delivered excellent education in small classroom setting, in a jaw-dropping beautiful environment that is also safe. I believe deep down in my heart that true education, excellent education is not deliverable except in safety.

I’m very happy to tell you that we have met our fall goal target for enrollment. So last week we met the target of 150 new students coming in, and we hope that over the summer, we will get more students coming in.

In terms of returning students, we are a small school, I think we have a pretty good sense of how many students are coming back, which is actually pretty unusual, in a year when no college can be sure how many students will be returning, given the fear of COVID-19 and recession. We remain hopeful that a large number of students will be coming back.

As we look to the end of the fiscal year, we’re about $500,000 short of our annual fund goal. With your support, we hope to meet the target.

Now I want to tell you something, it is very important to meet this target, but there is another reason why it is so important. In the coming year, we have needs that we never anticipated that are all related to COVID-19. In order to make our campus as safe as we can possibly make it, we will need to expend about $1.1 million. This is critical. We owe it to our students, to our staff and our faculty. And so your support is deeply appreciated as it always is.

Our participation at the moment is about 20%. I would love to see it go up to 30%. I truly appreciate your support so unfaltering and I remain deeply grateful.

So here’s to Sweet Briar, holla, holla, holla Nothing that you cannot do. Woooo!