Welcome Back and Pitzer's New Strategic Vision

Dear Pitzer Community,

Welcome back, and to the spring semester! I hope you had time over the break to rest, reflect, and reconnect, and that you return to campus renewed by the promise of a new term and the longer days ahead.

As the College, higher education, and the world face growing challenges, I find myself reflecting frequently on what makes Pitzer extraordinary and what positions us to tackle those challenges especially effectively. I find myself consistently coming back to three elements: our mission, our values, and our people. Ours is a community that leads with heart, asks courageous questions, and shows up for one another with curiosity, generosity, and purpose. I have the great privilege of listening to students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and trustees share what matters most to them and what they hope Pitzer can be, now and for generations to come.

Those conversations—honest, thoughtful, and insightful, in true Pitzer fashion—helped shape our recently finalized strategic vision that now guides the work we do together to advance the College and its mission: 

Pitzer College ignites change for a more just, sustainable, and inclusive world by educating every student to think critically, act courageously, and engage compassionately.

Building on our own past and present, the strategic vision looks to the future to identify who and what we aspire to be and how we will get there. It reflects those elements that make us distinct: our bold commitments, our shared values, our responsibility to the world. And it reflects you, the people who teach, learn, work, research, advocate, collaborate, live, and lead here, every day, as we work together to ensure that every Pitzer student engages deeply in a rigorous and reflective liberal education, belongs to a thriving and inclusive living-learning community, drives action on real-world social and environmental challenges, and is supported in planning for life after graduation.  

These goals are simultaneously ambitious, authentic, and achievable.

As we begin this spring semester and the next chapter of Pitzer’s young but rich history, I hope you feel pride in who and what we are and excitement for what we will build and achieve going forward. Pitzer has always imagined a better world and worked to educate the students who will make it so. With this shared strategic vision as our guide, we will elevate that mission.

Thank you for all you do to make Pitzer such a remarkable place, and for the heart and hope you bring to this community. It’s great to be together again.

Provida Futuri,

Strom C. Thacker 
President