President Stephen Mulkey
Welcome to Unity College!
I joined the community of Unity College in early July, and I extend this welcome to you after receiving a very warm and personal welcome from students, faculty, staff and townspeople. Both my wife Michele and I are grateful for all the generosity and good will we’ve experienced here, and we feel fortunate to be part of this vibrant, sustainable, and caring learning community. From the start, it has been clear to me that Unity College is true gem among the liberal arts colleges of the U. S.
The idyllic natural setting here continues to delight me with its beauty and diversity. In our first weeks here a moose ambled up the driveway of Unity House one morning, and with each day I am happy to discover some new aspect of the biological communities in the region. As an ecologist, I look forward to observing our kaleidoscope of landscape, flora and fauna through the lens of coming seasonal changes.
Changes are on the horizon in our academic disciplines and in the wider world as well. Global change is the great challenge and adventure of today’s Unity students. Critical trends in a host of environmental indicators make it clear that young adults graduating from college today will live in a very different world from that of their parents’ generation. The students at Unity College are our most important resource, and we take our obligation seriously: we must provide our students with the tools to thrive in response to these looming differences.
Unity is a special place because our faculty and staff arrive each morning with passion for their jobs and a shared vision. We have one of the lowest carbon footprints of all U. S. colleges, and we continue to expand our operations through the addition of sustainable buildings and energy systems. We all hold to the ethical imperative to participate in the creation of a sustainable civilization. We work hard to deliver excellence in preparing students to be skilled, effective leaders in sustainability and conservation in the 21st century. As America’s Environmental College, we define ourselves as a student-focused institution of higher learning, responsive to the environmental professional needs of a world that is rapidly changing. Students at Unity benefit from a combination of scientific study, professional skill development, liberal arts exploration, and experiential learning as they grow into consciously engaged, deeply informed local and global citizens.
Unity students also benefit from the openness, warmth and support of our human community. We see learning as a collaborative endeavor, one that involves all of us – students, faculty, staff and administrators – as both students and teachers in the learning process. We hope you will contact us to learn more about becoming a part of our community as you explore institutions of higher learning. Please come for a visit and give us a chance to show you how we put the concepts and practice of sustainability into everything we do.
Follow President Mulkey on Twitter @prezmulkeyunity.
Institutional Documents
CIHE Progress Report 2009 (pdf).
Unity College Master Plan 2008 (pdf).
Unity College Strategic Plan (pdf).