Mount Holyoke has long been known for graduating women who spearhead change in their own careers and for the public good. The new Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman Center for Leadership at Mount Holyoke College will make sure this tradition thrives into the twenty-first century. The Weissman Center combines the work of the College's Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program and the Center for Leadership and Public Interest Advocacy and is supported by a generous donation from trustee Harriet Levine Weissman '58 and her husband, Paul. The merged center is a natural, say center codirectors Eva Paus and Lee Bowie.
Effective leadership requires the ability to frame, articulate, and advocate for positions.
Effective speaking, arguing, and writing require taking control of one's authorial position. Developing articulate leaders is the center's mission. The skills of critical thought and responsible action are useless if they can't be expressed clearly and argued constructively. Students can't learn effective argument construction and public speaking by the wayside. The skills can only be fully developed with a dedicated effort on the part of both students and faculty.