A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College

Investing in Ideas
Wesson Idea Fund Fuels Undergraduate Research
Often recognized as one of the preeminent philosophers
and logicians of the modern era, Bertrand Russell also
deserves recognition as one of the most quotable public
intellectuals of the 20th century. Of the pearls of wisdom
that Russell freely distributed throughout his long and active
life, one in particular is relevant to those who study the field
of politics: “The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the
problem in a way that will allow a solution.”
As a pragmatist with keen interest in the world of politics,
I find something compelling about this quotation’s optimistic
faith in the power of inquiry. In my three years as assistant
professor of government and history at Colby-Sawyer, Russell’s
challenge is rarely far from my mind. It has frequently allowed
me to see opportunities concealed within problems, and at no
time was it more helpful than in the first meeting of the Wesson
Honors Advisory Group for the 2009–2010 academic year.
That fall the Wesson Honors Program faced an intriguing
problem: a huge influx of highly motivated, ambitious and
engaged first-year students. One hundred and two honors
students were joining the program’s 51 sophomores, juniors
and seniors. This new cohort was dramatic evidence of the
program’s success, and yet the prospect of maintaining its
integrity and essential elements while making space for three
times as many scholars represented a complicated challenge.
The Wesson Honors Advisory Group was charged with address-
Near the end of our freshmen year in
spring 2010, my roommate Echo and
I were working quietly in our room when
she asked, “Ky, do you want to go to China
this summer?” I hardly thought before saying
“Yes!”
Echo is from China—her Chinese name
is Wang Yujia—so essentially she was proposing
that I go home with her. We had
already traveled and been through many
adventures together as we were roommates
in Strasbourg, France, where we
spent our first semester of college as part
of Colby-Sawyer’s first Global Beginnings
Program. Echo had many questions about
American culture as well as the English and
By Eric Boyer
ing the immediate issue of resource allocation. Simply put, how
should the honors program use the generous gift of Jan and Bill
Wesson to continue to achieve its mission in the face of such
sudden and significant growth?
The Wesson Honors Program was designed in 2004 to provide
highly motivated students with an intensive academic
experience that encourages intellectual growth, interdisciplinary
exploration and community leadership. To create an intellectually
curious community of faculty and students, the honors
program integrates small interdisciplinary seminar classes
into Colby-Sawyer’s liberal arts curriculum.
While this core curricular component serves as the foundation,
the honors program extends beyond the classroom
to encompass co-curricular experiences. Traditionally, the
key component of the co-curricular experiences was the fully
funded “Wesson Weekend” trips, which were constructed
and led by Colby-Sawyer faculty. Built around a question or
theme, these trips introduced small groups of students to the
economic, political and cultural life of a major urban area. In
2009, the program needed to creatively shift resources in a
way that accommodated the new students without altering
the academic and co-curricular structure that had led to its
successful expansion.
This challenge brought me back to Bertrand Russell’s quote.
Clearly, the honors program’s expansion demanded creative
In Search of Many Truths by Kylie Dally ’13
The author, Kylie Dally, with a new friend, Deepa,
from Gangtok, India.
38 COLBY-SAWYER ALUMNI MAGAZINE
French languages, and our friendship blossomed
from these conversations. I knew
she would be just as receptive to my questions
about China.
Echo thought we should try to incorporate
an academic project into our trip,
as well as broaden the scope of our travels.
Over the next few weeks, we refined our
focus to the issues surrounding Tibet. As an
American, my perspective had been shaped
mostly by “Free Tibet” bumper stickers,
while Echo firmly believes that Tibet is part
of China and Tibetan people are Chinese.
We wanted to know how two opposite
beliefs could be held about the same place.
Was there any objective truth to be found?