In Her Words: Remarks from President Katie Conboy Ring Out Ring True Launch Event

Tonight, we gather to mark an extraordinary moment in the life of Saint Mary’s College.

Anticipating this moment, I have been thinking about an observation made by Sister Madeleva Wolff for the centenary of Saint Mary’s College in 1944.

Reflecting on the small band of Holy Cross Sisters who crossed the Atlantic in 1843 and, a year later, established a school for young women on the frontier, Sister Madeleva wrote that if those sisters “had dreamed that first night in their pioneer home of the world that is Saint Mary’s today they would have dismissed the dream as the wildest of impossibilities.”

And then she added this remarkable insight: “They might have dreamed even more extravagantly and not exaggerated the rich fulfillment the years have brought.” I have come to love that sentence. Because it reminds us that Saint Mary’s, in every era, has been built by people willing to imagine farther than the present moment could justify.

The founders did. Mother Angela did, when she relocated Saint Mary’s from Bertrand, Michigan to its current site—hauling the original buildings by oxen! Mother Pauline did, when she built magnificent Le Mans Hall in 1925, at a time when enrollment at Saint Mary's numbered fewer than 300 students. Sister Madeleva exercised that same imagination when she expanded the undergraduate College and simultaneously established the Graduate School of Sacred Theology. Generations of alumnae, faculty, staff, sisters, trustees, and friends have all been dreamers on behalf of Saint Mary’s College. And now it is our turn. So let’s dream big!

I’ve spent time on many college campuses over the last four decades, and I’ve learned something that might be important to our dreaming: every college has a soundscape. Some campuses are loud with spectacle. Some hum quietly with study and contemplation. Some pulse with the energy of a city that surrounds them. Some whisper with the open breeze of their rural settings.

But in my six years as president here at Saint Mary’s, I’ve come to hear a different and distinctly resonant sound.

Ours is the sound of conviction. It is the sound of women finding their voices—and learning to use them with courage and clarity. It is the sound of seminar rooms and laboratories where ideas are tested and intellects sharpened. It is the sound of students standing together at Orientation and at Commencement—closing and opening the circle of this community across generations. It is the quiet confidence of alumnae—across the decades—who raise their hands and say: this place changed me.

And over the past six years, we have been strengthening that sound.

Through our strategic plan, Revere and Revise, we pledged not simply to adapt to a changing world, but to build forward this historic institution with renewed intention and ambition.

We committed ourselves to be a community of human dignity and solidarity. We doubled down on Saint Mary’s as a leader in the social and economic empowerment of women. We widened access and bolstered student support. We invested more deeply in faculty excellence, undergraduate research, and integrated career preparation through The Avenue Experience. And we worked—carefully and deliberately—to lay a sturdy financial foundation that allows excellence to define our future. And because of that purposeful work, Saint Mary’s today stands on extraordinarily strong footing. 

Increasingly, you can feel the momentum on this campus. You can hear it in the energy of a growing student body—more than 1,600 undergraduates next fall. You can see it in renovated facilities and hear it in beautiful storytelling about our past, our present, and our future.

Long before tonight’s public launch of our campaign, alumnae and friends began stepping forward with extraordinary generosity and confidence. Not because they are funding nostalgia. But because they believe in the future power and influence of Saint Mary’s.

They see an institution that knows who it is. An institution grounded enough to remain faithful to its mission as a Catholic, women’s, liberal arts college—and bold enough to imagine what comes next. They see faculty whose teaching and scholarship inspire investment. They see students whose talent and promise demand opportunity. They see a community serious about excellence, belonging, formation, leadership, and the common good.

And because of that confidence, tonight we will announce the most ambitious campaign in the history of Saint Mary’s College . . . but you’ll have to wait a few more minutes for the number attached to that end goal.

Now—Sister Madeleva could scarcely have imagined a campaign of this scale. But I think she would have understood the impetus behind it. And I think she would have approved. Because this campaign is an expression of belief.

Belief that the world urgently needs women with intellectual rigor, moral courage, spiritual grounding, and the capacity to lead lives of consequence. Belief that access to this education should become wider, not narrower. Belief that faith and reason still belong together. Belief that discernment matters in an age of noise. Belief that community matters in an age of fragmentation.

And belief that Saint Mary’s is called not merely to stay the course—but to lead the way. We are expressing this belief by widening the circle and strengthening the core.

We are widening the circle of access and opportunity—ensuring that talented students from every background can flourish here. And we are strengthening the core of what makes Saint Mary’s distinctive: a community of learning, growth, and transformation; a loving and empowering sisterhood; a sanctuary where spiritual practice and deep reflection are encouraged; and a vast network of experiential opportunities and relationships. That work is already happening across this campus, as you just heard from our videos and speakers.

Whether funding scholarships for under-resourced students, establishing endowed chairs, strengthening the PACE Center, renovating Regina Hall for integrated healthcare education, or cultivating sustainability through our campus farm—these investments are acknowledging excellence, amplifying it, and extending it.

By every measure, as we approach our third century, Saint Mary’s today is a very strong institution. And with strength comes the responsibility to engage with the complexity of our time and place. Because the world around us is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence is reshaping knowledge and work. Trust in institutions has become fragile. The public square grows louder and more fraught by the day.

And yet I would argue that this moment only sharpens the importance of what Saint Mary’s does best. If information is abundant, judgment becomes more valuable. If careers constantly evolve, the integration of knowledge, experience, and self-understanding becomes even more essential. If society is polarized, communities that are capable of holding both conviction and compassion become more necessary.

This is the work of Saint Mary’s.

And this campaign is about ensuring that work reverberates farther into the future.

When we chose the name Ring Out Ring True for our campaign, we were actually naming this moment.

To ring out is to speak boldly—to tell our story and claim our future with clarity and confidence. To ring true is to remain faithful—to revere what must always remain at the heart of the College: learning, community, faith, justice.

That ringing contributes to the soundscape of Saint Mary’s.

And, of course, “ring” has another meaning too. I can see it on the hands of so many in this room. There is a reason our graduates wear a Saint Mary’s ring with such pride: it is a circle small enough to fit on a finger, but strong enough to bind generations. It is a visible sign of an invisible bond. It signals belonging. It communicates promise. It ensures that the wearer carries Saint Mary’s into every room she enters.
Recently, we made a quiet but profound decision to include the ring in the basic cost of attending the College—because at Saint Mary’s, belonging should never be optional.

Again: the circle widens. And the center holds.

And now we stand at a threshold—a threshold of opportunity.

We are, each of us in our own ways, the bells of Saint Mary’s. Our alma mater reminds us to “proudly ring out.” Our lives, our work, and our leadership carry the resonant sound of our College out into the world. This campaign is not about catching up. It is about accelerating. It is about ringing out with even greater vibrancy.

This campaign will deepen belonging and community—and to do so even more intentionally. It will invest in mission, ministry, and the common good. And it will ensure that Saint Mary’s has the resources and the resilience to lead boldly for generations to come. These are not merely projects. They are promises. And we are already keeping them.

There are moments in the life of an institution when quiet work becomes a public assertion and a public witness. And this is such a moment.

Not simply to preserve Saint Mary’s—but to ensure that generations of young women yet to arrive here will find the same intellectual rigor, the same spiritual grounding, the same sense of belonging, and the same courage that have shaped generations before them.

Nearly two centuries ago, a small group of Holy Cross Sisters began something they themselves could not have fully imagined. Yet because they—and those who followed them—dreamed extravagantly, generations of women found their voices here.

As I said earlier: now it is our turn. Our turn to dream boldly. Our turn to build faithfully. Our turn to ensure that the influence of Saint Mary’s travels farther into the world—and farther into the future—than ever before.

And perhaps one day, those who come after us will look back on this moment and say of us what Sister Madeleva said of the founders: that we “might have dreamed even more extravagantly—and still not exaggerated the rich fulfillment the years have brought.”

So let us ring out.

Let us ring true.

And let us—together—build what comes next.

Thank you. ‖