Swearing-In Ceremony
July 1, 2005
Thank you, Justice Lacy. I'm grateful you'd come to Williamsburg this morning. Your high office affirms the seriousness of this brief ceremony; and your heartening career lends inspiration for the months ahead. I'm also thankful to the College's Rector, Susan Magill, to members of the Board of Visitors, and of the Search Committee. I obviously would not be here but for your efforts. I am hopeful you continue, for at least some reasonable period of time, to be happy that is so.
I appreciate the presence of faculty and staff colleagues - students and members of the William & Mary community. Actually, I started to say 'future colleagues'. I have become accustomed to that term over the last few months. But I'm glad now to be able to say, simply, 'colleagues'. It's been a long time since March 14 at my house.
And, speaking of my house, I'm happy that Glenn, Jesse, Jenny and Soren - the most important people in my personal universe -- are here as well. You have been remarkably patient, and flexible, and supportive, of your father's and [your husband's] fortunes and altering circumstance. It is not hard to see, looking at this corner of the room, why those who know us consider me one of the most fortunate males on the face of the earth. And, to the broader community, even if you welcomed these four women not because of me, but in spite of me, you'll soon see that at least eighty percent of the family is a marvelous bargain.
I am honored beyond words by your trust. I am heartened beyond expectation by prospects for the College. I am also grateful for the innumerable welcomes, invitations, challenges, dares, nicknames, and, most of all, insights you've offered in recent weeks. I can't begin to say how many e-mails I have received. But I can report I have been enlightened, inspired, entertained, moved and intrigued by them.
What struck me most is that they weren't individualized - like "a taller president needs a taller podium" - though someone might write that one down. They almost always attended to issues of concern for others - others at the College, or in this community, or in the state, or the nation. I would give examples, but that would make it tougher to take credit for the suggestions later on. I'll say only that they arose from the heart of William & Mary's mission - to be both 'great' and 'public' - and to realize the full potential of those demanding adjectives.
Having sworn an oath, I am deeply mindful of the unique history and character of this ancient and venerable university. So closely tied, itself, to the American story. Cradle and wellspring of a New World enlightenment. Producing foundational creeds of human liberty and egalitarian aspiration - ideas that have not only defined a nation, but that have, in three centuries, proven to be the strongest forces on earth. Nearly two thousand years ago, Tacitus wrote that "patriotism is worth a competition with our ancestors." Few institutions can have as much to live up to on that score as the College of William & Mary. I said 'few'. I meant none.
And with remarkable past presidents like Blair, Madison, Tyler, Chandler, Bryan, Graves, Verkuil and, most pointedly, my friend, Tim Sullivan. A faculty - whose accomplishments in research compare favorably with those of the best universities of the world - while creating a culture of teaching and student engagement that cannot be matched elsewhere. A staff - whose commitment to an appealing and supportive residential learning program, often in the face of scant resources and chronic under-compensation - literally enables the William & Mary experience. A student body - undergraduate, graduate and professional - that repeatedly surprises, as it inspires, all who inhabit these storied halls. These realities would, I'm confident, prove daunting to any presidential successor. But they give particular pause to a former football player from Texas.
The College, no doubt, faces challenges.
Challenges to secure increased funding - from both private and public sources - to expand our capacities to compete at the highest levels of scholarly achievement.
Challenges to guarantee that new, essential, management independence is accompanied by an augmented sense of public obligation. Requiring a heightened focus on access and equality - emphasizing Jefferson's hope that "worth and genius [be] sought from every condition of life." And pushing to assure that the work of the College is more clearly directed to the felt needs of the commonwealth that sustains it.
Challenges to achieve a markedly more diverse administration, faculty and student body. Recalling, as the Supreme Court ruled two years ago, accomplished public universities "represent the training ground for a large number of the Nation's leaders." And it is "necessary that the path to leadership be [made] visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity."
Challenges to further internationalize our curriculum and programs. At a time when people, products, ideas, capital, pollution and terror move across borders, and across the globe, more rapidly than ever before; a university that began educating citizens for the commonwealth and for the nation, must now effectively prepare citizens for the world.
There will be occasion, at Convocation and elsewhere, to discuss initiatives we will undertake on these varied fronts. But, today, here, in this majestic building, preparing to begin work in the historic Brafferton across the way; let me say only that I am struck by how rare it is in the United States to join an institution over three centuries old. The College of William & Mary is no start-up operation, no passing fancy. It helps instruct and illuminate the aspirations of the American academy.
And it has struggled, endured, and prospered, becoming a central part of our culture, because, at heart, it touches the deepest concerns of the human spirit. The need to examine, to explore, to probe, to question, to contribute. The challenge to understand - and to share the fruits of that understanding with our fellows. The powerful, unquenched belief in excellence, in the call to a better future, in the opened door, the extended hand, the brightened lamp. A recurring sense of both blessing and obligation; a belief in the marriage of knowledge and virtue; a determination to become, in Madison's words, beneficiary and benefactor of the commonwealth.
And, this College, distinct, perhaps, from the nation's other great public universities, is committed to pressing these values in the context of a small, life-changing liberal arts experience. Where academic rigor can actually apply as an overarching norm; where an ennobling faculty-student engagement is the hallmark of the institution; and where the most important questions of human existence are repeatedly presented center stage. Insisting that, in a viable democracy, the most powerful and uplifting structures of higher education cannot be relegated to the private sphere.
That is our legacy. It is our challenge as well. I'm honored to offer all I can muster in the cause of the College. Thank you for joining this morning to mark the beginning of that effort.
