Address to the University Community

"The ideas — that the acquisition of knowledge is valuable because it gives us tools to act constructively in the world, that a critical purpose of education is to teach us how to interact with others within the societal context in ways that are righteous, and that our complex and changing world requires the ability to think critically and maintain openness and flexibility of mind — have always been and remain the cornerstone philosophy of this university. For one hundred years, the expression of institutional mission has changed and developed, but underlying each iteration is a commitment to quality and intellectual rigor, a profound belief in the purposes of education in a democracy, and a growing understanding of the role our students must be able to play as world citizens."