Freshman Convocation
Charles E. Smith Center
September 1, 2008 |
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Good afternoon! On behalf of the Trustees, the Deans, and all my colleagues on the faculty and staff, it’s a pleasure to welcome you to the vibrant, engaged community of scholars that is The George Washington University; and to welcome you, at the same time, to the world-wide and life-long community that connects you with some 220,000 alumni around the world.
Within that community, among those who are with you today and among those who have preceded you and have now gone on to careers across this nation and around the world, you will find friends and mentors who will support you, guide you, and open doors for you for the rest of your lives.
But you are not just joining a new community. You have come to an amazing place, at a truly amazing time. You are entering an historic institution, and you are doing so at an extraordinary moment in history. Just a few days ago, for the very first time, a person of African descent was nominated by a major party for the nation’s highest office. One day later, for only the second time in history, a woman was nominated for the vice presidency. Whichever party wins, the next President of the United States will be your neighbor, moving into a house just three blocks from the eastern edge of our Foggy Bottom campus.
We are, after all, a university with a unique relation to the United States presidency. While some American universities are older, and while a number have larger campuses or larger endowments, we are, quite simply, the one and only university that was dreamed of, and called for, by America’s first president, and that proudly bears his full name. In his last will and testament, George Washington very clearly stated his “ardent wish” to establish a national university that would draw students to the capital from around the country, a community of scholars in which they would overcome their local prejudices, forge a shared identity, and be transformed together into the citizen-leaders of the new democracy.
As it happened, Washington’s vision could not be realized until more than 20 years after his death. Columbian College, as it was then called, was first established on what is now Meridian Hill, just outside the boundaries of Washington at the time; it later moved to 15th and H Streets and did not arrive at its current location in Foggy Bottom until 1912. But from the very beginning, this university has been part of the fabric of this great capital city and the nation it symbolizes, participating in one way or another in every event that has shaped that nation’s growth, from the Civil War through two world wars and then through the civil rights movement that culminated 45 years ago just a few blocks to the south of where we are gathered this afternoon when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his most famous speech. He did so on the National Mall where, this past spring as we do each year, we gathered for Commencement – a crowd of 25,000 graduates and their families stretched over three full blocks, midway between the Capitol and the Washington Monument.
As students at GW, you now have a front row seat at the theater of history, and you also have a chance to be more than a spectator; you have a chance to participate. Pick any decade from the history of this institution, and the testimonials of students to their experiences are extraordinary.
Here is one example, from a book that was published on the occasion of our 175th anniversary; the book is titled From Strength to Strength: A Pictorial History of The George Washington University. This particular testimonial is by a student who graduated in 1980. During his four years at GW, he wrote, he “had met [former Vice President] Hubert Humphrey only four weeks before he died; watched Jimmy Carter walk down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day; dined at the Georgetown home of one of his state’s senators; watched Pope John Paul II give a speech on the front lawn of the White House; seen the treasures of King Tut at the National Gallery; celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Washington Post at a party given by [the late publisher] Katharine Graham; endured tear gas from Park Police while observing a political rally on the Ellipse; observed Israel and Egypt sign a peace treaty; and protested at an embassy with 200 other Washington-area residents.”
Your years at GW, I can predict with confidence, will be no less exciting, and no less challenging, than those. You too are arriving in a year of presidential transition; a year in which all eyes will be focused, once again, on what happens here in Washington; a year fraught with expectations and anxieties about the changes that will certainly occur, both here and around the world, no matter which candidate ends up becoming your newest neighbor in the White House.
In fact, we’re taking advantage of this year’s presidential election and inauguration by adopting the theme of America in Transition as an organizing principle for a number of events that, in one way or another, will involve all our schools. In fact, there is almost nothing we teach or study anywhere in the university that is not profoundly affected by the issues the next president will surely face and the questions he will be compelled to answer:
- Questions about war and peace, about affordable health care, about educational reform, about what it will take to maintain America’s competitiveness in the global marketplace;
- Questions about the trade-off between national security and personal privacy, or between protecting intellectual property and ensuring the free exchange of ideas on the internet; and
- Questions about the role of religion in public life, the nature of marriage, the definition of life itself and the freedom of science to explore it.
To launch this yearlong theme, two weeks from today on September 15th, GW will host five former secretaries of state – James Baker, Warren Christopher, Henry Kissinger, GW honorary degree recipient Madeleine Albright, and GW alumnus Colin Powell – in a special panel discussion, televised on CNN around the world, about the global issues facing the next president. A prominent member of our faculty, Frank Sesno, will host the event along with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. We expect a large crowd, so the event will be moved to Lisner Auditorium from our usual broadcast venue, the Jack Morton Auditorium. Be sure to reserve a seat.
Some of this year’s smaller events will take place in a new venue, the F Street House, where, as of two weeks ago, my wife Diane and I now live. For decades, this house was known as the F Street Club, a private salon that at one time or another hosted every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. In its day, it was a center of thought and a venue for off-the-record discussion. We hope to restore it to something like its historic role by hosting events in which our expert faculty and our talented students can engage with the extraordinary leaders who either live and work here or are drawn to this city from across the nation and around the world.
There is one set of issues this election cycle has highlighted that I’m sure will be a focus of debate and discussion for many years to come. It falls under the general heading of sustainability, and it is a set of issues this university has explored in earnest over the course of the past year.
One of my very first acts as president last fall was to create a Presidential Task Force on Sustainability. A team of faculty, students, and staff worked tirelessly throughout the academic year and issued a comprehensive report on what GW is doing, can do, and should do to reduce our environmental impact and equip our students with the tools that will make them leaders in addressing one of the most urgent issues of their generation.
In response to the task force’s recommendations, we are establishing a university-wide Office of Sustainability. We are setting up implementation teams – again, involving faculty, staff, and students – to design new academic programs and courses, strengthen our recycling programs, and increase our energy efficiency across all the dimensions of university construction and operations.
We were the first university in the District of Columbia to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. Our students are leading a city-wide effort to win lower fares for students who use the Metro. This summer, we established a new Institute for the Analysis of Solar Energy in the Columbian College. We have a new team of scientists developing alternative fuels on our Virginia Campus; strong environmental programs in the Law School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science; and faculty working on environmental policy and sustainable development in the Elliott School, the Trachtenberg School, the School of Business, and elsewhere across the university.
And this October, just a few weeks from now, we will host a conference in partnership with DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and the DC Council. Under the title “How Washington Can Lead,” our conference will focus on the proposition that this city and its largest university can work together to provide a national and international model of leadership in urban sustainability.
By now you may be wondering what all of this means to you; how all this talk of national history and global issues might connect with the interests, abilities, and ambitions that – with the essential support of your parents, your families, and your former teachers – have brought to you this year of personal transition, paralleling the year of national transition that is generating so much excitement around you. Where will you make you personal mark, and how will you personally contribute, both in your time here as a student and in your future career? The truth is, there is no way of predicting how your interests will change and grow as you learn from the faculty and, just as important, as you learn from your fellow students – that extraordinary community drawn from all walks of life, all 50 states, and some 130 countries around the world. You may well change your major many times (parents: don’t worry!). You may well take a course in a field you never dreamed would interest you and find, in the process, a passion that will feed and fuel you for the rest of your life.
Or you may find your path through an internship at one of the many distinguished institutions that surround our campus. Just two days ago, I met the mother of a senior from California who expressed her gratitude for the fact that her daughter had already held internships at the White House and the National Gallery of Art and is serving this year at the headquarters of the Smithsonian Institution.
While the path you will actually take is unknown, you do have the examples of earlier GW Colonials to guide and inspire you. Many come to mind, but let me start with one in particular. It’s not Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former Virginia Governor and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner, or former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. No, I’m thinking of Kerry Washington, a star of the Oscar-winning movie Ray and of The Fantastic Four.
Ms. Washington graduated in 1998, and her major screen debut was in Save the Last Dance, which came out in 2001, the year that her fellow alumnus Colin Powell also accepted a new role – as Secretary of State.
Of course, that wasn’t the start of Secretary Powell’s remarkable career. He had been in the public eye for a long time before that, appearing on the cover of Time magazine in 1995, the same year that former Georgia Congressman and GW grad Bob Barr – who, by the way, is now running for President on the Libertarian ticket – was sworn in a new member of Congress, where 14 GW alumni currently serve.
But there are countless alumni, less famous perhaps, but no less astonishing as examples of leadership and achievement. Consider Elizabeth Collins, who earned a master’s degree in public health in 2005. Knowing how closely illness in the developing world is linked to the lack of essential infrastructure, Elizabeth went to El Salvador, where she organized the installation of a potable water system in the village of Santa Clara. She sought the help of many partners, including the DC Chapter of Engineers without Borders, the Peace Corps, and 20 GW students – some of whom will be monitoring the impact of the project over this coming hear.
These are just a few of the 220,000 alumni I mentioned at the outset of these remarks. Last year, I traveled to 12 cities from New York to Hong Kong and managed to meet some 11,000 of them; this year I hope to meet at least as many more. Those I have met are eager to receive you into their worldwide community. In fact, you can begin that process right here in DC. There are 70,000 GW alumni in the greater capital region. And although I can’t promise that Senator Reid or Secretary Powell will personally take your call – well, you never know.
Another point to remember about our alumni is that, no matter what they have accomplished, they all started off right where you are sitting today. Many came with dreams about their futures, but just as many came without a clue as to what to do next. They didn’t know where their lives would take them, or how they would connect with history. So they used their time here in the best way possible: to prepare for the journey.
They sought out professors to guide them through the classics and expose them to cutting-edge contemporary texts.
They studied everything from Shakespeare’s sonnets to South American politics and civil engineering.
And they engaged the campus, the city, and the larger world around them to discover where – and in what way – they truly wanted to make their mark. After meeting so many of you and your families two days ago as, together, we carried in your belongings, I am confident that you have the energy, the ability, and the support you will need to follow their example.
So, class of 2012, in the months ahead, get to know your GW family – the faculty, the staff, and your fellow students.
Immerse yourself in the history that surrounds you – the history that has already been made, and the history that is being made, and will be yours to make.
Plunge into this vibrant academic environment, and this incredibly cosmopolitan city.
Seize this moment in your lives – and in our times.
If you do, I have no doubt that you will look back on this presidential year – and on this, your own inauguration day – with satisfaction and with pride.
Congratulations. Best of luck. And welcome to The George Washington University.
