Harvard university speechprincipal
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As delivered.Greetings alumni, graduates, families, and friends.Itis such a pleasure to see you all here and offer congratulations on this day ofcelebration.I am in the unenviable role of warm-up act for one of the greateststorytellers of our—or any other—time.Neverthele, my aignment is to offera few reflections on this magnificent institution at this moment in itshistory.And what a moment it is.From comments of astonished pundits on television, inprint, and online, to conversations with bewildered friends and colleagues, thequestion seems unavoidable—and mesmerizing: What is going on? What is happening tothe world? The tumultuous state of American politics, spotlighted in thiscontentious presidential contest;the political challenges around the globefrom Brazil to Brexit;the Middle East in flames;a refugee crisis in Europe;terrorists exploiting new media to perform chilling acts of brutality andmurder;climate-related famine in Africa and fires in Canada.It is as if weare being visited by the horsemen of the apocalypse with war, famine, naturaldisaster—and, yes,even pestilence—as Zika spreads, aided by political controversy and paralysis.As extraordinary as these times may seem to us,Harvard reminds us we have been here before.It is in some ways reauring atthis 365th/ 7
Commencement to recall all that Harvard has endured over centuries.A number of these festival rites took place under clouds of war;others intimes of financial crisis and despair;still others in face of epidemics—fromsmallpox in the 17th century to the devastating flu of 1918 to the H1N1 virusjust a few years ago.Harvard has not just survived these challenges, but hashelped to confront them.We sing in our alma mater about “Calm risingthrough change and through storm.”What does thatmean for today’s crises?Where do universities fit in this threatening mix? What can we do? What shouldwe do? What must we do?
We are gathered today in Tercentenary Theatre, withWidener Library and Memorial Church standing before and behind us, enduringsymbols of Harvard’s largeridentity and purposes, testaments to what universities do and believe at a timewhen we have never needed them more.And much is at stake, for us and for theworld.We look at Widener Library and see a great edifice, abackdrop of giant columns where photos are taken and 27 steps are worn downever so slightly by the feet of a century of students and scholars.We also seea repository of learning, with 57 miles of shelving at the heart of a librarysystem of some 17 million books, a monument to reason and knowledge, to thecollection and preservation of the widest poible/ 7
range of beliefs, andexperiences, and facts that fuel free inquiry and our constantly evolvingunderstanding.A vehicle for Veritas—for exploring the path to truth whereverit may lead.A tribute to the belief that knowledge matters, that facts matter—inthe present moment, as a basis for the informed decisions of individuals,societies, and nations;and for the future, as the basis for new insight.AsJames Madison wrote in 1822, a people who mean to be their own Governors, mustarm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.Or as early 20th-centurycivil rights activist Nannie Helen Burroughs put it, “education isdemocracy’s lifeinsurance.”
Evidence, reason, facts, logic, an understanding ofhistory and of science.The ability to know, as former dean Jeremy Knowles usedto put it, “when someone is talking rot.” These are the bedrock of education, and of an informedcitizenry with the capacity to lead, to explore, to invent.Yet this commitmentto reason and truth—to their pursuit and preeminence—seems increasingly aminority viewpoint.In a recent column, George Will deplored the nation’s evident abandonment of what he called “the reality principle—theneed to ae and adapt to facts.” Universities are defined by this principle.We producea ready stream of evidence and insights, many with potential to create a betterworld./ 7
So what are our obligations when we see ourfundamental purpose under siege, our reason for being discounted andundermined? First we must maintain an unwavering dedication to rigorousaement and debate within our own walls.We must be unaailable in ourinsistence that ideas most fully thrive and grow when they are open tochallenge.Truth cannot simply be claimed;it must be established—even whenthat proce is uncomfortable.Universities do not just store facts;they teachus how to evaluate, test, challenge, and refine them.Only if we ourselvesmodel a commitment to fact over what Stephen Colbert so memorably labeled as “truthine”(and he also actually sometimes called it “Veritasine!”), only then can we credibly call for adherence tosuch standards in public life and a wider world.We must model this commitment for our students, as weeducate them to embrace these principles—in their work here and in the livesthey will lead as citizens and leaders of national and international life.Wemust support and sustain fact and reason beyond our walls as well.And we mustdo still more.Facing Widener stands Memorial Church.Built in theaftermath of World War I, it was intended to honor and memorializeresponsibility—not just the quality of men and women’s thoughts, but, as my predeceor/ 7
James Conant putit, “the radianceof their deeds.” The more than1,100 Harvard and Radcliffe students, faculty, and alumni whose names areengraved on its walls gave their lives in service to their country, becausethey believed that some things had greater value than their own individuallives.I juxtapose Widener Library and Memorial Church today because we needthe qualities that both represent, because I believe that reason and knowledgemust be inflected with values, and that those of us who are privileged to bepart of this community of learning bear consequent responsibilities.Now, it may surprise some of you to hear that this isnot an uncontroversial aertion.For this morning’s ceremony I wore the traditional Harvard presidentialrobe—styled on the garment of a Puritan minister and reminding us of Harvard’s origins.Values were an integral part of thedefining purpose of the early years of Harvard College, created to educate alearned ministry.Up until the end of the 1800s, most American collegepresidents taught a course on moral philosophy to graduating students.But withthe rise of the research university in the late nineteenth and the earlytwentieth century, moral and ethical purposes came to be seen as at odds withthe scientific thinking transforming higher education./ 7
But in today’s world, I believe it is dangerous for universitiesnot to fully acknowledge and embrace their responsibilities to values and toservice as well as to reason and discovery.There is no value-free science.There is no algorithm that writes itself.The questions we choose to ask andthe research we decide to support;the standards of integrity we expect of ourcolleagues and students;the community we build and the model we offer: All ofthis is central to who we are.We can see these values clearly in the choices andpaions of our faculty and students: in the motto of Harvard Busine School,which you heard earlier this morning uttered by the dean, the commitment tomake “a differencein the world.” Most of theUniversity would readily embrace this sentiment.In the enthusiasm of studentsand faculty, we see it as well.From acro the University—graduate,profeional, and hundreds of undergraduates—we see a remarkable enthusiasm,for example for the field of global health because it unites the power ofknowledge and science with a deeply-felt desire to do good in the world—to leadlives of meaning and purpose.This spirit animates not just global health butso much of all we do.Harvard is and must be a community of idealists.Andtoday we send thousands of you—doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists,philosophers, busine people, epidemiologists, public servants—into the world./ 7
For our youngest students, those just beginning toshape their adult lives, lives who today received what the ritual language ofCommencement calls “their first degree,” for them these questions of values and responsibilitytake on particular salience.Harvard College is a residential community oflearning with a goal, in the words of its dean, of personal and social as wellas intellectual transformation.Bringing students of diverse backgrounds tolive together and learn from one another enacts that commitment, as we work totransform diversity into belonging.In a world divided by difference, we atHarvard strive to be united by it.In myriad ways we challenge our students tobe individuals of character as well as of learning.We seek to establishstandards for the College community that advance our institutional purposes andvalues.We seek to educate people, not just minds;our highest aspiration isnot just knowledge, but wisdom.Reason and responsibility.Widener and MemorialChurch.Harvard and the world.We have a very special obligation in a verydifficult time.May we and the students we send forth today embrace it / 7
