PrincetonUniversity250 Anniversary
Charter Day Convocation remarksHarold T. Shapiro
President and Professor of Economics and Public AffairsDelivered at Nassau Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey
October 25, 1996
Good afternoon. Members of the Board of Trustees, members of the Faculty, students, alumni, citizens of the Borough and Township of Princeton, honored guests, and friends of the University. It is my great pleasure to welcome you today to this anniversary Convocation, at which we commemorate the granting of a charter 250 years ago to the small colonial college that would eventually become Princeton University.
It has been my honor and good fortune to serve as the 18th President of Princeton as we celebrate this milestone of a quarter-millennium in the life of this University. Before we proceed with today's ceremonies, however, I want to take this opportunity to recognize two very special individuals who have played an extremely important part in Princeton's history, presiding over the University in times of great change and growth, and doing so in a way that has left this a much stronger and better institution, with a great deal more to celebrate today as a result of their extraordinary leadership.
I would like to ask Robert F. Goheen, the 16th President of Princeton, and William G. Bowen, the 17th President of Princeton, to rise so that we may all express to them our deep gratitude. ... Thank you.
At this time, I would also like to introduce three outstanding Princetonians, who have, each in their own way, made many important contributions to the life of this academic community. I would like to ask Margaret Goheen, Mary Ellen Bowen, and my wife, Vivian, to stand.
Finally, for the last 240 years, we have benefited immensely from being part of Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, and I want to thank Mayors Reed and Tuck for continuing to foster the cooperation and sharing that has built among us such a strong sense of community.
The Princeton University Orchestra conducted by Michael Pratt, will now perform selections from "Vysehrad" by Bedrich Smetana.
[instrumental music]
One of the distinct honors and pleasures of this kind of milestone event is the tradition of receiving greetings from our sister universities. We have with us today, to join in our celebration, two good friends of Princeton, representing two of the most distinguished universities in our nation -- Harvard and Yale.
Each of these universities has very strong ties to Princeton, both historically and in personal terms. At the time of Princeton's chartering, Harvard -- founded in 1636 -- had been operating for over a century. When they established this fledgling institution in the American colonies, the Harvard fathers displayed a shrewd ability to make the right choice at the right time, not only for themselves, but for America and the world of education and scholarship.
And the Harvard Corporation continues to display those same skills in the present day -- as we at Princeton observed with great pride when they selected Neil Rudenstine as the 26th President of Harvard. Neil, is a member of Princeton's Class of 1956, and in his "Nassau Herald" yearbook, he wrote that he would consider a career in teaching. Well, at Princeton that career encompassed many roles, including not only Professor of English but also Dean of Students, Dean of the College and Provost -- positions he filled with remarkable grace and distinction. Today, President Rudenstine is recognized as one of the leaders in American higher education. It is always a delight to welcome him back to the Princeton campus, and it is my pleasure to present him to you now. Neil Rudenstine, President of Harvard University.
[President Rudenstine's remarks]
Thank you, Neil for your thoughtful remarks and your own many on-going contributions to the world of higher education.
At the time of Princeton's founding, there was another college in the northeast colonies, situated closer to New Jersey than was Cambridge, and to which the founding Trustees of Princeton had a particularly close relationship -- to be precise, six of the seven founders of Princeton were graduates of Yale. In a certain sense, then, we might think of Yale as Princeton's parent or perhaps of Princeton as Yale's first offspring. It was not the sheer love of learning -- or even of New Jersey -- which led these Yale graduates to found a new colonial college. Instead, it was a dispute over religious doctrine.
Princeton's founders had taken an evangelical turn, and when a promising student at Yale who shared their beliefs was expelled, that was the last straw. These disgruntled alumni -- as we would call them today -- decided it was high time the colonies had another college and we are grateful that Yale provided them with the education and independent thinking that gave Princeton its start! Today, Yale and Princeton stand as firm friends and partners serving the worlds of education and scholarship. It is my pleasure therefore, to welcome to Princeton Richard Levin, a renowned economist, President of Yale University, and a distinguished leader in American academic life. . . . President Levin --
[President Levin's remarks]
Thank you, Rick, for joining us today and making this milestone even more meaningful to all of us.
The Steering Committee of the 250th Anniversary has commissioned three poems especially for today's celebration. The first poem we will hear was written by Reginald Gibbons, member of the class of 1969, and editor of the TriQuarterly Review of Northwestern University. Mr. Gibbons was awarded the 1992 Carl Sandburg Award for his collection of poetry and will read today his poem, "Desterrado, Late 1960s." Mr. Gibbons."
[poem by Reginald Gibbons]
Thank you, Mr. Gibbons.
The second poem commissioned for this celebration was written by the distinguished and award-winning American poet, Alicia Suskin Ostriker, Professor of English at Rutgers University. Unfortunately, Professor Ostriker is unable to be here today. In her place, Professor Sandra Bermann of Princeton's Department of Comparative Literature will read her poem, entitled Campus in Autumn.
[poem by Alicia Ostriker read by Sandra Bermann]
Thank you, Sandra.
The University Orchestra will now play additional selections from Vysehrad.
[selections from Vysehrad]
Major milestones such as this 250th anniversary afford us the opportunity to look back and take stock but also to look ahead and plan for the future. Our students are our most important connection to that future, and I am pleased that so many undergraduate and graduate students are with us today. We have asked Michael Fischer, President of the Undergraduate Student Government, a senior and a Woodrow Wilson School major to deliver greetings on behalf of Princeton students. Mike.
[Reflections by Michael Fischer '97, president
of the Undergraduate Student Government]Thank you, Mike.
The University community has greatly benefited this year from a stimulating array of academic symposia, films and publications, music and dance concerts, exhibits and other special events that have been held to mark the 250th anniversary of the University's founding. The enthusiastic response to these events is a sign of their success. We have many in our community to thank -- University faculty, staff and students, our alumni associations; members of national academic societies and members of Princeton township and borough -- all have contributed significantly to making this anniversary an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to Princeton's traditions.
In particular, I want to acknowledge our gratitude to members of the 250th Anniversary Steering Committee and the 250th Anniversary director, Dorothy Bedford, who deserve our thanks for their efforts to generate the ideas and to coordinate the events that have made our celebrations such memorable experiences.
Special thanks, however, should go to the Chair of the 250th Anniversary Steering Committee, Burton Malkiel, Chemical Bank Chairman's Professor of Economics at Princeton University, not only for the central role he has played in organizing the commemorative events around this Anniversary, but also for his leadership in strengthening one important part of our fundamental mission. Since our founding, service to society has always been the most prominent of Princeton's objectives. In part because of Professor Malkiel's tireless efforts, we will enter our 251st year with an even stronger commitment to this ideal of community service. Indeed, I am pleased to be able to announce today that we will go forward with plans to establish a new center for community service as part of the legacy of this 250th celebration. Burt, on behalf of the entire Princeton family, thank you for your own service and many contributions to our University community. Professor Malkiel will now deliver remarks on behalf of the Steering Committee.
[remarks by Burt Malkiel]
Thank you, Burt.
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of this University that we love elicits a storehouse of common memories, heightens our appreciation of the work of those many faculty, Trustees, students, alumni, staff, and administrative leaders who preceded us and, certainly, evokes many thoughts about what the future may hold for Princeton. There are so many wonderful events before us today, but before we turn to celebration, I do want to speak very briefly about what it is that draws us together here today with such pride and what it is about Princeton that inspires us to be so hopeful about the future.
For most of us and for the many generations of Princetonians before us, our experience at Princeton is bound up inextricably with the intellectual pursuits that we have followed and with the sustaining friendships we have made. And yet, neither those intellectual pursuits or friendships -- important as they are -- fully captures what Princeton is and what we celebrate today.
There are important, but more elusive, qualities of this University -- this special place -- that are more difficult to put into words, although many have tried -- and with eloquence -- over the years. For some it is that Princeton is both large and small. It is large in spirit but relatively small in size--so that students get to know not only most of their classmates but many of their professors as well. For others, it is the exhilaration of experiencing academic fellowship on the highest level. For still others, it is the physical beauty and location of the campus -- in this small town located between two great cities, a site selected by our early trustees so that we could be away from the world but still a part of it. And for many, it is the fulfilling notion that Princeton can, at once, teach students to explore new, even abstract, intellectual horizons, and at the same time, create class after class of devoted alumni who see service to the community -- positive action in the real world -- as their highest achievement.
To me, however, it is the search for knowledge and the search for meaning that have together remained central to the evolving character of this university. In our on-going quest for new knowledge and deeper understanding, we are ever more mindful of the words of John Henry Cardinal Newman: "Knowledge is one thing, virtue another." Throughout Princeton's history, this commitment to learning and moral purpose has been nurtured by the continued faith in the social usefulness of a liberal education, by the belief in the importance of understanding the great surviving texts, ideas and traditions of thought that informed those who came before us and, by a belief in the social value of thoughtful and independent individuals.
As generations of dedicated Princeton faculty can attest, learning has its own intrinsic joys and satisfaction. But, our academic community is even more firmly based in the belief that new ideas and understandings are a principal vehicle for finding greater meaning in our human experience. Awestruck as we are before the mysteries of the universe and the diversity of human cultural traditions, we believe that teaching and learning are infused with moral purpose. They affect not only our intellect, but our character, our will, our creativity, and help us more fully realize our own humanity.
It is this unshakable belief in the importance of grappling with thoughtful new ideas that have created the special character of this place. It is this belief in the moral character of teaching and learning that has caused generations of Princeton faculty to devote their life's work to education and scholarship. It is those beliefs that have caused generations of our alumni to cherish this University. They know that although Princeton is a private university, it is more importantly a great public trust, dedicated not only to education and the expansion of knowledge, but to leading us all to create an even deeper understanding of a life that is worth living.
Perhaps the best way to describe what is so special about Princeton -- what still sustains us after all these centuries -- was articulated by Dean Gossman when she suggested that it was the high expectations we have for one another. I believe that the character of a distinguished academic community is distinctively shaped by the expectation that each and every one of us will bring our full share of curiosity, analysis, passion, intellectual stamina, healthy skepticism and even eccentric brilliance to bear on our lifelong search for new insights and interpretations.
On this campus, no ideas go unchallenged. Even the great Albert Einstein observed about Princeton that his fame seemed only to begin five miles outside the town. In Fine Hall, he lamented, his word seemed to count for almost nothing. And so we challenge and question and push forward the frontiers of knowledge and meaning, but with a sense of shared purpose and fellowship that extends well beyond Princeton to embrace all those who join us in the task of education and the quest for new ideas.
As we prepare for the future, we are more aware than ever that a democracy such as ours must be dedicated to finding civil and amicable ways of living with moral disagreements. To honor the worth of each and every individual, we forego the arrogance of the absolute certainty that our own set of moral beliefs is the only correct and viable one. Instead we must be committed to the search for ways to build and exercise our own moral commitments and -- to the fullest extent possible -- to understand and accommodate the serious moral commitments of others. This is not an easy task either for an academic community or our society, but at Princeton the thoughtful and reasoned exploration of this moral space is one of the most important and challenging tasks before us, and this effort will, I believe, give its own special character to the Princeton experience in the years ahead.
Those inspired individuals from Harvard and Yale who wrote our charter and nurtured Princeton through its infancy hoped and planned that a Princeton education would encourage students to lead not just a purposeful life, but a life that values relationships with others. It is because of this particular expectation, which relates individual effort to the needs of others, that Woodrow Wilson's defining phrase remains so meaningful, to all Princetonians. He was not yet president of Princeton when he made his famous speech, "Princeton in the Nation's Service" at our sesquicentennial exactly one hundred years ago. Today, as befits our global society, our faculty and our students and alumni body which has become so much more international, we have expanded his words to, "In the Nation's Service and in the Service of All Nations." To my mind, this motto does not simply mean that we all must enter the public service or seek public office. Rather, it calls upon each of us to render service by uniting our individual aspirations and efforts -- whatever our field or circumstance in life -- not only to the needs of others, at home and abroad, but to the on-going search for a social order that respects the dignity, liberty, and humanity of each individual.
For so many of our graduates -- who truly live this broad and embracing philosophy of service -- service to this University remains a central and enduring aspect of their lives. So we have chosen to mark this very special moment in the history of Princeton with a permanent tribute to the very special contributions that our undergraduate and graduate alumni have made and continue to make to the life of this University. Today, we dedicate this historic green where we are gathered, in honor of all Princeton alumni. As a commemoration of their 250 years of service to Princeton, a special plaque has been placed in the center of this great lawn, which reads ...
"On the occasion of its 250th anniversary Princeton University here records its gratitude to its alumni for their devotion to the University and its mission of education, scholarship, and service." Around its circumference are inscribed the words, "In the Nation's Service; In the Service of All Nations."
It seems especially fitting to set that tribute here, before Nassau Hall, where each of us becomes an alumnus or alumna in the ceremony of Commencement, on this ground, so resonant with history, where many campus paths converge and from which one may follow many paths in life.
As an alumnus myself, it has been a great honor and privilege for me to participate with so many great Princetonians in the never-ending task of building an academic community of distinction, and I wish to extend to all those who have helped Princeton in this effort a special note of gratitude. Through your efforts, our 250-year enterprise has not only endured but flourished. Thank you.
--H.T.S.