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The speeches in this book are about one of the world’s great universities. Such universities are a precious resource for our world, and for that reason most everyone has an interest in their well-being. That is certainly true for the local community in which a university is often the most significant institutional actor and for the governments that invest in university research and feel the public benefits of university service. It is true for a broad array of domestic and international partners—foundations, corporations, other universities—who collaborate with universities on projects large and small. It is especially true for the students whose lives are transformed by their experiences on campus, and by extension for their loved ones. It is true for the former students, the alumni whose identities are often defined in significant part by their continued affiliation with alma mater and whose philanthropy continues to enable American universities to operate at a higher level of excellence than almost any other universities in the world.
But it is most true for the faculty, individuals who have committed themselves to lives of research and creative activity—and to sharing the fruits of their labors with the next generation in a manner that can inspire them and prepare them for lives of contribution and satisfaction. To succeed in their work, faculty members need universities to perpetuate values that are not found in other parts of society, with commitments that often seem mysterious or wrong-headed to those who are accustomed to working in non-academic environments. At the same time, faculty need their universities to furnish the multitude of intellectual and material resources that their work requires.
Many have spoken and written about the complex array of responsibilities that constitute the life of the president of a contemporary research university. Much of that work is, of course, private. Presidents must be administrators and managers, engaged in the kind of recruiting and hiring and firing, supervising and evaluating, budgeting, planning, negotiating, and decision-making that are familiar to chief executives within the private sector and the public sector as well. They also must be fundraisers, cultivating and soliciting support from a diverse group of benefactors a nd ensuring that gifts received are expended with a spirit of ethical stewardship.
The work of a university president is somewhat less typical in that it also includes a profoundly important public dimension. Presidents have permission, and a responsibility, to address public audiences. Often the occasions for speechmaking are purely ceremonial: a quasi-benediction to open a conference, or some light words of thanks to conclude a dinner. But with a frequency that is remarkable in contemporary society, university presidents are offered the podium and asked to address a large and attentive audience about some matter of public consequence.
During my tenure as Cornell’s president, it was important to me that I treat such offers as special opportunities. A significant element of university leadership is the need to present a vision of the purposes that one’s particular institution serves and to galvanize a shared sense of commitment to that vision. I believed that my public addresses were essential to that endeavor.
The purpose of this volume is to put before a broad audience the most significant speeches that I delivered, as an ensemble, so that they may be understood both as individual compositions and as elements of a more considered whole. As importantly, I attempt to set forth explicitly the thought processes that led me to write and deliver the addresses in the form that you find them here. To the extent these speeches were successful—and some were obviously more successful than others—they succeeded by offering ideas that I believe in, using a voice that is authentic, and deploying oratorical techniques that are susceptible to analysis and criticism. As much as the substance of the ideas included in this volume, I believe the speeches offer an instructive window on the potential and limitations associated with this distinctive rhetorical form. It is my hope that others will benefit from the opportunity to examine the choices that I made and to consider whether and why those choices were or were not effective.
The speeches that I selected for inclusion are grouped into three sections. The first section comprises speeches directed to an audience primarily of students and their parents. Each speech addresses the experience of being a student, either prospectively or in retrospect. Each advocates a particular stance on what it means to be educated and to live an ethical and intellectually engaged life.
The second section comprises speeches directed to the communities that are responsible for university governance—primarily faculty, trustees, staff, and engaged alumni. Each speech addresses some aspect of university planning and governance. Each advocates a particular stance on the dialectical process through which the faculty, the university president, and others shape the critical decisions about how a university allocates scarce resources.
The third section comprises speeches directed to broad audiences of individuals concerned with the role of the university in the larger world. Each speech addresses a substantive feature or challenge of contemporary life. Each advocates a particular stance on how a university—or at least how Cornell University—might contribute to humanity’s response to those challenges.
One of the characteristics that distinguishes a public address from other prose forms is that it is meant to be seen and heard, rather than read. That fact poses an inescapable problem for a book of speeches—in order to evaluate the speeches as speeches, the reader is forced to imagine a mode of delivery, and that act of imagination may or may not map very well onto reality. I have attempted to respond to this challenge by posting three of the 14 speeches (Chapters 3, 6, and 7) online at www.optimistic-heart.com (where they may be viewed as streaming video or download). Those who are interested will be able to glean a clear sense of the manner in which the talks were delivered, opening further opportunities for analysis and criticism.
In preparing this collection, my goal is to offer readers an understanding of both the substantive values and the techniques of expression that coalesced into my speeches as Cornell’s eleventh president. My anticipation is that such an understanding will be of instrumental benefit as readers consider the substantive ends of higher education as well as the ways they choose to speak to public audiences. I also hope that readers will find satisfaction in the simple experience of reading these addresses, approximating the experience of those who heard them initially.