CHRISTINA PAXSON: Members of the Brown community--
faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and students--
it is my very great pleasure, as president of Brown University,
to declare the 255th academic year open.
[APPLAUSE]
I want to welcome the members of the entering classes
of the medical school, graduate school, and the college.
Among them, are 144 dedicated medical school students.
126 exceptionally talented master's and doctoral students.
10 brilliant resumed undergraduate education
scholars who have gained life experience after high school
before coming to Brown.
56 very wise and perceptive transfer students.
And of course, 1,657 exceptional first-year students--
the core of the Brown Class of 2022.
[APPLAUSE]
Welcome, to everybody.
Although this is my seventh convocation
as Brown's president, the excitement
of the first day of school never fades.
Seeing all of you here on this beautiful college
green just fuels my sense of optimism.
And the set of boundless possibilities
that always accompany the start of classes.
You come from every corner of the world.
You represent nearly every socioeconomic group,
political persuasion, religious affiliation,
and cultural background.
I want to extend a special welcome to those of you who
are the first in your families to attend college.
[APPLAUSE]
Starting at Brown must have a particularly special meaning
for you and your families.
More generally, each and every one of you
has an unique personal story and a distinctive set of talents
that you bring here to College Hill.
And it's the blend of these stories and talents
that create the magic that happens on this campus.
Our newest students and faculty members are joining--
what I believe-- is a very special community.
Our mission statement refers to Brown as a,
and I quote, "partnership of students and teachers
in an unified community,"
In the short time that I have with you
this afternoon, I'd like to consider these words
and address one simple question.
In what sense are we, as members of the Brown community,
unified?
This question is especially relevant now,
not only because it gets at Brown's essential character,
but because I raise it at a time when this country--
and many other countries around the world--
seem anything but unified.
We live in an era where divisive political rhetoric exposes deep
rifts and prompts fundamental questions about the kind
of society we want to be.
Debates over immigration center on who
has the right to live, work, and be educated in this country.
Debates about environmental policy
forces to consider how we should weigh profits today
against future costs to human health and well-being.
And challenges to the use of race
as one of many factors in college admissions
are opening discussions on the role of higher education
and promoting a just society.
And demanding that we explore differences in our visions
of what justice looks like.
Now, I know that these are very difficult issues
and I'm sure you can think of more.
And I doubt we're unified in our views on them,
nor should we expect to be.
But if we don't share the same views,
then what does it mean to be an unified academic community
at a time like this--
a time of division and polarization?
To me, it comes down to standing for shared values.
Even as all of us embody a broad range of perspectives
and worldviews, there is a core set
of values that animate Brown University.
The first is a dedication to seeking truth.
The second is a belief that advancing knowledge
and understanding is the path to a better world.
And the third is a commitment to respecting human dignity.
Seeking truth.
Knowledge in the service of society.
Respect for human dignity.
These are the values that drive our actions each and every day.
They are the values that unify us.
So what does it look like at Brown to live by these values?
Let me offer just a few examples.
First, we demonstrate our values in the way
that we respond to the assault on science.
Perhaps, most salient in the questioning of climate
change-- its existence and its consequences.
As an university community, we generate knowledge
by subjecting hypotheses to close empirical scrutiny.
We seek truth through the painstaking work
of observing, and testing, and validating, and replicating.
This approach drives the vital work
that we do at the Institute of Brown
for Environment and Society--
IBES, for short-- where scholars and students rigorously
examine how human activity is changing
the face of the planet.
Consider Professor Amanda Lynch--
I hope many of you get the chance to work with her.
She is the founding director of IBES
and she's working on the front lines of seeking truth
about climate change.
Her scientific work focuses on the stability
of arctic ice sheets--
a very important factor in sea level rise.
But she takes this scientific knowledge one step further,
by investigating what retreating sea ice
means to vulnerable Arctic hurting and fishing
populations.
And this knowledge informs policies
that serve a locally defined common good
and offer the best chance for forging resilience
and supporting the dignity--
back to human dignity--
of indigenous peoples.
Some years ago, Brown professor Kenneth Miller noted, quote,
"science is not a body of knowledge,
it's a way of thinking.
It's a search for truth that illuminates every aspect
of the human condition."
It's also-- I would add--
the kind of approach that unifies us.
A second example.
Our values were on display very recently,
when Brown journalism professor Tracy Breton,
working with a team of Brown students,
published a series of nine articles in the Providence
Journal-- our local paper--
on elder abuse in Rhode Island.
The final article on how the elderly are often
prayed for financial exploitation
scams over the internet disappeared just
in yesterday's issue.
The pieces were written over the course of a year.
They reflected DTL careful, data-driven research
into the lived experiences of elderly residents in the state.
And the portrait that they paint together--
which is sensitively derived and very, very powerful--
is one of an elder care system that's
rife with neglect, and disregard, and violence.
This extraordinary Brown inflected series
is investigative journalism at its best.
And it comes at a timely moment in the fourth estate, when
public trust and journalistic principles is
being routinely undermined.
It shines a light on truth.
It reveals knowledge that will hopefully, lead to reform.
And it calls out a shameful lack of respect for human dignity.
It is the opposite of fake news.
Finally, we see Brown's values in the power
of memory and history to distill eternal truths.
In particular, about the legacy of slavery,
the struggle for civil rights, and the unfinished business
of securing racial equality in America.
At a Black Alumni reunion being held a Brown
later this month, we'll remember a moment in 1968--
50 years ago-- the black student walk-out the transformed Brown.
This moment set in motion five decades of work
by faculty, staff, and students to make this university
a more inclusive and welcoming place for all.
Now, in part, that moment paved the way
for the work of my predecessor-- president Ruth Simmons.
Under her leadership, Brown was one of the first institutions
of higher education to examine its own role in the slave
trade-- appointing a steering committee on slavery
and justice.
The committee's report is a shining example
of insightful historical research.
I encourage all of you to take the time to read it.
Among other things, the committee
recommended the creation of the Center
for the Study of Slavery and Justice,
which is one of the jewels of education and research
at Brown.
People were deeply affected by the findings of the report.
For some, they were made whole.
For others, there was a, sort of, closure, coming to terms.
And for many, there was this sense
that Brown's acknowledgment allowed all of us
to unite to resume a timeless quest for dignity.
This was especially true for Rowan Ricardo Phillips,
who received his PhD from Brown in 2003.
In the pages of the committee's report,
he discovered that among the survivors of a horrific journey
undertaken by the Brown Brothers slave ship-- the Sally--
in 1764, were his ancestors.
Stolen from Africa and sold into slavery in Antigua.
Reflecting on the discovery of how complex his relationship
to this university truly was a place where he had thrived,
Rowan wrote something powerful and beautiful.
He said, "the ties that bind us have proved to be strong even
in their most broken places."
So pursuit of truth, belief in the transformative power
of knowledge, and respect for the dignity of all.
These are the values that unite us at Brown.
The faculty, the staff, the medical school students,
the graduate school students, the undergraduates s--
including the great class of 2022--
these are the values that turn our differences
into opportunities.
They turn the unknown into adventure.
And that turn education into true learning.
They transform college into Brown--
the lively experiment envisioned by our charter in 1764.
And today, because of all of you who are here,
I remain relentlessly optimistic about the year to come
and to our future overall.