[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER: By honoring
Toni Morrison in this way, we recognize the indelible impact
she has had on this university.
Arriving at Princeton in 1989 as the Robert F. Goheen Professor
in the Humanities, Morrison's transformative presence
as a member of the creative writing program
played a central role in diversifying our campus
by attracting other faculty and students of color to Princeton
and deepening our commitment to African American studies.
She also served as a catalyst for expanding
Princeton's commitment to the creative and performing arts.
In 1994, she founded the Princeton Atelier.
Professor Morrison's leadership has
helped Princeton to become the increasingly
imaginative and inclusive institution that we know today.
Through these myriad contributions, and now
through the name of Morrison Hall,
Professor Morrison's legacy will have enduring significance
for all who walk our campus.
RUTH SIMMONS: West College is an iconic structure,
part of the fabric of the Princeton identity.
How right and just for Morrison to be indelibly linked
with its history.
Her presence in a new Princeton narrative
is not so much to endorse the way things have always been,
but to point to the way they can and will be in the future.
The bookends of that powerful display
of her artistry on a snowy night, on the one hand,
and the dedication of Morrison Hall on the other,
celebrate the compelling story of her association
with this university.
Forever to be entwined the story of a great writer
and a great university with the good sense
to turn towards the future will be
recounted through the ages advancing the legacy of both
in a powerful way.
MACKENZIE BEZOS: In that first workshop with her a year later
when she shut the classroom door and treated
us like we were the only people in the world.
Sharing excerpts from books that she loved.
And telling stories that made her laugh until tears
streamed from her eyes.
And focusing the group's attention on each student's
writing with her keen observations and solemn
attention.
Or when senior year I sat waiting
in that crowded anteroom once a month for my thesis meeting.
And discovered that when her advisees' turns come,
she would draw them out of that waiting area.
And shut the door on the ringing phones.
And give them two impossibly focused hours.
Turning the pages of their manuscripts one by one.
And initiating painstaking and patient conversations
about individual words, and phrases, and the stories they
were struggling to create.
I would say that one of the most inspiring and surprising things
that she has given me is a real example
of a life of passionate devotion to more than one calling.
TONI MORRISON: This is a very, very special,
beautiful occasion for me.
Thank you, thank you both.
You're very, very important to me.
I'm so happy that you were willing to come
to tell me how wonderful I was.
[APPLAUSE]