175th Anniversary Gala Remarks from President Harring
President Harring delivered remarks during the 175th Anniversary Gala.
Friday, April 29, 2022 08:00 PM
Thank you, Sonya. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being with us tonight for this special occasion.
I hope you were able to look at the timeline of our history displayed in the Light Lounge down the hall. It offers a remarkable overview of our progress over 175 years and demonstrates how Muhlenberg has evolved and adapted over generations.
We are so proud of these milestones in our history. When you see these moments in black-and-white photographs, in newspaper clippings, even in paintings, it’s easy to forget that each of them was the culmination of intense focus and effort to overcome a challenge or seize an opportunity. It’s easy to forget that, leading up to each one of these moments, there were days, weeks, months, sometimes years when the people of this College were striving, sometimes struggling, to make these things happen – together.
Let’s focus on the “together” part for a moment. It is the foundation of our 175 years of excellence and achievement and we’re really good at it. For those of you who went to college here, it may be surprising to learn that not every institution of higher education works this way. Not only do we push hard and achieve excellence, we know how to do it together.
Our community-driven excellence defines us. It differentiates us. It gives us an advantage. It’s one of our superpowers.
This isn’t a platitude. It’s not just a nice sentiment. It’s a business principle. Better culture, cross-pollinated with intense, quality-focused work, yields better results. Organizations where the people empower each other–where everyone serves as a multiplier of talent–achieve more. Their people go farther. And that’s the whole point of higher education.
So, this weekend we’re celebrating 175 years of boundless, community-driven excellence and the results it has produced throughout our history and will produce for the next 175 years. What does that mean?
You’ve probably heard me talk about “wicked problems” before, intractable problems like pandemics, climate disasters, racism and threats to democracy. The only way to solve these “wicked problems” is to bring together a wide range of disciplines and use sophisticated habits of mind to work out integrated, multifaceted solutions. Kind of sounds like what we do here at Muhlenberg.
Now we can’t solve all of those problems here on campus. Not even the biggest research universities can. However, at Muhlenberg we produce the leaders–the scientists, artists and policy makers who go into the world and undertake these grand challenges, who solve those wicked problems.
No one produces those leaders better than liberal arts colleges do. In fact, our method is more effective than any other in history.
It’s more effective because we provide a community for our students, where they are challenged and supported and from which they can go into the world and lead.
When we create a community where talented students feel like they belong and are valued, where they have a home where they can thrive, learning can increase exponentially.
When we build and maintain that community, we build leaders. When we build leaders, we answer grand challenges and solve wicked problems.
Building this community means accessing our nation’s deep well of talented students, regardless of their background or means, and giving them a home for learning. Among other things, we’ve taken a leadership role in the American Talent Initiative. We’re one of 135 top colleges and universities that, together, have committed to enrolling, by 2025, an additional 50,000 talented students from low and moderate income families.
You, as a member of our community, are an essential part of this.
Community means recruiting, retaining, and rewarding great faculty – exceptional scholars who not only lead in their disciplines but who also can model our collaborative, community-driven excellence that is at the core of Muhlenberg’s identity.
You, as a member of our community, make this possible.
Community means working together to provide a transformative experience for our students, challenging and supporting them on a path to lives of consequence and meaning. We want them to push themselves in the classroom but also to get their hands dirty, to explore the world. We’re now offering more than 14,000 internship opportunities. More than half of our students study abroad or away in 141 programs in 56 countries. We are challenging them to succeed far beyond what they thought possible and supporting them so that they can take risks.
You, as a member of our community, make this possible.
Community means providing a home for all of this on a world-class campus, physically creating spaces that embody our principles. Today, we dedicated the Fahy Commons for Public Engagement and Innovation. The Fahy Commons is one of the most advanced and sustainable structures in the world. But tonight, we recognize it as emblematic of what the liberal arts stand for: combining research excellence and real-world engagement and problem-solving through inventive, critical and integrative thinking. And just as the building’s sustainability makes a statement, the programs housed there signal a commitment to engaging broadly–a renewed accountability to our community and the world.
Diverse and talented students.
Innovative faculty scholars.
Transformative experiences.
State of the art spaces.
That’s how Muhlenberg builds leaders equipped to solve wicked problems
And none of this would have been possible without every person here committed to a longstanding legacy of community-driven excellence. Thank you – very much.
And in that light, I have some news to share.
In February we lost a dear friend of the College, Lois Robertson. She would have turned 100 on March 30. Her late husband was Edward Robertson, class of 1942, who passed away in 2007. A trustee of the College from 1971 through 1981, Ed was elected a life trustee in 1982.
Together, Ed and Lois changed lives here at Muhlenberg College and beyond. They funded music lessons and college educations for promising students. They committed $5 million to build Robertson Hall. They were patrons of the arts. There is no way to adequately measure their devotion to the people and causes they loved, though one of those people is here: Scott Dainton, close family friend of Ed and Lois, and his husband, Cross Siclaire.
Scott, Cross, thank you for being here.
Perhaps the best way to explain Ed and Lois’s generosity is to describe how they served others, including each other. Ed had a special place in his heart for Muhlenberg and its students. He provided for them in many ways and made sure to plan for them. Lois kept promises, including Ed’s provisions for Muhlenberg students. On her passing, we learned that Muhlenberg College will receive more than $15 million from the Robertson estate.
This gift from Ed and Lois to Muhlenberg College will be the largest gift from an individual or family in our 175 year history. And they were family–warm, generous people who cared about making Muhlenberg and the world a better place. So it’s only fitting that Scott and Cross are here. Scott and Cross, thank you for being here to celebrate with us. Thank you for being a part of the Muhlenberg community–our family.
Many colleges and universities pursue excellence. Many do great research. Many of them teach well. Many of them have beautiful campuses. A few have good food. I say great – good for them.
But none of them put it all together the way we do – together, as a community. So let's be ambitious! Let's tell the world proudly who we are and what we achieve and where we are going.
We share a common vision, dare I say a common ambition. We want a Muhlenberg that creates boundless opportunities for our students. And the root of this ambition is our deep conviction that a Muhlenberg education will transform our students, and they in turn will transform our communities, our country and the world.
Muhlenberg changes students' lives. And in doing so we change the world. This is a bold vision, I know. Thank you for sharing it.
But bold ambition requires bold investment, and I hope you will all be leaders, advocates, and examples in our pursuit of boundless, community-driven excellence.
Thank you.
