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ND-Nationalpp Copy 1.Indd JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL Twenty-eighth, and First onored historian, seasoned scholar steeped in uni- related to sitting here in the first few rows”), she focused on the versities’ distinctive role, adept academic administra- most institutional of purposes. In the presence of nine of her for- Htor—Drew Gilpin Faust forcefully took possession of mer teachers, from elementary through graduate school, and more her Harvard presidency during inaugural celebrations and a for- than 200 representatives of higher education from around the mal installation ceremony on October 11 and 12. She did so in world, she defined the essence of the university as being “uniquely striking language and imagery, telling the crowd in Tercentenary accountable to the past and to the future—not simply, or even pri- Theatre—their spirits unchilled by blustery rain showers— marily, to the present. A university is not about results in the next “Like a congregation at a wedding, you signify by your presence quarter; it is not even about who a student has become by gradua- a pledge of support for this marriage of a new president to a ven- tion.” Rather, she said, “A university looks both backwards and erable institution.” forwards in ways that must—and even ought to—conflict with a Although this was also a personal occasion (Faust said she was public’s immediate concerns and demands.” As “stewards of living “a little stunned to see almost every person in the world that I am tradition,” she said, universities “make commitments to the time- 54 November - December 2007 Photographs by Jim Harrison, unless otherwise noted DREW GILPIN FAUST Friday October 12, 2007 less,” endeavors pursued “because they define what has, over cen- The Harvard College Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble turies, made us human, not because they can enhance our global gives Drew Gilpin Faust, attired in Harvard’s presidential gown, a raucous welcome. President emeritus Derek Bok and James R. competitiveness.” As agents of uncomfortable change, accountable Houghton, Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, follow to the future, “universities nurture a culture of restlessness and her in the procession into Tercentenary Theatre. even unruliness.…transforming individuals as they learn, trans- forming the world as our inquiries alter our understanding of it, “For the first time in 371 years, Harvard has chosen as its presi- transforming societies as we see our knowledge translated into dent…a Southerner,” she said, with perfect timing, to laughter policies” and new therapies. And she arranged three times—in her and cheers, “and a woman”—a development in which “Cotton own address (see page 60), and twice in readings by relatives—to Mather, Harvard class of 1678, would surely see Satan’s hand.” invoke the most deeply rooted American beliefs in community and Faust subsequently acknowledged the obvious (“My presence in progress, to enlist engaged, energetic, and accountable member- here today—and indeed that of many others on this platform— ship in the Harvard community. would have been unimaginable even a few short years ago”), but For the most part, it was others who pointed out how extraor- promptly used her individual status to punctuate her point dinary the installation of the University’s twenty-eighth presi- about the institution (“Those who charge that universities are dent was. Amy Gutmann ’71, Ph.D. ’76, now president of the Uni- unable to change should take note of this transformation, of how versity of Pennsylvania, extended greetings from academia to di≠erent we are from universities even of the mid twentieth cen- Faust, who earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Penn. tury”). Although Faust chose to focus on academia generally, The decorative border comes from the Harvard Charter of 1650; the charter motif illustrated invitations to the 2007 installation Harvard Magazine 55 ceremonies. An image of the document and transcription of the text are available at http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/charter.html. Photograph courtesy of the Harvard University Archives INSTALLATION Gutmann limned Harvard’s distinctive role and al- Lest any doubt linger about the aims of this community, as op- luded to Al Gore Jr. ’69, LL.D. ’94, who hours earlier posed to Winthrop’s, Faust’s stepdaughter, Leah Rosenberg, read had been named co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. the final paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s Address before the Wis- Speaking for the faculty, Sidney Verba, Pforzheimer consin State Agricultural Society, on September 30, 1859—then, University Professor and director of the Harvard University as now, at the harvest time of year. It ends: “Let us hope…that by Library emeritus, pointed to the practical challenge of running the the best cultivation of place, given that “somehow the disparate and independent parts the physical world, be- of the University must be made to constitute a whole.” Perhaps al- neath us and around luding to the turbulent presidency of Lawrence H. Summers, us; and the intellectual which had ended 16 months before, Verba said Harvard’s leader and moral world with- must be able “to work with, listen to, appreciate, and understand in us, we shall secure the many voices that are raised [here]. To persuade, rather than to an individual, social, command….”Among University constituencies, he said, the faculty and political prosperity is “the most varied in its views.… But I doubt that I have ever seen and happiness, whose the faculty as united as it is in welcoming President Faust.” course shall be onward For her part, in service of and upward, and which, today and the future, Faust while the earth endures, mined deeper history. Among shall not pass away.” the readings she chose for the Service of Thanksgiving Like any ritual, of for a New President, con- course, an inaugura- ducted Friday morning in tion is not all spinach. Memorial Church, was the Alongside the rhetoric conclusion of “A New Mod- there is rigmarole. Sub- ell of Christian Charity,” stance is addressed head on, Governor John Winthrop’s but also symbolized. 1630 instruction to Before Faust heard Verba’s the settlers of the sober advice, she had help of Massachusetts Bay a di≠erent sort. During the Colony, composed Musical Prelude to an Inau- aboard the Arbella. guration, held on Thursday The paragraphs, read evening in Sanders Theatre, by her cousin Jack John Lithgow ’67, Ar.D. ’05, Gilpin ’73, famously JON CHASE/HARVARD NEWS OFFICE introduced “a primer on the proclaim the new set- Clockwise from top: Meter maid finer points of leadership”— tlement “as a city up- Gertrude (Karen MacDonald) issues from Hollywood. Je≠rey Mel- an inaugural ticket; Tyson (left) and on a hill.” Crucially, Lili Gilpin dispense leadership voin ’75 confected a pastiche then as now, Win- advice from Dr. Seuss to their of film clips, billed as an Ille- throp defined this en- “brainy” aunt; Drew Faust thanks gitimi Non Carborundum Kuumba Singers after the Thursday terprise as “work we “musical prelude”; Alison Brown in Production, o≠ering sugges- have undertaken,” the her post-Hist and Lit career. tions from the likes of Grou- success of which re- cho Marx (on sustaining col- quired its members, voluntarily associated, to “entertain each lege athletics) and on topics such as supporting the arts other in brotherly a≠ection. We must be willing to abridge our- (soothing Frankenstein’s primal rage with violin music). The selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. next morning, sixth- and second-graders Lili and Tyson Gilpin We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, (the president’s nieces) charmed the Memorial Church audience; gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each the girls, supported by their father, Lawrence Gilpin, and Jessica other; make others’ conditions our own…always having before our Rosenberg ’04 (the daughter of President Faust and her husband, eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of Charles Rosenberg, Monrad professor of the social sciences), de- the same body. So shall we keep the claimed from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! The unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” Installation Extras Dr. Seuss classic warns, “You’ll get mixed In an abbreviated way, Faust summoned Audio recordings of the morning Service up, of course,/as you already know./ that spirit in her own address, twice of Thanksgiving, held in the Memorial You’ll get mixed up/with many strange quoting from the same passage Win- Church, and of the afternoon installation birds as you go” and wisely counsels, throp’s call to the settlers to be “knitt to- exercises, in Tercentenary Theatre, are “Just never forget to be dexterous and gether, in this work, as one….” available at www.harvardmagazine.com, deft./And never mix up your right foot with additional photographs. 56 November - December 2007 DREW GILPIN FAUST Friday October 12, 2007 with your left.” Earlier in the week, opening an archival exhibi- The design of the installation invitations featured the Charter of tion on Harvard presidents, University Library director Robert 1650, befitting an historian president, but they were printed on Darnton quoted Edward Holyoke’s 1769 deathbed comment, “If “100% post-consumer waste paper with soy inks.” Visitors to the any man wishes to be humbled and mortified, let him become exhibition of Kara Walker’s Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War president of Harvard College”—and assured Faust, “These re- (Annotated) at the Fogg Art Museum (Faust will give a gallery talk marks do not apply to women.” on November 2) are invited to comment at a Facebook.com group. Self-deprecating Harvard humor was in vogue. During the con- Complementing the webcast of the installation exercises, the pro- cert, Alison Brown ’84 recalled that she was a Hist and Lit concen- ceedings were available, reported the News O∞ce, by downlink trator and noted, “You can imagine how excited my parents were from Satellite Galaxy 17, transpon- when I told them I wanted to be a professional banjo player.” Talk- der 6, using frequency 11820.0000 ing about herself and Pink Martini founder and fellow member and “vertical polarization.” Thomas M.
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