Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Mojmir Povolny, Professor of Government and Henry M. Wriston Professor of Social Sciences, 1987
"Mojmir Povolny, a few words cannot capture the splendor of all you have been and are: loyal worker of the Benes Party in Prague during fateful 1948, expatriate by principled choice, dedicated official of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and American Friends Service Committee, student and teacher of international politics at the University of Chicago, scholar and professor at Lawrence, distinguished leader of the Czech movement in exile. Yet, in all these roles your aim has been consistent: to blend reason and passion in the study, teaching, and practice of international relations. For as the poet says: 'Reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.'
It is fitting that you now don the colors of a campus you have enriched with distinction for 29 years: as academic dean, department chair, wise counselor to presidents, confidant to colleagues, pedagogical innovator, scholar, and, above all, generous guide and teacher to students who have flocked to you over the years. To all you exhibit a precious quality: to care deeply, not only for individual, friend, and family, but also for institution and country. As we look to our future, we know that your voice and pen will continue to give utterance to the suppressed soul of your native land and to speak to us all of the freedom you so value.
By the authority vested in me, I now confer upon you the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem, and admit you to its rights, its privileges, and its obligations."