REMARKS BY JILL BECK
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY'S 15TH PRESIDENT

On the Occasion of Her Introduction to the Campus Community

January 23, 2004

I am very honored and happy to be here today celebrating a new beginning with Lawrence University.

As we look forward to the future together, it is important to begin by acknowledging the past and commemorating the present. Lawrence University is recognized as a quality liberal arts institution with unique excellence and balance among the sciences, humanities, and visual and performing arts. This reputation owes much, of course, to the faculty, but also to President Richard Warch, who has led the university for the past 25 years.

I do not pretend to grasp as yet all of President Warch's many contributions to Lawrence University, but I have determined at least three areas in which I should not fail to follow in his footsteps. One is President Warch's energetic advocacy of liberal arts education and its value as a foundation for personal fulfillment and contributions to society. Another is his unwavering support of the highest standards in teaching and learning. A third is his staunch commitment to Lawrence as a residential campus, where living and learning are mutually supportive. I look forward to working with President Warch in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition for our university.

A fine liberal arts education played an indispensable role in my own life. Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, opened my eyes to the joy of broad, exploratory learning, to the excitement of discovering connections between fields of study, and to ways of creating, analyzing and synthesizing knowledge that have supported the various stages of my career ever since. We do need to keep making this point concerning the virtues of a liberal arts education, in a world that often favors training that is targeted to particular careers, and increasing specialization that can exclude broader inquiry.

The philosophy of the liberal arts education, in which connections are sought among diverse subjects of study, is in fact synchronous with an emerging focus of research and creative activity: intersections between the sciences and the arts. A variety of relationships are re-emerging between these seemingly disparate fields. For example, consider the earth artists who engage the natural world in their work, including new investigations of the properties of light, weather, and complex ecologies. The power of art to influence human development on the other hand, is being researched by scientists in the neurobiology of learning and memory.

Researchers are exploring possible links between music, spatial reasoning and mathematical understanding. Much of this work is in early stages. However, the basic questions of how the arts, humanities and sciences may share methods to understanding of the world, and of how inquiry in one field can support inquiry in another, are increasingly prominent. Approaches to learning at Lawrence University -- in Freshman Studies, faculty-student tutorial projects, in cross-overs between the college and the conservatory, for example -- may provide some insights into these questions.

During the search process for the Lawrence presidency, I was asked to speak about my values. It was a good question, and I'd like to conclude today by restating a key component of my philosophy. Simply put, "it is not enough for a university and its students to pursue knowledge disinterestedly." One goal of a great university should be to graduate altruistic citizens, young adults with generous hearts to complement their developed minds. Whether by tutoring a child in a school classroom, or by serving as a community artist, or by turning disciplinary expertise to a social or environmental issue, we can each add to the strength of the fabric of life in our greater community, and we should do so.

I look forward to working with all of you in the years ahead.

Also see: