Willamette President Discusses Race and Politics with Portland City Club

The election of President Barack Obama does not mean Americans now live in a post-racial society, but that they have the chance to begin “a more transparent public discourse on race that is long overdue,” Willamette University President M. Lee Pelton told the Portland City Club Friday.

At the club’s Friday Forum at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Pelton addressed “The New Diversity: Race and Politics in America Today,” including what Obama’s presidency means for future discussions of race.

“The real genius of Obama is that his presidency does not seek to transcend race, as some would have it, but rather he asserts that only by embracing — with bravery and a sympathetic imagination — the fullness and complexities of race will we have any chance of coming together as a nation to meet the great challenges of the future,” Pelton said.

To read Pelton’s entire speech, visit http://www.willamette.edu/about/president/. To listen to an online recording of the speech, visit http://www.pdxcityclub.org/forums-events/friday-forums.php#ListenOnline.

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Willamette Mourns Former University Leader

Bryan Johnston, former interim Willamette president and dean of the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, passed away June 7 at his home in Salem. Willamette President M. Lee Pelton remembered Johnston in this letter to the University community.

Dear Willamette Community,

It is with profound sadness that I deliver to you the news that Willamette’s very dear friend Bryan Johnston passed away in his sleep. Although the precise cause of death is not yet certain, it is believed to have been heart related. He was 59 years old.

Bryan approached his life and work with passion and vigor, humor and warmth. His enormous generosity of spirit, his razor-sharp wit and his infinite capacity to lead and inspire others were the hallmark of all he undertook as husband and father, college professor, Atkinson Dean, interim Willamette president, mediator, legislator, and the top administrator of some of the largest and most complex agencies in state government. Just a few weeks ago, Bryan had accepted the position of President of St. Martins College in Lacey, Washington, and was preparing to relocate there over the summer.

To the many people who knew Bryan through his mediation practice and his work in academia, politics and public policy, he was a respected and valued colleague. To hundreds more in the Willamette and Salem communities, he was a trusted and beloved friend. To his children, he was a wonderful and loving father, and to his wife Anne, he was husband, partner and best friend.

Our friend Bryan Johnston will be sorely missed. Please keep Bryan’s wife Anne and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,

President M. Lee Pelton, Willamette University

To share your memories of Johnston, learn about his memorial service or donate to the Bryan Johnston Scholarship Fund, please visit http://www.willamette.edu/mba/forum/johnston.htm.

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President Pelton: Emergency Preparedness

The events at Virginia Tech continue to cause many of us to contemplate the enormous impact of tragedy. As the images of grieving community members and families are seen, we may also see a picture of the vulnerabilities that we all face as human beings, and as a community. We know that each member of our community contributes to the rich personal and cultural experience that makes Willamette a special place. We understand the loss that they feel.

In response to the profoundly tragic events at Virginia Tech, we have begun a process to review, improve and strengthen our Emergency Response Plan under the leadership of our Emergency Management Team. Coincidentally, the University recently purchased new door-access software, to be installed in early summer, allowing us to lock down buildings. We have a team working on a system for mass-notification by email if an incident arises. A third effort is underway to explore how we would sound an audible signal throughout campus to notify everyone if an incident occurs.

While we have confidence in our ability to respond, it is worth the effort to examine how we might do even better.

For now, I'd like to offer information that may be helpful in answering some of the questions that we have received over the past couple of days.

Whenever you perceive that an incident is a threat to people's personal safety, we request that you immediately call 6911. Campus safety will immediately enlist the help of police, fire and EMS providers. Campus Safety staffing levels have the capacity to assist in any situation with competence, but Willamette is not staffed to be the primary response to a large incident. Our University responders are trained to communicate our needs clearly, and solicit a larger support team from the University and from resources outside the University.

In the event of an emergency like that at Virginia Tech, Campus Safety has the responsibility to notify the University's Emergency Management Team that is largely made up of senior level administrators and campus directors. This team assembles and determines what additional campus resources are needed to provide assistance to those in need. They also may notify the campus and outside community of the status of the situation that we are working to resolve.

It is clear that communication is an important part of handling a crisis and we see this as an area in which we can improve. The office of Communications, Campus Safety and WITS continually work on protocols for updating the community through WEB and phone technology. It will continue to be a priority to provide clear and informed communication.

I would encourage you to look at the Emergency Response Plan that is available on-line at http://www.willamette.edu/dept/safety/emergency/guide. This plan assists with understanding how the University may respond in a variety of emergency situations. The Campus Directory and Emergency Reference Guide, commonly called the "Fussers Guide" is annually updated, and available to all students and employees. If you do not have a copy of this near your phone, please contact Campus Safety for a copy.

Willamette University is precious and worth protecting by all reasonable means. Our work encourages openness and we enjoy freedoms that are very difficult to duplicate in other parts of our society. Thank you for your contribution to building this caring community. We all share a responsibility to protect these freedoms and our community and guard against those who would disrupt them.

Best regards,

Lee Pelton

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Willamette President Lee Pelton to Moderate Gubernatorial Debate

Willamette University President M. Lee Pelton will moderate the Oregon gubernatorial debate at the City Club of Portland’s Friday Forum. The high profile debate will be Oct. 13 at noon at the Governor Hotel, 614 SW 11th Ave. in Portland. The public is welcome.

“President Pelton is a well-regarded civic leader, scholar and university president, and we are pleased to have him moderate one of the most important debates of this year’s election season,” said Wendy Radmacher-Willis, City Club executive director.

Pelton was appointed Willamette University’s 23nd president July 1999. Under his leadership, the University has increased its academic profile, successfully employing strategies to attract the best faculty and the brightest students from the state, the nation and the world. Since 2001, Willamette University has been ranked a top tier liberal arts college by U.S. News and World Report.

Pelton chairs the American Council on Education and serves as vice-chair of the Harvard University Board of Overseers. He has lectured and written widely on higher education, and is recognized for his knowledge of and commitment to diversity. He serves on the boards of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Symphony and Portland General Electric.

Pelton holds a doctorate from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree in English and psychology from Wichita State University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1974. His area of academic focus is 19th century British prose and poetry.

He served as dean of the college at Colgate University (1988-91) and Dartmouth College (1991-98). At Harvard he taught in the English department and was the dean of one of Harvard’s 13 undergraduate colleges.

City Club of Portland is a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic affairs organization that promotes civic engagement and active citizenship to build a stronger community. Through unbiased research and compelling programs, the club connects citizens with ideas and issues that affect our community. The club is open to everyone who wants to interact with other citizens and shape the future of our city and state, providing a neutral forum for many diverse voices.

Doors open at 11:30 a.m.; the program begins at 12:15 p.m. and concludes at 1:15 p.m. Luncheon tickets are $20 ($16 for members of City Club) and must be reserved by 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, online at www.pdxcityclub.org or by calling 503-228-7231, ext. 103. Coffee/tea table tickets ($5) and general seating ($5; free for City Club members) will be available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.

A SmartPark garage is located one block away from the Governor Hotel at 730 SW 10th Ave. The Governor Hotel is accessible by bus, Portland Streetcar and MAX light rail.

The forum will be broadcast on Oregon Public Broadcasting and several television stations. People may also watch City Club Friday Forums online or purchase audio CDs, VHS videotapes or DVD videos of the program. For more information, visit www.pdxcityclub.org or call 503-228-7231.

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Media are encouraged to attend and are invited to sit in general seating. Please contact City Club’s communications coordinator, Chris Cochran, prior to the forum to RSVP and sign in at the registration table on the day of the forum. For broadcast media, an audio press patch will be available, and a riser for videotaping can be provided with advance notice. Contact Cochran at chris@pdxcityclub.org or 503-228-7231, ext. 102.

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Pelton Named Board Chair of ACE

Willamette University President M. Lee Pelton was elected chairman of the board of the American Council on Education (ACE) at its recent 87th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

He replaces William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

With more than 1,800 member institutions, the American Council on Education is the major coordinating body for higher education in the United States. It seeks to provide leadership and a unifying voice on key higher education issues and influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives.

Pelton will serve a one-year term.

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Brown v. Board of Education: Fifty Years Later

Reprinted from the Seattle Times Sunday, May 16, 2004.
by M. Lee Pelton, Willamette University President

Fifty years ago on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas that segregated public schools were unconstitutional. At the time of the high court’s decision, I was a four-year old African-American kid from a working class family in Wichita, Kansas.

I would enter kindergarten in the fall.

I lived on a street that divided two distinct neighborhoods: poor African-Americans to the south and middle-class whites to the north. Many of the houses in the African-American neighborhood were what we then called “shot-gun” houses: that is, standing in the front yard with the front and back doors opened, you could fire a shot gun clean through the house to the back yard. Most of the kids in this part of my neighborhood came from families of laborers like my father, who worked as a butcher at a meat packing plant and like my mother, who cleaned houses for middle class and rich white families.

My father and mother attended segregated public schools. After Brown I had a choice that neither of my parents had growing up: rather than attend the segregated African-American school several miles to the south, I could attend the white school a short three blocks to the north – a school segregated except for four cousins who entered a year before me.

This was an easy decision 50 years ago: my parents sent me to the white school because of its better facilities and fewer students per classroom. However, during my elementary school years, each school remained de facto segregated – one overwhelmingly white and the other overwhelmingly African-American.

Today, the African-American elementary school no longer exists, and the white school that I attended is predominantly Latino.
Every 25 years since the Brown decision, the Supreme Court has taken up – almost like clockwork – a case involving race and education, the outcome of which has served as a touchstone of fundamental American democratic values.

In 1978, Allan Bakke, a white student twice denied admission to the University of California. Davis Medical School, sued the University on the grounds that the preference given to minority applicants disadvantaged white applicants, thereby violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The court, in a divided opinion, invalidated the UC Davis’ admissions quota system but, at the same time, seemed to uphold affirmative action and the use of race as one factor in considering applicants. (Bakke v. Regents of University of California).

Twenty five years later in the summer of 2003 in two cases involving the University of Michigan, the court, speaking through Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, decisively ruled 6 - 3 that diversity is a compelling national interest and that affirmative action may be used in the college admissions process to achieve diversity, as long as the methods of doing so are “narrowly tailored” (Grutter v. Bollinger).

The ancestral lineage from Brown the University of Michigan is clear and distinct. In both instances, the court affirmed that public educational institutions - secondary and post-secondary alike - have an obligation to ensure that “the path to leadership … [is]… open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.” (Gutter v. Bollinger)

The court first heard oral arguments for Brown in December 1952. (Brown was actually a consolidated case involving five school districts in South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Kansas and the District of Columbia; the cases were known as Brown because it appeared first in the alpha listing.) The court was deeply divided over the issue and it, therefore, took the very unusual step of ordering a re-argument for October 1953 in the hopes of attaining a unanimous decision or, at the very least, one that would inspire confidence and broad support for the its ruling.

However, a month before the second re-argument was to take place, Chief Justice Fred Vinson unexpectedly died – providentially, some would say later - from a heart attack. President Dwight Eisenhower, whose own views on desegregation were conflicted, appointed as the new chief justice, a man not known for the strength of his judicial intellect: Earl Warren, a career politician and former governor of California.

So it was that Warren was sworn in as the nation’s 14th chief justice in the fall of 1953 after the court’s consideration of Brown had already begun and a mere four weeks before the decisive re-argument was scheduled to take place.

Most interesting is that when he was California’s attorney general, Warren had demanded the internment of more than 100,000 West Coast Japanese Americans during World War II. In fact, he had been a member of an anti-Asian organization, the Native Sons of the Golden West.

And yet it was Warren who persuasively championed the Court to unanimously rule an end to segregated public schools, and it was he who read from the bench the now famous lines that constitutionally annihilated the separate but equal doctrine that had been the law of the land since Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place... separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Justice Felix Frankfurter, not known as a very religious man, later called the timeliness of Vinson’s death as “the first indication that I have ever had that there is a God.”

In a unanimous opinion, the court wrote language that forever connects the desegregation of public education with the use of affirmative action in the admissions policies of colleges and universities:

“Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments... It is required in the performance of our most basic public society. It is the foundation of good citizenship... In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”

Fifty years later certain memories stand out: My best friend in elementary school was a white boy who lived in the white neighborhood where I went to school. I recall playing football on Thanksgiving in the fresh, new Kansas snow – he was a pretend Johnny Unitas, the Baltimore Colts quarterback, and I was a pretend Lenny Moore, the all-star running back. And though we walked to school together, I was never allowed by his parents to set foot inside of his house.

I recall being chased home across the school playground by my principal, Mrs. Zimmerman, who seemed to my young imagination an exact replica of the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz. I can no longer remember the affront that triggered this event, but I remember that she never took kindly to the idea of an integrated school or to a young African-American kid who seemed to outshine all of the other kids. The next day my mother, my grandmother and Aunt Lizzie, three strong-minded African-American women, walked resolutely to school – with me in tow - to confront her bigotry.

I learned many lessons – not all of which the court probably had in mind when it desegregated the nation’s public schools.

I learned from an early age what it means to be the only dark face in a sea of white faces. I learned what it takes to be the best when the expectations of teachers, students and others lean entirely in another direction. I learned what it means to be the “first” African-American “this” or “that.” I learned the burden – imposed, in part, by whites and people of color alike - for me and others like me to represent in our life and work not only our own private hopes and dreams, but also the hopes and dreams of an entire race of dark-skinned people.

Brown’s legacies are many, and they are powerful.

Brown represents the convergence of two compelling movements: one legal, the other social. As important as Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott are in our nation’s history, the civil rights movement really commences with Brown. Brown began the long process of legally unraveling a nation of separate parks, hospitals, public transportation, water fountains, public restrooms, libraries, hotels, restaurants, theaters, and cemeteries – not only in the South, but in the North as well. It laid the legal foundation on which other forms of discrimination have been eliminated.

We are a better and a stronger nation because of Brown.

And yet, at times, it seems that for every step forward that we have taken since Brown, we take two steps back.

There is good news in higher education: when I entered college in the mid-70’s, nearly 87 percent of college students in the United States were white, about 9 percent African-American and the combined total of Asian American, Native Americans and others less than 3 percent. And, yet, today, nearly 28 percent of those participating in higher education are persons of color.

By contrast, the news in public secondary education is less encouraging: public schools are re-segregating themselves. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University reports that the average white student attends schools where more than 80 percent of the students are white and less than 20 percent of the students are other racial and ethnic groups. A total of 70 percent of the nation’s African-American students now attend predominantly minority schools – a significant increase from the low point of 63 percent in 1980.

The report goes on to say that “the vast majority of intensely segregated minority schools face conditions of concentrated poverty, which are powerfully related to unequal educational opportunity. Students in segregated minority schools can expect to face conditions that students in the very large number of segregated white schools seldom experience.” Those conditions include more school violence, less per capita spending and, in many cases, lower academic standards and expectations.

By the year 2050, there will be no majority “race” in America. Even today, the big question is whether or not it is possible to sustain the vision from which Brown emerged in an America that is radically different from America 50 years ago.

In many respects, the world, 50 years later, is topsy-turvy.

Consider, for example, a San Francisco school district, in which there is no majority and in which some groups, such as Chinese-Americans, fiercely resist an integration plan that buses its school age children many miles away, denying them access to their neighborhood schools close by. Similarly, African-American families in large urban inner cities, like Boston and Chicago, challenge court-ordered busing in favor of revitalized but highly segregated neighborhood schools. In these instances, how do we reconcile the competing claims of families of color against the integrationist vision of satisfying a public good – a public good hard won 50 years ago with much sweat and many tears?

What shall we do? There are, of course, no easy answers.

Yet, I believe that we must re-construct public education, our schools and our communities on behalf of democracy in an America that no longer seems simply black and white, but increasingly multi-racial and multi-ethnic. In doing so, we protect the legacy of Brown and its role in defining social justice and equality in America.

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President Pelton's State of the University

Good afternoon and thank you for coming to this afternoon’s event.

Founder’s Day gives us a chance to pause, if only briefly, so that we might reflect on our history – our evolution from a school of modest beginnings to a leading national institution of higher learning. Most important, it provides us with the opportunity to publicly honor the good work of our faculty.

July of last year marked the fifth anniversary of my appointment as president of Willamette University. At the ice cream and cake party that we held in Jackson Plaza, I could not but help think of the opening lines of Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey Ode, which recounts the poet’s visit with his sister to the Abbey after a five-year absence:

Five years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! And again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain springs
With a soft inland murmur --- Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

There is much meaning in these lines for me because encountering them for the first time in my sophomore year in college signaled the beginning of my academic career. Wordsworth describes the melancholy and mythic beauty of loss and discovery that is to be found in nature. And I learned - in this poem and others like it - the power of great art to connect us to themes that endure life times - themes that endure civilizations and cross continents – great and small.

This poem also reminds me of what a difference a professor can make in the life of a young person. In my case, her name was Fran
Stevens, who introduced me to the joys to be found in the world of ideas and beauty.

Though my high school grades and other achievements seemed to promise a sparkling college career, I was an indifferent student during my first year of college.
After having taken time a year off at the conclusion of my freshman year, I returned with renewed energy and purpose.

Professor Stevens’ class on 19th century Romantic poetry changed my life. I learned how to read and analyze texts. I learned to appreciate the pristine sensibility of John Keats, the idiosyncratic revolutionary spirit of William Blake and Shelley as well as the lovely nature poetry of William Wordsworth. For a poor kid who was the first in his family to attend college, this was quite a leap.

Under Professor Stevens’ leadership and example, the English department tailored a curriculum especially for me. I was allowed to undertake independent work and do special projects. On one occasion, Professor Stevens even asked me to write and deliver lectures to my classmates in a course on Lord Byron in which I was enrolled.

Simply put, she restored my confidence by showing confidence in me, for she knew, as all great professors know, that confidence is the parent of competence.

I know of no human labor nobler, more splendid than teaching. The classroom is where change begins, where transformation begins, where growth begins. It is a place of inspiration and hope. Therein lies our future.

I left my undergraduate college intent on a life of teaching and research. And even after I crossed over to the dark side - as my children might say - to the less inspired world of administration, I have always sought to emulate her commitment to be attentive to the individual needs of individual students - both in and outside the classroom.

It is fitting that we honor our professors on Founder’s Day as an apt reminder of what they contribute daily not only to this university but to the larger society, as well.

Before we move to the awards part of our program I want to say a few words about where we have been and where we are going.

The primary marker of the success of our ambitious goals remains our
Strategic Long-Range Plan - finalized during my second year as president. This plan represents the collective vision and wisdom of faculty, trustees, students, staff and alumni. It represents the blue print of our future and earmarks five areas in which Willamette seeks distinction: academic excellence, student life, visibility, technology innovation and diversity.

On two of these benchmarks - it seems to me - we have scored high: in student life and in diversity. Today, admission to the College of Liberal
Arts is more selective, and the academic credentials that students bring to Willamette have increased. The College of Law has courageously raised the standard for student academic achievement. This has been a difficult but necessary change that will, among many things, improve bar passage rates and reward high achieving students. I am especially pleased that enrollments in the School of Education remain robust despite unfavorable state funding for public education. This demonstrates administrative leadership, terrific teaching and the excellent reputation that the School of Education enjoys.

Demands for more social space led to the creation of the Montag Center two and half years ago. A long expressed need for more and better studio arts space has been addressed, in large measure, by our recent addition to the Art Building. Improvements in our athletic facilities have enhanced our intercollegiate and recreational programs.

In the various yardsticks of diversity, we have been successful.
Undergraduate student of color enrollment has increased almost two fold in five years. The College of Law has increased racial and ethnic diversity in its student body and the Atkinson Graduate School of Management has sustained its enviable international student population. And while we have made recent gains in hiring faculty of color, especially in the College of Liberal Arts and more modestly in the Law School, I hope that you will agree with me that our work is not yet done in this important area.

There is more geographic breadth in the student body – in all of our schools - than existed five years ago. More undergraduates than ever in the history of Willamette will have had at least one significant international experience through work, study or travel abroad before graduating. Clearly, the student perspective – in and outside the classroom- is more global in its orientation to issues and ideas that govern human life.

The University has sustained its commitment to enable high school students from very modest means to enroll at Willamette. Endowed scholarship funds have increased by $19 million dollars since 1998. Scholarship support has been enhanced in the College of Law and the School of Education.

Our plans to create an undergraduate residential and housing system that knits together academic and social student life received a big boost with an $11 million dollar gift received last year. The residential commons program will enhance teaching and learning at Willamette. It will be distinctive, and it will distinguish us from other highly selective colleges and universities. However, much planning remains: Who will live where and when will they live there? What architectural spaces and features best meet our programs objectives? How are the various parts of the commons to be staged and over how many years? What is the cost and how will we fund or finance it? Who among our faculty will live there and how will they be rewarded?

Certainly, my own thinking about the residential commons program has evolved during the last two years. I have concluded that any redesign of our residential system must involve – as a top priority – significant improvements to our current housing as well as the addition of new living spaces that upper class students will want to live in. Therefore, I have asked the residential commons planning groups, under the leadership of Bob Hawkinson, to make sure that these twin goals have priority in our commons planning, even if it means making significant modifications to our current commons program and facilities design.

Certainly, our regional and national visibility has been enhanced through more focused efforts to tell the wonderful stories of achievement and excellence that characterize who we are and what we stand for. Our emergence into the so-called top tier of national liberal arts universities and colleges as well as our invitation to participate in national scholarship, awards and philanthropic programs speak to a growing prominence. Our faculty - on both sides of Winter Street – continue to receive national recognition for their research, their scholarship and their teaching.

Most notably, when I am traveling east of the Mississippi these days, I hear “Willamette” spoken more often than “Will-a-met.” And surely, this is one measure of our success in this area.

We have made some, but not nearly enough gains in technology. A two million dollar challenge grant from Bert and Candace Forbes has provided incentives for other donors to participate in our technology initiatives. The Eaton Hall addition has added more smart classrooms and the offices vacated from Smullin Hall will allow WITS to expand in much needed space. A technology advisory group comprised of several technology leaders and innovators from the Pacific Northwest has been formed to help us think carefully about the role of technology at Willamette as well as help us identify support for our goals. We have improved our network capacity and we have developed plans for an equipment replacement program. However, none of these gains have kept pace with the exponential demands for more and better technology. We significantly lag behind our national peers in our technology operating budget, network capability as well as stabilizing funding for long-term equipment replacement.

During the last five years, we have made substantial commitments to academic excellence. A major salary adjustment in the College of Liberal Arts lifted all faculty ranks from near the bottom of their respective salary scales to the median and above. A step system was put into place to help sustain these gains. CLA established a new leave program for junior faculty and increased funding for faculty development. We have added net new ladder faculty in CLA, Law and the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. This year we endowed two faculty chairs – one in American history and the other in the Law School – as well as completed funding to endow the director of the Hallie Ford Museum. The Law School has endowed a government and law program, established a business and law program and funded several new professorships. Atkinson has established a dean’s fund that will enable its new dean, Jim Goodrich, to support initiatives that will enhance Atkinson’s reputation and reach.

Despite these goods efforts, we have not done nearly enough to support our faculty and our goal of academic excellence. We must do a better job and we will. For the next five years our planning and resources will focus on academic excellence as our highest priority.

I have asked the deans of CLA, Law and Atkinson to provide me with specific plans to enhance academic excellence in their respective areas within a five-year time frame.

The College of Liberal Arts has been engaged in complex and thoughtful discussions regarding faculty workload. Our faculty – whether in CLA, Law, Atkinson or Education – are conscientious and devoted to their students – both in and outside the classroom. They continue to juggle -with great success - the ever-increasing demands of academic life. Many do this while trying to raise families.

Theirs is a tough and demanding job. And while it has many professional rewards, it often comes with considerable personal sacrifice.

The CLA faculty workload committee, chaired by Professor Meredy Edelson, has documented thoughtfully the demands of teaching, scholarship and service on CLA faculty. Any reasonable set of remedies to reduce or reallocate workload will require significant investments in new faculty as well as increased support for faculty development. These remedies to address workload come at a time when the gains that we had made in CLA faculty salaries have eroded somewhat relative to our peer group. Clearly, we will face a set of tough choices and trade-offs in the CLA academic excellence planning model.

The College of Law has identified its top priority as the need to close the gap between Law faculty salaries and the national average. The dean envisions two new faculty and significant enhancements to faculty research and scholarship budgets.

The Atkinson priorities will reflect its long-term plan to expand its MBA program to metropolitan Portland. This expansion will require new faculty. Salaries increases and additional support for faculty research and travel is also needed.

These are worthy and ambitious goals that have a very good chance of enhancing academic excellence in CLA, Law, Atkinson and the School of Education. We will need to add at least three million dollars permanently to the annual operating budget within the next five years in order to satisfy every need identified by the deans. We undertake this process during challenging economic times.

It is unlikely that we will not be able to do all that we would like or do it at the pace that we would like.

However, we must start somewhere and we must start sooner rather than later. The draft budget that I will recommend for approval by the Trustees includes an academic excellence reinvestment plan that sets aside $1.1 million permanent dollars over the next three years. During years four and five of our reinvestment program we will continue to identify new sources of funding - especially through our fund-raising efforts.

As I reported to you recently, we have raised $35 million towards our $125 million “From Exceptional to Extraordinary” campaign goal. In other words, we have raised 28% of our goal in only 18 months. If we are able to achieve our goal of raising $45 million dollars of endowment in support of academic excellence during the life of the campaign, we will add more than $2 million dollars to our operating budget for these purposes.

In addition to our support of faculty, we must also be mindful of the role that classified staff and administrators play in enhancing academic excellence. They are equally committed to ensuring that Willamette provides its students with a first-rate educational experience. They support the faculty in countless ways on a daily basis and their important work – whether in facilities, grounds, admissions, housing or printing, to name only a few – tell a remarkable story about a remarkable university. I am grateful for their dedication and hope that the 4% base salary pool that we have asked for in next year’s budget will represent one small step towards a fuller recognition of their vital role in the success of this community of learning.

Ours is a busy campus. Willamette’s Music and Theatre departments put on more than 26 musical performances and six theater or dance productions last year.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art received more than 25,000 visitors last year -- including 80 group tours from area schools and other groups --- who took in eight exhilarating and fascinating exhibitions. The Museum is fast becoming the region’s cornerstone for fine arts experiences and educational opportunities.

The Atkinson Lecture Series has been particularly successful this year, with two sold-out lectures, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and humorist David Sedaris. Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan, is the featured speaker in February.

Our students continue to distinguish themselves. Two students from the College of Liberal Arts were named Udall Scholars - given to undergraduates nationwide who show potential to shape the discourse on issues related to the environment. Two students, both chemistry majors, received the highly prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, a national award established to recognize the nation’s top students in mathematics, science and engineering. The College of Law won the national environmental law moot court competition. In a rare accomplishment, the Law school team captured the Best Brief award. Atkinson School students earned a Superior Merit Award from the national professional chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management. MBA students made significant contributions to the Salem-Keizer community through the PaCE (Private, Public and Community Enterprise Project) Program. Each year PaCE teams create a real enterprise, establish and market a product or service and donate the proceeds and substantial volunteer hours to their non-profit partner.

With the support of the School of Education’s $1.4 million grant from the US Department of Education, this year’s MAT students are becoming innovators in the use of technology to enhance learning. One student is developing an online field guide for stream aquatic life for his high school while two others are connecting their middle and high school students with students in Ecuador to compare ecological data and develop Spanish and English language skills.

Drea Ferguson, (MAT '95), was selected this fall as one of 100+educators across the country to receive the prestigious $25,000 Milken Family Foundation Educator Award. The award is presented to teachers and administrators for furthering excellence in education.

Willamette University is an important intellectual, economic and social resource and though our core mission is to educate students, I believe that we also have a compelling commitment to our community, our state and our nation. A truly engaged university has an obligation to use its many gifts to make our nation – and the world – a better place to live. The Willamette Academy, the minority graduate dissertation fellowship, the Dempsey and Atkinson Lecture Series are examples of programs whose broad purposes extend beyond our core mission.

We must open the doors of opportunity for our nation’s young people; we must provide occasions that engage the public in significant conversations about the welfare of the nation – whether it be under the auspices of our Public Policy Research Center or the Oregon Law Commission, housed on our campus.

I will continue to speak on behalf of social justice and equality wherever I am asked to and wherever there is a need. Five years ago I said to you that “our commitment to diversity will unsettle some, but it will ultimately create a greater bridge of understanding between differences, where we will both see and appreciate our commonalties in our diversity.”

But to do this well, to do this at the level of excellence that we expect at Willamette is hard work that commands all of our resources, from faculty development grants that create new courses, to the scholarships that yield a talented and diverse student body, to funds for innovative programs that link work and learning and prepare men and women to change the world. We must continue to empower our community at Willamette to create a sense of responsibility for each other.

The democratic ideal is equal opportunity for full human development, and, since education is an intrinsic part of human dignity, the democratic ideal demands that we should strive to see to it that all have the opportunity to attain the fullest measure of the education that is possible to each.

Let us be mindful of our future and of others in that future.

One of our goals should be to offer young men and women the opportunity and the access to achieve this most democratic of ideals. I believe that they should have the chance to have that education which will fit them for responsible democratic citizenship and will develop their human powers to the fullest degree.

The key to the American dream is education. Not the kind of education that is available only to those privileged by history or family income. Not the kind of education that is built on narrow self-interest rather than a compelling vision of what we could be if we were truly open to the best that is known and thought in the world.

But the kind of education where the doors of opportunity are open wide, where the table is set for all to enjoy life's bounty.

And if we are to be an engaged university – a full participant in our democratic society – we must not turn our backs to the nation’s wants and problems. Much like Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot’s grand 19th century novel Middlemarch, we are “a part of that involuntary, palpitating life and ... [we cannot]... look out on it from ...[our] luxurious shelter as a mere spectator, nor hide... [our]... eyes in selfish complaining.”

We have charted a course for the university to follow into the future, while remaining true to our past. The broadest goal of our planning efforts has been to strengthen our community’s intellectual life. We see this as a commitment both to support vital and successful programs and to continue to take bold intellectual initiatives that will allow us to enhance the academic excellence and creativity for which we are noted.

Five years have passed with a swiftness that sometimes surprises. I appreciate your support during this time and thank you in advance for your continued support through the next five years.

Thank you.

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Good News for Higher Education and the Nation: The Supreme Court Upholds Affirmative Action

By M. Lee Pelton
President, Willamette University
Salem, Oregon

Slightly edited versions of the president's opinion piece are scheduled to appear in The Seattle Times June 25 and in The Chronicle of Higher Education delivered June 30 but dated July 4, 2003.

The Supreme Court's ruling on the two cases challenging University of Michigan's admission practices is good news for American higher education.

Taken together, the Court said "no" to the affirmative action opponents who seek to undo decades of hard-earned social progress - who want the nation to turn its back on America's commitment to equality and social justice.

The Court has affirmed three principles that are fundamental to the core purposes of our nation's colleges and universities. First, it says that colleges and universities - not the courts - may decide who they admit and on what basis they may be admitted. Second, it says that diversity remains a compelling educational interest. Third, it says that institutions of higher learning may continue to use affirmative action in achieving diversity, as long as the methods of doing so are "narrowly tailored."

The Court - by a 5 - 4 vote - upheld the law school's use of race to create a "critical mass" of minority students in its student body. By contrast, the Court voted 6 - 3 that while the undergraduate school's educational diversity interests were compelling, its point system was not sufficiently "narrowly-tailored."

Perhaps, the best news of all is that the Court's ruling supports the important notion that each college and university should be free to establish its own educational mission. Since 1819, when Daniel Webster uttered the now famous words on behalf of his alma mater, "'tis a small college but there are those who love it," in defense of Dartmouth College's assertion that the State of New Hampshire had no right to claim it as a public university, the courts have held the view that institutions of higher learning may choose what they teach, who will teach and who will be admitted. (See American Council on Education Amici Curiae Brief, pp. 4 -12.)

Additionally, the Court's ruling recognizes that race matters in America. The Court seems to agree with William Bowen and Neil Rudenstine, who have said that "it is morally wrong and historically indefensible to think of race as 'just another' dimension of diversity… [because] … racial classifications were used in this country for more than 300 years in the most odious ways to deprive people of their basic rights." (Race-Sensitive Admissions: Back to Basics, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 7, 2003, p. B10.)

Diversity matters.

Yet, despite the clear and urgent need for us to do a better job of bringing and supporting diversity in our communities of learning, there are those who are opposed both to the methods of inclusion as well as to the inclusion itself.

Those who actively oppose affirmative action do not plan to stop with this failed attempt. This is just a single battle in a long war that they plan to wage.

We know by now that the opposition to affirmative action in college admissions is based on powerful cultural myths, none of which is true. We have not achieved true equality in America. We do not all begin the race from the starting line with an equal advantage. Colleges and universities have never admitted students based purely on academic merit without consideration of other factors. Today’s high school students do not come to our institutions with greater exposure to diversity, but rather we know that our public high schools are more segregated today than they were 15 years ago. And lastly, affirmative action does not stigmatize those whom it is designed to benefit.

I will not recite the many other arguments against affirmative action here. Instead, I am reminded daily that this issue has a human dimension – it has a human face.

The opposition to affirmative action as one means to achieve diversity bothers me greatly. I take it as a personal affront.

My own beginnings were very modest. My grandparents were sharecroppers, and my family belonged to the class of people called “the working poor.” On more than one Saturday morning I woke up to nothing to eat in the house save a can of Carnation milk that my mother mixed with water, a green apple and day old donuts that she bought because they were half price. And though we were never on welfare, many around us were. My mother finished high school. My father did not, earning his G.E.D. certificate when I was a young boy. Though he lived in a predominantly white school district, he was forced to walk each day to the “colored-only” segregated school several miles away.

My father was a laborer and my mother cleaned houses for a living. Like many in my generation, I was the first to go to college. I went to Harvard on a scholarship that was designed to increase the enrollment of students of color. No one called it affirmative action back then – but that is what it was. Its purpose was to provide an incentive for bright young men and women to consider pursuing a Ph.D. in the graduate school of arts and sciences rather than law or business or medical school or, the truth be told, to attend Harvard rather than, say, Yale or Princeton or Stanford.

This opportunity changed my life forever. I am the perfect example of why these policies are important to preserve and to enhance until they best serve the crucial goals of diversity and opportunity.

In 1916, John Dewey described democracy as the most ethical aspiration conceived by ethical communities. The aspiration was unobtainable, he wrote, without a society’s commitment to a life-long education to develop the “capacities for associated living” in a society characterized by complexity and diversity.

This is the great American dream. That we can create out of the rich diversity of human experience communities of learning - communities made both beautiful and effective by their pluralism - communities of learning that will turn the tide of human want into a sea of joy and light.

No one can afford to be silent until the table is set for all to enjoy life's bounty and where our nation's motto - e pluribus unum - the one out of the many - is a living creed.

We must find what binds us together, in common hope and need, not what divides us. For we may or may not all come to love one another, but to be part of the best of this place we must have the moral courage to respect one another.

This is our hope as a nation committed to equality and social justice.

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State of the University - Founders Day

I am pleased to welcome you to Founders Day. Today we mark with pride the 161st anniversary of our University.

I also wish to acknowledge three professor emeritii who are joining us today: Dr. Henry Bailey III, Dr. Jim Hand and Dr. George McCowen. Please stand and be recognized. Thank you for coming.

To put today into perspective, when Willamette was founded John Tyler was president of the United States; Abraham Lincoln was only thirty-three years of age and a full twenty years away from delivering his emancipation proclamation address. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin would not be published for another ten years.

Our impressive history is one of our strongest assets, rooted in tradition, an established institution constantly evolving and reinventing itself, rising to meet the challenges of modern society as well as new ways of knowing and discovering what is good and useful.

We must continue to invest in our future - confident that our work is both splendid and noble - confident that we are educating young women and men to knowledge, to virtue, to beauty and to citizenship.

Our mission is nothing less than to change the lives of our students so that they, in turn, will change – for the better - the world in which we live.

Of course, much has changed since the early days of our founding. The university has grown in size. It has added a law school, a graduate school of management and a school of education.

In recent years, our students come to us from more diverse backgrounds: ethnic, racial, economic, geographic – national as well as international. Their high school academic profiles continue to increase each year: higher SAT scores, a greater percentage graduating from the top 10% of their classes and more National Merit Scholars.

And yet much has not changed. We remain faithful to the core values of educating young people to participate fully as leaders in a democratic society. And while we recognize the importance of research to advance new knowledge and enhance classroom instruction, our preeminent activity continues to be teaching.

Our faculty are among the most conscientious in the nation, devoted to their students – both in and outside the classroom. They continue to juggle -with great success - the ever-increasing demands of academic life. Many do this while trying to raise families.

Theirs is a tough and demanding job. And while it has many professional rewards, for too many it comes with considerable personal sacrifice.

I am enormously grateful and impressed by their commitment to this University.

As The Education of Henry Adams reminds us “[teachers] affect eternity; [they] can never tell where [their] influence stops.”

Excellence has been the focus of many discussions this year in several venues: in small faculty dinners organized by the Dean of CLA; in presidential fora; and in several luncheons that I have had – and will continue to have – with faculty from all ranks and from all of our colleges.

These conversations make clear that we all care deeply about excellence. I have spoken with several junior faculty in the College of Liberal Arts, some - but not all - of whom worry that the measurements and rewards for excellence are shifting in ways that make it more difficult for them to succeed. And, yet, my own experiences at Willamette as well as my conversations with senior faculty reassure me that what we are attempting to do in the College of Liberal Arts is what we have, in large measure, always attempted to do. As one faculty member recently reminded me, “We renew ourselves every semester – no, every day.”

One of the great strengths of our faculties in all parts of the University is the way in which governance is conceived of as a shared activity, irrespective of faculty rank. My conversations in the College of Liberal Arts, in particular, have convinced me that junior and senior faculty share many more similarities than differences about the University’s purpose, mission and standards for excellence. We have a shared vision of the University’s future and, in large measure, the means to achieve it.

The pursuit of excellence brings focus to what we do as well as what we value as a commonwealth of learning.

Excellence is an aspiration. It is not so much about what “is” but rather about “what might be.” It is an ideal whose pursuit is worthy of our best collective thinking and actions.

Excellence is not measured by rankings and polls. And outcome measurements, while important, are limited because we cannot really know the full measure of the success of what we do until many years after our students have graduated.

Excellence is measured by our educational effectiveness and our capacity to do what we say we do – to fulfill our stated mission.

In thinking about excellence and what we do well at Willamette, I am drawn to stories – representative stories that serve as touchstones of our aspirations for excellence.

I want to share with you one story about uncovering secrets.

For nearly three years in a basement vault at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, five Orthodox religious icons sat unnoticed. They weren’t displayed because no one knew anything about them. That is, until art history student and Willamette senior Emily Scott decided to research and unlock the secrets of these lovely sacred icons.

Emily became interested in the icons while searching for a topic for her senior thesis. To fund her research, Emily applied for a Carson Undergraduate Research Grant, which, as you know, provides our undergraduates with a $2,500 stipend to pursue an original idea or area of research beyond what they can study in a classroom setting.

To uncover the icons’ secrets, Emily poured over dozens of images of icons whose details were well known, looking for similarities and differences. She also sought the help of Orthodox iconographic scholars and experts.

Through her research, Emily discovered that four of the icons were Russian in origin. One, a panel of the Virgin Mother and child that featured intricate patterning in the clothing of the figures, is from the Ukraine. Three of the icons were painted in the Eastern European Byzantine style, which is characterized by figures with elongated faces and narrow facial features. Based on their size and condition, Emily concluded that some of the artworks were most likely personal icons that were displayed in private homes, carried with the believer and displayed in churches.

Emily is currently working on completing wall labels for the icons, and the artworks are being cleaned and readied for display. They should be available for public viewing at the Hallie Ford Museum within a few weeks.

What is especially satisfying in the context of excellence and what we do at Willamette is that Emily has discovered through her research project her own career calling. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in art history so that she may become an art history professor and share her love of religious icons and other artworks with others.

The pursuit of solving a problem – of uncovering secrets - became a personal discovery that has changed her future.

This is a student who was guided, nurtured and sustained by faculty who took an interest in her – not only as a student but also as an individual.

They not only provided classroom instruction, they provided encouragement and advice. They set high standards for learning and achievement. Their commitment to Emily ignited her interest until it became a flame – a flame of purpose and determination.

This is the Willamette that I know and the Willamette that I have come to love. Her experience is representative of the experiences of all of our students who are open to the enormous possibilities for growth and discovery that Willamette offers them daily.

Willamette University recognizes that “excellence” lies in the hearts and minds of those who work in the classrooms every day -- those who spend their days developing courses, teaching, grading papers, advising, being attentive to their research and scholarship, writing and delivering papers at academic conferences, writing letters of recommendations, attending concerts and athletic events, organizing on-campus symposia, writing grants, overseeing theses and senior research projects, chairing committees and providing other types of services to the University community. It is the professor who focuses on the flowering of the individual student - who, ultimately, leads Willamette students to their futures.

Theodore Roethke once said, “When I say I teach out of love, I mean just that, by God.”

Our recent conversations regarding excellence in the College of Liberal Arts have been productive and have reinforced the need to examine with care how faculty apportion their work. We must move forward with exploring how to maximize individual opportunities to excel, while recognizing – and rewarding - the diversity of interests and talents that comprise our faculty.

Towards this end, I have requested that the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts establish a faculty working group to examine how we might best use our resources – new as well as reallocated – in support of a reconfigured faculty work load that recognizes the increasing demands on faculty time.

I have charged the group to:

• Generate ideas for creating flexibility in the workload that will enhance faculty productivity and well-being;
• Analyze and articulate the trade-offs necessary in plans for flexibility, including elements of financial feasibility;
• Suggest variations in incentives, rewards and evaluation that might contribute to greater flexibility;
• Compare data and suggestions available from other workload studies; and
• Visit other campuses where workload issues are prominent.

The working group will be charged to present a set of options and recommendations for discussion and consideration of the CLA faculty at its Fall Retreat.

In two and half weeks, I will present to the Board of Trustees a balanced budget for fiscal year, 2003-04. As you well know, the nation’s poor economy and negative growth in the financial markets have a direct impact the University’s operating budget. While I am very pleased to report that Willamette’s endowment performance has exceeded most national financial benchmarks, we will have substantially less in endowment income to support our budget over the next two years. This is significant, given that endowment income accounts for about 15% of our revenue base. Large increases in property and casualty premiums and utilities costs have put additional downward pressure on the operating budget.

The budget will include a recommendation for modest, but competitive increases in tuition; a smaller administrative staff; it will restore equipment budgets; maintain our commitment to the CLA faculty salary step program; provide long-needed salary increases for part-time instructors; as well as include compensation increases for our lowest-paid employees.

Responding to the need to sustain excellence among our faculty, the budget will add $100,000 to the College of Liberal Arts over the next three years to support faculty leaves and faculty research grants.

Also, for the first time in our history, this year we have established a $700,000 endowment from unrestricted gifts to support start-up funds for new faculty on a permanent basis. The income from this endowment will be available beginning the next academic year. We will continue to add to the endowment until the generated income fully meets the University's on-going start-up funding needs.

We have taken steps to reduce costs, including the creation of a self-funded health insurance plan that Willamette has developed in partnership with several of our Pacific Northwest peer institutions. And we will continue to search for other consortial arrangements of this type to increase efficiency and reduce cost.

Under the leadership of Jeff Eisenbarth, Vice-president for Financial Affairs, the budget process has become more open and inclusive. Every member of the faculty and administration has been offered the opportunity to review and comment on the priorities and assumptions that underlie next year’s budget. I strongly believe that a transparent budget process produces better results because it encourages the full participation of faculty and staff in shaping what is eventually recommended to the Board of Trustees for adoption.

I will recommend to the Board of Trustees that we move forward immediately on plans to renovate the fourth floor of Eaton Hall and the Smullin basement. This three million dollar project will add nine offices and three classrooms as well as a faculty-student lounge, a media room, a seminar room, and storage rooms to the fourth floor of Eaton. The Smullin renovation will consolidate WITS offices and programs.

Departments with overlapping interests now divided between buildings and floors will be consolidated, sowing the seeds of teaching and research collaboration. The classrooms will include cutting edge technology. Faculty will be able to project powerful historical images, show video clips of noteworthy events, project a multitude of maps and access the vast resources of the Internet - all with the push of a button. The addition will house expanded media holdings including a centralized space for an indexed film library. In the media rooms students will be able to design web projects, produce movies and create class presentations with digital imagery.

I will be meeting with CLA faculty leadership during the next month to determine a process to identify a permanent dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Among our first tasks will be to determine the qualifications and characteristics of the new dean.

I very much appreciate the steadiness of purpose and good judgment that Professor Carol Long has brought to the dean’s office during a time of transition.

Our accomplishments this year have been many. And I am able to highlight only a few.

College of Liberal Arts:
The Lilly Project, supported by a two million dollar gift from the Lilly Endowment, has already, in its first year, introduced our students to the joys to be discovered in religious vocation.

The Luce Foundation’s support of establishing a Junior Professor of Chinese Studies is also in its first year and has brought Chinese literature, languages and cultures to our students in ways that would not have been possible without external funding.

This year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary season of the Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center played here in the fall, and David Shifrin and Jon Nakamatsu will be here in the spring. In the world of musical performance, they are all quite extraordinary.

The Hallie Ford Art Museum exhibit, “In the Fullness of Time" was absolutely stunning in both conception and execution. Not only did it bring to our campus notable Egyptian artifacts and treasures, it also brought scholars from around the globe to talk about the significance of ancient Egyptian culture and art. It many respects, it was Willamette at its best because it supported our academic and instructional purposes while, at the same time, it reached out to the surrounding communities.

This past summer marked the start of The Willamette Academy. With 30 students last year and 20 new students this year, the Academy will introduce underrepresented students of color from Salem/Keizer middle schools and eventually high schools to the importance of attending college. The program includes a summer leadership residency program as well as ongoing tutoring and support for these students and their families during the regular school year. For many of these students, The Willamette Academy has already been a life-changing experience, opening wide the doors of opportunity to a better life.

Our students continue to win national honors and awards in recognition of their individual excellence and achievement. Four Willamette students received national honors in 2002: we welcomed one recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship; one Watson Fellowship; one recipient of the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and one Fulbright Scholar.

School of Education:
The School of Education is in the second year as the lead institution of a three year, $1.3 million grant from the United States Department of Education. The Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology program brings together K-12 teachers, education students, and faculty across disciplines at six northwest universities.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching has greatly expanded its service to teachers through its Continuing Licensure Program and provides significant professional development opportunities for K- 12 teachers.

The School of Education was successful in their program review with the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission this past fall.

College of Law:
The College of Law received its largest gift by a single individual in its history this summer. The Peterson Family Foundation donated $2 million dollars to establish the Ken and Claudia Peterson Center for Law and Government.

Over the last few years, nearly 25 percent of the faculty at the Law School are new members. Although there has been this transformation of faces of faculty, the values of excellence have not changed. The essential values of excellence remain. Because we know scholarship informs the classroom, Willamette continues to deliver high-quality legal education by bringing the best available legal scholars to the classroom.

Atkinson Graduate School of Management:
After a comprehensive national search, the Atkinson Graduate School of Management will welcome James A. Goodrich, currently associate dean of School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University, as its new dean, beginning in July of this year.

It is an exciting and significant moment in the development of the Atkinson School, and I am confident that the new dean – in consultation with his faculty and administrative colleagues – will work tirelessly towards our goal of establishing Atkinson as the leading business management school of its type in the Pacific Northwest.

I wish to extend publicly my gratitude to Professors Steve Maser and Debra Ringold who have led the School with great care and wisdom during this interim period.

And while this was a year of many gains, we also suffered loss in the faculty.

Kelly Ainsworth’s contribution to the University was enormously significant. He built and nurtured what is arguably one of the leading off-campus programs in the nation. He extended Willamette’s sphere of influence around the world. He was like the artist in one of Browning’s best-known poetic monologues, “scenting the world, looking it full in the face.” Though he was a historian by training, he was a cultural anthropologist by temperament. He had that rare capacity to live fully in the present moment.

Professor Donald H. Turner, the College of Law, died early last year. He taught with distinction for thirty-one years. Don's last day of work exemplified his legendary devotion to his students. After a full day of teaching, he continued coaching moot court students until almost midnight. He passed away two days later at the Salem hospital at the age of 71.

Both of these great teachers of young people will be missed.

Willamette is also very fortunate to have a strong network of support in its administrative and classified staff: those who work on the front lines serving students and supporting faculty, who work hard every day to keep Willamette running smoothly, to keep the campus grounds beautiful and its facilities in good working order. Your loyalty and dedication are commendable. You are an important part of what makes Willamette a great place to work and to learn.

In closing, I would like to comment on an issue that, in recent days, has generated more heat than light. It has been discussed by many, but understood by few. And, yet, its outcome will have enormous consequences for this nation and for the higher education community of which we are a part.

As you know, the Supreme Court has agreed to take up two law suits involving the admissions practices of the University of Michigan undergraduate and law school programs. The plaintiffs have challenged University of Michigan’s use of race in the admission process, calling into question the use of so-called affirmative action measures to achieve racial and ethnic diversity in student enrollments.

In my view, this may be the most important civil rights legal case involving race and education since the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education. I believe that the Court’s decision will shape the nation’s commitment to social justice and equality for many generations to come.

The Bush administration has filed a brief on behalf of the plaintiffs claiming that Michigan’s use of points for race in the scale developed for admitting students amounts to a quota system. This misrepresents the facts. Michigan does not use a quota system; it does not use set-asides; academic qualifications are the single most important consideration for admission; each applicant competes against every other applicant based on the merits of their scholastic records, their promise for academic success and other characteristics deemed important to sustain a diverse student population. Moreover, applicants receive points for other characteristics, such as geography, that are equivalent to those assigned to race.

The Bush administration argues that a race-neutral process should be exhausted before any consideration of race is used in the application process. However, the administration so-narrowly defines the circumstances under which race may be used that, if adopted, it might have the effect of over turning the law of the land which – since the Bakke decision in 1978 - has ruled that it is acceptable to use race as one of many factors in admitting students to a college or university.

President Bush has publicly extolled the virtues of admission practices adopted by the Texas and Florida University systems that admit the top 10% of students from every high school graduating class. And, yet, several studies continue to show that representation of students of color in these state systems has declined – not increased since the adoption of the 10% plan. Nor does it take into account graduate and professional schools or private universities and colleges that recruit a large share of their students outside of Texas or Florida.

Diversity matters.

The different points of view that emerge from diverse cultural heritages and ethnic backgrounds enlarge our aesthetic horizons, enrich our intellectual discourse, sharpened our historical perspective and give increased focus to who we are and what we stand for as a nation.

We also know that the growth and expansion of new knowledge in the 21st century will be increasingly inter-disciplinary and that the typical work environment will require interdependence and collaboration for its success.

And surely, one of the outcomes of a good college education is that it should prepare its graduates to succeed in a work environment that is increasingly diverse and global in many of its dimensions. America’s future will depend, in large measure, on the capacity of people with increasingly different cultures, backgrounds and skin color to study and work together.

In other words, it is in the enlightened self-interest of our nation to support efforts to enhance diversity and pluralism on our college campuses.

Diversity matters.

Yet, despite the clear and urgent need for us to do a better job of bringing and supporting diversity in our communities of learning, there are those who are opposed both to the methods of inclusion as well as to the inclusion itself.

It seems that for every person who says that he or she embraces diversity, there are two others who do not support the legal means to achieve it.

The opposition to affirmative action is based on several cultural myths.

I will mention just one.

The first is that universities have always admitted students based purely on academic merit, and therefore, the inclusion of race or ethnicity in the admission process undermines a process based on purely objective criteria.

However, this has never been true. A recent study confirms that athletes and legacies - a fancy admissions term for the sons and daughters of an alumnus or alumna - have a better chance of being admitted to a particular university than any other groups - by far.

Why have the anti-affirmative action crusaders not been as vigorous in their demands that universities admit athletes based solely on their test scores as opposed to how fast they can run 40 yards or how far they can throw the football or shoot the sweet jump shot.

And what about scholarships and admission practices that benefit, let's say, for example, the son of a former ambassador to the United Nations, Director of the CIA, Vice-president and president. This son was denied admission to a Houston private school, but was later admitted to Andover – one of the nation’s top private high schools - and who, while a student there, earned mediocre grades and SAT scores below the average of the students we admit to Willamette and yet, nevertheless, was admitted to Yale University. Where is the moral outrage here? And why stop there? Let's eliminate the scholarships and preferences given on the basis of demonstrated leadership in high school or the ability to sing or to play an instrument well or geography or any other set of criteria used to construct out of the application pool a community of young people with diverse talents, diverse abilities and diverse interests. Where are the campaigns to undo these practices – practices that are common at almost all of the nation’s colleges and universities?

Finally, I ask you to shut your eyes for a moment and try to imagine an America where those same people who benefited from affirmative action disappeared completely from the positions in government, business, industry, art, and education that they now occupy.

We must make clear that pluralism enriches and enables the meaning and value of the other.

Towards this end, I will ask the Board of Trustees to join with other universities and colleges in support of the amicus curae brief that has been filed by the American Council of Education on behalf of the American higher education associations in support of the University of Michigan's admission practices.

I hope that this will send a clear signal that Willamette cares deeply the nation's future and the need to keep open the doors of opportunity for all Americans.

Let us at Willamette embrace diversity as well as the means to get there.

The enrollment of students of color in the College of Liberal Arts has increased by 50% in the last four years. During the same period, the average SAT scores and other indicators of academic strength have grown at impressive rates.
In the face of the politically correct opposition to the means of achieving diversity, I ask that you join with me in keeping a steady course at Willamette, recognizing that excellence and diversity in an academic community go hand in hand, recognizing that what we do here is made stronger and more beautiful and more effective by the rich tapestry of diverse view points and experiences that we are able to bring here.

The partnership of excellence and diversity came to light for me in Saturday’s news of the tragic loss of the entire crew and space vessel Columbia. These seven citizens of the world - six Americans and an Israeli, who gave their lives in the name of science, were singularly gifted scientists, among America’s best and brightest in their fields. But they were more than that. Not just exceptional as individuals, but as representative examples of excellence and diversity: five men, two women, an African-American male, a colonel in the Israeli air force and a female émigré from India. Together, they were far more representative of the diverse composition of the human population on planet Earth than perhaps any other team of astronauts yet to travel into space. We owe them our gratitude for their courage and bravery in the face of great risks.

Let’s each of us pledge on this anniversary of our founding to fulfill our University’s great and noble purpose, to accept the call to greatness in our dedication to excellence – real excellence – in our dedication to teaching, to research, to service – let us accept this responsibility and what it means with dignity and purpose.

We cannot afford to be silent. Let us create out of the rich diversity of human experience a common community of learning that will turn the tide of human want into a mighty sea of joy and light.

Finally, I wish to reiterate my personal commitment to Willamette University and to you, faculty, staff and students. I have come to love the Pacific Northwest, and I find great satisfaction in my work here. I am far from finished with the work I came here to do. I look forward to working together over the coming years on behalf of this University and the promise of greatness it holds.

I leave you with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Thank you very much.

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Willamette President to Lead NAICU Committee

Lee Pelton, president of Willamette University, has been appointed chair of the Committee on Policy Analysis and Public Relations of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities for 2003-04. In this position, he will also serve on the executive committee of the association's board of directors. His one-year appointment will be ratified Jan. 29 by member college and university presidents at the NAICU 2003 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29.

Pelton, who was elected to the NAICU board of directors for a three-year term in 2001, is one of 11 board members who serve on the association's executive committee. The executive committee leads the board in establishing NAICU's priorities for the coming year and developing guidelines for achieving the association's objectives.

The Committee on Policy Analysis and Public Relations helps the board to develop strategies for developing and sharing information about the individual and societal benefits of private higher education with policymakers, the news media, and the general public.

NAICU serves as the unified national voice of independent higher education. Since 1976, the association has represented private colleges and universities on policy issues with the federal government, such as those affecting student aid, taxation, and government regulation. With nearly 1,000 member institutions and associations, NAICU reflects the diversity of private, nonprofit higher education in the United States.

NAICU members enroll 85 percent of all students attending private institutions. They include traditional liberal arts colleges, major research universities, comprehensive universities, church and faith-related institutions, historically black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, single-sex colleges, art institutions, two-year colleges, and schools of law, medicine, engineering, business, and other professions.

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Marking the first anniversary of September 11th

A letter from President M. Lee Pelton to campus:

Dear Colleagues,

After conferring with faculty, students, and staff, we have decided to mark the first anniversary of the September 11th tragedy with a day of reflection and remembrance. I invite you to participate in whatever part of this event feels the most appropriate for you.

September 11
7:40 to 7:55 a.m.-- Gather at Jackson Plaza
8 a.m. to noon-- Recite the names of those lost on 9/11-- UC Balcony (Mill Stream side)
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.-- Day-long ringing of the chimes on the Clock Tower
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.-- Cone Chapel open for private meditation and prayer
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.-- Poster paper available for personal notes, thoughts, prayers located at Goudy, the UC and in the Residence Halls
Noon to 1 p.m.-- Public program at the State Capitol, Capitol Mall Plaza
5 to 5:15 p.m.-- Gather at Jackson Plaza for close

September 12
12:45 to 1:35 p.m.-- Convocation at Cone Chapel
What Have We Learned? Faculty panel with Professors Joe Bowersox, Catherine Collins, Sam Hall and David McCreery

Please join us.

Lee Pelton

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Commencement Wrap

President Pelton answers questions about the graduating class of 2002, his plans for the next school year and his vision of Willamette University.

Q1: What are your top accomplishments at Willamette this 2001-02 school year?
Progress was made on implementing the five goals of the Long Range Plan which ask us to: strengthen academic excellence; improve student life; promote diversity; enhance technology integration; and increase visibility. We enrolled an outstanding freshmen class with the highest academic profile in the history of the University. We completed the Facilities Master Plan which suggests a facilities planning framework for the next 10 to 15 years, including the replacement or renovation of aging facilities and infrastructure, parking, housing and academic needs. We completed construction of the Montag Center in September and expanded the writing center. Willamette hired Dr. Tori Haring-Smith to head the College of Liberal Arts. The University made progress in its desire to increase our partnerships with the Salem Community We will raise close to $15 million this year, which is a record. Last year we raised $13.5 million, the most that we ever raised in a campaign year. We recently invested $1.7 million in technology infrastructure upgrades and hardware replacements. We received a $2 million gift as part of a two-to-one match that will allow us to put an additional $6 million in technology during the life of the campaign.

Q2: What are your top goals for the University for 2002-03?
Continue to attract the very best students to Willamette. Continue with our strategic objectives. Hire a new dean for the Atkinson Graduate School of Management and continue to partner with the Salem community.

Q3 & 4: Where do you see Willamette in five years?
In 2007, Willamette University will be a small private university of national distinction. We will be a place of intellectual vibrancy and academic innovation. Student life will be a meaningful and life changing learning experience. Our campus community will reflect the world and be richer for the diversity it engenders. Our technology innovation and leadership will be recognized, applauded and mimicked. A central theme that will distinguish Willamette will be the institution's commitment to service through the academic and co-curricular program in the College of Liberal Arts and the professional schools.

Q5: How would you describe this graduating class of 2002? How is it similar or different from past classes?
I don't believe there are any dramatic differences to report. This year, about 17 percent are people of color, which is about normal for Willamette compared to a low of 12 percent in 1999. The number of women graduates, about 57 percent, is similar to past years. The number of CLA graduates who came to us from Oregon high schools increased from 42 to 45 percent. The preferred majors show some shifts-there's an increase in chemistry, rhetoric, psychology and political science, and fewer graduates in biology and economics.

Q6: What advice would you give to this year's graduating class?
I would remind them that they are not at the end of their intellectual journey, but rather at its beginning. I would advise to never lose hope. Hope is the bright light that permits us to see that which we believe. I would ask these graduates to be open to the powerful lessons of human history and to use those lessons to become enlightened managers trained to shape and give order to human experience, teachers ready and equipped to educate our nation's youth and legal minds prepared to carry out those wise restraints that make us a free and just society. I would advise these young people to find meaningful work and to find meaning in their commitment to others.

Q7: Describe the challenges that graduates will encounter outside the Willamette bubble. How are they similar or different from those faced by past classes?
The word "bubble" doesn't really fit the Willamette student experience. Our students come to us with impressive track records in community service and continue giving large amounts of time and energy to area organizations throughout their years at the University. Our undergraduates alone contribute between 15,000 and 20,000 volunteer hours per year. All graduates face very individual challenges once they leave our campus. And those challenges are relative. What we hope is true for all graduates throughout the decades is that they leave Willamette prepared to thrive in a world that is never static.

Q8: Not since the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement has a graduating class been tested so much. The 2001-02 class has experienced a recession, an emerging multi-cultural society confirmed by Census results and a world changed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. How did they respond?
Students are young, strong and resilient. With today's technology, they deal hourly with information that comes to them with blinding speed from around the globe. They sift through it, digest it and decide what they want to take on and what they choose to leave for others. I think that capacity is a healthy response. I don't believe today's recession and acts of terrorism are their greatest tests. Questions relating to moral leadership, ethics, and compassion for vulnerable populations are the long-term issues that will fully challenge these young people. I'm confident they are up to the task.

Q9: What kind of community involvement has Willamette participated in during the past school year?
Let's start with the proposed downtown hotel and convention center. If this important project comes to pass, Willamette will be a significant partner just as we have been a significant supporter. Willamette will bring a steady stream of special lecturers, guests, and visiting professors, as well as a wide variety of academic conferences to the center.

Willamette sponsors significant cultural events that are open to Salem citizens. Recent shared experiences include Danny Glover and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Amy Tan, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Wynton Marsalis, the Hallie Ford Art Museum and Willamette Academy, a new community outreach program that will partner with the Salem-Keizer school district and other community organizations.

At least once a year, more than two-thirds of all Willamette undergraduates choose to do some significant form of uncompensated, purely voluntary, and often quite demanding public service work in Salem, Keizer, and other local communities. A large number of our professional school students at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management and College of Law do at least as much. The Law School operates the innovative Center for Dispute Resolution, which is at the forefront of research and writing on conflict theory and problem solving. The Center works with the Oregon Department of Justice, the Marion County Family Court, local school districts and other agencies. Their work has impacted both local and national law.

The Atkinson Graduate School of Management facilitates the PaCE program where first-year students form enterprises with a community partner who is the recipient of the profits and volunteer labor of the students as they learn how to produce both financial and social capital. This year's partners, the YMCA, Habitat for Humanity, Salem Outreach Shelter and MedASSIST, will realize thousands of dollars and over a thousand hours of student projects.

More than 100 Willamette University Masters in Teaching (MAT) graduates are currently placed as teachers in the Salem-Keizer School District; and there are currently 84 MAT students student teaching at 14 elementary schools, four middle schools and five high schools in the Salem-Keizer School District.

The University is in the top ten of the area's largest private employers. We have about 570 permanent employees, about 80% of whom live in Salem or surrounding communities. These are talented people who contribute in many ways to the life of our community. Many spend their earnings and pay their taxes right here in Salem. Willamette's annual budget of nearly $40 million in salaries and compensation provides a substantial boost to the local economy.

The University receives about $35 million annually in tuition to fund its operations, 60 percent of which comes from households outside of the State of Oregon. In other words, we import significant capital in the form of tuition, grants, annual gifts, and student fees, among other things. And that money is spent here in Salem.

Q10& 11: Tuition is going up next fall at Willamette. Why is this necessary and why this amount of a rate hike?
Willamette University increased tuition for students in the College of Liberal Arts by 3.9 percent or $900 effective fall 2002. For those who are familiar with rates at comparable schools across the nation, the increase is considered modest.

For the last four budget cycles, Willamette has held tuition increases under 4 percent-well below many of our competitors. At the same time, the University has offered generous discounts on tuition. The discount for last fall's entering freshmen averaged $13,050 or 54 percent. Willamette is more economically diverse than most of its regional competitors. Less than 10 percent of students at this University pay full tuition. Like most colleges and universities across the country, Willamette faced a diminished yield in its endowment while experiencing increases in energy costs and faculty compensation.

Q12: How is Willamette doing with its fundraising efforts?
This year's goal was $14 million and we have exceeded that amount. During the last 18 months, Willamette received five gifts of $2 million or more. This is unprecedented. We are now in the planning stages of an ambitious $125 million comprehensive campaign with a primary focus on growing the endowment for the University. Willamette is blessed with alumni and friends who are eager to support the institution and who understand the role philanthropy plays in the mission and future of the University.

Q13: What were the big surprises, both good and bad, in the past year?
September 11th. Our campus community, our nation, and our world continue to struggle to understand the terrible attacks of September 11. In the days following the attacks, I said that while these events may have changed us, the days ahead would define us as a nation and as individuals. We responded to this New World of fear and apprehension by reaffirming our role as a community of teaching and of learning. I am proud of the fundamental context of those responses.

Q14 & 15: Tell us about your efforts in recruiting minority staff and students here? How successful have that work been?
Because reporting ethnicity on application forms is voluntary, firm numbers on staff ethnicity is always difficult to capture. But for those individuals who did share that information with us, we know that in 1998 people of color represented 6.8 percent of the campus workforce and in 2000-01 that number was 9.5 percent. Numbers for 2001-02 are not yet available. The proportion of students of color in the College of Liberal Arts has grown from 11.5 percent in 1998 to 16.5 percent for this year. The Atkinson Graduate School of Management is the most diverse program at the University with international students representing 32 percent of the student body. Historically, minority student enrollment at the College of Law has always hovered between 10 and 12 percent, which is in line with Oregon's population of people of color.

Q16: What is the makeup of this graduating class and how does that differ from past classes?
(See question 5)

Q17: What are you doing to increase the profile and visibility of the University?
Last fall we hired a public relations director and already we have seen this appointment bear fruit in terms of media coverage, both locally and regionally. This person is also responsible for developing and combining public relations and marketing efforts that will assist us with student recruitment and fund raising. Having one person on board who helps us coordinate these efforts is very advantageous.

Q18: How has Willamette improved or changed under your leadership?
I'll leave this question for the students, faculty and staff and the citizens of Salem to answer once I have moved on.

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Higher Education Must Resist Parochialism

President Pelton's Commentary in The Oregonian

In the days that followed the unspeakable tragedy of September 11, I reminded our small university community that while the events of that day may have changed us, the days ahead would define us - both as a nation and as individuals.

In this new context, educators of our young people have a tremendous responsibility. Like Martin Luther King, I believe that "what self-centered [people] have torn down, other centered [people] can build up" and that "untamed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality." In the aftermath of such immeasurable violence, part of that reality demands that as educators we resist the natural inclination to withdraw and pull tight our circle of security.

We must resist the temptation to place on hold international faculty and student exchange and the global sharing of intellectual property. We must resist the call to end or greatly diminish the capacity for foreign students to study in America. We cannot agree to limit academic freedom in our classrooms or condemn those educators who speak out against current American policies in the Middle East. As our nation continues to grieve and call for justice, we must, as educators, turn our attention outward. We must play a lead role in conducting reasoned analysis to provide answers to the broader question of "why," not just "whom." Isolationism will not serve this objective nor ensure the future of our country. Instead, we must act on our moral responsibility to make our curricula more international in scope.

Our nation's 4,000 colleges and universities are home to more than 748,000 international students. These numbers support the belief that institutions of higher learning are uniquely placed to address the need for increased global intellectual and cultural understanding.

Corporate America has been aggressive in its global use of human and natural resources. We must become equally aggressive in building human capital -- programs and partnerships that nurture mutual respect and appreciation among nations. Our colleges and universities are our best hope for these new initiatives. Many of our institutions of higher learning have decades-old trusted relationships with hundreds of international universities. We are challenged today to expand these relationships and create new ones.

We cannot wait for wholesale changes in our undergraduate and professional school curriculum to reflect globalization in the 21st century. We must act quickly to increase international research opportunities, faculty and student exchange programs, freshman inquiry courses, honors seminars and similar academic opportunities.

At the local level, we must continue to explore new curricular initiatives. These might be conferences on religion and politics, new courses organized around special topics including globalization, justice and religious fundamentalism. We must focus on questions that help us understand the tragedy.

This is not the time for parochialism. We live in the richest, most privileged country in the world. World leaders are educated in America and send their children and grandchildren to us for what they consider the finest education in the world. Let us as educators seize the moment and lead by example. Let us expand the mission of our colleges and universities as centers of international understanding and exchange. Let us teach with more focused intent on the questions of globalization and its impact on all cultures, large and small.

America's colleges and universities should play a pivotal role in helping our national leaders develop long-term strategies for improved international relations. Educators must be involved in building the context for global understanding and equity.

Like Dr. King, let us build again what others have so callously torn down. As educators we have a responsibility to uphold the ideals of a liberal education -- the substance of which consists in the recognition of basic problems that confront our world, in knowledge of interrelations and distinctions in issues and subject matter, and the comprehension of ideas from diverse viewpoints - for the liberal arts is the education of free people.

M. Lee Pelton, President
Willamette University
Salem, Oregon.

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M. Lee Pelton Elected To ACE Board Of Directors

Willamette University President M. Lee Pelton was elected to the board of directors of the American Council on Education (ACE) at the organization's 83rd annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Pelton will serve through 2003.

ACE is a comprehensive association of the nation's colleges and universities dedicated to analysis of higher education issues and advocacy on behalf of quality higher education and adult education programs. Its membership includes about 1,600 accredited, degree-granting institutions from all sectors of higher education and nearly 200 national and regional higher education associations and organizations. ACE works to coordinate the interests of all sectors of higher education into a single voice on issues of national policy.

The 38-member board of directors is the governing body of ACE, responsible for overseeing the management of ACE and setting the general policy direction for the organization, which represents higher education before Congress, federal agencies, the Supreme Court, and the federal courts.

Pelton has been president of Willamette since 1998. He came to the University from Dartmouth College, where he was dean of the college and taught English for seven years. At Dartmouth, he was noted for his commitment to diversity and his efforts to enhance undergraduate intellectual life. Earlier in his career, he was a dean and English professor at Colgate University and taught English and American literature at Harvard University.

Pelton serves several national and regional organizations in a leadership position, including the American Association of Higher Education and the Oregon Governor's Commission on Financing Higher Education. He is also a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers. He earned his bachelor's degree at Wichita State University and his doctorate at Harvard.

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Willamette University President Elected to Board of Directors of National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities

Willamette University President M. Lee Pelton has been elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). Pelton will serve a three-year term as an at-large member of the association's 44-person board.

NAICU serves as the unified national voice of independent higher education and represents nearly 1,000 private nonprofit colleges and universities on policy issues with the federal government. The NAICU Board sets the association's legislative, research and communications agendas, and establishes guidelines for accomplishing its priorities.

"The 2000 election brings a host of new opportunities and challenges in Washington, D.C., on the student aid, tax and regulatory issues that affect every independent college and university," said NAICU President David L. Warren. "I'm delighted that Lee Pelton has been elected by his peers to join the NAICU Board. He will bring leadership experience and a keen understanding of the issues that will face us."

Pelton has been president of Willamette since 1998. He came to the University from Dartmouth College, where he was dean of the college and taught English for seven years. At Dartmouth, he was noted for his commitment to diversity and his efforts to enhance undergraduate intellectual life. Earlier in his career, he was a dean and English professor at Colgate University and taught English and American literature at Harvard University.

Pelton serves several national and regional organizations in a leadership position, including the American Association of Higher Education and the Oregon Governor's Commission on Financing Higher Education. He is also a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers.

He earned his bachelor's degree at Wichita State University and his doctorate at Harvard.

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