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Week of 5 September 1997 Vol. I, No. 2 Feature Article BU engaged in society, Westling tells parents by Marion Sawey President Jon Westling told parents of the Class of 2001 that Boston University's long tradition of constructive Meeting President Westling following the presidential convocation for parents is Glenn Simpson, from Potomac, Md., whose daughter Joan is an SED freshman. Photo: Kalman Zabarsky engagement with society is today more important than ever. Speaking at the presidential convocation for parents in the George Sherman Union's Metcalf Hall on August 31, he recalled that the University's third president, Lemuel Murlin, was a forcible advocate of the idea that private universities should be integral parts of their communities. "In his inaugural address, in 1911," he noted, "President Murlin spoke of the theme of the municipal university, of the idea that the university, far from being an ivory tower set apart, should be part of the infrastructure of the city, enriching its cultural life, of course, but also infusing it with the energy of well-educated and public-minded faculty and graduates. Boston University, he said on that occasion, would be 'in the heart of the city, in the service of the city.'" President Murlin's vision remains powerful, Westling said, even at a time when local economic horizons have been replaced by a global economy and when many institutions shrink from a sense of responsibility to society. Highlighting examples of the University's public service, the president pointed out that BU is in the ninth year of its contract with the city of Chelsea, under which it is managing the reform of the public schools "of that deeply troubled part of urban America." "The city of Chelsea, I am glad to say, has been pleased with our work and recently signed a new contract that extends the University's stewardship for an additional five years," he said. Westling also singled out the University's program to incubate new technologies in the emerging field of photonics, symbolized by the Photonics Building, recently opened in the center of the Charles River Campus. "In myriad other ways, your sons and daughters will find that Boston University is not some arid, high plateau from which they can gaze down on an ant-size vision of society," he told parents. "As President Murlin hoped, Boston University is voyaging in the midst of our society. We recognize our obligations to the society that has created and that continues to sustain us. I hope that makes us a little less inclined to offer airy theories about how things should be, and a little more inclined to do what we can to fix the problems immediately in hand. We don't mistake aloofness for objectivity." Westling also spoke of the University's tradition of independence and of its reputation for going against the current in higher education, as well as for scientific breakthroughs and medical discoveries. "Twenty-seven years ago, my predecessor, John Silber, refused to let student protesters set University policy. He explained that that was the job of the Board of Trustees," he said. "In the late 1980s, as the American public woke up to the phenomenon of political correctness on campus, Boston University again stood out as one of the places where free speech and open exchange of ideas never gave way to speech codes or to tacit restrictions on what could be taught or discussed." In these matters, he continued, the University displayed a "degree of rambunctiousness" that is part of its character. "Nor did it originate with John Silber. During his presidency he drove Boston University forward with breathtaking speed, and he didn't allow himself or the institution to become dispirited by some opposition along the way. But that spiritedness was in every respect part of the tradition of Boston University." Westling noted that the Uni-versity's first president, William Fairfield Warren, advocated the then highly controversial policy of coeducation, with the result that the University became the first in America to admit women as well as men into every one of its departments. "From the day of its opening, Boston University admitted students of every race and every religion," he said. "We did so at a time when that too was uncommon and controversial. But the fathers of the University clearly saw that there could be no moral justification for policies of exclusion. Their courage made Boston University a culturally diverse place long before diversity became enshrined as the household god of American higher education." Westling recalled that the University also granted the first Ph.D. degree to a woman and educated both the first Native American to receive a doctorate in medicine and the nation's first African-American psychiatrist. "When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955," he continued, "he was taking his place in a long line of individuals who found that opportunities for educational advancement are unhindered here by the color of their skin. Boston University's long history of treating individuals as individuals and not as members of a sex, a race, or a religion, or any other class, gives the University, I think, the moral credibility today to reject some of the new, politically fashionable forms of discrimination that have become popular at many colleges and universities." Urging parents to continue their caring involvement with their children throughout their University education, Westling complimented them for producing the best qualified class that Boston University has ever enrolled, as measured by average SAT score and grade point average. "Contrary to the technozealots and doomsayers, I am certain that the world your children will enter as adults will be a world which prizes the traditional elements of a sound education," he said. "Boston University pledges to do all it can to develop your son's or daughter's critical intelligence, synthetic imagination, ability to read actively, to write clearly, correctly, and gracefully, to speak effectively, to behave with honesty and self-restraint, to take prudent risks, and to assume responsibility for his or her actions." He stressed that the University was not complacent, but was continually looking for a better way and would strive to be a good listener if parents or their children complained of inefficiencies or problems. "There is no false modesty in this," Westling said. "Boston University is a great university, but it is great in no small part because we are self-consciously aware of the need to forge ahead. Our essential tradition here is the tradition of disciplined self-improvement. We stir this discontent amongst our students, and we keep it alive in ourselves and in every aspect of the University. We invite you too to participate."