Welcome, Whitman students and particularly the Class of 2013. If there is one priority for you to consider in the year ahead, I urge you to seize the treasures of this great college. They are abundant.
When I was in college, I registered for a class in social theory: a class examining prominent theories of society and its organization. I clearly remember the first day of class: it was a very warm summer day and the professor arrived a little late. He was young, an assistant professor, and cavalier: walking into class in shorts, sandals, a T-shirt and an impressive string of love beads. Some of you may be unfamiliar with love beads: they are artifacts from an early period in American history: the 1960s and 70s.
What struck me most about this class and particularly the instructor was his ability to take material and literally transform it into cause for excitement. I remember one lecture on the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes who wrote in the 17th century and is perhaps best known for his book “Leviathan,” published in 1651. By any standard, “Leviathan” offers a very bleak picture of human society and an even bleaker theory of social order. But what that professor did, love beads and all, was to recast Hobbes’ ideas about the formation of society into a single set of questions that made enormous sense to a twenty-year-old. I learned that the English philosophers of the 17th and 18th century had many of the same concerns as I: Why is there order in society? How does order arise? What causes disorder and conflict? How can conflict be reduced?
The professor had opened for me a whole new line of inquiry: a new direction that I couldn’t have imagined a year earlier. By introducing me to the Hobbesian question, he unlocked a door to philosophical inquiry that I will never forget. I was able to bring to bear the theories introduced in his class to explain my own perceptions of the current society (during a period of enormous political and social strife in the United States). The theories deepened my understanding of society, social order and disorder and ignited a curiosity that has persisted throughout my career and adult life.
Faculty members are persons who, by virtue of their commitment and their talent, are beacons of light and enlightenment. In every Department and program at Whitman, there are faculty members who, through their ideas and abilities, can unlock important doors for you and introduce altogether new planes of understanding. You may find yourself interested or even excited about ideas that you have never before contemplated. The faculty and their ideas are treasures in the Whitman community. They have the commitment, the ability and the interest to capture your mind and your heart.
The challenge for you is to discover this college’s great treasures. Education, particularly higher education, involves a sequence of successive discoveries. Take the risk of studying a question or a topic, even if it’s not in your field of primary interest or an area about which you are genuinely curious. With that risk will come perspectives that expand your capacity for reasoning and understanding.
My advice for the year: Seize Whitman’s treasures. You will never forget them.
