Remarks of President Thomas W. Ross
On the Occasion of his Inauguration as the Seventeenth President of Davidson College
October 27, 2007

Chairman McCartney; members of the Davidson College Board of Trustees, faculty, and staff; distinguished members of the academy and guests representing other institutions of higher learning; students, parents and family of students, and alumni; special friends of mine and of this amazing place, and my wonderful, supportive family.  Welcome to each of you on this glorious day on this beautiful campus and in the life of Davidson College. We are here today for our annual fall convocation, which each year gives us the opportunity to celebrate the history, traditions, values, and promise of this great institution. This year we are also using the occasion to inaugurate a new president.

Allow me a personal moment—first, to say thank you to Paul Leonard for his overly generous introduction!  I sincerely appreciate your kind words. Next, to say thank you to Leslie Marsicano, our assistant dean for academic administration, who planned and coordinated the inaugural events of this weekend. Thank you, Leslie, for your hard work, amazing patience, and job well done.

Also, I want to express how deeply thankful I am to Paul, the search committee he led, and the Board of Trustees Chair John McCartney for the honor and opportunity that bring me here before all of you today. Being president of Davidson College, the alma mater of my father, my alma mater, and the alma mater of the two caring, loving, thoughtful, and intelligent young people to whom my equally caring, loving, thoughtful, and intelligent wife gave birth, exceeds my most wonderful dreams. To assume this position and its opportunities and challenges is a privilege in life I promise to treasure and respect each and every day by investing, at my highest possible level, my mind, heart, energy, and best efforts to the betterment of this special place.

Today is day eighty-eight. As I have told some of you, I count the days so that each and every day I remember how blessed I am and how special it is for me to be a part of Davidson College. I am also counting because I worry there is a ninety-day probationary period, and I want to at least try and survive until that period passes. Monday could be a big day for me.

I must confess that I feel strange standing here in a robe before so many friends and colleagues who appear not only happy to be here, but also willing to listen to what I have to say. In my former career as a judge, whenever I put on my robe, those assembled before me did not always seem pleased to be in my presence and did not always like what I said. Indeed, in the end, some of them went to prison. So, perhaps you should look at it this way: whatever, I say, however long this ceremony turns out to be, and regardless of how hungry you may get, it could be worse.

I also feel in awe speaking today in front of so many talented, intelligent, and accomplished people. It is particularly humbling to stand before two of Davidson’s former presidents who are here today, and to know a third will read what I have to say when he returns to this country. The gentlemen to whom I refer are Sam Spencer, who was president when I was a student here; John Kuykendall, who could not be here with us in person, but who I know is here in spirit; and Bobby Vagt, who is my immediate predecessor in this job.

Imagine standing here as I am, looking at the man who led this great institution during the late ’60s, 1970s and early ’80s. Those were tumultuous and difficult times—and I am only talking about the part of his presidency in which he had to deal with me. Actually, Sam Spencer deserves our deep appreciation for the leadership he provided during some of Davidson’s most challenging times, including the transformational change to coeducation. He was then, and is now, a man of courage and commitment. Thank you, Sam! 

Now imagine knowing every word you utter will be reviewed by John Kuykendall, one of Davidson’s greatest teachers and leaders, and a man whose use of words is surpassed by none. John was president during much of my son’s time here—thus, also tumultuous and difficult times. During his presidency, John reminded us all of our responsibility to serve others. He led by example and, as a result, changed many of our lives forever. John has been and continues to be fully committed to this college, and I will forever be grateful for his help to me. That brings me to a man who bleeds red and black, Bobby Vagt. Bobby was president when my daughter was here. Yes, those too were tumultuous and difficult times, particularly since his daughter and mine were good friends. Bobby is due much of the credit for transforming the physical campus you see here today, but also for leading with a vision, compassion, and enthusiasm that may never be duplicated. I am here to tell you it is difficult to follow someone who left crater-sized footprints everywhere in and on the life of Davidson College. Thank you, Bobby, and thank you, John and Sam, for the crucial role each of you played in leaving this institution in such a great place. Lest we forget, it was not just these three men who led Davidson College to greatness. It was the thirteen presidents before them, including Grier Martin and John Cunningham, each of whom has a son here with us today. It was also Frontis Johnston, who on two occasions served as president on an interim basis, whose daughters are here, and whose granddaughter is a senior, seated before me in her cap and gown. There are other members of the presidential families here today. I welcome you all.

The week before I began work at Davidson, I went to a five-day seminar for new college presidents. I thought before I went, “How hard could this job be if you can learn how to do it in five easy days?” Boy, was I wrong on that one. But that is a different story for a different day. The seminar was, however, a great opportunity to meet, share, and learn from more than forty other rookies. One point on which we all agreed is that the question we have been asked more frequently than any other is, “What is your vision for your college or university?”  People always seem to ask what their new president is thinking about the future, when I suspect what they really want to know is, what does he or she plan to change. Some people want to know because they believe change will fix things they don’t like. Others are afraid a new president will change things they believe should stay as they are. As someone whom the newspapers have more than once called a “change agent,” I have always liked being asked that question, “What are you going to change?”   However, having led change in other organizations, I have also learned that change can be difficult, divisive, and disruptive. Many people fear change and are threatened by it. Others thrive on change and sometimes make changes just for the sake of doing so. The reality lies between those views. As the father of my classmate, Barden Cooke, said so eloquently in a recent letter he sent to me, “We are living in a changing world, and some of the old principles are no longer useful in solving the problems which confront us. You will need all of your resources in recasting… Davidson College to exist within these changes.”  Owen Cooke, Class of 1938, is ninety years old and might not normally be expected to view change favorably, but it is clear that he gets it.

So, I know you are sitting there asking yourself, “What is this guy’s vision for Davidson College? What is he going to try to change? What is going to be different because of his presence here?” Even though eighty-eight days is a little early to answer those questions fully, I owe you my best answer. Since we are all here, and I am all dressed up, today must be the day I am supposed to share my answer with you. So here we go.

Whatever I do as your new president, there will be changes. Change happens whether we want it or not, and it happens whether we plan for it or not. In fact, someone smarter than I once said, the only thing that does not change is change. For me the real question is not, what am I going to try to change?  No, the real question is, how can Davidson College embrace the changes that will occur while remaining the same?  To some this is a strange idea—changing to remain the same. For me, however, it is clearly what Davidson College must be prepared to do. Together, we must plan for and welcome change so that we can preserve the traditions, values, and culture that we treasure and that define the Davidson we know today. Allow me first to address how we must remain the same and then turn to how we may need to change.

Just over a hundred years ago, at his own inauguration, Henry Louis Smith, Davidson’s ninth president and the father of my childhood doctor, O. Norris Smith, spoke these words about what he expected for Davidson College: 

In the classroom, the most rigid adherence to the high intellectual ideals of the past; uncompromising hostility to low standards, short courses, cheap degrees, easily-won honors, extravagant claims, and shams of every kind and degree.

His words leave no room for a light workload or grade inflation. It may be significant to note here that Dr. Smith was a professor of physics. He continued: 

On the campus the wise and skillful training of the body; a whole-souled, honorable and reasonable participation in college athletics; a social life as rich and varied as possible; a persistent, watchful and stimulating oversight of each individual; perfect frankness and candor in dealing with parents, presbyteries, and the general public; [and] warm personal friendship between teachers and taught; . . .

Toward our great denomination, with its eternal standards of truth, its glorious history, its far-reaching influence on human history and its high ideals of manliness and Godliness, the most unreserved and loving loyalty.

And finally, toward all other institutions of higher learning, doing genuine college work in earnestness and sincerity, . . . sympathy and appreciation, genuine friendship, and cordial co-operation.

In these passages from a century ago, Henry Louis Smith enunciated the values for Davidson College that hold true, not only for today, but for our future.

His words sound our responsibility to ensure academic rigor and excellence in teaching—teaching which includes, again in his words, “a persistent, watchful and stimulating oversight of each individual” with “warm friendship between teachers and taught.”  In our Statement of Purpose, we say that in selecting faculty, we seek people who not only are “outstanding intellectually, who have the best training available in their fields of study,” but also faculty “whose interest in students and teaching is unfeigned and profound.” We will honor one such teacher later this morning with one of our most prestigious awards, the Thomas Jefferson Award. 

This fundamental value of our tradition and culture must remain the same. We must expect the best of those who teach and of those who learn.

Dr. Smith spoke of perfect frankness and candor in our dealings. According to Mary Beaty’s book, A History of Davidson College  The honor system at Davidson has created a trust in the integrity of the individual that has defined and distinguished this college and this community for the better part of two centuries. As current senior and head of our Honor Council Sarah Allen observed in a newspaper interview last year, “The code at Davidson is a call to live a life of honor. We are called to . . . flex that muscle of honor in everything we do.” 

This fundamental value of our tradition and culture must remain the same. We must nourish and demand honor and integrity in all our dealings with others.

President Smith also held up our historical tie to the Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Tradition. We are proud of this connection, and we do not run from it. We recognize and believe that God is the source of all truth, and that God is not bound by any church or creed. Our loyalty thus extends not only to the Christian community, but to the whole of humanity. Again referring to our Statement of Purpose, this “necessarily includes openness to and respect for the world’s various religious traditions.” We say and believe that, “At Davidson, faith and reason work together in mutual respect and benefit toward growth in learning, understanding and wisdom.” 

This fundamental value of our tradition and culture must remain the same. We must remember that wisdom incorporates both faith and reason, and celebrate faith in its joyful diversity.

In his inaugural address, Dr. Kuykendall suggested that, “A piece of this college’s heritage that has never quite received its proper due, in my judgment, is that part which has to do with the mandate Davidson has intended to deliver to all of its sons and daughters that they must serve the welfare and virtue of the community.” In no small part due to the lives of servant leadership exemplified by John, Sam, and Bobby, Davidson now has deeply ingrained in its culture a dedication to service of others and, for most who leave here, a lifelong commitment to the common good.

This fundamental value of our tradition and culture must remain the same. We must foster engagement in lives of leadership and service.

Academic rigor, a commitment to teaching, the Honor Code, the role of faith, respect for differences, and servant leadership—these are the values that constitute Davidson College. So, too, does the ability to adapt to change. The Class of 2008 is here today for the first time in what will soon become their graduation gowns. They have experienced all of the parts of the Davidson ethos to which I have referred. These same seniors—in our view, sadly close to the end of their time at Davidson—have experienced their years as part of a college that has changed much since its founding 170 years ago. The physical facilities hardly resemble the college I attended, much less those of 1837. It must be apparent that Davidson is now coed. It was not for the first approximately 135 years of its existence. Davidson has a large and growing population of students of color. That is wonderful, but it was not always this way. Davidson has students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and faith traditions. This also has not always been the case.  Davidson College has changed, and it will continue to change. In ten and twenty and thirty years, when these young people come back for a visit, for homecoming or to enroll their own children, Davidson will be very different in ways we cannot today predict with certainty.

Changes of all types are happening around us, often with the speed of a bullet too fast to be stopped even by Superman. Think to yourself how far technology has advanced just in our lifetimes. It was only 1943 when Thomas Watson, then CEO of IBM, opined, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”  Even more recently, in 1977, Ken Olson, the founder of Digital Equipment, declared, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” With the volume of email we all get, he may have been right about “want,” but not “need.”  Seniors here today probably have never used a typewriter, lived without bar codes, or know why anyone would refer to “hanging up” the telephone. My point is, considering how fast technology came upon us, most of us cannot realistically imagine where it will go from here or how fast.  What we do know is that technology has changed the way we work and live. The constant refrain today is that the skills needed for the twenty-first century workforce are much different than those needed in the past. The call we hear with increased frequency is that our colleges and universities have to take the lead in preparing our future workforce if we are to remain competitive in the global economy. We have to change what we teach and how we teach it. Is this true?  What does it mean to Davidson? 

I think I understand that the kind of jobs that will be available in the future will be different, and I don’t disagree completely with the trends I have described.  I caution, however, that the rush to prepare a workforce could eclipse the focus on preparing men and women for full lives, and on the liberal arts, which will, in my view, be ever more important as we move to the future. It is, after all, the liberal arts that teach us how to see beyond ourselves, to think broadly and with an expansive focus, to ask questions in new and varied ways, to seek solutions to problems both new and old, and to act on our humane, not selfish, instincts. It is the liberal arts that teach, often most effectively, the so-called “soft skills”—thinking critically and analytically, writing and speaking precisely and clearly, and engaging the world freshly and creatively. Davidson must resist any trends in higher education that could erode the value of the liberal arts. 

Globalization is upon us. It is no longer something we talk about happening in the future. It is here. Industries that once were the staple of the economy of this country have moved almost entirely abroad—the textile industry and the furniture industry, to name two close to home.  Immigration, most economists would concede, is simply a reflection of the globalization of the labor force. What does this mean for Davidson?  I read last week of two universities in Pakistan recruiting professors to come and teach in that country. Will this become an everyday occurrence?  Will Davidson be competing for the best faculty with universities not just in the United States, but in India, Dubai, and China?  What about students?  Among the students at Davidson today are students from India, Dubai, and China. From where will future students come to us?  What will they demand from us in curriculum that will prepare them to live in a new integrated global society?  How will Davidson increase its international engagement?  All are important questions we must answer together.

Growth and demographic changes are also ahead in our future in a big way. The communities in which we most immediately find ourselves— Davidson, Metrolina, and North Carolina—are projected to be some of the fastest growing areas of the country. North Carolina is expected to grow from its current 8.5 million residents to nearly 13 million by 2030, just a little over twenty years from now, and will move from the tenth to the seventh largest state, passing Ohio, New Jersey, and Michigan. What does this mean for Davidson College?  What will it mean for the roads that lead here?  What will be the housing pressures on our faculty and staff?  How will growth affect our efforts to preserve the residential character of our campus and community?  Where will we meet our energy needs, and how much will it cost to do so?  Will we be in a water-constrained world, in addition to a carbon-constrained world?  How do we prepare for such an eventuality?  Now, I hope you are beginning to see why eighty-eight days is just not enough to figure out all the questions, to say nothing of the answers.   

Demographic projections reflect a dramatic change in the face of the nation. By 2050, the majority in this country and state likely will be people of color. How will these changes affect Davidson?  Will we be an open, welcoming community that embraces differences and encourages diversity?  If not, will this great college become less relevant or even irrelevant to the students and faculty of tomorrow? 

Again, I don’t know the answers to all the questions the future raises. I only know there will be changes. The world will be different in many ways, and Davidson College will change in many ways.  However, a wise person once observed, “The future is not a place we are going. It is a place we are creating.”  It will take vision to create the future we want. After all, as one of my colleagues at the new presidents’ seminar so eloquently stated about the need for vision, Martin Luther King’s great speech was not titled, “I Have a Complaint.”  It will take planning and hard work to create the future we want.

The challenge that I gleefully and joyfully accept today is to guide this special place through the seas of change ahead.

However, the vision for the future of Davidson College will be best developed if done together, with your assistance, wisdom, and insights. So, my answer to that most-asked question, “What is your vision for Davidson College?” is that I pledge to you with all my heart and soul that I will work with all my energy and effort, and to call upon you to do the same, to ensure that the values, traditions, and culture of Davidson College we treasure today remain the same, as we move towards a new and exciting future together. Changing to remain the same! That is my vision, and it must be ours, for this very special place I love and am honored to serve.

At his inauguration, President Henry Louis Smith described Davidson in much the way we describe it today; now, one hundred years later, we know that our college maintained its commitment to teaching and learning, honor and integrity, faith and reason, and service and leadership through the greatest century of change in human history. We know we face considerable change and our own set of challenges in the century ahead. We will be no less steadfast and no less successful in preserving who we are while accepting what is new.

Henry Louis Smith said something else in 1901 that I feel intensely today. I will close with it. He said, “No one can feel more deeply than I the significance of this simple ceremony; its depth of meaning to the incoming president, who lays down familiar duties for an untried burden; its importance to the college, in whose history this day marks the beginning of a new era, for better or worse.”

I hope my time here will be for the betterment of this great place. I know, however, the chances of that being the case will be much enhanced if I have your prayers, thoughts, ideas, advice, patience, and support. I ask for these on this, my eighty-eighth day, and on every new day that dawns. I pledge to you all I can muster for the good of Davidson College.

It is a great day to be a Wildcat!