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February 2008
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ALUMNI NEWS |
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Kerwin Inaugurated as President The inauguration of Neil Kerwin as American University’s 14th president brought the campus community together in Bender Arena on Friday, Feb. 8, 2008, to applaud the alumnus and scholar as he was confirmed in his role as leader of the 12,000-student institution. The arena was filled with the swirl of music, the beat of drums, and the bright colors of flowers, balloons, and ceremonial garb. Student musicians serenaded the audience, and the City of Alexandria Pipes and Drums marched in stirring procession. Faculty, representatives, and delegates filed into the arena clad in regalia that harks back to medieval scholars, with gold-tasseled caps and hoods trimmed in rich velvet colors that signify the wearer’s academic field. It was “an historic occasion for AU,” in the words of Interim Provost Ivy Broder. “Today you make us faculty members very proud of you,” said Faculty Senate chair Gary Weaver, School of International Service. Kerwin graduated from AU in 1971, joined its faculty in 1975, and served the university for decades as teacher, scholar, dean, and provost before assuming the top post. He previously served as acting and interim president for two years. “Our excitement is not simply that an alumnus is becoming president. It is that this particular alumnus is becoming president,” said Brian Keane, SPA ’89, president of the Alumni Board. When Kerwin rose to the podium, it was to give a speech of thanks, reflection, and optimism, and it was greeted with frequent applause. “Among national universities, American University is one of the youngest,” he said. “Still, our history is rich; our traditions distinctive and deep. They are the disciplines—some centuries old, others we embraced at their emergence—that form the intellectual foundations for our work, that form our distinctive academic character . . . “There is great satisfaction in being part of something that makes a positive difference in the world—an institution that makes important commitments, works hard, and delivers on those promises.” He detailed how each of AU’s schools and colleges, and its faculty, students, and staff manifested the university’s values and guided its path over the years. The students drawn to this school, he said, are “bright, accomplished, motivated, and ambitious,” and praised them for setting “high standards for our future.” The “great challenge” is to ensure that the future brings equally strong students to AU, and for that, he said to applause, “We must dedicate ourselves, indeed dedicate this presidency, to making financial assistance to students one of the two highest priorities of future development and fund-raising efforts.” He also emphasized the university’s bond with Washington, D.C. “Our history is one of intense engagement with this great city of Washington. It is our stage, our laboratory, and most important, our home. That engagement reaches from our Washington gateway to the nation and the world.” At its heart, he said, AU is a place that puts knowledge at the center of all it does. “We are a place where knowledge is created, where knowledge changes lives, and where those lives change the world . . . American University is ours—ours to protect, ours to advance and ours to pass on to others stronger than we found it. American University will always command the best I have to give, and I will ask the same from each of you. “If we can deliver that level of commitment and effort, a generation from now, perhaps on the occasion of American University’s 150th anniversary, another president on a similar stage will be able to convey a new history and list all the wonderful things that would not have happened without our creativity, courage, and dedication.” -Sally Acharya |