Roy J. Nirschel, PhD, President
Saturday, August 27, 2005

First let me welcome all of our entering students, their parents and loved ones. This is the best entering class in the 50-year history of Roger Williams University, so congratulations and we are glad you are here. Many people made this day possible - staff in admissions, student affairs, public safety, dining, facilities, those on the dais - and I thank all of them for their efforts, day in and day out.

You are also joining an outstanding student body. And the most important people here today - other than the students - are the faculty. Although today is not a workday for them, many have given up their Saturday to be here. I have been in higher education for 25 years, and you will not find a more dedicated, committed group than the Roger Williams faculty - so I thank them.

For the parents - this must be an emotional roller coaster ride for you. I saw tears this morning - tears of sadness, and a few tears of joy. One father - after lugging boxes up three floors in Willow - gave me a high five and said, "Yes!" and took off. But it doesn't end today. In a few weeks, some of you may be getting a phone call that goes like this: "I hate my roommate" ... "it's too hard" ... "it's too easy" ... or "I love it - I'm up all night hanging out and playing Mario Kart" ... "I'm thinking about staying an extra 3 years and going to law school" ... or "Uh, Dad? I got a tattoo - but it's little."

Don't worry, roll with it. It's all part of the process. Sending your child off to college is scary. It is a life-changing event. It is also a major financial investment for each family. I take it as a sacred trust - as do my colleagues - to create the best living and learning environment we can for your child.

I like to tell the story that nearly 400 years ago - before there was a Harvard or Yale - Roger Williams, our namesake, set sight on this land and declared: "Hear ye, hear ye, for all to follow, let there be a grand educational institution built on the bluff of land between these two bodies of water and let it be named for me." I like to tell that story. But unfortunately, it isn't true.

Roger Williams, one of the founding faces of Rhode Island, had nothing to do with the establishment of this university. In the state there is a zoo named for him, there is a park named for him, there is a hospital named for him, and there is a university that bears his name. All of us steal Roger Williams as our namesake. But we, as a University, have a more legitimate claim to him as muse.

Mr. Williams was a troublemaker. He was a Baptist minister kicked out of Massachusetts for irritating the Puritans. They were not that difficult to irritate. He talked about extending rights to the Indians. He wrote about liberty, about human dignity. Talk about a troublemaker! He challenged the status quo, he asked questions, and he espoused important values. And so we are proud to bear his name and his legacy. (And when you walk into the Commons, shake his hand. It helps on final exams.)

As I mentioned, I have been in higher education 25 years - so I have sat through, or given, my fair share of convocation speeches. Most of those speeches are lofty, intellectual, and soon forgotten. Students, a New York Times article on the subject wrote, want answers to more practical questions. So I will try to anticipate the questions on your mind: "If I get hungry, which pizza place delivers and how late?" . "When it says a course is required, does that mean I have to take it?" . and, "In doing laundry, do you need to separate the whites from the colors? And when it says do not use bleach - are they serious?"

Fortunately, we have the answers - but we also encourage other questions. Who am I? What do I know? Why is it important? And in the spirit of full disclosure, we are going to raise questions about Shakespeare and Lincoln and Hemingway, aesthetics and logic, language and statistics, even Plato - Plato who once said, "The unlikely is likely to happen" -- and it will, if you let it.

My other bits of advice: Get into the campus and out of your room - frankly, they aren't that big and this isn't a monastery. Turn off reality TV - this is your reality. I know television is addicting - Laguna Beach is fascinating, and who doesn't like Punk'd? But I ask you, does Hogan know best? Instead of Pimp My Ride, take a ride on one of our kayaks or sailboats, or navigate the RIPTA bus schedule to Providence or Newport. In fact, instead of surfing the Web, surf in Newport - which has great beaches. Instead of wondering how Tommy Lee is doing at college, focus on how you are doing at college. But I am realistic. You are still going to watch the next episode of The OC, because we all want to know what happens with Marissa, and will Seth's mother get out of rehab?

Try new things: Debating, writing, sailing, rock climbing, dancing, eating different foods, talking with faculty. I admit these things are scary. I know - because as president I did all of them at Roger Williams. I sailed with the sailing club, climbed a climbing wall with the outing club, debated more often than I care to recount, noshed on sushi and international cuisine, was accused of dancing, and even talked to a faculty member or two! The worst sin in life is to be bored or to be boring. The French call it ennui.

The old quarterback and philosopher Sid Luckman once wrote about the complete life: "I saw it all, I did it all, I loved it all." Be like Sid - safely and responsibly. We have tried to create, with your class, a number of shared experiences. Monday I will join all of you in a day of community service - helping those less fortunate, because service is a core Roger Williams value. Over the summer, you received a book, Old School - not to be confused with the Will Ferrell movie of the same name. We chose this book because the author, Tobias Wolff - who will be visiting us in late September - invokes a number of important themes.

On the surface, it seems like an autobiography - a New England boarding school; a writer writing about writers. But for those of you who read it - and you should - it has much deeper meaning. It is about identity. Who you are and what you are. It is about fitting in and making choices. It is about academic integrity and honesty, self-discovery and being true to yourself.

 We believe in all of those things at Roger Williams. Abraham Lincoln once spoke of the perfect world as one in which you were proud of your community, and by your actions you made your community proud. Welcome to our community, which is now your community. We want you to be proud of your University and we want to be proud of you. Congratulations, and we're glad you're here!