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Volume CXXXIII, Number 8 |
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Mills inaugurated as 14th president
ERIC CHAMBERS
STAFF WRITER
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| Chair of the Board of Trustees Donald Kurtz addresses the audience while President Mills looks on. (Henry Coppola, Bowdoin Orient) |
Barry Mills '72 was inaugurated as the 14th president of Bowdoin College
in a ceremony held in Morrell Gym on October 27.
Over 1,000 students, faculty, and alumni gathered for what fellow speaker
and Maine Department of Education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese '71 called
"a day that bodes well both for Bowdoin and for Maine."
In his inauguration speech, President Mills stressed three important
future goals for the college: an increase in size, greater collaboration
with other colleges, and greater opportunities for access into Bowdoin.
"I believe deeply in the model of education practiced and refined
at Bowdoin during the past two centuries. I intend, as president of this
College, to do all that I can to support and advance that model,"
said Mills.
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| Karen Gordon Mills, second from right, flanked by her three sons, watches her husband's inauguration. (Henry Coppola, Bowdoin Orient) |
Mills underscored the importance of expanding the size of the college.
He stated, "While we must work diligently to reserve our character,
I believe we should consider over the next few years whether the breadth
of experience here academically and intellectually could be widened if
we were a somewhat larger, but still small, community."
He enunciated the possibility of expanding the student body to 1800 students
within the next five years, while both keeping the student-faculty ratio
at 10:1 and expanding student services to accommodate the increase.
Mills also spoke about the need for greater collaboration with other
colleges, both around the nation and around the world. "We are a
small college with limited resources," he stated. "We have both
geographic benefits and burdens. There is no doubt in my mind that the
academic experience provided on this campus could be enhanced significantly
through thoughtful collaboration with other colleges, universities, and
research centers."
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| President Mills listens to one of the many inauguration speakers. (Henry Coppola, Bowdoin Orient) |
Mills also addressed the issue of keeping access to Bowdoin open for
students. Although he acknowledged the rising costs of admissions, he
emphasized the importance of keeping Bowdoin a need-blind college, admitting
students on their merits and academic achievements rather than on their
ability to afford education. "Changing our policies to admit students
on the basis of the ability to pay, or use scarce financial aid resources
in a bidding war for superior students, from my point of view, is not
correct, and, I believe, would destine us to mediocrity," he said.
Mills identified that one of the most important issues facing the college
today is the need to create avenues for technical and scientific dialogue
while also preserving a liberal arts tradition. According to him, Bowdoin
should "promote an environment and curriculum that makes the complexity
of the sciences and our technical world available and accessible to those
who may decide to concentrate in other areas, but who are sufficiently
wise to appreciate the need for basic literacy and who want to understand
the methods of inquiry of the sciences and technology."
Moral leadership, said Mills, is another important responsibility of
the college. The College should not only stay strong to the ideal of the
Common Good, but also to help cultivate a strong sense of morality and
social responsibility among its students.
"Our job is to provide students with the intellectual grounding
to make what they consider to be the correct decisions for themselves,
their families and their communities. But," he stated, "to this
burden I would add the responsibility of preparing students to lead a
life of moral leadership best exemplified by graduates like George Mitchell,
Geoffrey Canada, and Ellen Baxter."
Speeches were also given by Chair of the Board of Trustees Donald R.
Kurtz '63, Maine Department of Education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese
'71, Brunswick Town Council Chair Steven H. McCausland, Student Government
Executive Board Chair Meghan E. MacNeil '03, and A. LeRoy Greason Professor
of Music Mary K. Hunter. The inauguration was opened and closed by Marshal
William E. Chapman II '63.
In his speech to President Mills, Former Dean of the Faculty of Arts
and Sciences and Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor Emeritus
of Harvard University Henry Rosovsky spoke about the need for a liberal
arts education in today's society. "The desire for a liberal arts
education has never been greater," he said. "All over the world,
people are desiring a liberal arts education."
He also reminded President Mills and the audience of the four essential
freedoms of a university delineated by former United States Supreme Court
Justice Felix Frankfurter: "to determine for itself on academic grounds
who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught, and who should
be admitted as students."
During the event, "Celebration," a piece by Robert K. Beckwith
Professor of Music Elliott S. Schartz, was premiered. The piece, written
especially for this occasion, used the letters in Mills' name, as well
as the date of the founding of Bowdoin (1-7-9-4) and the date of Mills'
inauguration (10-27-01) as the sources of notes and rhythms for his composition.
The inauguration was a culmination of a weekend-long series of events
that also included lectures by composer-historian Bernice Johnson Reagon
and Nobel-Prize-winning scientist Torsten Wiesel.
At the end of his speech, Mills stated, "I commit to you that I
will endeavor to lead this great college with this notion of moral leadership
as one guidepost, and with a firm commitment to academic excellence as
a second guidepost while striving constantly to determine with all my
powers of analysis what is right and just, and then acting on those beliefs
with conviction and courage both for the greater good and for the good
of our beloved Bowdoin College"