State of the University Address
Introduction by David Coates, Worrell Professor of Anglo-American Studies and President of the University Senate
See also: President Hatch's address »
My name is David Coates. I have the honor this year of being the president of the University Senate. On behalf of that Senate I would like to welcome you to this, the first of what we all hope and anticipate will become an annual series of addresses by the University president on the current "State of the University." It is good to see so many of you here, and I thank you all for coming.
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This is a significant moment in the governance of this University. There have been presidential addresses in the past, of course, but to my knowledge, in the last decade at least, certainly nothing of this kind. This afternoon's event is unusual and significant in at least two distinct ways.
It is unusual and significant in that it is a part — it is the pinnacle really — of a series of reports currently being made by senior figures in the University's administration to relevant groups of faculty and staff. The provost has already spoken to the faculty on the Reynolda Campus. The senior vice president for finance will do the same, later this month, to faculty and staff who fall within her remit. This pattern of dialogue and exchange is part of a wider process, initiated by the University Senate. It is a process designed to deepen the sense of community and mutual trust between faculty, staff and administration at Wake Forest, and it is a process designed to deepen that trust by the systematic sharing of information, of aspirations and of hopes. Ultimately, we all work for the president, and it is only right and proper that we should regularly have the opportunity to hear from him in a direct and personal way. This afternoon is that opportunity.
Today's address is also unusual and significant because it brings together faculty and staff from all the University's campuses. It brings together in one place, possibly for the very first time in the University's long history, many of the people who in their various ways are for the moment Wake Forest. Of course as an institution with a distinctive set of traditions and values, this University predates us all and will definitely outlive us all. But right now, this is our watch. Currently, Wake Forest is our responsibility. This is our time to constitute and to re-make the University. We are all key players in the on-going story of this magnificent institution; and it is therefore only right and proper that periodically we should stop, get together, and reflect upon our common journey.
The thinking behind the Senate's pursuit of greater community and trust has been broadly this: that high-quality universities like Wake Forest do not simply happen. They are not just places. They are also living and breathing communities. The delivery of the mission of this University is something that has to be created and recreated, on a daily basis, by the work that we all do and by the commitments that we all bring to the various offices, research laboratories, lecture halls, dining rooms and gardens in which we separately labor. So I invite you, before this address begins, to look around - to see your colleagues, all your colleagues, your fellow workers, your fellow toilers in the Wake Forest vineyard — look around and see that we are all partners in this joint and great endeavor.
And it is a great endeavor. Indeed, if everyone who worked for Wake Forest was here in this room - every single member of the administration, faculty and staff from all the campuses of the University, everyone represented by the various members of the University Senate — then we would constitute a gathering that would be nearly 5,000 people strong. We are nowhere near that number this afternoon: but we are still very large. So do please look around, greet your fellow participants in the Wake Forest story, many of whom you have probably never seen before, and - please - give yourself and them a well-deserved and collegial round of applause.
I would just like to add one final thing before introducing the President; and that is this. This is my sixth university, and I have been here for nine wonderful years now. My sixth university, but the very first of which I can honestly say that I am genuinely proud. What we do here is important. What we do here, we do well. My pride in this place is in part a product of pure accident: the unexpected good fortune of becoming a member of a truly outstanding department of political science. The best I have ever known, and by some distance. But my pride in Wake Forest is also a product of the fact that — surveying this room — I see so many people in this audience whose professionalism I have come to hold in the very highest regard and whose friendship I have come to treasure. So I not only welcome you on behalf of the Senate. I also salute you in my personal capacity. I salute you all, as colleagues and as friends.
My pleasure in this place is also due, in no small measure, to the quality of leadership that I have come to experience from the man I now have the great privilege of introducing to you. Ladies and gentlemen, to give the 2008 "State of the University Address," I am proud to present to you the 13th president of Wake Forest University, Dr. Nathan Hatch.
