Remarks and Speeches
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Commonwealth Honors College Groundbreaking
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November 5, 2011
Tobin Plaza, UMass Amherst
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome to another auspicious occasion in a season of auspicious occasions. I’m always pleased to see my schedule booked with groundbreakings, dedications, and ribbon cuttings. It’s a great sign of institutional health to have so many of these events this fall; under these difficult economic circumstances it’s a great sign for UMass Amherst to be building at all. It is ultimately a testimony to our will and ability to match our actions with our intended trajectory, and to commit our resources to support that vision. It is also a testimony to the great faith of the many people who support us, who are us, who have given time and energy and funding to make ceremonies like this one possible.
Groundbreaking sounds like a beginning; it is the beginning of the construction process. But at a groundbreaking we celebrate everything it took to get to the groundbreaking, and all the individuals involved, some of whom I will introduce to you in a moment. For now, however, I want to commend in particular:
- the Commonwealth Honors College Advisory Board, for its ongoing support and belief in the potential of this College;
- and Aaron Spencer, who, while chair of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, originally proposed that an honors college be established for the Commonwealth. His proposal won the unanimous support of the Board, and in a very real sense we stand on this ground today because of his efforts.
Commonwealth Honors College is already the premier public honors college in New England. Now that it is acquiring its own space, it will gain added prominence on the national level. Although it continues to be part of a larger campus and shares in the resources of UMass Amherst, it is its own self-contained college on the campus, replete with faculty and Dean. Having a space for its members to share will at last make it a real-time, real-space community.
Today we formally commit Commonwealth Honors College to be a complete living-learning experience. The dedication of this space to outstanding students, to facilitate their best work and scholarship, represents an earth-and-stone-and-square-footage commitment to undergraduate education at UMass Amherst. I am proud to be part of this path-breaking process, and proud to share this occasion with our many supporters and champions.
