On all-around excellence

Photo: Peter Morenus

President Philip Austin enjoys a moment with Gene Likens, who delivered remarks during the Graduate Commencement ceremony.

Like all great colleges and universities, the University of Connecticut has its own special traditions and its own cycle of events, all important for their own sake and each significant because they help keep us anchored in a time of dramatic change.

As another academic year came to an end, as in years past we took time to honor outstanding faculty members who have been named Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors; welcomed thousands of bright, enthusiastic young people to our Spring open house for accepted students; held a convocation in recognition of students who marked significant academic achievements; and held five (yes, five) Commencement ceremonies.

This is not just a season of activity at UConn; it's also a time of tremendous excitement and for reasons that transcend the annual calendar. Magnificent new or newly renovated buildings continue to come online every semester: In the one just past, the new Center for Undergraduate Education and a wonderful new wing on the Benton Museum opened their doors. And though more than a month has passed as of this writing, the shouts of the 300,000 fans who lined the streets of Hartford for the parade in honor of our basketball teams still echo in our ears. Our men's and women's NCAA triumphs in San Antonio and New Orleans were wonderful in themselves and emblematic of the excellence the University is achieving in every field in which we are engaged.

I tried to convey that point at our ceremony in April for students who had attained great academic distinction. I said at that time that UConn maintains an absolute commitment to the attainment of quality, as do many other fine schools. But for us, when we talk in such terms, we refer to a special kind of excellence — one that befits our role as a public university committed to service for all the people of our state. At UConn, among other things, excellence translates into a commitment to exclude no qualified student because of inability to pay; a curriculum that requires students to get a good grounding in a wide range of general education courses; a high quality of student life; and a commitment to attract and retain some of the best faculty in the country, if not the world. Excellence at the University of Connecticut also means vigorously supporting a commitment to build a better society.

I have said many times that it is not the University's job to tell students what to think; our goal is to give them the research and analytical skills to think, intelligently and perceptively, for themselves. I want all our students to make a commitment that when they leave UConn, or even while they are still here, they will devote at least part of their time and talents to creating a society that reflects the best, most fundamental and most widely shared American values. Perhaps that is the most fundamental of all our tenets of excellence.

As another successful year comes to an end, we can look with satisfaction on significant achievements. But we can, and should, also look ahead to an upcoming year of new challenges, new opportunities and a renewed commitment to the University's progress.