New
Student Convocation
Catherine Rigsby, Chair of the Faculty
Fall 2005
Good afternoon.
I’m glad to be here today to help mark the
beginning of your academic career.
As
the Chair of the Faculty, I am the elected leader of the ECU Faculty Senate and
the primary liaison between the faculty and the university administration.
The Faculty Senate is one of the
university’s shared-governance bodies.
It is through shared-governance that the faculty help solve institutional problems and implement policies
in ways that benefit the entire university, including you – our
students.
Of course, one of the most
important things faculty do is design the curriculum.
It is the faculty – ECU’s
disciplinary experts – who designed, initiated, and implement everything
related to your course work and your degree programs.
Even before you arrived on
campus, the faculty have been actively thinking
about you and your education!
So,
I am proud to be here today to recognize and honor the most significant
relationship that you will develop while you're here: the bond between students and faculty.
But
as I stand here envisioning this bond, I can’t help but think to the future.
In about
four years – you’ll be sitting at Commencement, wearing robes like this, anxious
to get your diploma, celebrate, and get on with your lives – and a faculty
member will walk up to the podium (just as I did today) to give you one final lecture
(hopefully very a short one!).
That
person will tell you that you have received an excellent education, that
you are now capable of great mental and creative feats, and that you are
expected to go out into the world and fix everything that's broken:
cure diseases,
end wars,
save the environment,
stop prejudice,
and so on . . .
Although I do hope you'll do that, I also know that many
of you think you are only here
to prepare for a rewarding and lucrative career.
But, the faculty hope
that you will leave ECU with both your desire for personal success and the drive to make things better –
not just for yourselves, but for everyone.
So . . . how will you prepare
for that day when we send you out to fix the world?
It
won’t be easy!
But,
as the philosopher William James said,
“It
is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than
anything else, will determine its successful outcome.”
The educational undertaking you are
beginning today can change you for the rest of your life – it can make
you better in many ways.
You are joining a
community of scholars.
You will be working with
people like me – with faculty and graduate students who love knowledge
and love knowledge-making.
We are not your parents. We are your fellow scholars.
We are here to
help you think, to help you reason, to help you discover, to help you learn how to learn, and to learn with you.
I urge you to begin this undertaking by
being passionate about your
education and your life.
Take
the time to savor all of your experiences here.
Know
that there will be times to question all of the beliefs you have accumulated
through your upbringing.
Sometimes you will
choose to accept and follow those beliefs.
Sometimes you will
reject your history to follow a new thought; a new experience.
Either
path will lead to new opportunities.
But,
it is how you choose to pursue these opportunities that will determine the
outcome.
It
is only through diligence, honesty, sincerity to yourself, and passion for life and for learning
that you
will ultimately succeed – both here at ECU and in the life that follows graduation.
On behalf of the entire Faculty, I welcome you and
wish you the best years of your lives.
We’re delighted to have you here!