President Rodriguez, Chairman Cohen, President Trachtenberg, Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of the faculty and staff of the Elliott School, it is my great pleasure to add our welcome to the groundbreaking ceremony for the new building that will play so important a role in the future of our school.

Shortly after I came to GW, a bit more than five years ago now, I asked President Trachtenberg to define my mandate as Dean. His answer has guided me ever since: build the Elliott School into one of the best in the world, but develop your own model for doing so. In other words, he urged me to be informed by the experience of other schools of international affairs, but not 'to follow their example blindly.

Over the past five years, my colleagues and I have tried to do just that, We have created a new interdisciplinary curriculum at the undergraduate level. We have pioneered the creation of a skills-based graduate program, to train a new generation of practitioners of international affairs for the 21st century. We have launched a highly successful masters degree program for mid-career students. We have recruited an outstanding group of new faculty, are engaged in cutting-edge research on a wide range of global issues, and are now building a network of partnerships with other graduate programs in international affairs at universities around the world.

All the while, however, we have remained true to the Elliott School's traditions. We provide undergraduate education for a remarkable number of talented first-generation students, whose parents did not attend college themselves. We offer graduate training in the evenings, for students who work during the day. We encourage our students to take full advantage of the extraordinary opportunities available to them in the Washington area.

In all these ways, we are trying to set a new standard for education in international affairs. But our dynamism has had its price. Even though we moved into newly remodelled facilities several years ago, we are already outgrowing that expanded space. That's why I am grateful to President Trachtenberg and the Board of Trustees for providing us yet another new home -one that will enable us to meet our needs for growth for some time to come.

But just as the size of our new building will accommodate our growth, the location of our new building will symbolize the kind of education we provide our students.

Housed in this same building, just to the west of the Elliott School, will be a new student dormitory. We hope that this will enable us to provide residential educational experiences for a select group of undergraduates interested in international affairs.

Above the Elliott School will be new facilities for executive education, which we plan to utilize as we expand our mid-career training programs.

Above all, the neighbors surrounding us will collectively symbolize the changing character of international affairs in an era of globalization.

True, we are diagonally opposite the U.S. Department of State, traditionally one of the principal employers of our graduating students, and one that still attracts many of our very best students.

Equally important, however, we are just blocks away from the IMF, the World Bank, and the OAS -- some of the world's most important key intergovernmental organizations.

Across 20th Street will be a new building for the Red Cross, one of the world's first and largest transnational non-governmental organizations.

We are within a short stroll from K Street, where the governmental relations offices of hundreds of multinational corporations are located, and only a bit farther walk from Dupont Circle, with its cluster of think tanks and global NGOS.

We are a short ride by Metro from the international biotechnology firms along the I-270 corridor, and a short ride by shuttle bus from GW's Virginia campus and the information technology firms along the Dulles Toll Road.

As much as the State Department, these organizations will be providing careers in international affairs for the graduates of our school.

So I want to thank President Trachtenberg and the Board of Trustees for providing us with this new building, and to thank President Rodriguez for his especially insightful remarks. I am grateful to all of you gathered here for taking part in our groundbreaking ceremony. Please join us again in two years for the opening of the new Elliott School, and see what further progress we've made in setting a new standard for teaching and research in international affairs.