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October 2007 Message from the President
Last month I attended my first Opening Convocation as president of The George Washington University. Despite my new title, in a sense I was there as one of many new students, and, in fact, I had done a fair amount of homework in preparation for the event. That was reflected in my speech, which The Hatchet described as a “history lesson.” I did cite examples of ways the history of the nation’s capital and GW’s 186-year history at the heart of that capital were intertwined. The full text is available online at www.president.gwu.edu, but I would like to reprise some of its themes here, because I think they provide a context for what, with your help, I will be working to achieve in the coming months and years. Throughout history, corridors of power have run along trade routes, shipping lanes, rail lines, and mountain passes. In Washington, D.C., the corridor of power runs along a single subway route, the Blue Line, which stretches from Capitol South, at the foot of the Capitol; to McPherson Square, across from the White House; to Foggy Bottom, down the street from the Department of State; and then across the Potomac River to the Pentagon. Along that line, from the Smithsonian on the National Mall, to Metro Center in the heart of the city, to Farragut West on K Street, lie some of the greatest treasures of our world—the remarkable triumphs of science and engineering at the Air and Space Museum; the masterworks of the Renaissance at the National Gallery; the Constitution and Declaration of Independence housed at the National Archives; the wonders of sight, stage, and sound at the Kennedy Center—and in between, commerce that has served as the economic engine of this region for decades. At the heart of the corridor, at the very center of that grand stretch of power, achievement, and imagination, is The George Washington University, the intellectual center of our international city. Our students don’t just learn from some of the best minds in their chosen field, they interact daily with leaders making decisions that will affect how all of us live for the next century and beyond. Our exemplary faculty teaches and does its research close to the seat of power, where policy intersects with knowledge. Of course, that’s not by accident. It’s exactly what George Washington had in mind more than two centuries ago when he dreamed of a university that would draw students to the nation’s capital, a community of scholars in which they would forge a shared identity and become the citizen-leaders of a new democracy. But even he could not have foreseen how much the arc of GW’s history would match the arc of the nation’s history—or the degree to which this institution would welcome both the best and brightest from America, and citizens and future leaders of nations around the world. We have not only been at the center of history. We have helped make it. And perhaps the greatest testament to the history we continue to make is the network of GW alumni spread across the world—more than 200,000 in all, with 70,000 of them in the greater Washington region alone. One of my priorities is to find new ways of engaging our alumni, so that they will feel more strongly than ever that the best way they can connect with important issues, and participate in the growth of knowledge is through their connection with GW. In turn, they will help us by opening doors for our students and, in many other ways, helping us achieve our full stature as the foremost research university in the nation’s capital. All of us at GW are privileged to have a front-row seat at the theater of world history and a chance to be more than spectators. As your 16th president, it will be an honor to work with all of you on the next chapter in the remarkable history of GW itself. —Steven Knapp
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