Transcript, Inaugural Speech of John Shattuck
Thank you. I welcome the distinguished ambassadors from countries all over the world. Your presence here today reflects the international diversity of CEU.
I want to express my gratitude to the founder of this university, George Soros. We are grateful, George, for your vision, your leadership and your generosity. I’m privileged to have hosted the remarkable series of lectures that you delivered here last week, relaunching CEU from your own intellectual contribution.
I also want to thank Leon Botstein for his creative guidance as Chair of the CEU Board of Trustees. Leon, you are not only a great chairman and college president, but as everyone could see and hear, a world-class conductor. I ‘d be willing to bet that I’m the only university president who’s ever taken office under the skillful baton of a conducting chairman.
I’m honored by the presence of my longtime friend and colleague, Richard Goldstone. Richard, your commitment to the international rule of law -- and your courage in pursuit of that commitment – have inspired people around the world. I thank you and Noleen for being here on this special occasion.
I greet all the leaders of cultural, business and civic organizations in Budapest who are here today, and thank you for coming. CEU is proud to be a Hungarian as well as an American university, and we are privileged to play a role in the cultural and intellectual life of this country and this region.
I thank the leaders and members of the boards of CEU and its sister organization, the Open Society Institute, for your support and friendship as I begin my term as President and Rector.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to the faculty, staff and students who have put me through a rigorous orientation course to get me ready for this day. As you might imagine, I feel a special kinship with the new students. I ran into one the other day when we were both lost in an obscure corridor, and together we managed to find our way out through the maze of CEU buildings.
Finally, and above all, I want to thank my partner in life and fellow adventurer in Budapest, my wife Ellen, who has guided all our journeys and made them endlessly fun, even when I made them endlessly challenging. The greatest tribute I can give her is to say simply that without you I would not be here. And let me add that we’re both grateful to our children, who gave us permission to come to Budapest because they are tolerant of our peripatetic ways and know that no matter where we are, family will always be at the center of our lives.
* * * * *
Two years ago, when I was at Harvard, a new president was inaugurated. I remember thinking at the time how quaint it was for a university president to deliver an inaugural address, and how challenging it must be on such an occasion to figure out what to say. Little did I know I’d soon find out!
“Inaugural addresses are a peculiar genre,” observed the new President of Harvard. “They are by definition pronouncements by people who don’t yet know what they’re talking about.”
After their inauguration, university presidents often seem to disappear into the woodwork. A former president of Brown, Henry Wriston, once remarked that “[a] president is expected to speak continuously in words that charm and never offend, to take bold positions with which no one will disagree, to consult with everyone and follow all proffered advice, and to do everything through committees but with great speed and without error.”
Now, I agree that university presidents should charm and consult and work through committees -- but not always. Sooner or later a president will face a moment when it’s time to challenge the prevailing wisdom, to tell an inconvenient truth, or defend an unpopular position. That’s the time when presidents are tested, and often they fail.
In the United States, too many presidents stood by and said nothing when academic freedom was undermined by the tirades of Senator Joe McCarthy. Not enough spoke out against the pervasive racism in American society and on campus. Only a handful challenged the use of torture in the so-called war on terror. And here in Central Europe very few were at the forefront of movements to resist the repression of old regimes.
A university president should defend the principles of open society – freedom of speech and thought, equality of opportunity and treatment, and democracy. These are values that should define a university, and they are the values on which CEU was founded.
One of the greatest chapters in the long struggle to develop an open society was written by Abraham Lincoln, whose bicentennial we celebrate this year. In the eye of the storm of the American Civil War, a conflict as old as civilization was fought over whether human beings could enslave one another. That was the moment when the modern concept of democracy was defined. “As I would not be a slave,” Lincoln said, “so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”
Another historic moment came 125 years later, in 1989, when a peaceful revolution swept through Central and Eastern Europe, and simultaneously, through South Africa, where Justice Goldstone played a major role in the struggle against apartheid, and then to the east, through Russia and Central Asia.
It was out of that revolution that this university was born. It was conceived out of a promise and an idea. The promise was that when the walls came down, students and professors from across the world would come together to teach and learn and build something new. The idea was that an international university where people are free to inquire and experiment and take risks could become a laboratory for open society.
Today, the peaceful revolution for democracy and human rights faces new barriers all over the world. The international financial crisis, the struggle over resources and the environment, the rise of a new authoritarianism, and the populist appeal of aggressive nationalism – these are today’s challenges to open society.
But the promise and the idea out of which CEU was born remain strong. We have become a global university, with students from over 100 countries. We have a widely respected faculty and academic departments immersed in the study of society. The vision and generosity of our founder have made us financially stable. And because of our strength and our mission I believe we have a special responsibility to respond to the great challenges of our time.
How shall we do this? Let’s look at who we are.
We have deep regional roots and a global perspective. We are a “crossroads” university – located in Budapest, accessible from East and West, North and South, rooted in the history and culture of Central and Eastern Europe, and open as few other universities are to the history and culture of other regions. Our roots in this region can be seen in the origins of many of our faculty and students, and in the curricula of some of our academic subjects – for example, European history, EU enlargement, and regional markets. Our global perspective comes from our many students from Africa, Asia, North and South America, and from programs that address global problems in Economics, Environmental Science, Human Rights, and Public Policy, to name just a few.
Another special CEU quality is our close integration of theory and practice. We are committed to academic inquiry in the pursuit of knowledge, and civic engagement in the pursuit of open society. Our public policy department is at the center of this integration, but many other departments also benefit from case studies and field work in the real world.
A third unique CEU characteristic is our commitment to interdisciplinary study and research. Individual disciplines have their own integrity, but today’s challenges must be addressed across disciplines. From global warming to failed states to social inequality, problems that affect the world must be studied by teams of specialists and generalists who combine scientific analysis with practical experience. As a young university with fewer academic turf wars than most, CEU is well-positioned to be a leader in interdisciplinary studies.
To do all this we must be agile, and that’s our fourth special quality. A dynamic university must be able to take risks, develop new programs, combine or discontinue outmoded ones, keep focused on its mission, and not get distracted by projects that consume resources without adding value. Because CEU is young, small, and entrepreneurial, we have a great capacity to be nimble, and this will help us achieve our goals.
Finally, we have a mission. We are a new model for international education, a research center for regional and global studies, and a source of intellectual support for open society. We educate students to be citizens and leaders of the world, rooted in their own communities, tolerant and engaged with others, and above all committed to a set of values:
- pursuit of the truth wherever it may lead,
- honest assessment of history,
- openness to new ideas,
- respect for the dignity of individuals and groups,
- commitment to the rule of law,
- and determination to resolve differences through debate, not denial.
In the months ahead we will launch the largest and most ambitious project CEU has undertaken. We will build a new international school of public policy.
This project is being launched in another revolutionary time, not unlike the time when the Berlin Wall came down two decades ago. The economic crisis has shaken the foundations of our world, and tremors coming from threats to the environment and public health and democracy are not far behind. Which institutions will collapse from these man-made earthquakes, and what new ones will have to be created? It’s too early to tell, but it’s clear that many things will change.
CEU’s school of public policy will be a laboratory of change. Most public policy schools are focused on governments in the countries where they are located. CEU will be different: we will focus on civil societies and transnational institutions.
At the core of our approach will be our relationship to the Open Society Institute. Through OSI and its global network, CEU will bring academic experts together with practitioners and advocates involved in policy development in six broad areas: governance and the rule of law, regulation and finance, delivery of public services, human security, media and communications, and civil society and NGO studies. CEU’s academic departments will all be involved in developing the new curriculum. When it is built the school of public policy will pull together the many strands of CEU and turn the university into a rich tapestry unlike any other in the world.
This is an exciting time, and I am privileged to lead CEU into it.
Let me close with a personal story. In many ways it relates to this university.
Two decades ago I was devastated by the loss of my first wife. Born in Germany, she grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, and came to America as an au pair girl so she could learn about things that were not discussed at home. She went to university on a scholarship, got her PhD, and became a professor and an advocate for human rights. She wondered if the world would ever change. Then it did, but she didn’t live to see it.
My world collapsed. I was left with three young children and darkness. I rediscovered the light when I met Ellen, who taught me what matters most in life, and showed me her passion as a journalist for speaking truth to power no matter what the cost. Ellen and I were married and soon blessed with a fourth child, born the same year as CEU. Later, as CEU and our daughter were growing up, I was a diplomat in Yugoslavia working to end the conflict there, and then in the Czech Republic, where civil society was emerging from the long darkness that had enveloped the region of CEU’s birth.
Now this university has grown up, and so has our daughter. They are prepared to play a role in the world, and I am prepared to help them do that. It will be a principled role, defined by the values of open society. In pursuing those values we must not be starry eyed, but rooted here in the real world. We can do no better than to follow the credo of one of the founders of this university, Vaclav Havel, who once said:
I am not an optimist because I do not believe that all ends well.
Nor am I a pessimist because I do not believe all ends badly.
Instead I am a realist who carries an ideal,
And the ideal is that freedom has meaning,
And is always worth the struggle.
