An institution, like a landscape, looks different from different angles of vision. At Holy Cross we have been particularly concerned over the years to define and redefine who we are and what we're about. Some of this was necessitated by marketing concerns. But our particular penchant for it was dictated to no small degree by the extraordinary rate of change that has been experienced here. Beneath every effort at self-definition there are significant internal tensions and contradictions that need to be reconciled and held in equilibrium.
Ceremonials routinely commemorate the roots of the institutions they celebrate.
That was the case earlier this month in the inauguration of President McFarland. Liturgically rich, the inaugural ceremonies powerfully reminded us of our Jesuit origins, our place within the ambit of American catholic education, our continuing mission to educate young men and women in the service of faith and the promotion of justice. That is an enduring and distinctive element of our institutional identity. But it does not entirely describe who we are or what we have become. We, in this room, constitute the nuclear core of the contemporary Holy Cross.