Under his leadership Harvard has extended its excellence in many spheres. He's led a strong effort to keep Harvard open to students of all backgrounds, strengthen collaboration among the different parts of the University, and in countless ways worked to improve the academic, financial and physical resources of this University. There can be no question Neil Rudenstine will leave Harvard even stronger and better than he found it. It is with a great sense of anticipation, a feeling of excitement and exhilaration, that I undertake the responsibility the Corporation has entrusted to me. Harvard's central mission is education and scholarship and there is nothing more important to the future of our country, and indeed to the future of the world, than preparing young people to take full advantage of life's possibilities and creating the new knowledge and ideas that shape a changing world.
People speak often of the ivory tower as remote.
And yet over the last few years I've been privileged to see again and again how the ideas of scholars, whether regarding the molecular basis of life, the dynamics of global markets, the way we experience literature and art, profoundly shape the world in which we live. And as I've traveled widely over the last number of years, I've been so very often struck by the leaders I have met talking about their participation for a year, or two years, or four years in a degree program at Harvard or another American university, and how that experience changed their lives and changed the way in which they were governed. So the opportunities for this great University have probably never been greater. But there are also great challenges, from ensuring that undergraduate education is the best that it can be, to advancing in the forefront of increasingly expensive scientific research, to fostering cutting-edge thinking and teaching regarding the professions, and carrying forward the torch of learning and the humanities. Fortunately, Harvard is well-positioned to take these challenges on, and it now has both the resources and the room to innovate and grow as it pursues its mission in a changing world.