You represent both scholars and administrators. The three universities hosting this Congress in our National Capital Region will soon be receiving some fifty thousand students. Millions more will be in classes in the thirty-three countries that you represent. The education that you provide holds global importance. And your program tells me that you will be tackling fundamental issues of our times.
Scholarship is the wealth of the community.
I borrow that phrase from the background paper for this Congress. We all know that universities give us intellectual, artistic, and spiritual riches. But today, no one can ignore their role in the creation of material improvement. We now see a world of deep economic disparities. Every year around the world, twelve million children under age five die of preventable disease.