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Furman University President Elizabeth Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n Convocation Remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n September 7, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n Good morning and welcome to the 2017 Fall Convocation. We are honored to have you with us as we embark on a new academic year at Furman.<\/p>\n We gather this morning to underscore the purpose and expectations of academic life at our university, and to honor those among us\u2014students, faculty, staff, and alumni\u2014whose achievements inspire us.<\/p>\n In so doing, we seek to fulfill the call articulated in the University\u2019s Statement on Character and Values: and I quote:<\/p>\n Furman University \u201cmaintains its commitment to freedom of inquiry and excellence in the quest for truth.\u00a0 The university is a community that encourages and nurtures individuals as they search for truth with passion, integrity, and rigorous intellectual discipline.\u00a0 Furthermore, the university understands its mission to be not only the transmission of knowledge, attitudes, and values, but also their examination and correction in the light of continuing discovery and integration of knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n Each of those whom we honor today reflect that ideal, and we are glad you are here in this community celebration of their accomplishments.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n How many of you have heard of The Furman Advantage?\u00a0 You would have to be living under a rock not to have heard it mentioned at least once around here.\u00a0 While it is our serious ambition for an unparalleled education, I have been subject to a bit of teasing by several of you here today, most recently on a MayX in Rome.\u00a0 You know who you are.\u00a0 Honestly, I don\u2019t mind.\u00a0 In fact, it lets me know you are paying attention.<\/p>\n While The Furman Advantage is our most recent articulation of the university\u2019s vision, you should know that we are always assessing the educational environment we create and facilitate to prepare our students, to prepare you, for meaningful lives.\u00a0 You will define meaningful in your own way.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t going to decide that for you.\u00a0 But sometimes we\u2019re persuaded to emphasize certain elements of your education based on what we observe in the world.<\/p>\n Furman started in 1826 as an all-male academy dedicated to preparing teachers and preachers.\u00a0 In 1881, the campus became residential, curriculum expanded, and non-academic activities for students grew.\u00a0 In 1933, Furman merged with Greenville Women\u2019s College.\u00a0 In 1955, we broke ground on this campus site, leaving downtown Greenville.\u00a0 In all of these decisions and many more, those who love the university were committed to finding the best ways to educate our students.<\/p>\n So, what do we observe in the world today?\u00a0 Lots of worry about the economy, North Korea\u00b8 a congress that can\u2019t get anything done.\u00a0 We have even returned to the debate over whether young people brought here through no choice of their own can stay.\u00a0 When did we, as Americans, give up on \u201cDreamers\u201d? If you read my email to the Furman community about DACA, you know how I feel about the president\u2019s decision and it is not favorable.<\/p>\n Fundamentally, we are \u201cwitnessing the fraying of the bonds of empathy, decency, and common purpose.\u201d\u00a0 A 2011 New York Times article entitled \u201cThe Fraying of the Nation\u2019s Decency,\u201d suggests that America \u201cis becoming a country in which people more than disagree.\u00a0 They fail to see each other.\u00a0 They think in types about others, and assume the worst of types not their own.\u201d<\/p>\n We see these attitudes in Washington, we see them on TV, and we see them in our own neighborhoods.<\/p>\n So why should that have any bearing on what happens at Furman?\u00a0 Preparing you to live a life of meaning certainly includes helping you identify your blind spots \u2013 helping you to really see.<\/p>\n In March, University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan gave an impassioned speech to the American Council on Education. She quoted 19th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill from his essay, \u201cOn Liberty\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cHe who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNor,\u201d Mill continued, \u201cis it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.\u201d\u00a0 That is most certainly what residential living and learning promote.<\/p>\n I wrote an article earlier this year about reversing the empathy deficit, arguing that colleges and universities have a responsibility in this regard. Residential living and learning is part of the antidote. It will help you build community and learn how to work collaboratively with people who are different from you.<\/p>\n Note that I said, learn how to work collaboratively with people who are different from you.\u00a0 For many of us, that\u2019s not natural.\u00a0 It needs to be learned. Why is that?\u00a0 Turns out, many of the stereotypes we struggle with today are ones we learned in our childhood.\u00a0 So, in the interest of creating an environment where we identify and shatter stereotypes, I want to share one from my childhood.<\/p>\n When I was in high school, I invited two of my friends from band to come over to my house one Saturday afternoon. One of them was African-American. After my friends left that day, my dad was acting a little weird. He told me he had never had a black person in his house who wasn\u2019t being paid to repair something or do some other small task. He had never had an African-American over just to visit.<\/p>\n While I was surprised at the time, I just blew it off.\u00a0 In retrospect, what I\u2019ve concluded is that it\u2019s highly likely that stereotypes were unknowingly being formed in these moments.<\/p>\n Thinking in stereotypes is hard to do when you actually meet and live with people from different backgrounds who shatter those images. I can\u2019t imagine another time in our history, given the recent events in our country, when such experience, awareness and understanding are more deeply needed.<\/p>\n What happened in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia was awful. The hate shown by neo-Nazis and white supremacists was appalling. The violence was repugnant, and tragic.\u00a0 And let me be unequivocal in asserting that there is no moral equivalency between hate groups and those who fight against hate.<\/p>\n But this hate is faceless. These hate groups don\u2019t even know the people they\u2019re hating.<\/p>\n Whether on campus or in the community, through work with the Heller Service Corps or in community-based research, or just exploring Greenville, you will come to know people who are different from you.<\/p>\n You will become friends with people who are different from you. And knowing people who are different will shatter the stereotypes that may have been built since you were a child.<\/p>\n This experience, this learning by living, is as important in your education as what shows up on your transcript. This is how we live together, in community.<\/p>\n Armed with empathy and the other attributes that accompany a Furman education, you will be able to improve the economic, social, and educational quality of life in the community in which you reside.\u00a0 You WILL lead a life of meaning.\u00a0 This is The Furman Advantage.<\/p>\n …<\/strong><\/p>\n Before we conclude, I would like to add one more thought.\u00a0 Hurricane Harvey brought tragedy to Texas and the Gulf Coast. \u00a0And now, we expect similar devastation in the path of Hurricane Irma.\u00a0 Alongside images of destruction and loss, we see images of hope, care, and compassion.\u00a0 Many Americans have put aside difference and come together as a community to help each other. This affirms my faith in the future.<\/p>\n With that, I would like once more to applaud our Furman Fellows, Nancy Powers and the faculty and staff award winners.<\/p>\n And thank you for joining us this morning.\u00a0 May you leave here encouraged and inspired, committed to the ideals of the Furman community and your own continual transformation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Furman University President Elizabeth Davis Convocation Remarks September 7, 2017 Good morning and welcome to the 2017 Fall Convocation. 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