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Commencement 2003
President's
Remarks for the 100th Annual Commencement of Trinity College
May 18, 2003
President Patricia A. McGuire
Every year at Commencement, it is customary for the president
of the College to comment on the state of the College and
the world into which we are sending our graduates.
Today, as we celebrate the 100th class to receive degrees
from Trinity College, I am pleased to tell you that the
state of Trinity is strong. The academic year that we bring
to a close today is notable for several historic achievements.
We have enrolled more degree-seeking students at Trinity
this year than at any previous time in Trinity’s history.
On November 23, 2002, we gathered to dedicate the Trinity
Center for Women and Girls in Sports. The first new facility
on our campus in 40 years, the Trinity Center reaffirms
this College’s dedication to the education and advancement
of women.
The Trinity Center sparked the largest outpouring of voluntary
charitable gifts in Trinity’s history. The Centennial Campaign
has almost reached its $12 million goal, just $200,000 to
go. More than 1500 Trinity alumnae contributed more than
$9 million toward that goal, with the balance donated by
corporations and foundations in the Washington region.
Even as we complete and open the Trinity Center, we are
moving ahead with our strategic plan to renovate Alumnae
Hall, build new residential facilities, and ultimately to
renovate and enlarge our Science Building and Library.
If the Founders of Trinity were here today --- and I am
sure they are here, in a sense --- they would be both astounded
and very pleased by the development of this College. The
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur founded Trinity to ensure
that women could achieve a higher education equal to the
best afforded to men in the 19th and 20th centuries, and
even today, in the 21st century, the need to sustain a college
that focuses on women’s education and leadership as its
primary mission is great. We are the only such college in
this region, and one of only 18 Catholic women’s colleges
still operating in the United States. We feel a great obligation
of stewardship to our founders and commitment to future
generations of women to sustain our primary mission commitment
in Trinity’s College of Arts and Sciences, even as we have
expanded the educational opportunities on this campus to
welcome men and women and students of all ages and backgrounds
into our School of Professional Studies and School of Education.
This year, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur have begun
the celebration of the bicentennial of their founding in
1804 by St. Julie Billiart, and they continue to affirm
their Gospel way of life, “with hearts as wide as the world,”
standing with women and poor people throughout the world,
committed to work in education to achieve peace and justice
as a sign of their pledge to make God’s goodness and love
known to all people.
Let us salute the Sisters of Notre Dame for their 200 years
of devotion to living the Gospel through service to women,
children and the poor throughout the world.
In a particular way, let us also salute three Sisters of
Notre Dame on Trinity’s faculty and staff who have achieved
a great milestone this year. These three sisters have celebrated
their golden jubilees, 50 years of service and devotion
as SNDs: Sr. Joan Mary Hill, Sr. Maura Prendergast, Sr.
Phyllis Braniff.
While Trinity celebrates so much achievement, we do so
in a world that is plagued by violence and terrorism, war
and injustice in so many places. The 100 classes of women
and men that Trinity has sent forward into the world have
dedicated themselves to the remediation of the conditions
that cause so much degradation of humanity in so many places.
We alumnae and alumni of Trinity do this not simply as a
matter of good secular behavior, but quite profoundly as
a matter of faith conviction. In the Catholic faith, which
is the bedrock moral tradition of Trinity College, the defense
of human life is paramount, at all stages, in all forms,
under all circumstances. Whether defending the rights of
the unborn, or standing against unjust war or racism or
sexism or oppression of the human person, or advocating
on behalf of the poor who are voiceless in the formulation
of policies and practices that exploit their poverty, we
who are educated through Trinity College, whatever our personal
faith traditions may be, we have an obligation to use the
gift of this education to protect and defend the sacred
life that God has shared with humanity.
Here in the District of Columbia, there are many political
and social conditions that undermine the quality and dignity
of life for citizens of the nation’s capital. The disenfranchisement
of the citizens of this city is notorious and unjust; no
other citizens in this great nation are denied a vote in
Congress, and yet this shameful condition is allowed to
continue as a matter of law. This is an affront to the freedom
and dignity of our citizens.
The citizens of this city are disenfranchised in another,
more insidious way, by the chronic underachievement of the
educational system in the city. This, too, is an affront
to human life and dignity for the citizens of the District.
There are many reasons why educational success eludes urban
school systems, not just here but in virtually every major
city in the nation. Conditions of poverty, violence, the
drug culture, the institutionalized racism that originally
segregated schools as a matter of law, and still in practice,
that permitted schools to be under-funded based on neighborhood
wealth, that continues to have low expectations for black
and Hispanic children and families, all of these conditions
contribute to educational deprivation. It’s not the student’s
fault, but it is the city’s shame.
In the last few weeks, a new controversy has arisen in
the District about one possible form of relief for educational
deprivation. The topic is vouchers, a program that would
provide parents and students with a governmentally-funded
payment to subsidize elementary and secondary educational
expenses in the school of their choice. The topic is a political
hot button, and so the politicians have snarled and roared
at each other on the airwaves and in the print media.
But beneath the political din are thousands of parents
and children, some in the poorest sections of our city,
who only want a fighting chance to have a good education
in the school that will serve their needs best, leveling
the playing field to give the children a better opportunity
to be equipped with the educational tools necessary to rise
above poverty, to secure economic justice.
Just today, the Washington Post reports on three major
studies of poverty in the District. The figures are shocking,
a riveting cry for change in how we do business in this
town. In the 1990’s, the number of DC residents living in
poverty tripled --- this at a time when economic expansion
in this region was phenomenal. Today, while, nationally,
the concentration of poor people in urban centers declined
from 17 percent to 12 percent, in the District the number
of people in concentrated poverty shot up, from 9 percent
to 24 percent.
Today, 66,000 people live in high-poverty D.C. communities;
that’s a lot of poverty for a city with just about half
a million residents.
We know that education makes the critical difference in
eradicating poverty. Just look at the data in this city:
the District has one of the highest high school drop out
rates and one of the highest rates of earned doctorates
of any urban area. As a corollary: we have one of the worst
poverty rates and some of the highest per capita incomes.
The bimodal distribution of wealth and poverty is directly
related to the bimodal achievements in education, and these,
again, are clearly related to the availability and accessibility
of schools that ensure student success. The national data
also show that workers who hold college degrees earn nearly
twice as much over their lifetimes as those who have high
school diplomas. For those without high school diplomas,
the economic conditions are significantly worse.
Getting every child into a school where she can succeed,
where she can persist, where she can graduate and go on
to the next educational level should be the most important
agenda of this city, and it’s an agenda that should not
be held hostage to political postures. Indeed, the politicians
should get out of the way; this issue is too important to
be claimed by Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives.
If the children cannot learn to speak and to write well,
they will not even have a voice in the debate. That’s the
worse disenfranchisement of all, having no voice in the
debate.
The most valuable enfranchisement our leaders can give
to our citizens is to allow parents and children the choice
of the means by which they can secure the best possible
education.
To say that vouchers will undermine Home Rule in D.C. misses
the point. Home Rule is about self-determination, and the
citizens cannot exercise their rights to self-determination
if they are not well educated. Home Rule begins with educational
excellence.
To say that permitting vouchers would undermine public
education also misses the point. Trinity College works closely
with our public schools, and we know that there are many
fine institutions, teachers and principals. This is not
about demeaning public education. But if it is any good
at all, public education should not shrink from the challenge
of student choice in education. The majority of students
will continue in public schools and they should not receive
one dollar of support less, nor should efforts to improve
public education relent. Nor should private schools resist
scrutiny if they believe they are good alternatives to public
education and worthy of support through vouchers. Catholic
schools, in particular, who educate thousands of residents
of D.C. already through the Faith in the City program, should
set the tone by voluntarily adopting the No Child Left Behind
standards. The social pact that vouchers create should work
to improve all schools, insisting on high and consistent
standards at all levels, while empowering parents and students
more completely through giving them choice in education.
To those of us in higher education, the debate is curious,
since we have reaped the benefits of a voucher-like system
of student financial aid for more than half a century, since
the G. I. Bill in 1944 first provided taxpayer-funded financial
assistance. The great federal financial aid system provides
support to millions of college students regardless of their
choice of a public or private institution --- and 85% of
them still choose public institutions. Student choice is
a bedrock principle of federal financial aid at the collegiate
level.
Trinity’s care and concern for improving educational opportunity
at all levels is consistent with the mission and heritage
of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Our work to improve
the educational circumstances of the children of our city
affirms our mission in the cause of social justice, which
is intrinsic to the teachings of our Church. In promoting
the cause of justice, we support the potential for peace,
which is a necessary condition for true human dignity, freedom
and the enjoyment of our sacred life.
As the Class of 2003 accept your diplomas and wear your
hoods proudly today, you become the latest witness to the
genius of our Founders and the great traditions of Trinity
in educational achievement and service to our world.
My dear friends in this great Gold Class: may the joy and
pride of this moment sustain you through the hard work that
will be yours in the years to come. May you never relent
in your quest to do what is right, to know what is true,
to appreciate beauty, to enjoy learning for its own sake,
to serve those who do not have the privilege of your gifts,
to raise your voices on behalf of those who cannot speak,
to thirst for justice, to pray for peace, to demand excellence
in your own endeavors even as you hold others to the same
high standards. May the friends you made in your Trinity
days walk with you through all of life’s labyrinth pathways.
May the knowledge you possess so fully today ferment well
into wisdom with the yeast of experience. May your faith
never fail, your hope always prevail, your charity endure
through all of your days. May the grace of the Trinity be
with you, always.
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