Greetings: Representing the Faculty
Lilien F. Robinson, BA ’62, MA ’65
Professor of Art History and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate

Good morning. President Knapp, our faculty colleagues, whom I am honored to represent, join with you, the Board of Trustees, President Elliott, President Trachtenberg, students, staff, alumni, and honored guests in celebrating this milestone in the long and remarkable history of our University.

Emerging from modest beginnings in 1821, today we are a University with a faculty of over 2,000 men and women from throughout the nation and the world. Our disciplines encompass areas of study that are informed by the past, serve the present, and anticipate the future. Yet we share with our founding faculty and many generations of colleagues, the same dedication to the highest academic standards, as expressed by the University's first President, William Staughton.

Building on the work of our predecessors, our colleagues have been widely recognized for their considerable and broad-ranging contributions to research and scholarship in fields whose diversity could not have been anticipated in the early years of the University.

To generations of our students, these professors have been dedicated teachers and valuable mentors. As their service on so many levels indicates, they are loyal, productive, citizens of the University. Even before your official arrival, you worked with and came to know many members of the faculty of this University, who were participating fully in the third component of faculty responsibility, that of shared governance. The faculty are dedicated to the principle of working in consort with the Administration and the Board of Trustees and the conviction that in such an atmosphere, our contributions as scholars and teachers, and our success as an academic institution will not only be sustained, but reach the heights towards which we strive.

On behalf of the faculty, I extend our congratulations, our best wishes and our collegial friendship. We look forward with enthusiasm to continuing our work with you, and achieving our shared vision.