President William E. Troutt
April 14, 2000

This very month 75 years ago, the faculty, staff and students of this college were preparing for a journey. For 25 years our institution’s leaders had struggled with the courts, the church and the local community about its location and its identity. All that was about to change.

President Charles Diehl was readying the college for a move to a city that needed, wanted and deserved a good liberal arts college. He would bring to Memphis all the physical property of the college, but more important, he would bring a clear and compelling vision of the type of quality education a liberal arts college ought to provide.

It was a chance to start afresh in every way—a new campus and a new approach to education. Dr. Diehl was proposing a liberal arts education far more ambitious than most other church-related colleges could even imagine. It would be an education that was in his words, “challenging, engaging and connecting.”

Charles Diehl envisioned a new horizon for this college. He led our journey to Memphis and to a new set of educational ideals.

Today, I invite you to join me in another journey. Not from one locale to another, but a venture into a new set of possibilities for this college.

Where are we headed? How will we get there? These key questions have formed the backdrop of so many conversations I have had since I accepted this Board’s invitation to lead this already strong, distinguished college.

Let me tell you about our destination and our journey there. Initially, let me talk about our destination. It emerges, first of all, from our saga over the last 75 years. What we hope to become builds directly from what we have been. Second, our destination responds to what our country needs from higher education. Finally, our destination addresses the hopes and dreams so many of you have shared with me over the last nine months. You who have committed your lives to Rhodes appropriately hold the highest hopes for this very special college.

To best understand our destination, we should first look at our saga here in Memphis. This college boasts an enviable record of high-achieving graduates with an uncommon sense of service. Over the last nine months, I have had the privilege of visiting with hundreds of our alumni. As I reflect on your stories, three consistent themes emerge regarding what makes this college truly remarkable. These three themes lie at the heart of the Rhodes saga.

First in order and importance is the way students and faculty connect. Rhodes faculty are more than teachers and more than scholars. They are gifted teacher/scholars who challenge, engage and connect students in life-changing ways.

For David Alexander ’53, who just stepped down as American secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust, it was the prompting of Professor John Henry Davis to apply a second time for a Rhodes Scholarship.

For Henry Swinney ’61, a gifted physicist and one of the world’s leading authorities on chaos theory, it was the challenge and engagement of Professor Jack Taylor’s laboratory.

For Vickie Palmer ’75, the highest-ranking woman executive in one of America’s largest corporations, it was the ongoing encouragement of Professor Ralph Hon.

Rhodes graduates will tell you that where they are today comes from being inspired by inspiring teachers. This theme of students connecting with faculty runs throughout alumni stories.

A second theme is the connecting influence of our remarkable residential community. Within a campus of uncommon charm and beauty lies a genuine community where students are challenged, engaged and connected. A community self-governed by one of the country’s few student-run honor codes. A community where lifetime relationships grow and develop from a seedbed of associations that also build healthy habits of the heart.

For Chuck McGrady ’75, president of the Sierra Club, working with fellow students to keep I-40 from dividing Overton Park would spark a lifelong interest in politics and the environment.

For Michael Faber ’97, Harvard graduate student and staff member, living in our residence halls helped develop the community-building, communications, and leadership skills that equip him for a promising future.

For Ebony Woods ’00 and Heather Lockridge ’00, an African-American woman from Memphis and a Caucasian woman from small-town York, SC, living together, going to each other’s church, visiting with each other’s families, learning how much they had in common, has led to a friendship that will last a lifetime and a deep understanding of life in an increasingly interconnected and shrinking world.

This theme of a connecting residential community runs throughout alumni stories.

A third theme is an abiding sense of how the college connects students with the larger world. This institution always has been a unique church-related college. Unique in its commitment to challenging ideas, not reinforcing dogma. A college that values and welcomes students from all religions and regions. A college committed to connecting students with the world through service.

When this very Presbyterian college arrived in Memphis, one of the city’s most prominent religious leaders, Baron Hirsch Synagogue Rabbi Hardwig Peres, established a $10,000 scholarship. This scholarship would enable a young Abe Fortas, who enrolled in 1926, to go on to become one of America’s greatest trial lawyers and a Supreme Court Justice.

This has always been a college that focuses not on doctrine, but on putting faith into practice through service.

Here at Idlewild a few Wednesday nights ago, I had an opportunity to talk about the remarkable way Rhodes engages such a high percentage of its students in faith-based service projects. After sharing my story about serving in our student-run soup kitchen at St. John’s United Methodist Church, a young man at the back of the room raised his hand to offer this simple heartfelt testimony, “When I was homeless, your students fed me.”

This has always been a college engaged in the world. This theme of connecting students with the larger world runs throughout alumni stories.

As we consider our destination for Rhodes, we must build on these three powerful themes—students connecting with faculty, the connecting influence of our residential community and students connecting with the larger world.

Our future should also reflect what our nation needs and what our society is calling us to be. Over the past few years, I have had the privilege of traveling across this country as chair of a national commission. I have heard what is important to American families and how political leaders see, or fail to see, higher education as part of the national agenda.

American families are concerned about quality and value. Will their sons and daughters really connect with outstanding professors? Will their sons and daughters be able to get a superior education, an education that connects them to real opportunities? Parents understand that our nation is increasingly divided along educational lines, not just degree versus non-degree, but degree versus competitive degree where students are challenged and engaged.

Political leaders see this great educational divide, they see great social needs, they see urban areas crying out for help. They see a fragmented, disconnected society with social service and civic engagement in deep decline. Never before have we needed the kind of leadership at all levels that draws people together.

After my opportunity to serve and learn at the national level I received the call to serve at Rhodes. I was drawn to this college’s tradition of educational excellence, its tradition of service and its promise for building on these traditions. America needs a college like Rhodes that couples intellectual challenge with moral and civic engagement. The Rhodes we seek to build cannot and will not ignore the challenge for meeting these needs.

Beyond our saga and meeting the needs of society, our destination is also shaped by the dreams that lie in the hearts of the people of Rhodes. I was also drawn here by your hopes for the future.

You have said two things: First of all, this fine college can be better. No one here is complacent. Everyone is ready to work together to build a better Rhodes. Second, this fine college needs to grow in its recognized excellence. The world needs to know how good we are. Our student at Harvard Law School feels as well prepared as anyone in his class. Our student at Dartmouth’s business school was number one in his class. Our medical school alumni say that they could not have been better prepared. We graduate more future Ph.D.s than any other liberal arts college in the South. The world needs to know how good we are. Our destination is a better Rhodes, and a better-known Rhodes.

In summary, our destination—the Rhodes we envision—must be shaped by these hopes. It must address these needs and continue in new and different ways the three powerful themes that have made Rhodes such a remarkable place.

Given these formative forces, I envision a Rhodes where students and faculty connect in new and challenging ways I envision a Rhodes where our residential community connects students with one another in new and challenging ways. I envision a Rhodes where students connect with the world in new and challenging ways.

I submit to you today 10 specific steps to advance to our future destination. We will work together in the days ahead to complete these steps. These steps will be college-wide initiatives involving faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni and friends of the college in a common calling to advance Rhodes.

The first step forward—additional emphasis on undergraduate research
As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes where we celebrate undergraduate research in a significant way, where we encourage, honor and actively support faculty research involving students. Imagine with me a future Research Day at Rhodes—a day of celebrating campuswide undergraduate research with everything from papers and presentations to drama and song—a spirited day to rival, if not exceed, a win over Sewanee. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in emphasizing and celebrating undergraduate research.

The second step—augmenting the way we mentor students
As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes where we mentor students in a very intentional way from the first day they decide to come to Rhodes. This campus already enjoys a rich tradition of mentoring in the way we prepare students for a graduate and professional school and through the mentoring that comes in preparing for intercollegiate competition, both academic and athletic.

I propose we begin to build on that tradition by engaging our most academically promising and highly motivated students in a process of preparing them for our nation’s highest post-baccalaureate awards. Imagine with me our annual announcement of post-baccalaureate award winners: Fulbright Scholars, Truman Scholars, Marshall Scholars, and, yes, even Rhodes Scholars. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in the way we mentor students.

The third step—reviewing and rethinking the curriculum
Now is the time to review carefully a curriculum that has served us well. As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes known for a coherent integrated curriculum that speaks to our deepest values and to what we believe is the best in liberal arts education—a curriculum that truly challenges, engages and connects. Imagine with me a curriculum so thoughtfully designed, so coherent, so engaging, so intellectually vibrant that academic leaders seek it out for emulation such as many did 50 years ago when our Search course became a model for Davidson, Millsaps, Sewanee and other distinguished liberal arts colleges. I invite you to take this step forward in reviewing and rethinking the curriculum.

By our taking these steps when the world wants to see a liberal arts college where students and faculty connect in new and challenging ways, the world will journey to Rhodes.

The fourth step—increasing our efforts to recruit and retain the best faculty
As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes that competes nationally for the best teacher scholars. We have great teacher scholars here. They deserve our encouragement and support. Imagine with me a college that has removed any barriers to retaining the very best faculty possible, a college that is known throughout academe as a supportive and encouraging place to build a satisfying career as a teacher scholar. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in faculty recruitment, support and retention.

The fifth step—enhancing the residential experience
As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes that focuses on both residential programming and facilities in new and imaginative ways—an experience that integrates living and learning in ways that strengthens social and academic connections. Imagine with me a residential campus with a number of first-year colloquia that make the residence hall a natural extension of the classroom. Imagine with me a campus where newly-constructed, state-of-the-art student housing gives every student an opportunity to reside on this campus. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in enhancing our residential experience.

The sixth step—intensifying the thought-provoking atmosphere we provide
As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes campus with an uncommon level of intellectual intensity. A higher level of engagement in ideas sparked by world-class speakers and scholars in residence. Imagine with me a speaker series reminiscent of a time in our recent history where insightful and thought-provoking speakers like Victor Frankl and Ralph Nader regularly came to this campus, speakers and scholars who enliven and enrich the ongoing dialogue between students and faculty. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in intensifying this type of thought-provoking atmosphere.

The seventh step—a campus supported by innovative technology
As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes campus where technology brings the best of the world to Rhodes. Imagine with me cutting-edge technology that captures live presentations from the world’s most challenging speakers and offers them at any time and any place to our students, faculty and community. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in using innovative technology.

The eighth step—improving library resources
As I look to the future, I see a Rhodes with a world-class liberal arts college library. Imagine with me a library that dominates our campus in presence and activity and serves as its architectural, intellectual and emotional center. This step will call for the largest capital fundraising effort in the college’s history. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in recreating our library.

By our taking these steps, when the world wants to see a residential campus that connects students with one another in new and challenging ways, the world will journey to Rhodes.

The ninth step—increasingly connecting students with Memphis
We are one of the few highly competitive liberal arts colleges located in a metropolitan area. Let us commit ourselves to taking full advantage of our move to Memphis. Let us connect Memphis and Rhodes and Rhodes and Memphis not only through the way we serve but increasingly by the partnerships we build. Imagine with me a rich set of academic partnerships right here in Memphis from the Church Health Center to Buckman Labs to St. Jude. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward to increasingly connect students with learning opportunities right here in Memphis.

The tenth step forward—expanding and enriching opportunities for study beyond Memphis
We have a great study abroad tradition to build on here with a 30-year history of British Studies at Oxford and a growing number of opportunities to study, intern and serve in other countries. Let us work together to remove any barriers that keep more students from connecting with the broader world in this life-changing way. Imagine with me a comprehensive approach to engaging students with the world that puts the majority of our students beyond Memphis, whether it be interning in Hong Kong, spending a semester at a New York campus, building a clinic in Honduras or studying at Oxford. I invite you to join me in taking this step forward in expanding and enriching opportunities for study beyond Memphis.

By our taking these steps, when the world wants to see a liberal arts college that connects students with the world in new and challenging ways, the world will journey to Rhodes.

We have been on a remarkable journey since 1925. We have a great heritage. A past, I believe, that is but a prologue to an even greater future, a future we can and will build together. A future where students connect with faculty, with one another and the world in extraordinary ways.

I again invite you to travel with me. Let us begin this journey together. As President Diehl would declare 75 years ago, I say to you today, “We have before us the opportunity of a lifetime.”