Remarks by Dr. Veronica Makowsky
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education & Regional Campus Administration
February 22, 2007
First, I want to extend to you my heartiest congratulations. You have achieved a great deal under the very difficult circumstances of the freshman year, and I hope that you are as proud as I am of your success.
But now I am asking for more.
On the one hand, I want to you to reaffirm and repeat that achievement, but on the other hand, I want you to reassess and modify it. Here is the reason why.
American culture displays a deep ambivalence toward intellectual achievement.
Probably one of the most famous examples of this ambivalence is Ralph Waldo's Emerson's famous address to the Phi Beta Kappa students of Harvard in 1837, high-achieving students much like you, "The American Scholar." Emerson warned these high- achieving students that "Books are for the scholar's idle times." Yet in the same speech, he also told them that " It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books."
Emerson's seemingly contradictory remarks about the value of books and study reflect the profoundly uncomfortable relationship between thought and action in American culture. Emerson, however, was suggesting that this seeming contradiction could be reconciled through what he called the "great principle of undulation," by which he meant that thought and action were linked in a great and repeating cycle of mutual support and inspiration. This is how he explains it:
"The mind now thinks; now acts; and each fit reproduces the other. When the artist has exhausted his materials, when the fancy no longer paints, when thoughts are no longer apprehended, and books are a weariness,--he has always the resource to live . Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary."
What Emerson is saying is that you need something to think about, something that is your own, that you have experienced through life and action, that will inspire and change your studies, and, in turn, what you study and think will inspire your actions and experiences, in what Emerson hopes will be a perpetual and mutually reinforcing cycle.
You have all proved yourself to be excellent scholars who are well acquainted with books and study, but can you now rise to Emerson's challenge of using what you have learned to inspire your actions and get new experiences?
At UConn, that's not hard to do in that we offer a rich array of experiences that will feed further reflection and may change the course of your studies.
Are you going to be limited to the thoughts and ideas of American culture? If not, learn a language, study abroad, take international courses: make yourself a global citizen.
Are you content to rest in your relatively privileged existence, just enjoying leisure and comfort? If not, consider service learning, community outreach, or peer mentoring, and become a real contributing and engaged citizen.
Are you content with the assigned reading and doing well on the exams without going any further? If not, consider undergraduate research; define a problem and seek the solutions.
Everything that you learn in this kind of hands-on experience, what we call experiential learning, will support and enhance what you learn in class and may change the direction of your studies and even the direction of your life. Think about what you are doing next year. Are you including any experiences that will change your thinking and your life?
Let me conclude with one of my favorite lines from Emerson's "American Scholar" address because I hope that you will take it to heart and live by it. As Emerson said, "Only so much do I know, as I have lived ."
Make sure that you both know a lot and have lived a lot.
Congratulations and my best wishes for your future success!
Thank you!
