The Privilege of Voting – A First for Many Students

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Tomorrow is Election Day, the great opportunity for all of us as citizens to participate directly in the choice of who is going to govern us, from the President of the United States down to our local officials. For many of you, this may be the first time you have had the opportunity to vote – the right has been guaranteed to anyone 18 or older by Constitutional amendment since 1971. One great beauty of the American system is that your vote is your own. No one can tell you how to vote. No one has the right to know how… Read more

Words Matter

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Some of us grew up with the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” It was a line of defense on the childhood playground, a way to rebuff verbal bullies and avoid a fistfight. It is also false. Words can hurt – sometimes more deeply and with more long-lasting effect than sticks and stones. Words can also heal, inspire, uplift, and unite. Words matter. It’s hard to imagine anything with more impact on us as individuals and on our community than how we speak to and about each other. At Miami, The Code… Read more

Big problems require the fusion of the liberal arts with science, technology

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Much attention is rightly given to the ways that science and technology can help solve big challenges in our time, from human health to energy and the environment. Yet, science and technology alone cannot solve the problems of political polarization, economic oppression, or mistrust and misunderstanding among human beings. Global trends have exacerbated these problems, as we see around us every day in inflammatory rhetoric, racial and religious bigotry, and class-based hostility and resentment. For holistic solutions, we need the liberal arts, which require thoughtfulness and mutual understanding achieved through openness, respect, empathy, inclusion, and civil discourse – in short,… Read more

The World Needs Love and Honor

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Amid the excitement of moving to Oxford and beginning my first week as president of Miami, the flag at half-staff outside of Roudebush and the continuous news reports of lives cut short – club-goers in Orlando, black men in Minnesota and Louisiana, then police in Dallas, and more – was a somber reminder of the tragedy and turmoil that gripped the nation this summer. A reflective walk for inspiration at the Freedom Summer Memorial on Miami’s Western campus renewed my hope. These times bear striking resemblance to the struggles of the 1960s. Just as those who gathered at Western in… Read more