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Follow Your Dreams
President Jehuda Reinharz addresses graduates and other attendees at the May 18 commencement ceremonies.
Welcome, everyone, particularly parents and other family members, graduating students, honorary-degree recipients, fellows, alumni, faculty and staff, members of the Board of Trustees and honored guests.
Today is a very special day, not only in the lives of all of you who are graduating, but also in the life of this great university.Everyone knows that Brandeis University opened 60 years ago, in the fall of 1948. But not everyone knows how significant the establishment of this university was and continues to be.
For one minute, let's look at what the conditions were at that time we opened. Any market researcher would have said, “Forget it. There already are too many schools in the Boston area. In fact, there are more than 60 colleges and universities, many of them already world famous.”
Another consultant would have said, “If you are going to open a school, don't name it Brandeis, because, after all, Louis Brandeis died seven years ago in 1941, and he did not leave any money to create a university in his name. Who is going to give money if the school is already named?”
The third would have said, “Do you realize that the campus you have just acquired has exactly two buildings, one of which is a bizarre castle and the other is a stable?”
Our fourth, very well-paid consultant would have said, “Do you realize that the strange group of men who have come together as your so-called founding board of trustees, have, for the most part, not even finished high school, never mind gone to college? What do they know about higher education?”
And finally, the last consultant would have said, “Who's going to enroll in an unaccredited school?”
Lest you think this is a fantasy scenario, listen to these words of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of the great leaders of the Jewish world at the time, who in 1947, a year before the university was founded, wrote to Dr. Abram Sachar, then candidate for the presidency of Brandeis University, who was contemplating whether or not to take the job. Here is what Rabbi Wise wrote:
“I want you . . . to know that I cannot think of a greater disaster that could befall you than to tie yourself up with Brandeis University. There is no Brandeis University. I want to save you . . . from the shame and the humiliation that will be yours if you commit to the terrible blunder of associating your honored name with the name of an institution, which, in my judgment, will hardly come into being . . . Beware of this! You will be enmeshed in something that will bring you nothing but pain and hurt and even shame if you associate yourself with Brandeis University.”
I love reading this letter because creating Brandeis University was so “out-of-the-box” — such a grand and bold idea — that even people who were considered very perceptive couldn't fathom what the founders were doing. Timid people could have listened to the naysayers. They could have abandoned their dreams. They could have let the obstacles stand in their way. But they didn't.
Why didn't the skeptics grasp the big idea of Brandeis University? Why did the actual founders of Brandeis — men who had almost no academic experience or credentials — insist that they could create a university, and that the university they had in mind would not just exist, but be special?
Special in many ways: Special in the kinds of values it would represent and foster. Special in its need-blind admissions policy from the start. They took it for granted that the new university would be academically excellent, and that was demonstrated immediately by the kind of faculty they were able to attract. But that wasn't enough. They also insisted that it be special in another way — that, unlike many of the universities in the country and in this region at the time, Brandeis would be free of quotas and discrimination of any sort.
Those of you graduating today might not realize how revolutionary that idea was in 1948 — and would be well into the 1960s. Brandeis University was to become, in the words of its founding president, Abe Sachar, "a host at last" — a place where the Jewish people would create a university open to all, regardless of race, class, gender or religion.
Stephen Wise counseled against establishing Brandeis University, but he was not the last of the naysayers. The criticism of the university for having its progressive values soon arose among those who couldn't understand what we were doing. In response to one of these critics who thought the university would have trouble gaining support if it broadcast its commitment to racial, religious and gender justice, George Alpert, chairman of the Brandeis Board of Trustees, wrote a letter in 1952, in which he said the following:
“It is a lofty ideal, that of hoping, that someday, all the world will disregard the color of a man's skin and his mode of worship, and will view him for his worth and accomplishments alone. If our university, even in small measure, can contribute to this ideal, I feel its existence will be well justified. But we cannot hope to approach that ideal if we yield in any degree to the bias of any group against any other.”
Fast forward to 2008.
So, here we are 60 years later. We have gone from two to 105 buildings and we still have the castle. We've got a fabulous faculty, wonderful students, high rankings, and superb sports teams. And we still have need-blind admissions. We've got wonderful food, amazing clubs, and outstanding alumni, two of whom are getting honorary degrees today.
We've got a great board of trustees, all of whom — unlike the original board — have attended college, to the best of my knowledge.
So, what have we learned from our history? That we should hire as few consultants as possible. We should take large risks, adhering to Abe Sachar's famous quip that you can jump over a chasm only if you take one big leap. We take intellectual chances, and we aren't afraid of change.
We've got a balanced budget, and we put Smart Balance on everything, including our Web site. And our student body — graduate and undergraduate — is diverse in every possible way.
And I am proud to say that the ideals of social justice — one of the great pillars on which the university named for Justice Louis Brandeis was founded — is alive and well. I am proud of what students, faculty and staff have been doing and will continue to do to improve our communities and the world around us. I love your activism!
So, what's the lesson here, other than to make sure that you always remain proud of Brandeis, that you join the Alumni Association and that you give to Brandeis every year, and plan, already now, to send your children — or your neighbors' children — to Brandeis? What's the bottom line?
The lesson is that sometimes you've just got to dream — you've got to have a vision — even if the people around you just don't get it. They may see the obstacles, they may focus on the problems, they may point out all the reasons that you should not follow your dream. But you know that you can make your dreams come true. That's what happened here in 1948.
I know that many of you — may be all of you — had to overcome obstacles to get to Brandeis. I know that your parents and other relatives have helped you. Some people may have thought you couldn't get in, or you couldn't afford to stay in, or you couldn't deal with the rigors of a Brandeis education. You've proven all of them wrong. You've made a big dream come true.
And now, starting today, I urge you to remember this key lesson, the lesson that is Brandeis itself: Don't let anyone get in the way of your dreams. You can do it.
