|
Pomona College President David W. Oxtoby
Welcome to the opening Convocation in the 121st year of
instruction at Pomona College. On this occasion I am pleased to welcome the
Class of 2011 to our community, and to greet the returning students from the
College, our faculty, staff, and members of the Board of Trustees, led by Board
Chair Stewart Smith of the Class of 1968. It is also a pleasure to recognize
Pomona’s seventh President, David Alexander, and his wife Catharine.
The purpose of today’s Convocation is to celebrate beginnings and to join
together to explore the goals of a Pomona education. For those of you entering
as first-year students, this exploration will last through your four years on
campus and, I hope, throughout your lifetimes, since education does not end with
the granting of a degree. I would like to begin today’s program with a few
remarks about making a mark on the world and the legacy, both good and bad, that
we leave behind.
On my summer reading list this year was a book that I found profoundly
unsettling, a tough and uncompromising study called The World Without Us by
Alan Weisman. The author asks the provocative question: What would happen if all
the humans on earth disappeared suddenly? The book is an extended speculative
essay, though based on real science and on actual observations, about the effect
of humankind on the planet and how the species around would evolve in our
absence. For example, an examination of the area around Chernobyl in the Ukraine
shows how plants and animals rebounded in an area where all humans abruptly
departed in 1986, while another section describes a resort community in Cyprus
abandoned during the civil war on that island and how over time it is being
reclaimed by nature.
One of the central questions that Weisman explores is what the true impact of
humanity is on our surroundings. The engineering marvels of our civilization
will prove surprisingly fragile, in his view, once human attention to their
maintenance is withdrawn. New York subways would flood within days if the pumps
that keep them dry were no longer turned on, roads would buckle as plants pushed
through them, and steel skyscrapers would collapse through rust. He imagines
Manhattan covered by mature forests within 500 years.
What traces of humanity would remain for a future archaeologist to discover,
having landed on Earth from outer space? For solid chemical reasons, bronze
sculpture would endure, as would ceramics, so these are the materials of choice
for all of you budding artists who want to leave your mark on the world. But so
would plastics of every type. Even many so called biodegradable plastics mostly
break down into smaller and smaller pieces, but retain their chemical identity.
To me, a particular disturbing observation cited in the book was a study in the
Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii in which the total mass of tiny particles of
plastic in surface waters of the open ocean exceeded the mass of plankton in the
same volume of water by a factor of six. The hope for eliminating such huge
amounts of waste is that in the future some microorganism will evolve that can
metabolize plastic and break it down.
This is a fascinating book, and I encourage you to read it, especially as you
become engaged in the critical issue of sustainability. But I have described it
at some length also to open up a conversation on the subject of: What is our
legacy, both as individuals and as members of the Pomona College community? What
will you have accomplished after four years on this campus, and what difference
will you have made 50 years from now? Of course each of you could design and
produce some plastic object that would stay around for thousands of years. Or,
as Weisman points out, you could go off to Hollywood and create a TV show whose
signal would propagate out through the universe, just waiting for an observer to
detect and study your work; that is one way to remain “immortal.”
But more profoundly, can we have an effect on the world not by leaving an
indestructible object behind, but by making choices that matter? As you, the
members of the class of 2011, begin your four-year education at Pomona College I
hope you will ask how you can educate yourselves to make a difference in the
world. Take advantage of your time here to learn deeply about a subject that you
are passionate about, as well as broadly about a range of subjects you may feel
less confident in, so that in four years you have truly stretched your mind in
new directions. Get involved in campus activities, work cooperatively with other
students to make a difference here in Claremont, so that when you graduate you
can make a difference in the world outside.
You enjoy a privilege granted to only a small fraction of the people on this
planet, namely the opportunity to receive an excellent education in a supportive
residential college community. Take advantage of that opportunity so that when
you leave this campus in four years you can truly say that you are following the
words of instruction inscribed on the gates of the College: “Bear your added
riches in trust for [hu]mankind.” |
|
|
Return to Convocation |
Return to The Office of the President
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Quick Links |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Explore Pomona's Web |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Find It |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Search |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
