The President's Valedictory Address

Men and Women of the Class of 1985:

In the autumn of 1981 we embarked together on a journey, sharing the kinship of being "PeaGreen Freshmen" - you as Dartmouth undergraduates, I as the College's President. You, for your part, now have reason for prideful reflection, both because of your growth as individuals and because of your being, as a group, potentially one of the great classes of this College. And I want to express to you today, on an entirely personal note, my warm gratitude for your helpfulness as companions in my own learning process and as contributors during the past four years to the general well-being of this institution.

President Hopkins declared in one of his Valedictory Addresses, "Dartmouth is not primarily a place or a thing, an assembly of scholars or a student body. It is an influence, designed to make men realize their greater capacities and to be their better selves."

As you stand ready to take leave of this special place, it is my hope that the influence of your undergraduate experience has prepared you to assume the roles of wise leaders.

Through an exercise of leadership in terms of your possessing the knowledge, the confidence, and the courage to take effective, forward positions on issues that can improve the welfare of others; leadership in the sense of your being on the "leading edge" - intellectually, socially, and morally - in addressing the now-known and the not-yet-known challenges of your generation; leadership from the standpoint of your providing the renewing quality that is ever needed to nourish the lives of men and women and their institutions.

Ironically, at times the best exercise of wise leadership is to be a wise follower, knowing when to assume,, in that respect, a stance which will maximize your ability to contribute to what William Jewett Tucker once called the "High Estate of Influential Citizenship."

Of the fact that you have the capability, within this context, to exercise enlightened leadership, there can be no doubt. Whether you will also manifest the commitment to do so, only you can determine.

Until we meet again, know that you take with you our pride in your accomplishments, our affection for you, and our abiding confidence in you. We wish you success - this within the embrace of the sustaining bond that will forever exist between you and your College.

President David T. McLaughlin