Shoring up the humanities

Abstract

o o d af ternoon. It's a real pleasure to be h e r e h e s p e c i a l l y since I see so any old fr iends in the audience and, I hope , new ones. Thank you for honor ing me with the invitation to speak to you. I first learned of the good work of the NAS over breakfast. Between sips of coffee my eye caught a newspaper article abou t a g roup of professors who had fo rmed a new scholarly organization. Thei r mission s ta tement spoke of discourse as the founda t ion of academic life in a free and democra t ic society, and p r o m o t e d an informed unders t and ing of the Western intellectual heritage. Wow, I thought , who are these revolutionaries and how can I f ind them? What impressed me most abou t NAS m e m b e r s was no t their scholarly distinction, which was considerable, nor their courage to chal lenge the status quo, bu t their call for true diversity: for many voices all engaged in free and rational discussion, for an open marketp lace of ideas, some new and promising, some old and proven. At the cen te r o f this enterpr ise was Steve Balch, a scholar who has devoted much of his life to the NAS and labored tirelessly toward its success. Many o f you here today worked alongside him; to you I offer congratulat ions and sincere thanks. You have made an e n o r m o u s and courageous cont r ibu t ion to h igher educat ion in our country. From what I read, the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education often call Steve and NAS executive di rector Brad Wilson to ask them to weigh in on this scholarly event or that academic controversy. I've jokingly told Steve that he and the NAS have b e c o m e par t o f The Establishment. He never laughs.