Quadrangle Spring 08 - Emory College - Emory University

consulted and quoted, especially if their discipline is in the
realm of public affairs. And a very few, it’s true, seem to cultivate
celebrity status, relying on PR agents to get their names
into print, their views into controversy, their faces on television.
Probably any of us could name one or two, a measure of
the success of those extra-academic efforts.
Fame by itself doesn’t preempt the life of the mind, of
course, any more than obscurity certifies it. What matters is
how one chooses to live one’s life, by what principles. And
as with people so with institutions: corporations and governments,
colleges and universities.
Look behind the headlines at Mr. Rushdie or the Dalai
Lama, or at President Jimmy Carter, who has served as University
President Carter, another Nobel laureate, works with the
energy of a man half his age to promote peace and democracy
worldwide and solve problems of global health. Through
the Carter Center and as a volunteer with organizations like
Habitat for Humanity, he has monitored elections, negotiated
truces, built houses for the poor and, in his spare time, written
sixteen books and taught in all of Emory’s schools.
We welcome association with these people, and others
like them, for a reason: their values coincide with ours. They
seek justice by peaceful means, ask hard questions, take principled
stances. This doesn’t of course mean that we always
agree with them. But when their views have provoked strong
argument, censure, or even death threats, they have defended
We welcome association with these people, and others like them, for a reason: their values coincide with ours.
They seek justice by peaceful means, ask hard questions, take principled stances.
Distinguished Professor since 1982. You begin to see a pattern, one
that I think says something about Emory.
We are proud, of course, that Salman Rushdie has placed
his papers in the Emory archives, that he’ll teach classes and
give public lectures while in residence. But in addition to his
international fame as an author, Rushdie is a longtime champion
of religious and political freedom, a past president of
PEN America—the literary and human rights organization—
and that makes us still more proud. In the same way we are
delighted to have the Dalai Lama lead interfaith summits and
symposia on religion and science during his time at Emory,
but it is as Nobel Peace Prize winner and lifelong spiritual
leader that he most honors us.
them spiritedly and openly in the best scholarly tradition.
Theirs is a life of the mind but also of the heart.
Emory aspires to be a forum for just this sort of ethical
engagement and fair debate, and we are exceedingly proud of
our faculty, not for their Q rating but for their dedication to
turning their prodigious talents toward an improved world.
Cor prudentis possidebit scientiam, says our motto. The wise
heart seeks knowledge. Heady days, without question, but the
heart of the matter is that both—head and heart—matter.
Robert A. Paul, PhD
Dean of Emory College
spring 2008 3