小编注：2018年10月5日下午，哈佛大学新任校长Lawrence Bacow宣誓就职，成为哈佛历史上第29任校长。Lawrence Bacow本科毕业于MIT，在哈佛大学先后取得JD (法学博士)，MPP (公共政策硕士) 和PhD学位，曾担任MIT Chancellor和Tufts University校长。本文转自公众号《驻波》。

卓越的下一站

哈佛校长：Lawrence Bacow

2018年10月5日

我想这样开始我今天的演讲——下午好。

人们在哈佛大学学到很多！

今天在哈佛的校园里看到这么多人，我很激动。

这其实提醒了我们，在这个世界上没有人可以独自完成什么了不起的事 - 包括成为哈佛大学校长。

我很幸运能让人们时常帮助我，我的父母每天勤勤恳恳地工作，为我提供了无限的机会。如果没有这些爱和亲情，我今天就不会在这里，是我的家人让我的生活变得如此丰富而有意义，我从中得到了很多营养，并且这种养分仍在每天不断地让我受益。

我感谢我的所有家人和亲爱的朋友，我们是一个大家庭，我们都是来自五湖四海，为了一个共同的革命目标，走到一起来了。

我也很荣幸今天和我的人生导师们站在一起 - 我的哈佛论文导师Mark Moore, Richard Zeckhauser,and Richard Light。谢谢您们对我悉心的教导。

我还要感谢我之前的几任校长，Drew Faust，Larry Summers，Neil Rudenstine和Derek Bok。在过去近半个世纪的时间里，他们为带领哈佛前行鞠躬尽瘁，也在我刚刚上任之际提出了很多优秀的建议。

特别感谢Tufts大学和MIT的同事，他们在以前的经历中教导我如何成为高等教育的领导者。我可以很肯定的说，今天在座的大多数人都希望他们把我教导的很好！

当然，当哈佛大学的校长也是一件很有风险的事 - 在其悠久的历史中，校长犯错误的经历可以说数不胜数。

例如，Langdon校长由于他的学生不满他讲道时经常拖堂被迫辞职 - 这是我今天得到的第一份前车之鉴。

注：SamuelLangdon，1774–1780年哈佛校长，神学博士。1776年英军撤离波士顿后，哈佛大学深陷战争泥淖，很多教学活动被迫中断，财政赤字，且演讲又臭又长。1780年学生请愿将其弹劾。

另一方面，Mather校长以“剑桥的空气不好”为由拒绝从波士顿搬家到哈佛所在的剑桥，激怒了全体哈佛师生。幸运的是，我觉得这里的空气还是挺香甜的！

注：IncreaseMather， 1692-1701年哈佛校长，任期内始终住在波士顿北部，每日乘渡轮上班。在他的任期内，甚至有四年都不在美国，被人们称为“隐形的校长”。1701年，Mather的政治对手掌权弹劾Mather，勒令Mather在搬来剑桥和放弃校长身份中二选一，最终他选择回到Boston而放弃哈佛校长的职务。

即使是Eliot校长，可以说是哈佛大学最成功的校长，偶尔也会引起一些轩然大波。当时他想要取消曲棍球，篮球和足球等团队竞技项目，因为在他看来，哈佛并不需要这些。

注：CharlesWilliam Eliot, 1869-1909年担任哈佛校长长达40年之久，对哈佛大学进行了长足的改革，在任期间让哈佛成为了世界上最好的研究型大学之一。

在他的任期内，他还一遍又一遍地试图吞并隔壁的MIT。 Rafael校长，请你放心，我会尽我最大可能避免这件事的发生。

注：Rafael Reif，2012 - 至今，MIT的第17任校长。

我很荣幸能够领导Harvard这个伟大的组织，这个美国历史最悠久的学校，我感到深深的自豪。哈佛帮助塑造了美国的高等教育系统，这个系统在独立自由，上下求索和多元包容等各个方面都出类拔萃。

今天在这里也有很多其他优秀机构的代表，感谢来自全国乃至全世界各地的所有同事的祝愿和支持，这不是一件容易的事情。

当下，美国高等教育正面临着巨大的挑战。

在我人生中第一次，人们对送孩子上大学的价值产生了质疑。

在我人生中第一次，人们对高等教育是否值得公众的支持产生了质疑。

在我人生中第一次，人们对大学是否对国家长远发展有益产生了质疑。

这些问题迫使我们要问：高等教育对一个国家的贡献了什么？

不幸的是，人们更愿意相信，大学对政治领域的思想并不像我们想的那样开放；人们更愿意相信，这种开放已经变成空中楼阁，让大众无法承受，甚至把我们与美国其他地方割裂开来；人们更愿意相信，我们更关心的是让我们学校变得更好，而不是让世界变得更美好。

如果这些批评真的来自于他们所“代表”的群体，注意是如果，我今天也不会站在这里了。我们所有的这些组织都在不断地努力求索，以求在经济，社会和政治的潮流中作出明智的抉择，而这些潮流往往掩藏这些抉择之中的大智慧。

我们需要共同重申，高等教育是一种值得支持的公共利益 - 不仅如此，我们更是国家民主的一个支柱。如果这个支柱倒塌，美国将从根本上被削弱成一种飘渺的存在。

值得一提的是，大多数国家的创始人都是第一代大学生。他们不仅塑造了我们的政府形式，还拓展了新的高等教育。他们通过学习开放了自己的思想，也更加确信政府和人民需要良好的公民教育。

即使在历史上最危难的时刻，我们的领袖们也明白，他们可以通过教育来挽救这个脆弱的国家。林肯在内战的黑暗时期签署了莫里尔法案，创建了赠地大学，在这个巨大的原始大陆上传播有用的知识。

注：莫里尔法案，又称土地拨赠法案，1857年由美国参议员Justin Smith Morrill提出，该法案要求联邦政府为每个州提供土地三万亩，用于援建农业和工业方面的学校。该法案通过国会投票后，又在1859年被否决。1862年，时任总统林肯为之翻案，将其签署为正式的法令。这个法案促成了50余所美国大学的建立，其中不乏康奈尔大学、加州大学伯克利分校等日后的世界顶尖名校。

富兰克林罗斯福总统在二战诺曼底登陆之后仅仅两周就签署了G.I.法案，将大学教育作为国家服务的主要内容之一，并首次将大量受到不公正对待的美国人平等地送入大学。

注：D-day，the day，1944年6月6日，第二次世界大战中，盟军在法国北部诺曼底登陆。

注：G.I法案，美国退伍军人权利法案，给予了美国退伍军人继续深造的权利。

这样的例子还有很多，每次这样高等教育机会的拓展，都使得美国更接近那个人人享有平等机会的理想彼岸。

因此，高等教育不仅支持了我们的民主，更在某种意义上创造了民主，我们还在继续为之努力。

我的朋友DrewFaust时常期盼，哈佛大学能够在方方面面做到卓越。对我来说，哈佛大学和我们所有大学的优点在于我们所代表的三个基本价值观：真理，卓越和机会。

注：Drew Faust，于2007-2018年间在哈佛大学担任校长。

今天，我们必须比以往任何时候都能更好地去捍卫真理，卓越和机会。我们这样做不是为了避开那些批评的声音，而是因为这是使我们国家真正伟大的价值观。

我们的同僚，美国参议员DanielPatrick Moynihan曾说过：“每个人都有权发表自己的观点，这些观点并不局限于事实的真相。”当我们在这里讨论真相时，我们已经在这条道路上走了很远。

现如今技术已经打破了舆论的壁垒，任何人都有机会发表自己的观点，这使得我们在铺天盖地的信息中更难以判断什么是观点，什么是事实。

我们所看到的故事往往勾兑了谣言，幻想和狂热的情感，超出了理性和现实的限制。

正是因为我们周围的世界中充满的各种被“加工”的信息，优秀的大学和高等教育才更加不可或缺。

我们今天必须批判性地思考，将内容与噪音区分开来，全面的博雅教育从未变得如此重要。我们有责任教育学生在新闻和争论中洞悉事实，并让他们成为真理和智慧的源泉。

当然，事实和真理并不相同。事实是无可争议的，或者至少应该如此。而真理则必须通过论证和实验，通过在相反的解释上不断打磨。这正是一所伟大的大学的意义所在，学者在努力理解周遭世界的过程中，收集和表达支持他们理论的证据。

这种对真理的追求始终需要勇气。在科学中如此，那些寻求打破常规的人常常遭到嘲笑和排挤；在社会科学，艺术和人文学科中亦然，学者们也不得不经常捍卫他们的想法免受各方的政治攻击。

有的真理令人如释重负，有的真理却让人如坐针毡。伟大的大学必须同时接受两者。

在整个人类历史中，那些为改变世界做出最大努力的人一直是推翻传统智慧的人。所以我们不应该害怕，而应该欢迎那些挑战我们思想的人。

换句话说，我们对真理的追求必须与对言论自由的承诺紧密相连。

在哈佛大学，我们的校友跨越了政治和哲学领域，包括曾在白宫，国会，最高法院以及世界各地同等职位上任职的人。在哈佛大学，我们必须在各个方面都接受多样性，因为正如州长Baker所说的那样，我们从差异中学习 - 这种差异包括了意识形态的多样。

作为教师，我们有责任挑战学生，为他们提供思想的盛宴，以扩展他们自己的思维 - 并帮助他们认识到，倾听他人的意见大有裨益，特别是与他们意见相左的人。

我们需要教他们迅速地理解，但不急于做出判断。

重要的事情说三遍：我们需要教导我们的学生快速理解，慢慢判断。作为教师，我们也应该彼此为之负责。

用神学家Reinhold Niebuhr的话来说，在对手的错误中寻找真理，在我们的真理中寻找错误。

在哈佛，我们必须努力描绘和想象我们的愿景。在这个校园里，我们拥有无与伦比的丰富资源，每个人都聪明又努力，把言论自由当作人生的准则。在这里，没有人因为恐惧和绝望闭目塞听，如果我们在这都不能谈论分裂着我们的问题，那么在世界其他地方就更加没有希望了。

与此同时，我们不应因为我们在每件事情上都能取得卓越而道歉。因为哈佛，就是卓越的代名词。

我们为世界各地的学生和教师提供教育的资源，让他们在课堂，在实验室，在运动场，在舞台等等等等地方都散发卓越的光芒，并努力为社会做出与众不同的贡献。

我们对卓越的承诺不应被解释为拥抱精英主义。我们所代表的卓越不是与生俱来的权利，它不是由那些天生的特权者继承的东西 - 甚至不是那些天生具有天赋的人。这种卓越不止由一个维度来定义，它包含了灵感、想象力，坚韧和决心。

我们所追求的卓越只有通过不懈的追求才能实现。学术探索就是在栉风沐雨中，砥砺前行，接受失望，并再次出发。我们在一片狼藉中艰难跋涉，直到我们欢呼“尤里卡！”的一个个深夜和黎明。

我们需要提醒人们，一方面，美国的伟大来源于对卓越的追求；另一方面，支持卓越的高等教育并不等同于将社会的其他部分弃置不顾。

事实上，包括我们在内的很多学界人士已经对美国收入不平等的加剧和社会流动性下降发出了警告，他们告诉了我们，想要这种公平的社会成为现实，我们还需要什么。

我们在各种领域进行的研究致力于产生新知识，新联系以及对人类生存现状的新见解。我们努力去了解生命的起源，也去思考生命的意义。我们探知人之所以为人的分子密码，也求索人之所以为人的文化内涵。

即使未来的某一天，如今的技术成为历史，人们仍然会读莎士比亚和马尔克斯，人们仍然会听莫扎特和鲍勃迪伦，和来自我家乡底特律的已故音乐家艾瑞莎富兰克林；人们还是会思考几千年来激发哲学家和诗人灵感的诸多问题。因为我们的艺术，文学，音乐和建筑都是人类历史文化中最持久的文物。作为美国历史最悠久的高等教育机构，哈佛大学负有倡导知识传承的特殊责任，这些知识的传承刻画了自文明崛起以来所有受过教育的人们。

我们所做的，不仅仅是为学生提供一系列知识。我们还要扩展他们的人性。通过教导年轻人欣赏艺术，社会和自然的美好，我们帮助他们发现人生在世最宝贵的东西。

当然，我们这些学校都不能满足于我们此刻的卓越。我们在世界各地都有竞争对手，他们得到了那些知晓经济繁荣奥秘的政府积极的支持，这些支持体现在的大学实验室，图书馆和教室等方方面面。

在美国，无论是公立的还是私立的大学，都依赖于人们的支持，是他们为研究和奖助学金做出了贡献。我们的卓越来自于他们的慷慨，我们也必须努力不负他们的支持。因此，我们要始终牢记我们对社会的义务和使命。

自哈佛大学于1636年成立以来，在这里受过教育的人们从未停下为国家需要作出努力的脚步。除了服务这个学校之外，许多的哈佛校友也获得了国会荣誉勋章，这个数字比其他任何学校都要多。哈佛人一直积极参与着时下的重大问题，而此时此刻，我们的校友中有68位正在竞选国会议员，两个党派都有。我们遍布全世界的校友们都在不懈努力，把他们的祖国建设成更强盛的国家。

我们需要确保后代继续以各种方式为更长远的利益服务。我希望每个哈佛大学的毕业生都应该成为一个积极，开明，敬业的公民。所以今天我很高兴地宣布，我们将致力于囊括多方资源，保证让每个希望参与社会服务的学生，都有机会从更广阔的视角看待世界，并且有能力修复这个世界中的不美好。

当然，如果我们只从社会的一小部分中吸收人才，我们就无法实现卓越，所以我们的大学也必须代表着机会。

从最广泛的意义上讲，我们所有人都是平等的：人才的分布是扁平的。但遗憾的是，机会并不是。

纵观我们的历史，高等教育使我们中最雄心勃勃的人在经济和社会各方面施展抱负。国家采取的每一步措施都致力于将更多的门票送到中产阶级甚至更远的地方，这也推动了我们的经济增长和创新领导力。

我们必须确保高等教育仍然是如我这一代和我父母这一代一样，成为打破阶级的台阶。虽然大学教育有助于为那些设法毕业的学生提供公平的竞争环境，但入学的费用以及坚持到毕业的课程对许多家庭来说都是令人生畏的。

这就是为什么哈佛大学开创性的助学金计划如此重要，这项计划由Larry Summers校长创办并由Drew Faust校长进一步加强。我们希望可以对低收入和中等收入家庭说：“你只需要把你的孩子送到哈佛，你们不用付一分钱。”很大程度上也正是因为这一点，今年的大一新生里有268名成员是他们家中第一个上大学的人。

然而，显然，哈佛不能单枪匹马让美国梦成为现实。

我们国家有很多优秀的公立学院和大学，五分之四的美国学生在这里接受教育，这是教育的关键。可是，国家层面正不断为教育提供更少的资金，因此学费和学生贷款债务正在随之走高。这种趋势是不可持续的。

如果我们未能充分支持公立高等教育，我们实际上是在抵制自己的未来。在其他国家不断提高高等教育支持的同时，我们作为一个国家不应该减少教育方面的投资。

作为高等教育的领导者，还有很多我们可以做的事情来缩小这个成本的曲线。高等教育是少数几个竞争反而导致价格水涨船高的行业之一。现在是时候停止这场军备竞赛了，我们应该开始考虑加强合作的好处。

这种合作可以包括共享的研究基础设施，加强研究生和教工交流，使我们能够消除我们课程中的一些冗余，并强化每个学校独有的优势。我期待着与波士顿地区的同事一起探讨如何更好地为学生和社会提供服务。

我们还必须探索新科技为我们提供的机会，以期提高效率，扩展教育的受众。我很自豪哈佛大学与麻省理工学院能够成为这一领域的领导者，通过edX为全世界有才华的学生提供教育机会。反过来，是他们让我们对学习的科学理论产生了新的理解。

作为大学校长，我们还需要致力于将大学进行的诸多选择透明化，让大家了解我们的开支和这些开支换来的成果。传统上，大学一直在努力用更多的资源做更多的事。但是在未来，我们可能必须更少的资源实现同样多的事情。

与此同时，我们有责任反对任何关于高等教育价值的谣言和诽谤，我们要告诉在这个国家和世界每一个角落的孩子一个简单的事实：如果你们想在社会中进步，教育就是进步的阶梯。

高等教育为我们这么多人实现了美国梦 - 我们也必须滋养和维护我们之后一代一代人的梦想。

我的父母几乎白手起家来到这个国度。我父亲是小时候逃离东欧大屠杀的难民，我的母亲十几岁时在奥斯维辛集中营中幸存下来。他们没有被生活的苦涩压垮，反而总是很感激美国为她提供的福祉。

这是一个平凡的故事 - 这是美国的故事。除了美洲原住民和那些被奴役着被带到这里的人之外，我们大多数人都可以追溯到那些像我的父母一样来到东西海岸寻求自由和机会，为自己和下一代更美好生活不懈奋斗的人们。尽管存在巨大的风险，但许多人今天仍然在继续着这一旅程。

我们如何善待我们中间最弱势的人，这也肯定是衡量社会是否公平的一个标准。但除了善良之外，我们也必须要考虑这个现实：如果不能欢迎来自世界各地的优秀学生和学者来到美国，将削弱美国的知识和经济领导力。

在这个全球经济中，金融资本以光速流动，自然资源也得以迅速开发。唯一真正稀缺的资本是人力和智力资本。一个国家想要繁荣，就必须聚集和培养人才。

幸运的是，许多来自世界各地的最优秀和最聪明的人都在美国的大学学习。在工程领域，数学和计算机科学领域，每年颁发的博士学位的一半以上授予外国公民。这些学生中的许多人将带着他们的眼界和见识回家，建立起蓬勃发展的公司和高等教育机构；在全世界与贫困，疾病和气候变化作斗争；并引导他们自己的国家走向善良和伟大。

但是也有相当多的国际学生尽一切可能选择留在这里。我们应该拥抱这些非凡的人，而不是拒绝他们。要知道，超过三分之一的哈佛教师并不在这片土地上出生。自2000年以来，在诺贝尔化学，医学和物理学奖的美国获奖者中，三分之一都来自于这些远道而来的人们。财富500强企业中有超过40％是由移民或其子女创立的。

美国必须继续欢迎那些寻求自由和机会的人，不要为下一代伟大的企业家，学者，公共领导人关上大门。而且，我敢说，正是移民能够做到这一点，正如Manuel Miranda在《Hamilton》中说得那样。

注：Hamilton，一部红遍美国大江南北的百老汇歌剧。

我希望我们所有高等教育届的人都忠于我们的基本价值观——真理，卓越和机会。但我也希望，除了坚持，我们还应该在世界上推广这些价值观。

在知识的成就、自由的表达和探索，以及拥有非凡潜力的这些人们的开放和包容，我们去代表社会中最好的一面是不够的。

我们必须捍卫高等教育在我们国家和更广阔的世界中的不可替代的作用。

而且我们必须向更高的目标去努力。

我们有责任，我们委实有责任，利用交托给我们的巨大资源——这些产业，思想和人员——来挫其锐，解其纷。

我们也有责任帮助美国铭记自己的善良，那些在我们建国之初所追求的善良、尊重和气节，以及那些在漫漫历史长河中为之奋斗的人们。

我们有责任让我们的国家和我们的世界有一个更美好的明天。

这就是真正的伟大所在。

我很荣幸能够与你们每一个人一起工作，以追求这样的伟大。

我很感谢有机会领导哈佛大学，这让我成为一个更好的人，而且我认为这可以让每个人都变得更好，这激励着我们所有人攀登我们从未想象过的高峰。

今天，我的灵感来自于我们的使命，历史和价值观，我们的雄心，才能和善意的力量，以及我们面前的无限可能，我们将用我们的力量帮助整个人类进步。

能与你们一起抓住这些机会是我莫大的荣幸，我准备好了。

谢谢。

10月20日，一起听美国队长分享美国计算机奥林匹克竞赛（USACO）的心路历程

10月20日起，noi.ac 再推六场【NOIP 2018 全国热身赛】，实行免费邀请制！

10月16日，大神直播课之【NOIP 2018 备战之完美总结篇】开讲，报名从速！

以下是英文原文：

I guess it’sappropriate that I begin with — good afternoon!

People learn a lotat Harvard!

This truly is anastonishing sight, seeing so many of you here in Harvard Yard today.

It’s a greatreminder that nobody gets anywhere of consequence in this world on his or herown — and that includes becoming president of Harvard.

I have beenblessed to have people ready to help me at every step of the way, beginningwith my parents, who worked hard every day to ensure that I had boundlessopportunities. I would not be here today without the love of my life, Adele,who has made my life so meaningful and rich, and also without my children, fromwhom I have learned and continue to learn so much.

I thank all of myfamily and my dear friends, who are also family, for traveling from far andwide to be here.

I have beenblessed, also, by inspiring teachers and mentors, three of whom I am honored tohave with me today — my Harvard dissertation advisors, Mark Moore, Richard Zeckhauser,and Richard Light — to mark it. Thank you for having taught me so well.

I would also liketo thank my predecessors Drew Faust, Larry Summers, Neil Rudenstine, and DerekBok for their thoughtful stewardship and leadership of Harvard over the lasthalf century.

I would also liketo thank each of them for their excellent advice as I take the helm.

A special thanksalso to my colleagues from Tufts and from MIT, who taught me how to be a leaderin higher education. I guarantee you that there are many people assembled herewho pray that you taught me very well!

Of course, theHarvard presidency seems to involve some unique hazards — and over its longhistory, a nearly infinite list of potential missteps.

President Langdon,for example, was forced to resign after the students found that his sermonsdragged on too long — a great incentive for me to be brief today.

President Mather,on the other hand, outraged the entire Harvard community by refusing to movehere from Boston, arguing that the air in Cambridge did not agree with him.Fortunately, I actually like the atmosphere here a lot!

Even PresidentEliot, arguably Harvard’s most successful president, provoked an uproar now andthen. He wanted to abolish hockey, basketball, and football, on the groundsthat they required teamwork, and, in his mind, Harvard had absolutely no usefor that.

He also tried overand over again to acquire MIT. Rafael, you can relax. I’ll do my best to avoidall such misadventures.

I am deeplyhonored to assume the leadership of this wonderful institution, and proud thatas the nation’s oldest university, Harvard has helped to shape the Americansystem of higher education, which is magnificent in its independence, sweep,and diversity.

I am also honoredthat so many other great institutions are represented here today, and I thankall of my colleagues from all over the country and all over the world for yourgood wishes — and, frankly, your support, because this is not an easy moment toassume the leadership of any college or university.

These arechallenging times for higher education in America.

For the first timein my lifetime, people are actually questioning the value of sending a child tocollege.

For the first timein my lifetime, people are asking whether or not colleges and universities areworthy of public support.

For the first timein my lifetime, people are expressing doubts about whether colleges anduniversities are even good for the nation.

These questionsforce us to ask: What does higher education really contribute to the nationallife?

Unfortunately,more people than we would like to admit believe that universities are notnearly as open to ideas from across the political spectrum as we should be;that we are becoming unaffordable and inaccessible, out of touch with the restof America; and that we care more about making our institutions great, thanabout making the world better.

While there may be— may be — a kernel of truth here, if I believed that these criticismsfundamentally represented who we are, I would not be standing before you today.All of our institutions are striving to make wise choices amidst swirlingeconomic, social, and political currents that often make wisdom difficult toperceive.

We need, together,to reaffirm that higher education is a public good worthy of support — andbeyond that, a pillar of our democracy that, if dislodged, will change theUnited States into something fundamentally bleaker and smaller.

It’s worthremembering that most of the nation’s founders were first-generation collegestudents. They not only shaped our form of government, they built newuniversities. Having had their own minds opened and improved by learning, theywere certain that government by and for the people requires an educatedcitizenry.

Even at some ofthe most difficult moments in our national history, our leaders understood thatthey could strengthen the nation by educating more of our society. AbrahamLincoln signed the Morrill Act during the dark days of the Civil War, creatingland-grant universities to spread useful knowledge across this immense rawcontinent.

President FranklinRoosevelt signed the G.I. Bill just two weeks after D-Day, making a collegeeducation one of the prime rewards for national service, and sending vastnumbers of less-privileged Americans to college for the first time.

Every suchexpansion of higher education, every move toward openness to those previouslyexcluded, has brought the United States closer to the ideal of equality andopportunity for all.

So highereducation has not only supported our democracy, but in some sense it hascreated it — and we are nowhere near done.

My friend DrewFaust has often wished for Harvard that it be as good as it is great. To me,the goodness of Harvard — and of all of our universities — lies in the threeessential values we represent: truth, or, as we say here, veritas; excellence;and opportunity.

Today, we have toembody and defend truth, excellence, and opportunity more than ever. We do thisnot to stave off our critics, but because these are the values that made ournation great.

As we considertruth, clearly, we’ve come a long way from the days when our colleague UnitedStates Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his ownopinion, but not to his own facts.”

Now thattechnology has disintermediated the editorial function, allowing anybody topublish his or her own view of events, our fragmented media struggle to makethe distinction between opinion and facts.

The result, often,is a feverish diffusion of rumor, fantasy, and emotion unconstrained by reasonor reality.

And it isprecisely because we find ourselves in this post-factual world that strongcolleges and universities are essential.

Given thenecessity today of thinking critically and differentiating the signal from thenoise, a broad liberal arts education has never been more important. It is ourresponsibility to educate students to be discerning consumers of news andarguments, and to become sources of truth and wisdom themselves.

Of course, factsand truth are not the same. Facts are incontrovertible, or at least they shouldbe, whereas truth has to be discovered, revealed through argument andexperiment, tested on the anvil of opposing explanations and ideas. This isprecisely the function of a great university, where scholars debate and marshalevidence in support of their theories, as they strive to understand and explainour world.

This search fortruth has always required courage, both in the sciences, where those who seekto shift paradigms have often initially met with ridicule, banishment, andworse, and in the social sciences, arts, and humanities, where scholars haveoften had to defend their ideas from political attacks on all sides.

There are bothreassuring truths and unsettling truths, and great universities must embracethem both.

Throughout humanhistory, the people who have done the most to change the world have been theones who overturned conventional wisdom, so we should not be afraid to welcomeinto our communities those who challenge our thinking.

In other words,our search for truth must be inextricably bound up with a commitment to freedomof speech and expression.

At Harvard, ouralumni span the political and philosophical spectrum, including those who haveserved in the White House, in Congress, on the Supreme Court, and in comparablepositions throughout the world. Here in Harvard Yard, we must embrace diversityin every possible dimension, because as Governor Baker said so eloquently, welearn from our differences — and that includes ideological diversity.

As faculty, it isup to us to challenge our students by offering them a steady diet of new ideasto expand their own thinking — and by helping them to appreciate that they cangain much from listening to others, especially those with whom they disagree.

We need to teachthem to be quick to understand, and slow to judge.

Let me say thatagain: We need to teach our students to be quick to understand, and slow tojudge. And as faculty, we owe this duty to each other, as well.

To paraphrase thegreat theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, it is always wise to look for the truth inour opponents’ error, and the error in our own truth.

At Harvard, wemust strive to model the behavior we would hope to see elsewhere. For if wecan’t talk about the issues that divide us here, on this extraordinarilybeautiful campus, where everyone is smart and engaged, where the freedom tospeak one’s mind is one of our defining precepts, where we are blessed withabundant resources and no one goes to sleep in fear for his or her life — if wecan’t do that here, there is no hope for the rest of the world.

At the same time,we should not apologize for standing for excellence in everything we do.Harvard is synonymous with excellence.

We scour the worldfor students and faculty prepared to demonstrate brilliance in our classrooms,our laboratories, on our playing fields and performance stages, and out in thecommunity striving to make a difference.

Our commitment toexcellence should never be interpreted as an embrace of elitism. The excellencewe represent is not a birthright. It is not something inherited by those bornprivileged — or even by those born with great aptitude. It is defined by morethan numbers, and it encompasses spark and imagination, grit and determination.

The excellence westand for is only achieved through tireless pursuit. Scholarship is aboutcharging down dark alleys, accepting disappointment, and setting off again. Itis messy and laborious by definition. Much as we love to celebrate the“Eureka!” moments in our society, they are generally preceded by years of earlymornings and late nights.

We need to remindthe nation of the degree to which America’s greatness depends upon thiscommitment to excellence — and the fact that supporting excellence at collegeand university campuses does not run counter to the best interests of those whofeel left behind by our society.

Indeed, it isscholars here and elsewhere who have sounded the alarm about increasing incomeinequality and declining social mobility in the United States, and whose ideaswill help us become the just society we hope to be.

The research wepursue in all fields helps to generate new knowledge, new connections, and newinsights into the human condition. We work to understand the origins of life,but also the meaning of life. We explore the molecular code that makes ushuman, and the culture that is equally essential to our humanity.

Long after thetechnologies of today are obsolete, people will still be reading Shakespeareand Gabriel García Márquez; listening to Mozart, Bob Dylan, and the late, greatAretha Franklin from my hometown of Detroit; and contemplating the greatquestions that have motivated philosophers and poets for millennia. For it isour art, our literature, our music, and our architecture which are among themost enduring artifacts of human endeavor. As the nation’s oldest institutionof higher learning, Harvard has a special responsibility to championintellectual traditions that have defined educated men and women since the dawnof civilization.

We do more thandeliver a body of knowledge to our students — we expand their humanity. Byteaching young people to appreciate what is beautiful in art, society, andnature, we help them to discover what makes life truly worth living.

Of course, none ofour institutions can afford to be complacent about our excellence. We havecompetitors around the world, supported by governments that understand that theswiftest route to a thriving economy runs through university laboratories,libraries, and classrooms.

Whether ourcolleges and universities are public or private, we all rely upon thegenerosity of the American people, who contribute both to research andfinancial aid. We are excellent because of them, and must endeavor to deservetheir support. So it’s up to us to remember, always, our collective obligationto the public good.

Since Harvard’sfounding in 1636, the people educated here have responded patriotically to thecall to service. With the exception of the service academies, more Harvardalumni have received the Congressional Medal of Honor than any other school.Harvard people have always vigorously engaged in the great issues of their day,and at this very moment 68 of our alumni are running for Congress, on bothsides of the aisle. And our alumni throughout the world are working tostrengthen their nations.

We need to ensurethat future generations continue to serve the greater good in a variety ofways. It is my hope that every Harvard graduate, in every profession, should bean active, enlightened and engaged citizen. So I am pleased to announce todaywe will work toward raising the resources so we can guarantee everyundergraduate who wants one a public-service internship of some kind — anopportunity to see the world more expansively, and to discover their own powersto repair that world.

Of course, wecannot achieve excellence if we are only drawing talent from a small portion ofsociety, so our colleges and universities also must stand for opportunity.

In the broadestsense, all of us are indeed created equal: Talent is flatly distributed. Butsadly, opportunity is not.

Throughout ourhistory, higher education has enabled the most ambitious among us to riseeconomically and socially. And every step the nation has taken to print moresuch tickets into the middle class, and beyond, has powered our economic growthand leadership in innovation.

We have to ensurethat higher education remains the same economic stepping-stone for those frommodest backgrounds that it was for my generation and my parents’ generation.While a college education still helps to level the playing field for those whomanage to graduate, the cost of entry, and of staying the course untilgraduation, has become daunting for many families.

This is whyHarvard’s groundbreaking Financial Aid Initiative, started by Larry Summers andexpanded by Drew Faust, is so important. We simply say to low- andmiddle-income families with earnings below a certain level, “You can send yourchild to Harvard and we will ask you to pay nothing.” Largely because of this,268 members of this year’s first-year class are the first in their family toattend college.

Clearly, however,Harvard cannot keep the American Dream alive single-handedly.

Our nation’smagnificent public colleges and universities, where four out of five Americanstudents are educated, are key. But state appropriations are funding adiminishing share of the cost of that education, so tuition and student debtare rising. This trend is not sustainable.

In failing toadequately support public higher education, we are literally mortgaging our ownfuture. At a time when other countries are investing more in support of highereducation, we as a nation cannot afford to invest less.

As highereducation leaders, we also need to do what we can do to bend the cost curve.Higher education is one of the few industries where competition tends to drivecosts up. It’s time to stop this arms race, and to consider the benefits ofgreater cooperation.

These can includeshared infrastructure for research, joint graduate student and faculty housing,or exchanges that allow us to eliminate some of the redundancies in ourcurricula and to double down on our specific strengths. I look forward toworking with my colleagues at Boston-area institutions to explore how we cancollectively do a better job of serving both our students and society.

We also have toexplore the opportunities offered by technology to improve productivity andaccess. I am proud that Harvard, in partnership with our colleagues at MIT, hasbeen a leader in opening up educational opportunities to talented studentsthroughout the world through edX. In turn, they have us offered new insightsinto the science of learning.

As college anduniversity presidents, we also need to be much franker in framing the choicesour institutions make, so as to reveal their true consequences in terms ofcost. Traditionally, colleges and universities have been great at doing morewith more. But in the future, we may have to do more with less.

At the same time,it’s our responsibility to counter any current myths about the value of highereducation and to continue telling children, in every corner of this nation andthe world, the simple truth: that if they want to get ahead, education is thevehicle that will bring them there.

College hasenabled the American Dream for so many of us — and we must nurture and sustainthat dream for generations to come.

My parents came tothis country with virtually nothing. My father arrived here as a child, arefugee escaping the pogroms of Eastern Europe. My mother survived Auschwitz asa teenager, lived without bitterness, and always was grateful that America wasso good to her.

This is a commonstory — this is America’s story. With the exception of Native Americans and thedescendants of those enslaved or brought here against their will, most of uscan trace our origins back to people who, like my parents, came to these shoresseeking freedom and opportunity, and a better life for their children. And manycontinue to make this journey today, despite enormous risks.

It certainly isone measure of a just society how well we treat the least powerful among us.But beyond goodness, we must make the case for common sense: that failing towelcome talented students and scholars from around the world is to undercutAmerica’s intellectual and economic leadership.

In this globaleconomy, financial capital moves at the speed of light, and natural resourcesalso move swiftly. The only truly scarce capital is human and intellectualcapital. That is what a nation must aggregate and nurture, if it intends to beprosperous.

Fortunately, manyof the best and the brightest from around the world seek to study at America’sgreat colleges and universities. In engineering, mathematics, and computersciences, over half the doctorates awarded each year are granted to foreignnationals. Many of these students will return home with their sights raised,and go on to build thriving companies and institutions of higher learning; tofight poverty, disease, and climate change throughout the world; and to leadtheir own nations toward goodness and greatness.

But a considerablenumber of these international students will do everything possible to stayright here. Rather than turn them away, we should embrace these extraordinarypeople. Over a third of our faculty were born someplace else. Over a third ofthe Nobel Prizes awarded to Americans in chemistry, medicine, and physics since2000 have gone to men and women who were foreign-born. Over 40 percent ofFortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

America has tocontinue welcoming those who seek freedom and opportunity, lest we shut thedoor to the next generation of great entrepreneurs, scholars, public leaders —and, dare I say, university presidents — for it is immigrants that get thingsdone, as Lin-Manuel Miranda said so well in “Hamilton.”

I hope that all ofus in higher education remain true to our essential values — to truth,excellence, and opportunity. But I hope, as well, that in remaining true tothem, we advance those values in the world at large.

It’s not enoughthat we represent the very best of society, in terms of intellectualachievement, freedom to express and explore, and openness to extraordinarypotential in all who possess it.

We must defend theessential role of higher education in the life of our nation and the broaderworld.

And we must reachoutwards even beyond that.

We have aresponsibility — we have a responsibility — to use the immense resourcesentrusted to us — our assets, ideas, and people — to address difficult problemsand painful divisions.

We have a responsibility,as well, to help America remember its own essential goodness: the kindness,decency, and integrity of our founding principles, as well as the kindness,decency, and integrity of those people who have fought throughout our historyto ensure that these principles apply equally to all.

It is up to us toleave our country and our world a better place tomorrow than it is today.

That is where truegreatness lies.

I am honored to beable to work alongside each and every one of you to reach such greatness.

I am thankful forthis opportunity to lead Harvard, which made me better, and which I think makeseveryone better—spurring all of us to summit mountains we never imagined wecould climb.

Today, I aminspired by the beauty of our mission, our history, and our values, by thepower of our ambition, talent, and goodwill, and by the infinite possibilitiesbefore us, to use our strengths to help humanity as a whole to ascend.

It is a very greatprivilege to seize those possibilities with you, and I am delighted to begin.

Thank you.

October 5, 2018

Lawrence Bacow

President ofHarvard

10月20日，一起听美国队长分享美国计算机奥林匹克竞赛（USACO）的心路历程

时间：2018年10月20日10:00-11:00

主题：

1、为什么全球各地选手选择参加USACO？

2、NOIP、NOI和USACO到底有何差异？

3、我是如何通过USACO成为美国队长的？

4、USACO对美本CS名校申请有啥帮助？

参与：加江哥微信，获参与办法（江哥微信：13372185200，请备注：USACO）