President's Address

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT (15 October 1982 - UA RG 285, Box 1, File 3)

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the first ever Fall Convocation at UNBSJ, another small but significant step in the development of this campus. For the first time too at a fall ceremony here we shall be conferring an honorary doctorate. The man we honour, Mr. G. E. (Ed) Graham, is a community builder who, perhaps more than anyone else, is responsible for the creation of the new Saint John Regional Hospital. It is fitting that Mr. Graham himself should be a graduate of UNB for he symbolizes what this University has tried to do over the years: to give its students an awareness of what needs to be done in the world around them and to equip them with the knowledge and skills to do it.

Through the conferring of an honorary doctorate on an exemplary citizen of this city, the University of New Brunswick in Saint John is also acknowledging with pride and gratitude the support it has received from the City, its Council and its citizens, since our inception in 1964. No other municipality in Canada, to the best of my knowledge, has been so generous to the university it hosts as Saint John has been to this campus. We for our part have been and continue to be mindful of the particular higher educational needs of the people of this city. As we try to build here programs of instruction and research of recognized academic quality, so we also seek to make our instruction and research relevant to the experience, the needs and the challenges of the people of this City and Province.

As Dr. Condon begins his second term as Vice-President, may I congratulate him and express my own satisfaction and that of the Board of Governors as the continued growth and development of this campus. In the past six years enrolment has increased from 497 to 850. With this has come a commensurate expansion of academic programs, personnel and recognition. That in itself is encouraging, but physical growth is not the most important kind for a university. In the end, for universities, as for the people who teach and learn in them, it is quality that matters - the quality of the scholarly article and the essay, the book and the examination, the lecture and the lecture notes, the hypothesis and the experiment. In universities we often speak of that quality as the pursuit of excellence. Excellence is a glibly used word not easily defined. At the risk of seeming glib myself I shall not attempt to define it here. I will, however, say one or two things about it that I have come myself to believe. It isn't so much a product as a process, less and end than a means, more an attitude than an empirical fact, not so much a harbour as the spirit of the voyage. Like happiness, it isn't an end we can pursue in itself: it is the by-product of a quest for something else of value.

Above all, excellence has its roots in humility. Humility that recognizes that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy or measured by our science. A commitment to excellence doesn't mean a withdrawal from the world, but a greater, more purposeful engagement with it and with the people whose lives give it significance. Not just so that we may instruct but so that we may also be instructed. It is important that those of us who work in universities and those who graduate from them should be mindful of this.

I shall conclude with a story that will illustrate what I mean.

Back in medieval times, a thoroughly apocryphal story tells us, the Roman Pope was persuaded by some of his more conservative advisers to endure no longer the presence of Jews in the very heart and core of world Christianity. The Jews of Rome were therefore ordered evicted from their homes by a certain date.

To the Jews of Rome this was a great tragedy, for they knew no refuge where they might not expect worse treatment than in Rome. They appealed to the Pope for reconsideration and the Pope, a fair-minded man, suggested a sporting proposition. If the Jews would appoint one of their own number to engage in a debate with him, in pantomime, and if the Jewish representative were to win the debate, the Jews might remain.

The Jewish leaders gathered in the synagogue that night and considered the proposition. It seemed the only way out but non of their number wished to volunteer to debate. As the chief rabbi said, "It is impossible to win a debate in which the Pope will be both participant and judge. And how can I face the possibility thatt he eviction of the Jews will be the result of my specific failure?"

The synagogue janitor, who had been quietly sweeping the floor through all this, suddenly spoke up, "I'll debate," he said.

They stared at him in astonishment. "You, a cheap janitor," said the chief rabbi, "debate with the Pope?"

"Someone has to," said the janitor, "and none of you will."

So in default of anyone else, the janitor was made the representative of the Jewish community and was appointed to debate with the Pope.

Then cam the great day of the debate. In the square before St. Peter's was the Pope, surrounded by the College of Cardinals in full panoply, with crowds of bishops and other churchly functionaries. Approaching was the Jewish janitor, surrounded by a few of the leaders of the Jewish community in their somber black garb and their long gray beards.

Pope faced janitor, and the debate began.

Gravely, the Pope raised one finger and swept it across the heavens. Without hesitation the janitor pointed firmly toward the ground, and the Pope looked surprised.

Even more gravely, the Pope raised one finger again, keeping it firmly before the janitor's face. With the trace of a sneer, the janitor raised three fingers, holding the pose just as firmly, and a look of deep astonishment crossed the Pope's face.

Then, the Pope thrust his hand deep into his robes and produced an apple. The Janitor thereupon opened a paper bag that was sticking out of his hip pocket and took out a flat piece of matzo.

At this, the Pope exclaimed in a loud voice, "The Jewish representative has won the debate. The Jews may remain in Rome."

The janitor backed off, the Jewish leaders surrounded him, and all walked hastily out of the square.

They were no sooner gone than the church leaders clustered about the Pope. "What happened, Your Holiness?" they demanded. "We did not follow the rapid give-and-take."

The Pope passed a shaking hand across his brow. "The man facing me," he said, "was a master at the art of debate. Consider! I began the debate by sweeping my hand across the sky to indicate that God ruled all the universe. Without pausing an instant, that old Jew pointed downward to indicate that nevertheless the Devil has been assigned a dominion of his own below.

"I then raised one finger to indicate there was but one God, assuming I would catch him in the error of his won theology. Yet he instantly raised three fingers to indicate that the one God had three manifestations, a clear acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity.

"Abandoning theology, I produced an apple to indicate that certain blind upholders of so-called science were flying in the face of revealed truth by declaring the Earth was as round as an apple. Instantly, he produced a flat piece of unleavened bread to indicate that the Earth, in accord with revelation, was nevertheless flat. So I granted him victory."

By now the Jews and the janitor had reached the ghetto. All surrounded the janitor, demanding, "What happened?"

The janitor said indignantly, "The whole thing was nonsense. Listen. First the Pope waves his hand like he's saying 'The Jews must get out of Rome.' So I point downward to say 'Oh yeah? The Jews are going to stay right here.' So he points his finger at me as if to say 'Drop dead, but the Jews are leaving.' So I point three fingers at hm to say 'Drop dead three times, the Jews are staying.' So then I see he's taking out his lunch, so I take out mine."