The late Carl Becker, in his famous lecture on "The Cornell Tradition: Freedom and Responsibility," described the functions of a Cornell president in these words: "The president, so far as I could judge, was an umpire rather than a captain, and a Gallup poll would have disclosed the fact that some members of the community regarded him as an agreeable but purely decorative feature, his chief function being, as one of my colleagues said, 'to obviate the difficulties created by his office.'"

Becker believed, as I do, that university presidents have more to do than "obviate difficulties," but it is true that we do not have the same sense of control that corporate CEOs do. When I talk with people in the business world, they tell me how difficult it would be for a CEO to go down in the organization -- to function effectively, for example, as the director of human resources or the head of corporate communications, no matter how good his or her technical skills.

But in a university, there are two cultures -- one of administrators and one of faculty members -- and it is not always clear which one is ascendant at any given time. There is a famous story about Dwight Eisenhower's transition from President of the United States to President of Columbia University. He opened his first faculty meeting by addressing the assembled professors as "Employees of Columbia." Whereupon a very senior member of the faculty in the back of the room stood up and explained, "Mr. President, we are not employees of the university. We ARE the university."

For the past three years, I've been fortunate to have a foot in each culture, as I have helped to teach an undergraduate course on Greek intellectual history. I have found being a faculty member at Cornell very fulfilling. I have found it so fulfilling, in fact, that Inge Reichenbach has urged the Board of Trustees to pass a new bylaw stating that no Cornell president be allowed to teach undergraduate students. It is just too tempting to make it a full-time job.

Why do I find being a Cornell professor so stimulating? There are at least three reasons: First, Cornell students are incredibly bright and receptive to new ideas. Second, teaching is what first drew me into the profession, and it seems appropriate to finish my academic career by returning to that role. And, third, I enjoy the give-and-take with colleagues on the faculty who are strong throughout the university, but especially strong in classics and in history, where I will have my professorial homes.

My colleagues in classics and my colleagues in history are superb scholars and teachers. In fact, I have been accused by an ancient historian at Berkeley of gaining tenure in both these Cornell departments by taking the comparatively simple and undemanding job of university president for the past 8 years.

They say that a president is someone who lives in a big house and begs. And those of you who received solicitations for your reunion campaigns can attest to the truth of that. As a full-time professor, I will soon be living in a smaller house, But I have known for many years that being part of a distinguished faculty with the freedom to pursue scholarship and to teach exceptional students is one of the great privileges and joys of being at Cornell.

And while science continues to make remarkable discoveries and many headlines, the humanities are crucial to understanding, preserving, and extending the essential qualities of a great university.

There are at least four critical functions that the humanities fulfill. First, the humanities play a crucial role as the keepers and conveyors of culture in its many forms. It is essential in a democratic society that citizens be informed about the forces that have made them who they are. Second, the humanities, in the past 25 years or so, have led in the development of new scholarly areas -- such gender studies and ethnic studies -- which have enlarged the worldview of all of us. Third, the humanities, and the arts, help mediate between high culture and mass culture, between elitism and populism. They thus expand our cultural reach, address problems of social structures, and raise enduring questions about what is worthy of our students' study. Fourth, humanists, more than other scholars, have historically looked for insights in other areas of endeavor -- including science and technology --and have used them to inform judgments of human value, relevance, and historical significance.

As James Engell has noted, "It has been the province of the humanities to preserve in order to reform, to pay attention, even homage, to the past, but to criticize what we inherit, calibrating the fact that social and individual lives change in the present, and that the education of character, the shaping of society, balance what has been known with the pressure of what is discovered. The humanities openly cherish and brazenly criticize and see no contradiction in the two."

Cornell's Society for the Humanities, officially established in 1966, was one of the first of its kind in the country, and it has remained a center for research and teaching of the humanities at Cornell. Far more than a "think tank," it encourages creative humanities research across disciplines, and encourages sustained discussion "between teachers and learners at all levels of maturity." That sentiment has infused individual departments as well.

Cornell's strength in the humanities -- combined with our investments in potent scientific fields like nanoscience, computing and information science and the new life sciences; our revitalized ties to the Weill Medical College and our partner institutions, Rockefeller and Memorial Sloan Kettering, on the Upper East Side; the care and attention we are devoting to the undergraduate experience -- have given Cornell tremendous momentum. From my dual perspective as a president and a professor, they have made me very confident about Cornell and its future.

As Chairman Meinig mentioned, coming back to campus after years away, as many of you have done this weekend, it is tempting to focus on the new buildings that have sprouted up from the Veterinary College to West Campus, from North Campus to Collegetown. But equally important are the changes that are harder to see: Our commitment to faculty recruitment and retention. Our strong entering classes. Increasingly strong athletics programs, including 7 championship teams this year. The freshman summer reading project, which has created a terrific intellectual climate, not just on North Campus, but throughout the campus and the community, as faculty members, townspeople, and even trustees have taken on the challenge of reading and discussing Frankenstein, and soon Antigone.

Having Jeff Lehman as Cornell's president-elect gives me great confidence that Cornell's momentum will continue, and will, in fact, accelerate. Jeff is a Cornell alumnus with strong intellectual roots in this university, and a strong commitment to its values, including "any person, any study," as evidenced by his stand on affirmative action. Although he could not be here this morning because his plane left very early from Syracuse, he is strong, vigorous, and aware not only of Cornell, but also of its special place in the landscape of higher education. As a faculty member, I will be proud to have Jeff as my president and your president.

Not least, I am confident that Cornell's momentum will continue because of the remarkable role that you and your fellow alumni play in this university. Having been president of two universities for the past 15 years, and knowing a lot of presidents at other universities very well, I can say with certainty that Cornell alumni are more engaged, more enthusiastic, more generous and more committed to the university than any other alumni body.

You provide funding for academic programs like the New Life Sciences Initiative. You enable us to construct buildings like Duffield Hall, which are vital to our efforts in nanoscience and advanced materials. You entice top students from throughout the world -- including your own sons and daughters -- to apply to Cornell, and I hope that many of you who brought your children to campus this weekend may one day be Cornell parents as well as Cornell alumni. You travel the world with Cornell Adult University and turn out in force for its programs right here at Cornell. You keep in touch with the faculty and expand your intellectual horizons by logging onto CyberTower, the interactive website where you can hear and see lectures by Cornell faculty members and join in discussions with other alumni. The site now has some 6,000 registered users and is growing rapidly, as more and more alumni discover how easy it is to stay connected to the intellectual life of Cornell. Some of you have returned to campus to give guest lectures or to recruit students for your businesses. And you have come back in incredible numbers -- and with incredible enthusiasm -- for this reunion weekend, turning the campus red and white.

Elizabeth and I have been fortunate to meet many of you, not only here on campus, but where ever we have traveled on Cornell's behalf. From Boston to Beijing, from Hartford to Hong Kong, from London to California, Taipei and Singapore, we have had the privilege of meeting people who are completely devoted to Cornell. We appreciate your friendship, and we look forward to seeing you often in the years to come.