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求哈佛校长福斯特的经典语录（最好是鼓励学生的）
理想对年轻人非常重要，而勇敢，是现代女生一项很重要的素质。“现代女生已和几十年前大不相同。她们面临了更多的机会，接受更多的教育，也应该更加勇敢地去表达和表现自己。”“虽然许多人最终从事的职业并不一定就是他的理想，但理想能促使你不断地尝试新的事物，不断地挑战自己，并为之坚持不懈。” 如果你都不试着去做你喜欢做的事，如果你不去追求你认为最有意义的东西，总有一天你会后悔的。生活的路还很长，总有机会尝试别的选择，但不要一开始就想着这个。 我把这个叫作职业选择中的停车位理论，几十年来我一直在和同学们说这些。不要因为你觉得会没有停车位，就把车停在离目的地20个街区远的地方。先到你想去的地方，然后再到你应该去的地方。放飞我们最富挑战性的想象力（2007年10月12日）哈佛大学校长 德鲁·福斯特 郭英剑 编译 就职演讲常常会罗列一些新校长的具体构想或是计划。但是，当我在考虑今天意味着什么的时候，这样的罗列似乎过于束缚人，它们限制了而不是去放飞我们最富挑战性的想象力，限制了我们去思考我们最深远的责任和义务。如果今天是超越普通日子的一天，如果今天是我们为数不多的、不仅是作为哈佛人聚集在一起、而是与一个更为广阔的学术、教学与学问的世界站在一起的一天，那么，现在就是哈佛以及像哈佛这类大学去思考的时候了：在这21世纪的第一个十年中，我们应该扮演什么样的角色。大学的确是要承担责任的。但我们从事高等教育的人需要首先搞清楚，我们为了什么去承担责任。人们要求我们报告毕业率、研究生院的入学统计数字、标准考试的分数，目的是为了在大学评价中提高“附加值”，人们要看研究经费有多少，教师出版和发表论著的数量是多少。但这些硬性指标本身并不能说明所取得的成就，更不要提大学所渴望达到的目标了。虽然了解上述指标很重要，它们也可以说明我们事业中一些特别的部分内容。但我们的目的要比这些宏大得多，因此，要解释我们的责任感，也更加困难。那么，让我斗胆提出一个定义来吧。一所大学的精神所在，是它要特别对历史和未来负责——而不单单或着仅仅是对现在负责。一所大学关乎学问（learning），影响终生的学问，将传统传承千年的学问，创造未来的学问。一所大学，既要回头看，也要向前看，其看的方法必须——也应该——与大众当下所关心的或是所要求的相对立。大学是要对永恒做出承诺，而这些投资会产生我们无法预测且常常是无法衡量的收益。大学是那些活生生的传统的管理员——在Widener图书馆与Houghton图书馆以及我们另外的88个图书馆，在Fogg与Peabody博物馆，在我们的古典学科的系科，在历史与文学的系科，都有活生生的传统。对于那些努力去证明这些传统不过是工具性的、不过是对某些当代需求有一定用处而已的说法和作法，我们会感觉很不舒服。恰恰相反，我们追寻传统，从某种程度上讲，是“为了它们自身”，因为正是它们，千百年来界定了我们何以为人类，而不是因为它们可以提升我们在全球的竞争力。我们追寻它们，因为它们使我们的——无论是个人的还是社会的——洞察力增加了深度和广度，而这，则是我们在难以避免短视的当下所无法发现的。我们同样追寻它们，也因为正如我们需要食物和房屋生存一样，正如我们需要工作和寻求教育来改善我们的运气一样，我们作为人类同样需要寻找意义。我们努力去理解我们是谁，从哪里来，到哪里去，原因何在。对许多人来说，四年的大学生活不过是允许自己去自由自在地探索这类根本问题的一个插曲而已。但对意义的找寻，是没有尽头的探索，它在不断地阐释，不断地干扰和重新阐释现状，不断地在看，从不会满足于已有的发现。事实上，这就是所有学问的真谛，自然科学、社会科学和人文学科，概莫能外，因此，它也就成为了“大学是干什么的”之核心所在了。就其本质而言，大学培育的是一种变化的文化甚至是无法控制的文化。这是大学为未来承担责任的核心。教育、研究、教学常常都是有关变化的——当人们学习时，它改变了个人；当我们的疑问改变我们对世界的看法时，它改变了世界；当我们的知识运用到政策之中时，它改变了社会。知识的扩充就意味着变化。但变化常常使人感到不舒服，因为它在你得到的同时也会失去，在你发现的同时也会迷失方向。然而，当面对未来时，大学必须去拥抱那不稳定的变化，它对人类理解世界的每一点进步都至关重要 我们对未来的责任还对我们提出了更多的要求。大学既是哲学家也是科学家的所在地，这是独一无二的。对未来承担责任要求我们，要跨越地理与智力的界限。正如我们生活在田野与学科正在缩小差距的时代，我们所居住的是一个逐渐跨越国家的世界，在这个世界里，知识本身就是最有力的连接体。真理是渴望达到的目标，而不是占有物。而在这其中，我们——和所有以思考和自由询问精神显示其特色的大学一道——向那些拥抱不容争辩的确定性的人们提出挑战乃至是提出警告。我们必须将自己置于不断质疑（doubt）这种令人不舒服的状态，使自己保持谦逊的态度，不断地相信：还有更多的知识需要我们去了解、更多的知识需要我们去讲授、更多的知识需要我们去理解。上述所承担的种种责任既代表着一种特权，也代表着一种责任。我们能够生活在哈佛这样一个理性自由、传统激扬、资源非凡的王国，因为我们正是被称为是“大学”的这样好奇而神圣的组织的一部分。我们需要更好地去理解和推进大学的目的——不单单是向总持批评立场的公众加以解释，更要为了我们自身的价值而坚持自我。我们必须要付诸行动，不仅是作为学生和教工、历史学家和计算机科学家、律师和医生，语言学家和社会学家，更是作为大学中的成员，我们对这个思想共同体负有责任。我们必须把彼此看作是相互负有责任的，因为由我们所组成的这个组织，反过来界定了我们的潜在价值。对未来承担责任包含着我们对学生所承担的特殊职责，因为他们是我们最重要的目的和财产。想要说服一个国家或是世界去尊重——不要说去支持了——那些致力于挑战社会最根本的思维设定，这很不容易。但这，恰恰就是我们的责任：我们既要去解释我们的目的，也要很好地去达到我们的目的，这就是我们这些大学在这个新的世纪生存和繁荣的价值所在。哈佛大学不能孤独地为此奋斗。但我们所有人都知道，哈佛在其中扮演着特殊的角色。这就是我们今天在这里的原因，这就是她对我们意味深长的原因。上一周，我拿到一个深黄褐色的信封，它是在1951年由哈佛的第23任校长詹姆斯·柯南特（James B. Conant）委托给哈佛档案馆保存下来的。他在留下的简短说明上称，请下一世纪开始时而“不是之前的”哈佛校长打开它。我撕开了这封神秘信件的封口，发现里面是我的前任留下的一封不同寻常的信。它的抬头是“我亲爱的先生。”柯南特写作时给人一种危险迫在眉睫的感觉。他担心第三次世界大战一触即发，这将“很有可能使我们所居住的城市包括剑桥在内遭到破坏。” “我们都想知道，”他继续写到，“自由世界在未来的50年里会如何发展。”但是，当他想象哈佛的未来时，柯南特就由不详之兆转向了坚定的信念。如果“厄运的预言”证明了是错的，如果有一位哈佛校长能活着读到这封信，那么，柯南特就对哈佛的未来有信心。“你会收到这封信，会带领一个比我荣幸地执掌时更加繁荣、更有影响的大学。……将坚持学术自由、容忍异端的传统，我确信是如此。”我们必须致力于此，确信他在未来也是正确的，我们必须共同拥有和支持他的这种信念。柯南特的信，就像我们今天在此聚会一样，标志着在过去与未来之间，有一块引人注目的交汇地。在这个仪式上，我接受了我对他来自历史的声音所祈求的传统应付的责任。与此同时，我也与你们大家一道，确认了我对哈佛现在和未来的责任。正如柯南特所处的时代一样，我们也处于一个使我们有充足的理由忧虑不安的世界，我们面对的是不确定。但我们同样要对这所大学的目的和潜在发展保持一种不可动摇的信念，她终究会尽其所能地去设计从现在起之后的半个世纪内世界将会怎样。让我们拥抱那些责任和各种可能性吧；让我们分享它们“紧密相联……如一体；”让我们开心地去从事这项工作吧，因为这样的一项任务是一种难以衡量的特权。原文见 http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/faust/071012_installation.html哈佛女校长福斯特在2008届毕业典礼上致校友报告Tyger Tyger 2008-07-04 09:35:43 来自: Tyger Tyger(non sum qualis eram) President Drew Gilpin Faust’s Report to the Alumni June 5, 2008President Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s 28th president, delivers her Report to the Alumni at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. Distinguished guests, graduates and your families, alumni and alumnae, colleagues and friends – witches, wizards, and muggles of all ages – it’s a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. Looking out from this stage, I’m not surprised that our gathering today includes what I’d imagine to be a record number of audience members who have not yet reached the age when even the most precocious of young people might enter college. So, I want to say a special word of welcome not only to the members of the graduating Class of 2008 – but also to all of you who may someday be members of the Class of 2018, or 2019, or 2020. It’s painful to admit, but however hard we might try, I’m afraid that Harvard would be hard pressed ever to measure up to the magic of Hogwarts. We have our beautiful elms – but no whomping willows. We have Veritas as our motto – but, though it might come in handy at times, we’ve had no luck concocting a veritas serum. We have our great residential houses, with their own storied traditions – but, I’m sad to say, no sorting hat to figure out who belongs where. And, of course, we have a head of the school– but, I have to admit, someone who’s not quite a year into the job, who would not for a moment claim to have the wisdom, let alone the otherworldly powers, of the inimitable Albus Dumbledore. Still, it falls to me as Muggle in Chief to say a few words about Harvard, before I turn over the podium to our featured speaker. As one of her many admirers here today, I want to thank her for reminding us that reading wonderful books may well be the closest we ever really come to experiencing true magic. J. K. Rowling, thank you for Harry Potter, and thank you for being with us. I want to focus my remarks this afternoon on one aspect of this first year of my presidency, an aspect that has taken on an importance and urgency I had not entirely anticipated. These are the issues that implicate what we might call Harvard’s “public boundary,” issues that cast into relief questions about the role and purposes of universities and of Harvard in particular. This has been a year in which Congress has asked detailed and probing questions about the finances of the nation’s top colleges and universities; it has been a year in which the pressure on public funding has challenged the crucial role universities play in science and research; and it has been a year in which we have begun to address widespread concerns about cost and access to make sure that American higher education continues to unite excellence and opportunity in a way unmatched in the world. Frequently, public discussion of the role of universities fixes on the language of “accountability.” Often, however, it is not clear to whom universities are meant to be accountable, and for what. In my installation address this past Fall, I ventured the following proposition: “The essence of a university is that it is uniquely accountable to the past and to the future – not simply or even primarily to the present….A university looks both backwards and forwards in ways that must – that even ought to – conflict with a public’s immediate concerns or demands.” These principles seem to me to touch directly on the debates that have been swirling around us. They can help us understand and frame our public responsibilities and to embrace them as opportunities for leadership and creative action. In recent months, Harvard’s $35 billion endowment has become something of a target - - publicly both envied and maligned. But it is poorly understood. Endowments represent a concrete embodiment of our accountability to the past and to the future. They derive from our history and the dreams of those who have preceded us; they are in turn the vehicle that enables us to project our own dreams into the future. The endowments at Harvard and other great universities have created a system of higher education that is the envy of the world. It has opened doors of opportunity ever more broadly; it has generated powerful new understandings about human nature and the world we inhabit; it has fueled revolutionary advances in science; it has helped drive economic growth and expansion in our nation and the world. Some critics have suggested that endowments are vast pots of money for presidents to spend at will. Others hold a more sophisticated, but still sharply limited view. As they would have it, universities like Harvard have built up endowments based on their tax-exempt status, and in return have the obligation, pure and simple, to devote those funds to educating the most students at the lowest cost. Certainly that is part of our obligation - - a vital part - - but it is only a part. Our endowment represents the investment of gifts from generations of donors who have viewed Harvard as a place to bring their philanthropic visions to life. It provides the capital for an ambitious enterprise that supports 20,000 students in Harvard College and a dozen different schools, 16,000 employees, and a physical plant comprising over 600 buildings. We are one of the largest employers in Massachusetts; we operate a huge and very costly research enterprise; we support more than 200 service programs in education, affordable housing and community service in Cambridge and Boston; we partner with governments, agencies and universities in hundreds of teaching and research collaborations in 125 countries around the globe. As custodians of civilization we are home to libraries and museums that house priceless collections of books, manuscripts, art works, cultural artifacts, and scientific specimens. All of this is funded by an annual operating budget of more than $3 billion. Each year, the income from our endowment contributes about a third of this total, as well as supporting substantial capital outlays. If the endowment were smaller, we would have to do less – less research, less teaching, at a lesser level of quality – or we would have to generate more income from other sources – tuition increases or external funding. And in a world where knowledge is increasingly important, our accountability to the future challenges us to do not less, but ever more - - to use discoveries in new fields such as stem cell research to pursue cures for diseases like diabetes; to reduce the cost of graduate education, especially in our public service schools; to seize the Allston opportunity; to more fully incorporate the arts in our approach to learning and knowing; to enhance our global engagement in a shrinking world; to commit ourselves through both our practice and our research to the creation of a sustainable future. Our endowment represents an accountability that generation after generation of Harvard graduates have voluntarily assumed, acknowledging the value of their own past education and investing in the future of learning. Their generosity has created an endowment that is in fact a collection of some 11,000 separate gift funds dedicated to the singular passions and purposes that have animated different individuals over time. A sampling of our endowment funds is a window into Harvard history: The income from the A.F. Holden Fund is designated for the purchase of “meteorites and meteorite specimens;” Lillian Farlow left a bequest for the acquisition of examples of plants that reproduce by spores. The William and Gertrude Arnold Prize fund recognizes “the most understanding essay on the true spirit of book collecting.” In 1894, Harriet Hayden, who had escaped to Boston from slavery in Kentucky in 1844, bequeathed a scholarship for “needy and worthy colored students” to attend Harvard Medical School, and the Nieman Fellowships were established in 1938 to bring working journalists to Harvard. Many funds support financial aid to students from particular states or countries or to those studying in particular fields. Hundreds of funds support faculty, but few are as charmingly unrestricted in their terms as the Fisher professorship in Natural History established in 1834 to focus on any “of the three kingdoms, animal, vegetable or mineral.” Harvard’s endowment enables students and faculty of both today and tomorrow to search for new knowledge in ways that may produce immediate success, or fail entirely, or come to ultimate fruition only in combination with other ideas yet to emerge. The accumulated gifts of our alumni and friends offer us both the resources and the independence to support work that may not pay off in the short term. They protect us against over-accountability to the present or to the merely trendy. They preserve our ability to be creative and rigorous, to take intellectual risks in pursuit of ambitious ideas. It is central to the very notion of endowment that we must balance our use of its income to support the current generation against our duty to preserve its purchasing power for future generations. It means that we cannot treat our endowment as a lump sum to be spent on the projects of any given cohort of faculty or students, the demands of today’s politics, or even the vision of an individual Harvard president. The model of “voluntary accountability” – by which succeeding generations of alumni and friends embrace the obligation of universities to take the long view, the non-instrumental view – is in large measure responsible for the success of the American system of higher education. In an era in which large and important financial organizations have been known to disappear over a weekend, universities are durable, proven institutions, here for the long haul. They remain respected around the globe. In rankings published by an institute for higher education in Shanghai, for instance, American universities accounted for 17 of the 20 top universities in the world. But we can’t afford to take this success for granted. Other countries are working hard to replicate our system of higher education. Every week, it seems, we read about a new multi-billion dollar investment in scientific research by another country. China, India, and Singapore have adopted biomedical research as national goals. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are creating huge new academic enterprises. Top students and scholars increasingly have significant new opportunities beyond our shores. The proportion of scholarly articles in the sciences published in the United States has been declining in recent decades, and the share of patents owned by U.S. inventors has fallen. Recognizing this shifting scientific landscape, over 400 organizations, including General Electric, Microsoft and others, are opening or moving research organizations to China, taking high-skilled jobs with them. I cite these facts not to be jingoistic. The most pressing issues of our time – and the solutions to them – know no national boundaries, and the scholarly and research enterprise is strengthened immeasurably by the participation of the best intellects from around the world. Harvard, for its part, educates large numbers of international students. In welcoming the best talent from everywhere, we enrich our intellectual community, and we export important values and lasting relationships when those graduates return to their home countries. To remain a global destination of choice in education and to continue to produce field- and world-changing research, however, we must do all we can to sustain our leadership in a much more competitive global environment. Internally, we must work hard to overcome barriers to collaboration across fields and to leverage our resources and organizational capacity for the strategic purposes of the University. Externally, we must revitalize the partnership between the nation’s leading universities and the federal government in funding basic research. The progress of science and basic research in America – and the success of the American research university — has for decades depended on a partnership between the government and higher education. Fields like biotechnology, telecommunications, and environmental sustainability all had their beginnings in university-based research. Such research has enabled universities to isolate the genes that contribute to diseases like breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, and Alzheimer’s, to create the basis for modern computing and internet connectivity, and to generate the basic science that will be needed to develop alternative forms of energy as we grapple with climate change. 详见http://www.douban.com/group/topic/3613517/
哈佛大学校长名言录
“任何学生都不得在没有征得父母、监护人和个人导师的同意下买卖或交换超过6美分的物品。” ——哈佛大学第一任校长伊顿，此话后来成为了一条校规 “人类过去和现在的努力已经排除了知识路途中的许多障碍，让我们继续努力去排除剩余的障碍。” ——哈佛大学第19任校长昆西对入学新生和毕业生的期望 “人类的希望取决于那些知识先驱者的思维，他们所思考的事情可能超过一般人几年、几代人甚至几个世纪。” ——哈佛大学第21任校长艾略特对哈佛教授们的期望 “每个受过教育的人都应该对什么事物都懂一点，但对个别事物懂得很多。” ——哈佛大学第22任校长洛厄尔的名言 “大学的荣誉，不在它的校舍和人数，而在于它一代又一代人的质量。” ——哈佛大学第23任校长科南特对哈佛大学办学方针的总结 “一个人是否具有创造力，是一流人才和三流人才的分水岭。” ——哈佛大学第24任校长普西对开发学生创造力意义的理解
