Robert W. Pearigen
Election Meeting Remarks
Convocation Hall
26 January 2023

Video

Transcript

Chancellor Owensby and members of the Board of Trustees, those here and those who are joining us by Zoom. It is my privilege to stand before you today as the vice chancellor-elect.

Thank you for your vote of confidence and for electing me to serve as the 18th vice chancellor and president of The University of the South. I accept your call with sincerest appreciation and with a promise to serve this institution to the very best of my ability. Phoebe and I are grateful for the trust you have shown in both of us to represent the university and to carry on its rich tradition of excellence, stewardship and hospitality.

I have a deep appreciation for the educational mission and transformative power of the Sewanee experience. That appreciation is rooted in my undergraduate experience—in the friends I made, the professors who taught me and the lessons I learned as a student, and it grew during my twenty-three years of service as a professor, dean and vice president. It has also been repeatedly confirmed in the years I have served as president of a peer institution as I have kept up with Sewanee through professional and alumni networks and through the education of Phoebe’s and my two children, Carolyn, ’14 and Wes, ‘17.

Sewanee is, indeed, an extraordinary place with a future of boundless potential. Of course, that potential will not realize itself. That is why we are here, and that is the mission before us. To preserve the best of Sewanee, to address its shortcomings, to strengthen its virtues, and to produce citizens and scholars who will shed light in a world too often given to generating mostly heat.

To be sure, Sewanee’s current standing and its potential are not without challenges today—challenges both unique to the university and common to all institutions of higher learning. Observing the university from a distant shore and as a sitting president, I believe there is much room for growth and progress at Sewanee, and it will require the leadership at the university—not just the administrative leadership, but also the leadership of faculty, staff, students, alumni and governing boards—to work together in a spirit of collaboration, ambition and hope to achieve the best and highest rewards in the years to come. I look forward to leading this effort.

Guided by a commitment to both principle and progress and with our students as central to all plans and all efforts, the potential for advancing the university and achieving even higher levels of success are unlimited.

  • The core liberal arts and theological education programs at Sewanee are incredibly strong.
  • The residential experience of both undergraduate and graduate students and the sense of togetherness that have historically pervaded the Sewanee community are remarkable.
  • The location of our beautiful buildings and grounds on a stunning 13,000 acre Domain make for an educational environment unlike any on the planet.
  • And the devotion of our alumni, parents and friends—our never-failing succession of benefactors—is beyond compare.

And so we begin our journey with undeniable assets. But in writing the next chapter in our story, we must not be captive of the past nor limited by the present. We must think anew:

  • about academic excellence in a liberal arts setting in our modern, post-pandemic, technology-altering world where value and outcomes are imperative; about the role and accessibility of higher education in a dramatically changing socio-economic environment;
  • about how Sewanee can—and must—“dwell together in unity” in a more diverse, inclusive and equitable community;
  • about how Sewanee can reclaim in a better form some of its richest traditions in student and campus life and create new traditions and experiences for students today and tomorrow;
  • about how Sewanee’s Domain can become a laboratory and inspiration for the next generation of leaders addressing some of the world’s most difficult problems;
  • about how our School of Theology can more strongly bear witness to the Gospel, train the next generation of clergy and lay Episcopal leaders, reinforce the compatibility of faith and reason in our suspicious society, and position the university to be a leader in promoting, in Presiding Bishop Curry’s words, “community over chaos” in an increasingly complex and contentious world;
  • and about how resources and revenue can be grown and new gifts secured so as to ensure Sewanee’s brilliant future for generations and generations to come.

A personal note. I will take up these duties because I believe that, with your help, and God’s, I can make a positive and meaningful impact here. Sewanee is a different place than it was thirteen years ago when I pulled up anchor; the world is a different place; and I am a different person. I embrace the changes and developments at Sewanee that have made it a stronger, more diverse and more inclusive institution just as I hope the community will embrace those parts of my own experience that have stretched and strengthened me and better enabled me to lead for our students today and tomorrow.

And in speaking of my personal growth and development, I want to share with the Sewanee community today my gratitude for Millsaps College and its community. Leaving Millsaps will be hard. The college, of which Pulitzer-Prize winning author Hodding Carter once said, “There is not an institution in the country that cannot learn from this little school in Mississippi … it is a candle burning in the darkness.” This little college in Mississippi has inspired me and opened my mind and heart in ways that make me a better person; in ways that would have been unlikely anywhere else. I will leave Millsaps with gratitude, believing in its bright future and rooting for it from this distant shore.

I also want to thank today my predecessor vice-chancellors—those who were my mentors and dear friends—Bob Ayers, Sam Williamson and Joel Cunningham—and those for whom I did not work but who led and advanced the university in extraordinary ways over the past thirteen years—John McCardell, Reuben Brigety and Nancy Berner. Together, generations of leaders have given us an amazing institution and an exceptional legacy of achievement in the vice chancellor’s role, and for that I am grateful.

I close with a verse from the first letter of Peter in the New Testament—words that speak poignantly to my hope for our work together, and my commitment as to how I shall go about it,

I Peter, chapter 3, verse 8: “Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart and a humble mind.”

This is a call for unity of spirit and purpose, not a presumption of unanimity on all matters of opinion and perspective but unity of spirit— which is, after all, at the heart of our motto from Psalm 133, ecce quam bonum: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when kindred dwell together in unity.” It’s a call for sympathetic and empathetic consideration of others—all others—in all that we do. It’s a call for loving one another in our common and equal humanity. And, it’s a call for tender hearts and humble minds, the combination of which strengthens our purpose and our future.

“Finally, all of you—all of us, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart and a humble mind.”

May God continue to bless The University of the South and the Sewanee community.

Thank you.