"Independent Colleges and Universities: A Force for Constructive Change," American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities, Scottsdale, Arizona

@ INDEPENDENT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES: A FORCE FOR CONSTRUCTIVE CHANGE Speech Before the Annual Meeting ofthe American Association of Presidents oflndependent Colleges and Universities Scottsdale, Arizona February 23, l995 Appropriate acknowledgments. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome the opportunity to join you on the occasion of your annual meeting, to express my admiration for the unique and essential contributions you and your respective institutions are making to our country and to the qcause of learning generally, and to contribute as best I can to your deliberations. Tom Corts, your president, and Rex Lee, your first vice-president, have very kindly arranged for these remarks to be shared with you this evening, but I take fiill responsibility for their substance and the manner of their delivery. Your conference theme, Virtue Reality, is an intriguing one. This is so not only because of the intrinsic conceptual interest it possesses, and not only because of its operative significance in our fractured and fractious society, but also because questions of virtue, ethics, morality, and goodness tend not to rise to levels of explicit consideration and discourse at meetings of the heads ‘of American colleges and universities, burdened as such meetings typically are with the more mundane, mechanistic, and familiar considerations of governance, administration, finance, development, athletics, and public, alumni and govermnental relations. I welcome, therefore, the opportunity to offer some comments on your chosen theme.