"America needs Yale." So said David Brewer, a United States Supreme Court Justice and a graduate of the Yale Law School, when he spoke at the University's Bicentennial Celebration. And he pointed out, "I think it is worth repeating that Yale was the first university in the world to declare in her charter that training for public service was her paramount purpose."

　　A hundred years have gone by, and Yalies have been true to their charter's call. Since 1901, Yale students have fought in five American wars. Five Yale graduates have been elected President of the Unites States. Others have whispered in the President's ear. Countless others have served their states and their cities, their districts and their neighborhoods, their communities and their families. Yale students, while here and after, have helped fight a war on poverty and a war on discrimination. While pushing the limits of freedom, Yalies have made the best case for it through their provocative art and science.

　　I believe that Yale students of the last century have been such skilled public servants not only because of what Yale encouraged them to be, but because of who they themselves were. The student body changed, in ways both subtle and dramatic, over the past century. Boys from the South were welcomed back. Public school students arrived from New Haven. African-Americans arrived, in growing numbers. Women. Jews. Muslims. Children of immigrants and immigrants themselves. And now, Yale has over a thousand international students every year.

　　This is who we are today, complicated, varied, and beautiful; a community of students poised to answer America's, and indeed the world's, changing needs.

　　Sometimes it is hard to know what the world needs from us. Often we struggle to feel that we owe it something. It can be frightening to think that so much depends on us. Sometimes we forget that the work is just beginning.

　　But then there are moments in which the call is clear and piercing. It is hard to say anything definite about what happened on September 11th, let alone what will follow. But on behalf of my fellow students, I will venture this: I am sure that our sense of mission, personal and public, deepened if not changed this September. Suddenly the idea of service is more meaningful, and more urgent.

　　How fortunate we are, at a time like this, to be the students of Yale's enduring founding charter.

　　How fortunate we are to learn the lessons of the charter quietly from teachers who know that reading poetry can make you a better citizen; from our friends who teach us by their example on the soccer field or in the campus's theaters; from a city that welcomes us as residents, not just as visiting students.

　　And how fortunate we are to be artists, nurses, architects, lawyers, environmentalists, doctors, athletes, musicians, writers, scholars, public servants, etc. and how fortunate we are to be part of this century's Yale. We are aware of our privilege and we embrace the responsibility that accompanies privilege. We strive to make sense of the past. We are engaged in public deliberation and insistent on democracy. We don't always agree with one another, but then Yale has a tradition of that too. We may not complete the tasks, but neither will we desist from trying. We try our best. We are a community, and we serve one another well as we prepare ourselves to serve the world.

　　And how fortunate we are to be artists, nurses, architects, lawyers, environmentalists, doctors, athletes, musicians, writers, scholars, public servants, etc. and how fortunate we are to be part of this century's Yale. We are aware of our privilege and we embrace the responsibility that accompanies privilege. We strive to make sense of the past. We are engaged in public deliberation and insistent on democracy. We don't always agree with one another, but then Yale has a tradition of that too. We may not complete the tasks, but neither will we desist from trying. We try our best. We are a community, and we serve one another well as we prepare ourselves to serve the world.

　　For this time, it is not just America that needs us. The calls to service now are global and diverse, but so are we. The world needs Yale. We are ready!

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