INAUGURAL REMARKS

Mary Gordon '71
Representing the Faculty

I remember with a precise, if autumnally tinged clarity, the first time I walked through the gates of Barnard Hall. It was an October day, a cool bright day very like this one, in October of 1966. Once through the gates, I turned right towards Milbank where someone from the admissions office pointed me in the direction of classes I might like to sit in on in case I might decide to apply to Barnard. Might decide? Were they kidding? My life depended on it. That April, a fat envelope from Barnard landed in my mailbox. With my usual patience and manual dexterity, I ripped the envelope open, jumped up and down, screamed called my best friend, Maureen Strafford, also present on this stage, who had also applied to Barnard and be en accepted. We screamed in stereo. We both held the white postcard in our hands and, by agreement, at the same moment checked the Box “I will” as opposed to, “I will not” be attending Barnard. Five months later I walked through the gates, a Barnard woman for real. I thought I was walking through the gates of heaven. I think I may not have been wrong.

My whole adult life, I have identified myself as a Barnard woman, and the identity has had many parts. I was, first, a student, from the class of 1971, then an alumna, later, a member of the faculty, recipient of the Millicent McIntosh Chair, named for one’s of Barnard’s illustrious presidents. Still later, I had the honor of being elected by my colleagues to the committee whose task was to find a new president for Barnard. It was in this way that I first met Deborah Spar.

One of the charges of the committee was due diligence. We were told to dig deep. And taking this mission seriously, and in light of my complex relationship with Barnard, I felt it was my duty to ask one of the really important questions: “Were you ever known as Debbie?”

She let me know that I had uncovered one of her most carefully kept secrets. But I didn’t read all those Nancy Drew books for nothing. And she revealed to me that yes, she once was, and now she never never is known as Debbie except when her mother has a rare and forgivable lapse.

Having unearthed that secret, I was led to riff on the name Debora Spar, whose former identity included her position of Spangler Professor. First, I researched the Biblical Character Deborah. I learned that she was a prophet and a judge in ancient Israel, and, the hymn of Deborah in the book of judges. I also discovered that she gave advice and counsel to a leader of her people named Barak. But we don’t need to go there. Not right now.

Prophet, judge, poet. What department would she be given tenure in? The triple strand of expertise that President Spar’s namesake possessed seemed a very good omen for a college president, who must have vision, judgment, and creativity.

One of the most impressive answers Debora Spar gave the search committee was in response to q question about how she saw her public role. She said she would not be reluctant to use her position as Barnard’s president to mount in her words, “a bully pulpit,” in defense of and in witness to issues, such as the importance of higher education for women that she considered crucial This courage, this fearless articulation of what she believes to be important has marked her work both as a scholar and an administrator. And so I thought of the name Spar as an appropriate signifier for a woman who is not afraid to do battle when she thinks its right, but will do it with good humor and a sense of joy in the enterprise.

The Spangler professor. Spangle: a materialization of light, a sign of brilliance, reminding us of Debora’s Spars brilliant career, and the brightness of her presence, a kind of light bearing energy that illumines every room she’s in, and warms and clarifies all sorts of conversations.

And now, attached to her name, is a new title, President of Barnard College, the Liberal Arts College for Women a partner with Columbia in the City of New York. We could not, I think, have found a better candidate to embody and enact the many terms that go into making Barnard what it is. A college devoted to the education of women, an education that is particular in its combination of the attentiveness to students typical of a small liberal arts college and the breadth and intellectual excitement and variety that come to us by being connected to a great research university in the greatest city in the world.

And so, on this wonderful day, in which we gather to celebrate the past present and future of this singular and extraordinary institution, we welcome Debora Spar. And invite her to take her place in the rich and glorious history that is Barnard’s.

WEBCAST

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REMARKS:
» Provost Boylan, Call to Order
» Anna Quindlen's Remarks
» Lee Bollinger's Remarks
» Allison Stanger
» Kimberly Patton, Benediction
» Frances Sadler's Welcome
» Mary Gordon's Welcome
» Phyllis Ben's Welcome
» Sarah Besnoff's Welcome
» Investiture
» Debora Spar's Keynote Address

INAUGURAL REMARKS

Mary Gordon '71 Representing the Faculty

WEBCAST

Mary Gordon '71
Representing the Faculty