When we commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I encourage each of us to recognize the power and responsibility we have individually — and collectively — to create an inclusive society where all can achieve their full potential.
Universities, and especially public universities like ours, serve as powerful drivers of social change. Education remains one of the greatest tools we have for addressing the inequities that challenge our society. One of my greatest rewards as a faculty member is seeing students of modest means grow into leaders and change-makers as a result of their education at the UW.
In addition to empowering our students and our region, universities serve as a crossroad where people of different backgrounds and experiences come together. We saw an example of that during our latest round of student conversations as part of the Race & Equity Initiative. It stretches us, and at times even makes us uncomfortable, to have our world views challenged — it’s easier to think we have all the answers! But it is only through the dynamic interplay of ideas that we find mutual understanding that can lead to the collective action needed to create stronger, more inclusive communities.
We seek diversity and equity not simply to ensure equal opportunity on an individual basis; not just because it’s the right and just thing to do — although it is. It is also the smart thing to do for our communities and nation. To address the complex and difficult problems that vex our society and world, we need to fully develop the talents and potential of all. From engineering to history, medicine to law, and physics, too, all of our academic disciplines are advanced through a diversity of voices and ideas.
It is likely not just coincidence that the world’s greatest physicist, Albert Einstein, lived much of his life as an outsider — a German Jewish immigrant who lived in Italy, Switzerland and the United States. He was tutored in science and philosophy as a child by a Polish medical student and he married his first wife, a physics student of Serbian descent, over the objections of his parents who did not approve of her ethnic background. Indeed, Einstein’s greatest contributions to science, his special and general theories of relativity, hinge on a deep understanding and appreciation of what is core to the value of diversity — the realization that our universe is relativistic and that even seemingly objective measurements of time and space depend upon on our movements relative to each other, that differences in perspectives matter.
We simply cannot afford to leave anybody, much less entire groups of people, behind. We do not know who might be a future Einstein or King, or who the next big idea will come from. But I do not hesitate to bet on the fact that it will come from someone who has been exposed to a broad array of people and who will truly engage and grapple with a diversity of perspectives and ideas. You demonstrate that to me daily.
We still have much work to do, and as Dr. King said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” I am continually inspired by your willingness to strive to do just that, by building inclusive and supportive communities of learners and change-makers. I am inspired by the courage our students showed last night, talking together across their differences, about difference, in order to find and build upon our commonalities.
We have assembled here, at the University of Washington, through our students, faculty and staff, a truly amazing constellation of voices. I hope we each have the wisdom to listen and learn from each other. We can only all be better off when we really are all better off.