Opening Convocation 2023

 

Good morning, Howard University!

Welcome to the one hundred and fifty-sixth year of this historic, prestigious, and essential institution.

To our distinguished faculty, staff, administration, alumni, and returning students: We hope you enjoyed a relaxing and restorative summer. I cannot wait to see firsthand how your gifts and talents positively and continually impact our campus.

To the newest members of the Howard community: Welcome home! I look forward to taking in the majesty of this campus with you over the coming years. Never forget: You are here for a reason. Each and every one of you belong. I am excited to watch you flourish, make a positive impact on Howard, and become citizen leaders in our greater world.

Before I go further, I would also like to acknowledge my wife Yolanda and our three children—Allyson, Ben, and Brandon. They are so excited to be members of the Bison family; in fact, my kids can’t get enough merch and Howard gear. Literally everything I get, they try to claim for themselves, and they’re already wearing Howard gear everywhere. Seriously, if I tried to take this regalia home, they’d probably want to take this, too.

Although they are not here with us in person today, they are right here with me. [put hand over heart] They are essential to me, and they have been essential to the journey that has brought me to this very moment. All of you have welcomed us so eagerly in such a short period of time, and I cannot thank you enough. In fact, my first 10 or so days on the job could not have gone much smoother, and I have all of you to thank for ensuring this transition has been efficient, exciting, and incredibly enjoyable.

Now, let me let you in on a little secret, a secret I’m sure I have in common with some of the new Bison in attendance this morning: Howard University has been on my mind for a long time. In fact, my first memories of Howard are from my adolescence. I remember visiting this campus with my mother. We lived in D.C., on Bolling Air Force Base just a short ride down Interstate 295. I couldn’t have been any older than 12 or 13 at the time, not much older than our young guests from the Early Learning Program. I will never forget the sights, the sounds, the sensations I felt walking on the campus of Howard University for the first time. Even alongside my mother, I truthfully wasn’t too sure if I should be here, if I belonged here.

Then I saw a student. He was unlike any student I had ever seen before. I’ll never forget it: he wore a starched white shirt, a tie, a pair of glasses, he looked like somebody about his business. But what made his attire that day most impressive to me was his briefcase. Not a bookbag or a backpack, but a black briefcase – the type that was used exclusively by businessmen and women back in the day; it had latches on each side to open it, and it had a key to lock it. By the looks on some of the students’ faces right now, I can tell you have no clue what I’m talking about, and I can hardly blame you, because I’d only seen my dad and the people in the military carrying those before, or folks in the movies, like the ‘80s film Wall Street, where they carried those bulky briefcases and brick-sized cellphones.

The student was walking fast – faster than I was used to, but absolutely filled with purpose. It seemed he had places to be, people to see, something to accomplish. Nothing stood in his way, although he paused long enough to smile my way. That image of accomplishment, drive, and determination has never left me. It has always defined to me what Howard University is, in thought and in action. I knew then, as I do now, that there is rich treasure right here on these grounds. The treasure is the people, the mission, the building of character and mind that – person by person – happens here like nowhere else. Howard fortifies each member of our community with an internal strength and instills in each of us a confidence, a pride, a knowledge, and an uncompromising pursuit of excellence in truth and service. I couldn’t be more honored to stand before you today, in this regalia, as an official member of this community; and as I do, I carry that image of that determined Howard student in my mind. I remain as captivated by Howard University as I was when I first entered its gates those many years ago.

Now, let’s get to the reason we’re here today. Convocation – from the Latin convocare – means to call or come together. Why is it that we convene at the start of each academic year? I believe it is to nourish, to unite, to reconnect us to our shared mission. This tradition of a formal opening convocation ceremony at Howard dates back nearly a century, when Mordecai Wyatt Johnson was president. Ever since that first convocation, luminaries of every imaginable field have accepted the call to deliver this opening convocation address – names like Desmond Tutu, Maxine Waters, Carol Moseley Braun, and then-Senator Barack Obama – and it is a privilege that I do not take lightly.

Sitting and standing here, we are intimately connected to that history, basking in the uplifting rituals of this place, that we affectionately call the Mecca. In President Mordecai Wyatt Johnson’s first opening address, which took place on Wednesday, September 29, 1926, just down the path at Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, he attracted what University records declare was the largest gathering of students, faculty members, alumni, and visitors at any opening exercise within their memory. The chapel was overflowing, and every available seat was taken before the speech started. There was widespread anticipation about what the University’s new President would say, and justifiably so.

At noon on that clear, sunny, but brisk day in D.C., President Mordecai Wyatt Johnson said, “The Howard University community was established in 1867 by a man who had been a soldier and who was not content to see the four million American Negroes physically free from bondage, he desired to see them intellectually and spiritually emancipated.”

“Little by little our community has grown in students, in faculty, in equipment, in friends, in standards, and in power,” he continued. “As I greet you today, I am glad to express the hopefulness and confidence which seem to characterize every element in our university community. We are sure of our mission, and we feel like a vigorous and eager young man ready to run a race.”

Distinguished assembled members of the Howard community—we are much more than men now. We are a glorious rainbow of humanity throughout the Diaspora. But a truism from President Mordecai Wyatt Johnson’s 1926 speech rings consistently true across the spectrum of time: today, as yesterday, “We are sure of our mission.” Howard has an edge in knowing who it is, and I believe our identity is as timely now, as it is timeless. Howard’s mission and motto: “truth and service, engaged in quest to balance the scales for the disenfranchised, to promote an America, and a greater world, devoid of inequalities” – this mission and motto is unquestionably core to who we are. Members of our beloved community – you need to know that these values are also essential to me.

I was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, to an Air Force serviceman and an elementary school teacher. My parents selflessly dedicated their lives to others, and to our country. My dad served our nation in war. My mom worked on military base schools, and later, with at-risk youth, right here in the greater DC area. She guided the students that no one else wanted. She gave them hope. Through her example, she taught me the value of looking out for everyone. She had an uncompromising faith in all her students. My parents lived in a profoundly unequal America, hailing from Alabama. My dad is from Montgomery, my mom from Birmingham. She was from a coal mining family, his family were farmers, sharecroppers, cotton pickers in the community of Pike Road, which was only recently incorporated as a town in 1997. They were civil rights era people, and they had front row seats.

These roots – my roots – are important because they are deep within me, and these roots are alive in my everyday existence. From these roots, I derive the values of hard work and discipline. My parents made crystal clear the value of education and service. My mom always tells me, to this day, “They can take everything away from you, but they can’t take away your mind. But don’t take any wooden nickels.” I can hear her now, as clearly as ever: “In this world, we have to work five times as hard as the next person to get the same results.” My parents taught me to always treat others with kindness and empathy. They have proven to me, through the way they have lived their lives, that those who serve others are always the most fulfilled.

This core, handed down even from their parents to me, is what I bring to my life and my work every single day. And I know that because others have paved the way for me, I have an obligation, to pave the way for others. It is the reason why I have mentored other academics and students, why I am an educator myself, and why I recognize the commitment of Howard to cultivating Black leaders in our world.

Speaking of our world, I do need to convey another layer of my background that I bring to Howard. Because of my dad’s military service, I was raised partly in Vicenza, Italy. We didn’t live on the base. Instead, we lived miles outside of Vicenza in a small town called Sovizzo. We were the only Americans in the town. I grew up bilingual, and my first schooling was in an Italian school. My Italian neighbors—Margie, Ferruguo, Mirela, Daniella—were very influential in my childhood, taking me to school in the morning by bicycle, keeping me after school, teaching me all kinds of things about Italian life while my parents worked at the base during the day. I grew up knowing two worlds. I grew up in diaspora. That experience profoundly shaped me.

The questions I developed about being Black abroad inspired me into a career of thinking about Blackness throughout the world. Today, I am a scholar of the African experience in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, because of my journey. I stand here today, with you, in the full realization that Howard, uniquely, has vast international convening power and authority in diaspora circles, which is critical for propelling Howard into an even more powerful global institution tomorrow than it already is today. The African Diaspora possesses the power to infuse greater meaning into Black lives in far corners of the globe, in every place where Black lives are marginalized. So part of the meaning of service, at Howard, in my view, is leveraging our connections to the full power of the African continent, the greater Caribbean, Latin America, Black America, and elsewhere to become powerful partners in elevating the totality of the Black experience.

Esteemed colleagues and guests: as we convene during this moment of convocation, and as we reflect on our mission, I am reminded that we at Howard are on a perennial quest for truth. As much as truth is a value, truth is also our beacon, and we use the foundation of truth – culled from experiences, knowledge, research, and discovery – we use the foundation of truth to light our beacon to advance the greater good. Ever since I began pondering this opportunity to join the Howard community as your president, I have been asking myself constantly: How can our quest for truth be even more embraced, ingrained, and shared than it already is?

I want to share with you that I believe there is a Howard way; a method of conducting research, of educating people that is derived from our institution’s creed and practice—derived from our mission. You see it in how leadership is taught here. You see it in the realm of communications, in social work. You see it in our approach to legal, medical, and business education. You see it in the arts and sciences, and in how we train our engineers. A Howard way exists broadly, reflected best perhaps in our graduates, our alumni body, who are a rich testament to the results of what we do here. But has it been fully realized? Just what would that full realization look like, and how will we ensure that it is the foundation of the Howard experience? The world today needs the Howard way, and I believe that it is incumbent upon Howard to share that way with our communities, local and global.

Let me confess—and it is no secret: I am at Howard because I am steadfastly sure of our University’s mission moving forward. Howard has always altered human perspectives, through our teaching, research, and dissemination of truth. Howard has always given hope where there is despair, built confidence against strife, and created unimaginable strength and resiliency through our work and our service. It is what we do. In the months and years to come, you’ll hear me speak of “Howard at maximum strength,” and it is because that’s where I sincerely believe our world needs Howard University – at maximum strength. By all accounts, Howard is as strong now as at any point in our history: we enjoy historic application and enrollment numbers, record-setting fundraising, peak endowment numbers, faculty research and scholarship is absolutely sizzling, and the list continues. But what if there were another level for us to reach? Is the strongest we’ve ever been the strongest we can absolutely be? I believe our collective mission is to aim even greater, and I will do everything in my power to steward us there.

Looking out at all of you in the audience today – you, the faces and splendor of Howard – looking at us today as we have gathered at opening convocation, I know that being at maximum strength also means moving forward boldly, together – as one community. In every corner of this auditorium this morning, I see the essence of our unity, a collective soul that has fueled this University for 156 years. Howard has been vital for this country, vital for our people, vital for humanity – and it is you, each of you, who makes this enterprise run. Your attitude, your behavior, your care for each other – that is what makes our mission soar. As we convene today, we renew our vows to ourselves, to our essential togetherness – for our collective good, so that we can serve for the greater good.

Seventy-six years ago, President Mordecai Wyatt Johnson concluded his address with the words: “Seeing, therefore, that there are such great possibilities before us…let us cast aside every thing which may in any way beset us and let us run with industry and with patience, the race that is set before us.”

Howard family, President Mordecai Wyatt Johnson’s closing words are as prophetic now as they were then. As we break from this assembly today, let us do so having restored ourselves. Let us do so, mindful of our purpose. Let us do so, armed for the challenges of our day. Howard—we have the imagination, the fortitude, the brilliance, and the confidence. Let us journey together to our newest, boldest horizons yet. I charge this audience to focus on excellence, to embrace and uphold our University’s value of truth and service, to build and foster our sense of community, and to not let barriers stand in our way. We need you at maximum strength.

Thank you, and I give you best wishes for an incredible academic year!

H-U!