Keynote Address

The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
May 20, 2005

Thank you, Bill, for that generous introduction, and I'm honored to be here today with all of you at WPI to join in congratulating Dennis Berkey as the new President of this extraordinary institution.

Dennis is my kind of president.

His impressive 30-year career as a professor and administrator promoting excellence makes him an ideal choice to lead WPI, with its strong tradition as a university that continues to raise the bar on excellence year after year.

It's said that universities are such great storehouses of knowledge because every entering student brings a little knowledge in, and no graduate takes any knowledge out. But that's not true at WPI.

For nearly a century and a half, WPI has won well-deserved renown for its leadership in providing world class technological education and has consistently been recognized as one of the finest research universities in the nation. Your emphasis on close student-faculty relations and project-based learning means that WPI graduates know how to work in teams linking disciplines and committed to the indispensable role of the sciences and mathematics in improving our society and meeting so many of the nation's most serious challenges.

Since our beginnings as a Commonwealth, Massachusetts has been the Education State, and we're proud of that commitment. Our state constitution proclaims that the education of our citizens is "necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties." When John Adams enshrined those wise words in our state's founding document, he understood what we know is still true today - that education is the key that opens the golden door of opportunity and lays the groundwork for our future success as individuals, as a Commonwealth and as a nation.

Good education encourages good citizenship. Generation after generation, it revitalizes our economy, strengthens our national defense, and enables our people to fulfill their dreams.

WPI delivers on that commitment to excellence. At this University, no two curricula are alike. A seven-week term could mean three academic courses, or a targeted public interest project. And that project could involve encouraging interest in an engineering education in a Worcester high school, or guaranteeing access to clean water in Thailand. It's exactly what John Adams had in mind - projects that provide academic skills while improving lives.

Encouraging such international projects is especially timely today, because they respond so directly to the immense new challenge of globalization facing our country. Never before have we felt so clearly the intensity of competition from other nations.

Here in Massachusetts, often with great pain, we've learned to deal with competitive pressures from other regions of the nation, and we grew complacent over the decades.

But suddenly, today, we see our jobs moving - not South or West, but to distant corners of the globe where skills are plentiful and costs are low.

We can meet that challenge, but we can't do it by reducing wages and outsourcing jobs. We have to raise our skills. We compete best by removing limits to our vision, encouraging new creativity, promoting innovation, and providing new opportunities and hope to every man, woman, and child in Massachusetts and America.

The future is ours to build, and WPI is building it. You're looking beyond the narrow horizon of today to the needs of tomorrow. In so many ways, the University does it well.

I commend your strong commitment to high school education with the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science. Talented 11th grade students have a rigorous 1,200 hours of intense math and science instruction thanks to you, and 12th grade students take the same courses as WPI freshmen. These young men and women are receiving a priceless jump-start toward their college degree and a strong foundation for our next generation of scientists and engineers.

Your 30,000 alumni and 3,000 current students can attest to the difference that project-based learning has made in their own education and in their careers. You learn to apply your knowledge early and often, and it gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment, a confidence that you can do anything - with the right team.

WPI graduates have resum´s that send a clear message - I can get the job done. That's why you find them in such significant positions in federal, state, and local government and in many of the best known international corporations. Your special attractiveness to corporate America has helped to rebuild our regional economy and is one of the greatest assets of the new Worcester science economy. Cutting-edge companies are attracted to excellence like a magnet, and they can find it here in abundance from top researchers to top students. WPI is a modern university built on New England tradition, and your graduates are helping all of us build a brighter future.

Dennis Berkey has the ideal blend of academic and administrative skills needed to lead WPI wisely to that future and keep this great University on the path of continuous growth. He has the vision to build on the University's proud accomplishments, identify global issues and develop the most innovative ways to respond. His leadership will be indispensable here on the WPI campus, and to the higher education community nationwide.

I commend President Berkey and all the others on his impressive team - the administrators, the faculty and staff, and the students. We're all very, very proud of each of you at WPI- you're the ones who make this University world-class. I thank you for inviting me to be here with you today and I look forward to working closely with you in the years ahead, to be sure Congress does its part as well. Thank you all so very much.

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Last modified: Jul 19, 2007, 13:07 EDT