Update of
September 14, 1999
 
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'I believe it is about
time to bring fresh perspectives'
This is the text of
President Gerhard Casper’s address to department
chairs, deans and other senior officials on September 14,
1999.
The time has come for me
to make this my last year as president of Stanford
and Aug. 31, 2000, my last day in office. By then I shall
have completed eight years of service as president. A few
months ago a Stanford alumna wrote me a charming letter
in which she referred to the "ten years" of my
presidency. Given the pace I have maintained since coming
to the university, ten years at least is the way
it feels.
I hope that, even among
those who disagree with some, most or all of what I have
pursued, only a few doubt that I have worked for all of
Stanford with complete dedication at all times. There is
hardly an area of this complex and challenging
institution that I have not tried to contribute to, for
better or for worse. Indeed, it is among my greatest
satisfactions that, contrary to many clichés about the
contemporary university presidency, it is still possible
for a president to concern himself with a wide range of
institutional issues from the academic to structural and
financial, even architectural, and make a difference.
The true university,
however, as I have repeated over and over again, is a
joint effort of a wide range of participants. It is the
faculty, deans, chairs, students, trustees, the senior
officers, the staff, the alumni, parents, and local,
national, and worldwide friends whose active engagement
make Stanford a continuously renewed intellectual and
moral effort. I understood this active engagement to be
fact, not fiction, at Stanford when I met with the
presidential search committee back in the spring of 1992.
My understanding turned out to be right and nothing that
has been accomplished could have been done without the
often unstinting collaboration of a great number of
people. In an era of rapid change and considerable
uncertainties, the university and I are much indebted to
many for their strong commitment to the support of
Stanford's core mission of teaching, learning and
research. Jointly we have done and will continue to do
the work of the university.
Having said that, it is
also true that much is ahead of us. At a university, no
time is ever an appropriate one to claim that tasks have
been completed. As you know, I am fond of
stressingthis, too, over and over againthat all days
of a university need to be first days. The work of
the university is work that cannot be done unless it is
continuously reconsidered. I believe it is about time to
bring fresh perspectives to bear on the president's
office. As the author of Ecclesiastes has put it:
"To every thing there is a season and a time to
every purpose under the heaven."
This coming year will also
be my twentieth year of serving higher education in major
leadership roles. In these years as dean and provost at
Chicago and as president at Stanford, I have tried to
maintain some intellectual presence through reading,
teaching, speaking, writing and publishing. In the
positions I have held I have never ceased to consider
myself as from the faculty and of the faculty. I need a
season of refreshment and renewal. And it is high time
for me to spend more time with family and friends.
In my last year, in
addition to performing all my regular duties, I shall do
my very best to achieve a new General Use Permit for
Stanford. I shall continue to devote much time and effort
to the evolving relationship between Stanford and UCSF in
the expectation that shortly we will determine our future
course. I also hope that we shall make significant
progress toward placing the Center for Bioengineering,
Biomedicine and Biosciences on the Stanford map. Last,
but definitely not least, I shall continue to do
preparatory work for a campaign for undergraduate
education at Stanford. If the Board of Trustees approves
the campaign, I hope to play a role in the fundraising
effort.
Following a sabbatical, I
intend to return to teaching at Stanford. In my years as
president I have taught four times within the
undergraduate curriculum. Given the emphasis I have
placed on the creation of Stanford Introductory Studies,
I shall, in the years remaining, devote most of my
efforts to our undergraduates.
There is much difficult
work to do in the year ahead. I am looking forward to it,
and I assure everyone that "lame duck" is not a
role that I have played in the past or that I have any
inclination to play in the future. As I said, jointly
we have done and will continue to do the work of
Stanford. SR
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