Luncheon for Newly Tenured & Promoted Faculty

Remarks by John J. DeGioia
Newly Promoted and Tenured Faculty Lunch
Riggs Library
Georgetown University
September 8, 2008


It is a privilege for me to join you today…and to honor and celebrate your achievements and accomplishments.

Your selection for promotion or tenure speaks to your exceptional talents and abilities…your sense of calling…your dedication to the mission of this University—and to the tradition of the Academy. We are a stronger—and better—community because of the contributions, and the difference, you have made.

It’s especially fitting that we honor all of you, here, in Riggs Library. Not only one of the most beautiful spaces on campus, as our University’s first dedicated library, it is a place devoted to scholarship and research…to furthering knowledge—to the pursuit of truth. These are also the ideals to which all of you have committed your lives.

By pursing these ideals—by engaging in the world of ideas and by sharing your insights and discoveries—you advance your disciplines and fields of study…

…By pursing these ideals, you enhance our University’s heritage…you animate our community…and you contribute to the impact we have on our city, our nation, and our world.

…And by pursing these ideals, you help set an example of excellence that plays a vital role in the formation of our students. You challenge them. You inspire them. And you help them fulfill their promise and potential as the next generation of global citizens and leaders.

Nothing we do on the Hilltop would be possible without your exceptional scholarship and service…your extraordinary teaching and research. By recognizing you this afternoon, we also recognize you as being among the most distinguished and accomplished members of our community. And although we may honor you— today…we are grateful—everyday.

On behalf of everyone at Georgetown, let me again congratulate you on your achievements…on your tenure or promotion…and on the very lasting footprints you have already left on the Hilltop.

Thank you.