INAUGURATION Greeting on behalf of institutions of higher learning

Susan Hockfield, President
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I speak today on behalf of the global community of educators and scholars, as a representative of the region’s vibrant concentration of colleges and universities, and as president of MIT, an institution that has nurtured with Wellesley a long and fruitful alliance. In the last 40 years, the exchange program between our two institutions has offered exciting intellectual challenges to many thousands of MIT and Wellesley students, perhaps including some of you here today.

To the new president of Wellesley College, Kim Bottomly, I offer warm welcome and high hopes. And to the great extended family of Wellesley, I congratulate you on having chosen — once again — a leader worthy of your remarkable institution.

In choosing Kim Bottomly, you have chosen well. When we were faculty members and administrators together at Yale, I knew her in many roles. I knew her as a brilliantly creative fellow scientist, the kind who could, in a casual hallway conversation, give you a dramatic new perspective on an entire field. I knew her as an academic leader who deftly led senior faculty committees in resolving the knottiest of problems and in charting inspiring new directions; and as a professor with a passion for undergraduate science education, interdisciplinary studies, and increasing opportunities for minority and women scholars. And I knew Kim as a wonderful confidant in the humbling and sometimes hilarious business of raising a family while pursuing an academic career. How wonderful now to share the enthusiastic support of our daughters and husbands, in our dual roles as “mom” and “madam president.”

On this magnificent occasion, I am proud to count Kim Bottomly as a colleague among college and university presidents. She is a champion of women in the academy, and a leader who understands that more and more of the world’s most important problems — from climate change, to clean energy, to famine, to pandemic disease — will require a generation of young leaders who are not afraid of science and technology, yet who embrace the critical perspectives and cultural depth of the liberal arts as well. In all her many roles, Kim Bottomly has displayed several constants: incredible warmth, practical wisdom and exquisitely sound judgment. This is a person who can handle anything (except possibly an unexpected drop shot on the tennis court).

With Kim in charge, your future is bright. Throughout its 138-year history, Wellesley has been blessed with extraordinary leaders, most recently, Nan Keohane and Diana Chapman Walsh: visionaries who have helped Wellesley realize its phenomenal potential. Today we celebrate yet another deeply intelligent, wonderfully wise and impressively far-sighted leader. On behalf of the higher education community, from neighboring towns to cities across the planet, we welcome President H. Kim Bottomly.