INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF
GRAMBLING PRESIDENT HORACE A. JUDSON
APRIL 16, 2005

Good morning.  Thank you, Jessica, for that wonderful tribute.  I am deeply honored.

Dr. Clausen, Dr. Savoie, Mr. Long, other members of the Boards of Supervisors and Regents, representative from the Governor's Office, other distinguished platform guests, elected officials, delegates, faculty, students, staff and others here assembled, thanks for your presence on this special occasion.

I would like for our visitors to know that we believe so strongly about the separation of church and state at Grambling State University that we pray about it all of the time.

I am deeply honored and immensely appreciative to have the privilege of serving this venerable institution, Grambling State University, as its 7^th president.  It is a very humbling experience for me.

My heartfelt gratitude to the members of the inaugural steering committees and all of the sub-committees, especially Co-Chairs Mrs. Bluford and Dr. Walton.  You have worked long and diligently to plan and execute the wonderful activities for these three days.  It has been, and continues to be, quite grand. 

There are several variations on the old saying that behind every successful man is a successful woman.  My wife, Gail, has a favorite quote by Dr. Johnetta Cole.  Dr. Cole advises her sisters, “Don=t stand behind your man, he might block your light, stand beside your man.”  As of Wednesday, April 13, Gail Shorter, my wife, partner and friend, has been standing beside me for 31 years and it has made all the difference in my life and career.  I must confess this morning that over those past 31 years, on more than a few occasions, I have looked around me and she was the only one standing there.  As the young people would say, she has always had my back.  In large measure, she is the reason I am standing here on this occasion.  I am pleased to have this opportunity to acknowledge and salute her publicly.

Also present are my mother, Mrs. Louella Edmond, mother-in-law, Mrs. Mary B. Shorter, three daughters, Tamara, Sojourner and Jessica, my baby brother Dwayne, and many other relatives.

We are here to celebrate a new beginning, new opportunities and our institutional heritage.  This is a celebration of reaffirmation and commitment.

Today, I will share with you the significance of our vision, our theme and our brand.

From the beginning of my presidency, even before the beginning, I was asked about my vision for Grambling, and about my views on education and my philosophy and approach.  I thought it was useful to the questioners to share with them aspects of my background, which were relevant to my professional views.

Some were worried about my capacity to adapt to this rural north Louisiana community after having spent my last 17 years in California and New York.  I reminded them that both California and New York have many rural, isolated communities.  And, in fact, both of the previous universities I served were located in such communities; the vast farming area of the central valley of California and the isolated, north country of New York.  That area of New York was referred to by some as Southern Quebec.

Additionally, for the first 18 years of my life, I was a sharecropper and migrant worker.  We lived and worked in places that were not on any map and would make Grambling seem like a bustling metropolis by comparison.  One August day, I left a bean field in upstate New York, returned to the migrant camp, packed my bags and drove to Lincoln University to begin football practice.

I came to understand very early in life, that it is not geographic location that matters, but people and purpose.

Ninth grade was particularly influential on me.  I developed a love of literature B  Negro literature and English literature.  It impacted my view of the world and my place in it.  I had many favorite writers and poets, but two of my most favorite were Langston Hughes and Robert Browning.  Brother Langston was inspirational and he was a brother, a fellow Lincoln man and an Omega man, but in ninth grade he was neither.  But he provided me with a critical context for the purpose of my life with his poem:  Let America Be America Again.

O yes

I say it plain

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath

America will be.

I took that oath and I am still trying to keep faith with it.  In an important sense, so are all of the HBCUs and all of the institutions of the Black community.  Because America can only be America if it is for all of us, and if we are allowed to be our full and best selves.

My approach to excellence, personally and professionally, was inspired by Browning's immortal words:  “A man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for.”  That verse has been my marching orders.  And that has made the signal difference.

What is your leadership approach in the face of great adversity, I was asked.  I answered, I take the sage advice of Virgil in the Aeneid:  “Yield not to misfortunes, rather advance all the more boldly against them.”  And I have learned that there are opportunities in adversity to separate ourselves from the undifferentiated middle.

You keep talking about excellence President Judson, they asked, “what do you mean?”  I responded, “For me, excellence is not some absolute standard; it is not perfection.  It is a measure of the difference between potential and performance.  It is a measure of the narrowness of the gap.  The challenge for individuals and institutions is to avoid overestimating performance and under estimating potential.”

What about your vision President Judson?  Not my vision, our vision, I answered.  The vision was here when I arrived.  Some, perhaps, could not see it because their focus had been distorted by the flux of the challenges to institutional survival.  Others, though, never lost their focus, but were awaiting the sound of the bugle to charge anew.

My task was to interpret that vision with concision and to articulate and communicate it.  I did so after several discussions with different constituencies and after reading about Grambling's history in different publications, including The Gramblinite Centennial Edition: 100 Years of Excellence.

Our vision is to be a premiere institution in the State of Louisiana and one of the best in the nation for carrying out its mission at the highest levels of quality.  We are proudly an HBCU, but we do not circumscribe our aspirations and we will not allow others to do so.  We are guided by our own high expectations and are un-influenced by the low expectations others may have of us.

We know our alumni are competitive and successful as measured against graduates from the most prestigious universities in the nation.

Our history convinces me that this is the appropriate interpretation of our vision, as bold and ambitious as it may sound to some.

I was preceded by six presidents and two interim presidents.  All made significant contributions deserving of recognition.  Grambling has a strong future and  I have a unique opportunity because of the foundation they built.

I will make a few observations about our first two presidents who, together, served this university for 76 years.

In 1896, 1500 ex-slaves formed the North Louisiana Agriculture Relief Association.  An act, in my view, demonstrating extraordinary independence and self-reliance.  That group built a two-story building in 1899 which served as a meeting place and school.  In 1901, they petitioned Booker T. Washington to send someone capable of building an industrial school.  Washington sent a person who was ranked first in all of his courses and who was an accomplished debater, Charles P. Adams.

Adams, known as the Father of Grambling State University, started the Colored Industrial and Agriculture Institute in 1901 with three teachers and 125 students on 25 acres.  Tuition was five dollars or the equivalent value in commodities:  flour, peas, potatoes, syrup, chickens and smoked meats.  These early years were very difficult.  Adams, reportedly, went 14 years before officially receiving a salary.  Adams served the institution he founded for 35 years.

Note the historical linkages between Grambling and Tuskegee, and Tuskegee and Hampton through Booker T. Washington.  In gratitude to our benefactor, I think I should take this opportunity to clarify a misperception many have about Booker T. Washington.  They confuse Washington's strategy for educational progress for African Americans with his overall views and philosophy of education.

We should remember that history is contextual and subjective.  Many are unaware of this statement by Booker T. B AI would set no limits to the attainments of the Negro in Arts, in letters or statesmanship, but I believe the surest way to reach these ends is by laying the foundation in the little things of life that lie immediately about one's door.”  In another statement, which is most profound in my view, Booker T. Washington asks: “What then, do we mean by education?”  And he answers: “I would say education is meant to make us just in our dealings with our fellowmen.  Education is meant to make us give satisfaction and to get satisfaction out of giving it.”

Where would this nation be today if our national policy reflected Washington=s view of education?

Our second president was R. W. E. Jones who served as president for 41 years after having served 10 years as a faculty member and coach.  Some say he was given the task of making bricks without straw, a task all too familiar at HBCUs.  I have to believe that Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones was influenced by his given name.  There is research which indicates that our given name influences the views of others about us as well as how we view ourselves.  Maybe that is why I named one of my daughters, Sojourner.  It would be easy to believe, given the legendary life and career of Prez Jones, as he was, and still is, affectionately known. 

Here are three short selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson which I believe cogently reflect the substance of the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones:

Though love repine and reason chafe,

There came a voice without reply,

“Tis man's perdition to be safe.

When for the truth he ought to die.”

(Nature.  American Scholar)

Great men are they who see that the spiritual is stronger

than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.

(Phi Beta Kappa Address)

The virtue in most request is conformity

Self-reliance is its aversion.

It loves not realities and creators,

but names and customs.

(Self-Reliance)

In 1948, the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute was changed to Grambling College of Louisiana, by act of the Louisiana Legislature.  For a while, the legislature was resistant to the name change, but then Prez Jones advanced a rationale that was irresistible.  He told the legislators that by the time the college=s cheerleaders finished yelling, “Hold that line Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute,” the other team would have already scored.

It is interesting to note also, that Dr. Benjamin Mays, the legendary president of Morehouse College, made several trips to Grambling during Perez Jones= tenure.  What conversations these kindred spirits must have had.

Dr. Mays motivated and provided guidance to generations of More house students and to us all.

Dr. Mays noted:

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal.  The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.  It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.  It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have had no stars to reach for.  Not failure, but low aim is a sin.

This is the exhortation of a giant in higher education, reflected in the philosophy of another.  It reverberates through the halls of HBCUs and other institutions as well.  And it informs the vision of Grambling State University.

Not failure, but low aim is a sin.  That view concurs with Browning's belief:

Better to have failed in the high aim as I,

than vulgarly in the low aim succeed,

As, God be thanked, I do not.

At GSU we march under the banner of high aim.  We have a clear vision inspired by high aim.  We are led by our theme: Grambling:  Reclaiming Our Legacy and Claiming Our Place.  The Grambling name is a nationally and internationally recognized brand.  The substance of that brand is exemplified by our motto:        “Where Everybody is Somebody.” Many, however, have a limited understanding of our brand.  They understand it only as excellence in football and the marching band.  We are extremely proud of the excellence we have achieved in these two areas.  Our legendary Coach, Eddie Robinson, is known worldwide, he is a coaching icon, bigger than life, and deservedly so.  But Coach Rob will tell you that he did not simply develop football players, but far more importantly, he developed educated men; men of character, and integrity, built to be successful in their chosen careers and lives.  The full substance of our brand, in the larger measure, is quality academics.  Our alumni are living proof of that quality.

Our commitment is to create and sustain an inclusive community, where all are respected, accepted and valued.  It is a community which provides a quality living and learning environment, which encourages all to develop fully, to perform to their maximum, to aim high.  Everybody means everybody, students, faculty, staff, and administrators.  I am speaking of a community of the mind, a community committed to scholarship in all of its manifestations.  We believe in the view of the philosopher Sir Eric Ashby that the purpose of education is to transmit orthodoxy while at the same time sowing the seeds for the constructive dissent from orthodoxy.

Reclaiming our legacy is not about living in the past.  It is about re-embracing those Grambling values that are eternal:  pride, respect, dedication, hard work, selflessness, responsibility, professionalism, honesty, self-confidence, sacrifice, courage and integrity.  These are the values that Adams and Prez Jones ingrained into the foundation and fabric of this institution and which their successors embraced and sustained.  It is the legacy of high aim.

What is our place?  Our place is the level we could have reached over the past 104 years had the playing field been level, if we had not been circumscribed or been conditioned to circumscribe ourselves. 

What would have been our rank, our position, our place?  That's why we must now reach beyond our grasp of the last 104 years; claiming our place by reaching for the stars.

Our vision, our theme, our brand encompass means and goals, but much more, they express our character and our ways of being and becoming.

To pursue excellence requires much change, transformative change.  And such change is already underway.  This pursuit is not for the timid or faint of heart.

More than a century ago, the great educator, John Dewey, observed that we never educate directly, but indirectly by means of the environment.  Whether or not we design environments for the purpose, makes all the difference.  At Grambling, we are committed to designing our environment for this purpose.

We are already making progress.  We have almost completed the first phase of a campus development plan.  This plan will provide the road map for achieving our goal of creating our quality living and learning environment including beautification of the grounds, facilities upgrades, and new facilities, especially dormitories.  And it will outline our role in regional economic development in partnership with the City of Grambling and others.  A new multi-purpose sports building is presently under construction west of the football stadium.  A major renovation of our dining facilities will begin by the end of this month.  We will, in a week or two, send out an RFQ, a request for qualifications, followed quickly by an RFP, a request for proposals, for a major new housing complex for students, to begin construction this year.  Funding has ben approved for the construction of the new Music building and we are already engaged in several campus beautification projects.  But we have other critical facility needs.  We need a new library, the university=s signature building.  We need a library representative of a 21^st century comprehensive university based on technology and supportive of the new teaching and learning paradigms.  We need a modern science facility, one worthy of the work we are doing and the work we aspire to do.  These we must pursue aggressively, because they are essential to our vision.

The campus development prospectus also includes implementation steps, project costs, and funding strategies for each project.  Within the next two months, we will begin the process of constructing a university master development plan, which will engage both the university community and the broader community, similar to the process utilized for campus prospectus.

We will continue to request from the state, with the appropriate sense of urgency, critical capital funding for academic buildings.  We have already begun to seek increased funding from federal and other non-state sources.  And I have already begun dialogues with alumni across this nation about their critical role.  In the past 9 months, I have spoken to 17 national alumni chapters.

If we are to become a premier institution, our fund-raising must reflect that commitment.  Our 35,000 alumni must lead the way.  They must do some heavy lifting.  A successful, ambitious, comprehensive fund-raising campaign is absolutely essential and very soon.  Those I have spoken with have shown great enthusiasm for our plan and have voiced readiness and support.  Our alumni have always bled black and gold.  Now we ask that they bleed black, gold and green to fulfill the vision of Dear Ole Grambling.  I have a goal that within five years, the percentage of Grambling alumni donors will exceed the national average for public peer institutions.

States do not fund excellence for public higher education institutions.  They even struggle to fund the basics.  Nationally, the disinvestment in public higher education over the past 25 years has resulted in a serious discussion about whether we as a nation still believe that higher education is a public good and not merely a private benefit.  The prevailing trend raises serious doubt.

We know that we must look to philanthropy to make the quality difference.  There is a state Master Plan for higher education in Louisiana.  That plan, among other things, requires increased selectivity and diversity and effective enrollment management.  There is a state strategic plan for economic development of  Louisiana:  Vision 20/20.

We view both plans as opportunities for Grambling State University.  We embrace our roles in both.  And we are confident about the contributions we will make.  We are committed to reaching the goal set by all of the ULS campuses: to achieve a graduation rate which will equal or exceed the national average for public universities by 2012.

Through our strategic enrollment management plan, we have already taken steps to begin moving toward our 2010 selectivity goals.  We are confident we will meet them and still serve our historical constituency.

I understand fully the challenge of diversity, having served half of my career at predominantly white institutions and the other half at HBCUs.  I have experienced both sides of the diversity coin.  Either side requires competency, courage and strong leadership at all levels.  One advantage HBCUs have is that we were never exclusive.  We never had a policy of denial to any group.  Our doors have always been open.  Our faculty and staff here at Grambling is one of the most diverse among institutions in this state, if not the most diverse.

The critical challenge for us, and all others, then, is to create and sustain a truly inclusive community which affirms us all; a place, truly, where everybody is somebody.  We will diversify our student body, including both domestic and international diversity.

Our goal is to produce Grambling graduates who will be able to live, cooperate and compete in the global society; who will be effective, critical thinking, culturally competent, constructive citizens in a society and in a world of great diversity and rapid change; graduates who will be prepared fully, to live and work in this metamorphic environment.

From 2000 through 2003, this University faced and successfully overcame perhaps the greatest threat in its history.  I salute all who contributed to that wondrous accomplishment: the whole campus community, which showed great resolve and unity, under the leadership of interim president Neari Warner; the Board of Supervisors, who showed unwavering support; System President  Sally Clausen, whose support and commitment were unequivocal; and all others, near and far.  Kudos to all.