I am delighted to report that our Miller Hall Dedication on Friday, October 2nd was attended by approximately 600 folks.
It was a wonderful event on a wonderful fall day and we counted among our honored guests President Taylor Reveley, Chancellor Sandra Day O’Connor, Architect Robert A. M. Stern, Alan Miller, and Chip Mason.
It was for us the celebration of the end of one important chapter in the life of the Mason School of Business and the beginning of another, which sentiment I tried to capture in my closing remarks:
“Eleven years ago when we first began thinking about a new home for the Mason School of Business, many people thought we were nuts.
And yet, here we are today. Miller Hall rises majestically around us as the home to the Mason Community for decades to come—and an enduring symbol that dreams still come true. We are here because a few modern-day revolutionaries stood up and took up our cause, determined that through generosity and hard work they would overcome any obstacle.
On behalf of our students, faculty, and staff – past, present, and future – it is my personal honor to accept this remarkable facility as well as the responsibilities that come with it. To whom much is given, much is expected.
To those who teach and mentor here, the responsibility is nothing less than this: to revolutionize business education so that Mason graduates leave here with the skills, surely, but also with the judgment, courage, integrity, and purpose to reshape the way the world does business.
To our students, your responsibility is to put everything you are now on the line and become transformed. To think and act ethically, responsibly, and boldly. To go from here with the conviction that you can—and will—make a sustainable difference in the world. To be a revolutionary in the cause of the common good. And, like so many here today, to return to this place to share your experience and success with those who would follow.
At Mason, with all our diversity of interests and ideas and strengths, we are nonetheless like-minded and laser-focused when it comes to this:
We intend to do great things…to count…to make a difference. That is our cause.
We follow in the footsteps of revolutionaries who came before and built a great nation. They are no different from us. Revolutionaries are still welcome here.”
