President's Office: Speeches
Archived Speeches
Remarks on the Groundbreaking of the Salameno Spiritual Center
Peter P. Mercer, June 2, 2008
President Peter Mercer and Mrs. Jackie Mercer
and Lawrence and Theresa Salameno at the
groundbreaking of the Salameno Spiritual Center
It is a great pleasure to welcome everyone to this ceremony where we break ground to build the long-awaited Salameno Spiritual Center at Ramapo College. We are fortunate to have with us many of those whose donations made this project possible including Larry and Theresa Salameno, Professor Anthony and Theresa Padavano, Trustee Peter and Pam McBride, Anthony and Gail Marino, and Bob and Nancy Kossowsky. I also welcome trustees Esther Suarez and Tim Schroeder. We are honored as well by the presence of [list religious leaders] It is good to have you all with us.
I am sometimes asked "Why build a spiritual center? Aren't there more pressing needs?" To such questions I always initially respond that Ramapo College has many pressing needs and that if there are others which they might be more inclined to support, I can gladly provide a list.
The most obvious answer to be made in this regard, however, is that Ramapo College has no other facility dedicated to the spiritual. Indeed, as a relatively new public college, Ramapo does not have either the religious foundation or religious tradition that characterizes the majority of the most venerable institutions of higher learning both in the United States and throughout the world. You will have heard me refer before to the coincidence of Cambridge University celebrating its eight hundredth anniversary next year when Ramapo celebrates its fortieth. The religious foundations of Cambridge University are everywhere to be seen there and not just in the college chapels. The first two endowed professorships, established in the early 1500's, were in Divinity.
Of course in the succeeding hundreds of years, professorships in divinity have given way to chairs in other disciplines decidedly secular in their orientation. The high water mark of that recent trend being perhaps the Prince Philip Professorship of Technology established in 2001. This does not mean, however, that matters of spirituality are somehow outmoded today. I can refer to Cambridge University again by example. The most recent chair to be established at Cambridge, just two years ago, is the His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Professorship of Modern Arabic Studies. It was created by the Sultan of Oman to facilitate cultural and religious awareness and understanding through education.
This has been, throughout history, a special calling of Colleges and Universities and not just in the Western World. If I were to ask you what is the world's oldest continuously operating degree-granting university you might think of the University of Bologna, founded in 1088. Others might claim it is the University of Paris, although that was not established until 1150. In fact, the oldest continuously-operating degree-granting university is the University of Al-Karaouine in Fes, Morocco, established in 859. So, to do the arithmetic again, when Ramapo is 40 years old, next year, the University of Al Karaouine will celebrate its one thousand one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
"Yes" some might say," but what relevance does an ancient Islamic university have to a New Jersey College in 2008". Well, that university remains one of the leading spiritual centers of the Muslim world with a history of welcoming scholars of diverse spiritual orientations. One of its outstanding graduates, in the 12 century, was Moses Ben Maimon or Maimonides, recognized as the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher. In 2008, when so much unwarranted spiritual and cultural division is apparent, these are intellectual traditions we should strive to emulate.
So finally, the core question: isn't spirituality an anti-intellectual fancy in a scientific age and knowledge-based economy? This, after all, is the summer of Iron Man and Sex and the City which can absorb us until September's advent of the fifth season of CSI New York where the forensic pursuit of cold hard facts allows the most difficult criminal cases to be solved in 47 minutes.
To be sure, spirituality is about something else. To quote from the UCLA Study on Spirituality in Higher Education:
"Spirituality points to our interiors, our subjective life, as contrasted to the objective domain of material events and objects. Our spirituality is reflected in the values and ideals that we hold most dear, our sense of who we are and where we come from, our beliefs about why we are here - the meaning and purpose we see in our lives - and our connectedness to each other and the world around us.
Spirituality also captures those aspects of our experience that are not easy to define or talk about, such as inspiration, creativity, the mysterious, the sacred, and the mystical. Within this very broad perspective, we believe spirituality is a universal impulse and reality."
The study document goes on to acknowledge what we must surely acknowledge: that each of us views our spirituality in a unique way. For many, traditional religious beliefs are at the core; for others they are not. What is undeniable is the intensity of spiritual interest at our College, particularly among our students as they negotiate the uncertain pathways that so many of us remember from our late teens and early twenties. We will, at Ramapo, now have a venue for the pursuit of the spiritual dimension through discussion, debate and contemplation and for that, on behalf of Ramapo College, I express sincere and profound gratitude.
Thank you everyone.
Peter P. Mercer
June 2, 2008
Archived Speeches
- Remarks on the Groundbreaking of the Salameno Spiritual Center
June 2, 2008 (PDF) (DOC)
- State of the College Address
February 6, 2008 (PDF) (DOC)
- State of the College Address
September 26, 2007 (PDF) (DOC)
- Address to Freshman Class
September 2, 2007 (PDF) (DOC)
- State of the College Address
February 28, 2007 (PDF) (DOC)
- State of the College Address
September 14, 2005 (PDF) (DOC)
- Opening Convocation Remarks
September 21, 2005 (PDF) (DOC)
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