29
August 1991
George Washington
University
WASHINGTON DC
COLUMBIAN COLLEGE
OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
"Remarks
for New Students, Preceding American Pictures"
If it weren't for the new Columbian College advising
system, Jacob Holdt's American Pictures presentation
would not be part of orientation activities here at
George Washington University.
This experience is new and challenging to us as well
as to you. What do we mean by including it so prominently
in our activities?
In college you are encouraged to think differently in
two ways. First, you are encouraged to think originally,
as you discover your own unique individual identity in
this larger world of research, hypothesis, experiment,
and articulation. And secondly, you are encouraged to
think skeptically, calling into question previous notions
you have learned, questioning your fellow students and
your professors, re-examining for yourself all the
assumptions, theories, and institutions around you.
High school was a time to learn many large, important,
and often complicated things; building on that in
college, you will encounter new and diverse information,
some of which will doubtless conflict with some of your
current beliefs and opinions. Disagreement, despite the
emotional havoc it sometimes brings, is an essential part
of learning. Be of good cheer!
College is a time to go after the reasons why those
high school notions were thought to be so important, and
to study not just what we think we know (as a society)
but how we believe we know it. Furthermore, it is a time
to ask why we have chosen to learn some things in certain
ways; it is a time to learn how the ways we formulate our
questions shape the answers we obtain; and it is a time
to initiate what should be a life-long process of
discovery as we expand the ways in which we understand
the world. Part of this life-long discovery process
involves looking for the biases, blindnesses, and
preconceptions which shape the theories, ideas, beliefs,
and values we live with all the time.
We have invited Jacob Holdt here to deliver his
portrait of America's underclass in part because we
understand that new college students at other excellent
universities have been extraordinarily receptive to the
experience. They have been moved and stimulated to
participate in our great social dialogue about justice
and equality. Many of them have been exposed to aspects
of American experience they had not previously been aware
of. All of them have seen the on-going drama of a single
individual courageously witnessing people living in
marginal conditions of poverty, deprivation, and
disorientation, where drugs, homelessness, and violence
are endemic parts of life.
Agree with him or disagree; cast the issues in the
same or different terms; respond with understanding,
sadness, guilt, frustration, or anger; seek a social
solution or an individual accommodation. None of us can
predict how you new students here at George Washington
University will respond to American Pictures. We do not
have a conviction as to how you should respond. We can
endorse the courage of this social geographer, the unique
odyssey of this Danish photojournalist with his vision
and his mission -- we can wish you good luck as you try
to incorporate this experience into your own world -- we
want to encourage you to keep your mind open even when
your heart becomes heavy and full -- but we are not
requiring you to believe any of it.
Except you should believe that we are proud to have a
part in shaping the educational opportunities which
George Washington University is making available to you.
Thank you for joining us.
All best wishes
David McAleavey
Associate Dean,
Columbian College of Arts and
Sciences
STUDENT SERVICES PHILLIPS HALL
106
WASHINGTON. DC 20052 (202) 994-8686
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