Within minutes of beginning his first official day as president, Peter Salovey sent out a university-wide message outlining his vision for Yale and his plans to create a “dialogue” with the campus community.
Within minutes of beginning his first official day as president, Peter Salovey sent out a university-wide message outlining his vision for Yale and his plans to create a “dialogue” with the campus community.
“I look forward to years of listening to you, being inspired by you, serving you, and collaborating with you to continue to ensure that Yale is a model of higher learning and scholarship, a source of leadership in every sector of society, and an inspiration to the world,” wrote the new president. (See the full text of the message below.)
Salovey said he will focus on four areas — “a more unified Yale, a more accessible Yale, a more innovative Yale, and a more excellent Yale” — and noted that he would rely on “the collective wisdom of our Yale community” throughout his presidency.
Toward that end, Salovey announced, he will send a brief note to the campus community every few weeks “to let you know where I have been, how I have been spending my time, and what I have been thinking about.”
He will also post messages, speeches, and other information on the new Office of the President website, which includes a link where Yale community members can share their feedback and suggestions.
Salovey is Yale’s 23rd president and its first new chief administrator in 20 years. His predecessor, Richard C. Levin, officially stepped down on June 30, having served as president since 1993. Salovey was serving as provost when he was named as president, and he is the fourth provost tapped to become Yale’s top administrator. He is the only Yale president to have served as the chair of an academic department, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, dean of Yale College, and provost.
Salovey holds three Yale degrees: an M.S. (1983), M.Phil. (1984), and Ph.D. (1986). A renowned scholar in the field of psychology, Salovey is known for his work with collaborator John D. Mayer on “emotional intelligence,” the theory that just as people have a wide range of intellectual abilities, they also have a wide range of measurable emotional skills that profoundly affect their thinking and action. He is the third psychologist to hold Yale’s top administrative post.
While Salovey took office on July 1, the official inauguration ceremony will take place on Saturday, Oct. 12.
The full text of Salovey’s note to the campus community follows:
It has become customary, on the first day in office, for Yale’s new president to offer a few thoughts on the future. I am honored to continue that tradition.
Today, even as I attend to the mundane tasks of moving into my new office in Woodbridge Hall, I will be thinking about how best to serve the faculty, students, staff, alumni, and friends of Yale. In the past six months, I have been impressed anew by your dedication to sustaining the excellence of our university, and throughout my presidency I will rely on the collective wisdom of our Yale community. I look forward to years of listening to you, being inspired by you, serving you, and collaborating with you to continue to ensure that Yale is a model of higher learning and scholarship, a source of leadership in every sector of society, and an inspiration to the world.
In addition to listening to you, I plan to communicate with you, in the hope that our dialogue will forge the positive working relationships that will benefit all of us and help us to be good and effective stewards of this university. Every few weeks or so, I will write a brief note — like this one — to let you know where I have been, how I have been spending my time, and what I have been thinking about. I plan to focus my efforts in four areas: a more unified Yale, a more accessible Yale, a more innovative Yale, and a more excellent Yale. In speaking with so many of you, I have heard exciting ideas about how to realize these ambitions, and I look forward to continuing these conversations. To keep the community informed, I will post messages, speeches, and other information at a new web site (http://president.yale.edu). This site also provides a link for you to contact me. I welcome your feedback, observations, and suggestions, and I hope to hear from you, just as you will be hearing from me.
Some years ago, I quoted the great Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in a freshman address. That quotation captures what I believe all of us, working together, are called to do; that is, to continue to make Yale a place:
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depths of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward … into ever-widening thought and action ….”
I am honored and humbled by your trust, inspired by your confidence, and optimistic about the years to come.
