Texas Exes African American Alumni Reunion Dinner
Remarks by President Bill Powers
Alumni Center
Friday, October 12, 2007
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome home to all our alumni! I bring greetings from the entire University of Texas family—faculty, students, administrators, and staff members. We’re very pleased to welcome you back to your University.
This is a great occasion. Today was a special day here on campus. We dedicated Almetris Duren Hall – named in honor of one of UT’s most respected figures, Mama Duren.
Almetris Duren was a mentor, a motivator, a nurturer, a confidante, and an inspiration to generations of African American students at UT.
She believed in the liberating power of education.
She believed in respect and racial dignity.
And she believed that we all have a responsibility to pass on what we’ve learned and experienced to our students and future students.
For 25 crucial years in the history of this University – from the 1950s to 1980 – she created a supportive environment for African American students to strive and succeed in the classroom and in society. We preserve her memory – and acknowledge her tireless effort – by naming our newest dormitory in her honor.
Tonight we also recognize several African American faculty members whose teaching and scholarship bring great distinction to UT, and who transform the lives of the students they mentor and teach. Mama Duren would be proud of all of you for the support and encouragement you give to your students.
I might add that I am pleased by the progress we are making in recruiting and retaining African American professors and in increasing the number of African American students on our campus. Greg Vincent, vice president for Diversity and Community Engagement, has played a major role in making this happen and we thank him for his hard work. In the past two years we have added 30 minority faculty members and retained 14 others who were being recruited by other universities. And this fall we have the largest percentage of African American freshmen in University history – 5.8 percent of the 2007 freshman class. We can do better, and we will do better. But we continue to make progress.
Each of you alumni here tonight has a personal story to tell about your experiences at The University of Texas. For some of you, the memories may be bittersweet. Especially for those who attended UT in the 1950s and early 1960s. But Dr. Martin Luther King put it simply, and directly, in his Nobel Prize Acceptance speech in 1964: “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
In whatever era you came to this University, you came looking for an education and “culture for your mind.” And I suspect that you found those things on this campus, despite all adversity. Because you had the audacity to believe in yourselves, the courage to accept every challenge, and the determination to succeed. And you’re here tonight as living examples of our slogan, “What starts here changes the world.” I congratulate you all for the success you have enjoyed.
This University needs your continuing connection and support, if we are to become the great public university in the nation.
So please stay connected to UT!
Again, thank you for coming. Enjoy your dinner.
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