Why do I go to this liberal college

[link to president.iu.edu]

December President Update:

Dear Friend of Indiana University:

Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed a spate of terrorist attacks around the world, including the recent deadly shootings in California, aimed at civilians where they live, work and play. These barbaric attacks, carried out by people with no regard for the sanctity of life, have horrified and saddened all of us in Indiana, thousands of miles away from these appalling incidents.

As a university with a strong and longstanding commitment to international engagement, Indiana University has hundreds of students studying abroad at any given time. While we are fortunate that all of our students living and studying in areas overseas that have been beset by violence are safe, we continue to stay in close contact with our students abroad and do everything possible to ensure their safety.

Additionally, we have reached out to offer support to our international students from the affected regions as they work through a difficult time fraught with uncertainty. These students are valued members of our IU family, and I encourage everyone to keep them in their thoughts.

Whenever heinous acts such as these are perpetrated on innocent victims, there is a tendency to want to draw closer to one another, to put up barricades, to retreat from the larger world. The reality, however, is that in today’s deeply interconnected global society isolating one’s self from the joys — and the challenges — of the rest of the world is simply not possible, or even advisable.

Universities such as IU play a vital role in fostering understanding among widely diverse populations. This commitment to attracting and welcoming students, faculty and staff from around the state, across the country and throughout the world is a core value of Indiana University that has never been more necessary than in these troubled times.

Indeed, the role of the United States as a global leader, and the need for our leaders of tomorrow to graduate from college with a high degree of global literacy was underscored on the IU Bloomington campus in late October when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened the new Global and International Studies Building with a superb public lecture to nearly 3,000 people that provided a comprehensive survey of U.S. diplomacy and world affairs, especially concerning some of the most difficult international conflicts and issues.