Below is an excerpt from an inspiring and uplifting speech delivered by Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Provost Professor Carolyn Evans at the dinner on 23 August 2017, hosted by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis AC at the University to honour and recognise the new inductees to the Wilson Society.
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“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
So at least it is reported said Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, philosopher, scientist and engineer.
Here at Melbourne University, we aim to move the world – to make a real and substantial difference to the lives of current and future generations, to push the boundaries of knowledge, to apply our learning to new, important problems, to open up exciting opportunities for partnerships and, of course, to provide the finest quality of education that changes the world of each student.
We have brought together in this university an exceptional community – of students, scholars, staff, alumni, friends, international visitors, honorary appointments, business partners. We are ambitious to be the best that we can be – not for bragging rights, not to rise up a list created by others, and certainly not to be elitist. We do this because we believe that our missions of teaching, research and engagement are profoundly important, inherently valuable even at a time when both expertise and truth have come under regular attack. Perhaps, indeed, especially important at such a time.
But to keep moving the world, we need a lever long enough – and that is where so many of you have come in. You have allowed us to leverage the wonderful community of the university. You have allowed us to achieve so much more than we ever could by ourselves. By working together with the people and foundations represented in this room, we have together made real change.
Let me point to two examples – invidious although it is to do so in a room where there are so many wonderful examples available.
The first is the Atlantic Fellowship program. Chris has already spoken eloquently about this and with the first fellows starting now, it is an apt moment to think about the way in which bold philanthropy in partnership with a university both hungry to make a difference and capable of doing so, can aim to make a significant change. Importantly, the Atlantic gift draws not just on what we could achieve within the university but our power as a convenor of the expertise and insights of others – we are the hub of a marvellous group of universities, government and not for profit organisations. We work in partnership with Indigenous people and organisations. We know that we can’t create major change alone.
The second gift that I wish to spend a moment on is the McMullin Centre on Statelessness which will be officially launched next year. Peter and Ruth McMullin, who are here tonight, have given generously to establish for a decade a centre dedicated to examining the underlying causes of statelessness, working with the United Nations, governments, NGOs, students towards the elimination of statelessness and the protection of the rights of stateless people until that occurs.
Stateless people are those without the protection of any state. They might be refugees but they might not – some stateless people have been living in a country for generations but have never been recognised as citizens – think of the Rohinga in Myanmar – others might have lost their citizenship through discriminatory laws – most notoriously the Nazi stripping of citizenship rights from Jews. Such people often have their rights abused in many other ways, unable to travel, obtain work permits, sometimes even to marry. And there is a child born into statelessness every ten minutes. Yet there is not a single academic centre dedicated to tackling this problem.
That will all change from next year with the McMullins gift and through the leadership of the brilliant Professor Michelle Foster, who is also with us tonight. This centre will undertake rigorous and substantial academic work but always aimed at that very practical end of improving the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
So it is not just the University that thanks you for your contributions – although we certainly do that. It is all of those who benefit from the work that we can undertake because of your generosity – be that a student who can move from the country to study here because of the support of a scholarship or a professor who can undertake more daring research or an Atlantic fellow who will be able to be an even more effective and supported leader because of the fellowship; or a stateless person whose rights will be better protected in the future.
The horizons are limitless. My colleagues in the room tonight are working on everything from malaria treatments to better irrigation systems to the ethics of finance to personalised cancer treatments to reform of employment services to eliminating violence against women.
It is a privilege to work with such a dedicated group of people and I know that I speak for those talented colleagues when I say thank you for challenging us, thank you for supporting us, thank for the difference that we have together made and will continue to make in the world.
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Picture: Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Provost Professor Carolyn Evans
