We are here today to celebrate HPU’s age, venerability, and longevity. The University was, after all, founded during what my freshmen often refer to as "olden times," right along with the Roman Empire, the light bulb, and the wheel. It was founded at a time when a C+ may have been a grade, but C++ didn’t exist. It has survived "I’m not a crook," "I don’t recall," and "that woman." At age 35, HPU itself is now eligible to run for President. And I wish it would.

HPU predates most of our students. It predates microwave ovens, cell phones, pagers, palm pilots, PCs-all the technologies our students can’t imagine living without. HPU predates me.

But what I really want to celebrate today is not HPU’s age, but its youth, or rather, its perpetually youthful spirit. Because somewhat paradoxically, I believe this youthful spirit is precisely what has enabled the University to come so far.

HPU is certainly not the same University it was 35 years ago, nor is it the same university it was when I arrived here in 1997. In three short years, I have seen the university develop and embrace a system of shared governance in which faculty and staff work together to implement new programs and policies. And what better role model of cooperation and communication could we possibly give our students?

I have seen my colleagues develop innovative courses, pursue advanced degrees, volunteer in the community, and publish books. And the administration has steadily increased its commitment to supporting these activities. What better way to teach intellectual engagement and social responsibility than by practicing them ourselves?

If our students would understand the importance of adapting to a changing marketplace, they need look no further than HPU’s aggressive investment in its technological resources and its readiness to rise to the challenge of online course delivery.

We want students to adopt global perspectives, and we enable them to do so not through textbooks of lectures, but through immersion in one of the most internationally diverse communities they will ever experience.

HPU encourages life-long learning in our students by proving what we ourselves are capable of continual growth and change. I am honored to be a part of today’s celebration because I am honored to be a part of a university that embodies the values it seeks to foster in its students, a university that can celebrate its past accomplishments while always keeping an eye on the future, and a university that I feel certain will remain young at heart long after today, September 17, 2000, has become a part of "olden times."

Congratulations HPU, and thank you. Catherine .Sustana