Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d just like to make a few remarks so we can get on and enjoy the rest of the evening.
On behalf of Indiana University, let me first welcome all the distinguished members of the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees of the Kinsey Institute who have gathered here at IU for their meetings that start tomorrow. I am actually now a member of the Board of Governors, but unfortunately, I am afraid I will not be able to attend your meetings tomorrow due to commitments I have with our new president. He is having his first staff meeting tomorrow, then I have a briefing session with him in the afternoon on university research, and I have another meeting with him during the day. I’m afraid he is the one person whose demands must take precedence over attending your weighty deliberations tomorrow.
At Indiana University, the Kinsey Institute reports to the Vice President for Research, and since you last met, of course, I’ve taken over in this position from George Walker, my distinguished colleague and friend who was also a member of the Board of Governors for many years. Let me also state that like George, I regard the Kinsey Institute as one of IU’s crown jewels. I remember last year when you met, having dinner with Michael Kirby and Michael saying that “the Kinsey Institute is probably the only entity at IU that is known worldwide,” sentiments that he expressed in some very eloquent letters he wrote to a number of us from Australia after attending his first board meeting last year. And when you think about it, this is actually quite true. Despite all the luminous faculty and the numerous outstanding research groups here at IU, it is probably the only entity associated with the university that is known internationally.
Sadly, the subject matter of the research of the Kinsey Institute is still seen as being controversial in some quarters. And this was so 50 years ago when the institute and the research of Professor Kinsey was so ably defended, so heroically defended, by the late Herman Wells, one of the giants of American higher education. Actually, this afternoon, knowing I had to say a few words at this dinner tonight, I picked up Wells’ autobiography, which I first read soon after I arrived at IU in 1997 never thinking that one day the Kinsey Institute would be reporting to me, a mere technologist, and I read again the chapter about the Kinsey Institute and Wells’ struggle to defend and sustain it. One cannot help but be moved by the—I used the word heroic before and I believe it is quite accurate—defense of the institute and Professor Kinsey’s research by Wells in an era when this country was more conservative than now, and this was a particularly conservative state that viewed such research and studies in a dim, skeptical, and suspicious light.
I can recommend to anybody who has the privilege to take over responsibility for the Kinsey Institute, that the first thing they should do is read the chapter of Wells’ autobiography on the Kinsey Institute because I think it makes the case extremely eloquently for the importance of the Kinsey Institute and is, at the same time, an example of why academic freedom is just so important and why it must be defended so vigorously. Wells’ example reminds those of us that have the privilege of stewardship of the Kinsey Institute and those of us in senior administrative positions at IU, of the standard expected from us in defending both the institute and in defending academic freedom.
The Kinsey Institute, then, has a special place in the past of IU, but also in its present and future. So let me say on behalf of Indiana University how grateful we all are to all of you who serve—both colleagues at IU and those from outside of IU —on the Kinsey Board of Governors and Board of Trustees and for all the generous support you give the university and the institute. We appreciate it enormously.
Let me also say that I actually hoped last week that I might be able to announce to you tonight who the new director of the Kinsey Institute will be, but unfortunately, I’m not able to do this. I actually got fairly close to doing this. In fact, the person who I expect I’ll be able to announce to you soon who will be the new director was ready to fly this afternoon to negotiate the final details of their appointment with me. However, the complexities of a multi-campus academic appointment are such that a little more work is still needed before we can make this announcement and the white smoke can go up the chimney. As I said, though, I hope we can finish this process in the next couple of weeks.
This may well be the last meeting that John Bancroft attends as the director of the Kinsey Institute, though I hope we can find some way to keep him involved in the institute’s activities and those of the university as well. Let me then publicly thank John for the superb job he has done as director of the Kinsey Institute for the last eight years. Again, in the days when I never dreamt that the Kinsey would report to me, I remember sitting through discussions in the president’s staff meetings about the need to appoint someone of credibility, standing, and stature as the next director at the Kinsey, given the difficult position in which it found itself, and then hearing a report some time later that such a person had been found in John Bancroft. I think John is really to be given a huge amount of credit for having returned the Kinsey to the position of pre-eminence and prestige that it deserves. The university is much in his debt and has greatly appreciated everything he has done. Hopefully, as soon as I can appoint his successor, he can step down from his labors and move on to other less demanding matters as he moves towards retirement.
Finally, let me exercise the prerogative of the host. Being Australian, let me say how particularly pleased I am that Michael Kirby—Mr. Justice Kirby, as he is known more formally in Australia—is with us tonight as a member of the Kinsey Board of Governors. For those of you who don’t know Michael, he is a member of the High Court of Australia, which is equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been a Justice of the High Court for about nine years and is a particularly eminent member of that court. In fact in my view, Michael is probably one of the finest jurists that Australia has ever produced, certainly in recent times, and is a jurist of genuine international standing, as is demonstrated, for example, by the extensive and important international activities in which he participates.
I happen to have been reading something about Sir Thomas More and Erasmus recently, and I was reminded of Michael. First, because of the very difficult battles that Michael has had to fight in Australia as some of you might be aware, that have required considerable personal courage. And when one thinks of personal courage among jurists, one thinks of Sir Thomas More. And second, because of the prodigious breadth of subjects in which Michael is interested and on which he has delivered deep and thoughtful views. In many ways he is a true polymath with interests that span the law, the humanities, the arts, and science and technology. And when one thinks of polymaths, one thinks of Erasmus, who was such a close friend of Sir Thomas More, and in Michael, we have someone who combines in one person many of the virtues of these great men of learning. So, it is really an enormous privilege and pleasure to have a fellow Australian of the standing and stature of Justice Michael Kirby here both as a visitor to IU and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Kinsey Institute.
Finally then, let me thank you all again for serving as members of the Kinsey boards and for all you are doing to promote this very great institute which, as I said, is one of the jewels in the Indiana University crown.
Thank you.