As with any installation of new leadership, there is a great deal of pomp and ceremony, and academic institutions may do it more than any other. The inauguration of Dr. Daniel Paul Larson as Cayuga Community College's seventh president, was no different. If there was one theme of the day, it was the role of Larson as the “conductor” of Cayuga County's only two-year institution of higher learning.
Numerous representatives welcomed Larson “officially” (he has been at the college since last August) in the 90-minute ceremony. One of the finest came from English professor Howard Nelson, who represented the college's faculty, who started his comments quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson's Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard in 1837, which he called “The American Scholar” and clearly outlined the role higher education can play in society.
Emerson said “Colleges ... have their indispensable office - to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame.”
It has likely never been said as well since on the role of colleges, such as Cayuga.
Larson comes to Cayuga with a doctorate of music art, among his other academic credentials. The kickoff of the two-day celebration was a concert that featured the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra string quartet and his own baritone performances of several favorites, including “Ol' Man River” from “Showboat” and “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables.”
The music theme carried on the next day with the ceremony attended by not only the college's staff and students, but other members of higher education, the community and political world. More than passing reference was made to Larson's role as “conductor.” But it may have again been Nelson who tied it all together better than anyone with a piece he wrote reflecting Emerson's themes:
“In education, in an institution, we can't expect the perfection that music can approach, but still, a college is a kind of choir. Dr. Larson, direct us, bringing together our various talents into a collective creative process larger and subtler than the sum of its parts, that honors individuality, and self-reliance, that brings out something good in each and all. A kind of music, just as learning is a kind of fire. Dr. Larson, we wish you well.”
If any of this is accomplished during Larson's tenure at CCC, then that institution and the community as a whole will be all the better.
Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com
Emerson said “Colleges ... have their indispensable office - to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame.”
It has likely never been said as well since on the role of colleges, such as Cayuga.
Larson comes to Cayuga with a doctorate of music art, among his other academic credentials. The kickoff of the two-day celebration was a concert that featured the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra string quartet and his own baritone performances of several favorites, including “Ol' Man River” from “Showboat” and “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables.”
The music theme carried on the next day with the ceremony attended by not only the college's staff and students, but other members of higher education, the community and political world. More than passing reference was made to Larson's role as “conductor.” But it may have again been Nelson who tied it all together better than anyone with a piece he wrote reflecting Emerson's themes:
“In education, in an institution, we can't expect the perfection that music can approach, but still, a college is a kind of choir. Dr. Larson, direct us, bringing together our various talents into a collective creative process larger and subtler than the sum of its parts, that honors individuality, and self-reliance, that brings out something good in each and all. A kind of music, just as learning is a kind of fire. Dr. Larson, we wish you well.”
If any of this is accomplished during Larson's tenure at CCC, then that institution and the community as a whole will be all the better.
Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com