“President Roth was a few years behind me at Wesleyan and I suppose one could say, we are both children of the 60s. The one thing we have in common — beside being native Brooklynites — is that neither of us would have likely found their way to Wesleyan just a decade earlier.

“He joked about his first visit to Wesleyan in 1975. Of course, everyone in Brooklyn thought he was visiting *Wellesley*. Suffice it to say, that he, much like I had a few year before, fell in love with the place: the surprising friendliness; the widespread commitment to serious inquiry of all sorts. And, the playfulness. That was key for me. I’m not sure I would have graduated but for all the people along the way who were willing to “come out and play” with me, on my terms.

“I think Michael (everyone starts calling him “Michael” within seconds of meeting him) will make a good president. He’s the sixth Wesleyan president it’s been my pleasure to observe up close (starting with Vic Butterfield who was good enough to talk with me for a few moments during his retirement) and the first academic to hold the position in about twelve years.

“He moved around the podium that had been set up on the makeshift stage and unhooked the microphone. Pretty soon, he was prowling the aisle between the sea of folding chairs before him, talking quite movingly and extemporaneously about Wesleyan’s importance as a progressive institution. He’s obviously a gifted teacher.

“In fact, he reminded me of no one so much as, Carl Griffin, my late social studies teacher. They were both very handsome, vital, passionate men of good will.

“But, my sense is that Carl would have been uncomfortable being “president” of anything. In fifty years of teaching, I don’t think he was so much as an assistant principal. I think he would have been uncomfortble asking people to take on the same battles he did. And, his battles were mainly pedagogical in nature. He wanted to teach more than anything else.

“Michael, OTOH, has something every president I’ve ever met has had to varying degrees: the willingness and ability to instantly size people up. Butterfield had it. Bill Chace [snip] had it. Doug Bennet had to some extent, too.

“Michael really has it. And, he’s going to need it. Part of his “speech” tonight was about commitment — to need-blind admissions, to the liberal arts, etc.. But, I think, also to something else. I almost can’t put my finger on it. Because to put my finger on it would almost be to betray a confidence. It is that important. And, that fragile.

“What Michael was saying to us as he roamed up and down the aisle in that voluminous marbled hall, was really in the form of a question. The question was, “Are you with me?”"