James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, was assassinated short of his 200th day in office.
He was known as a civil service reformer, anti-corruption leader, and voting rights advocate.
Known for his intellectual gifts, legend has it that he was ambidextrous and could write Greek with one hand while writing Latin with the other.
He also served as the president of Hiram College (my favorite institution) before the launch of his political career.
Of additional significance for us here, Garfield was a proud graduate of Williams College.
He once described the ideal college as:
Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other.
Mark Hopkins was a beloved president and professor of moral philosophy at Williams College in the 19th century over a 36-year career.
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As you know, I walk back and forth to my office (at least once) every day, and on some occasions, I have to come back early for a trip or reception at the house.
Not infrequently, as I approach the library from the east on 8th Street, I see Paul Hurley, under the shade of the trees, with a couple of students sitting on lawn chairs, in PPE tutorial.
This must have started during the pandemic, but he’s continued the practice ever since.
I love seeing that, and think of him as Mark Hopkins and our students as future Garfields.
I joke with Paul when I pass that he must be trying to exercise some modest form of CMC world domination in an attempt to expropriate the consortium property for our own campus use by adverse possession.
In reviewing the requirements for adverse possession, it’s not a slam dunk case but a decent one.
His occupation of the space is arguably regular enough.
His presence is open and (at least now that I’m bringing your attention to it) notorious.
I’m not sure it’s hostile to the owners’ interest, but I’m not convinced they actually like that he’s teaching there.
He’s been doing it for nearly five years.
And because we don’t pay property taxes, that requirement seems irrelevant.
Putting the law aside, what I really love is the setting he creates for CMC, the ideal college:
Professor Hurley and a couple of students on lawn chairs talking about the tyranny of outcomes.
Normally, I would create a new award for that. The Garfield Lawn Chair Award. Or the CMC World Domination Award.
But I can’t do that today.
First, because I’d have to get Board approval!
Second, because his accomplishments go way beyond this inchoate form of adverse possession.
As a professor, Paul brings the great questions of philosophy to bear on the great issues of our time, especially anything related to law and policy.
His students love it. And he loves and champions them.
He has won three of our most prestigious teaching awards: The Glenn R. Huntoon, The G. David Huntoon, and the Roy Crocker Award, as well as the Wig Distinguished Teacher Award at Pomona three times, before joining CMC.
He has published two discipline-altering books on consequentialism, including his most recent, Against the Tyranny of Outcomes, and co-authored the History of Philosophy and over 40 articles and reviews over his career.
Missing from his CV is his extraordinary service and leadership.
His key role in growing the philosophy department here to what I believe is by far the best in liberal arts education and one of the best in any Carnegie classification.
And his leadership and 2x expansion of the PPE program, one of the only programs in the world that supports tutorials with six full-time tenured faculty.
His leadership in the structural reform of our APT process so many years ago and so many other governance initiatives.
His dedication to reason and principles and values (and mission against unethical obsessions with results) is so great that his voice carries weight for all of us, even in disagreement.
When he is (only rarely) incorrect, Paul is instructively wrong. When he is right (almost all of the time), he shows us the reasons for our own failure and lights the path forward.
So, it is my great honor to announce the recipient this year, 2025, of the Garfield Lawn Chair Award—no, strike that, the Presidential Award for Merit, one of the institution’s highest honors, to the Sexton Professor of Philosophy, Paul Hurley.
Please join me in congratulating and thanking Paul for his remarkable set of achievements and impact on all of us. He paints the picture of the ideal college: under the trees, in front of the library, Professor Paul Hurley with a couple of other students, each in a lawn chair, engaged in tutorial.