Inaugural Address of William C. Dudley
Sixth President of Claremont McKenna College
November 7, 2026

Introduction

Thank you: Morty Schapiro—higher education legend—for the generous introduction, and for being my lifelong mentor and friend; Ken Valach and the Board of Trustees, for your confidence in me; ROTC cadets and Professor Ketels, for the presentation of the colors and the beautiful rendition of the national anthem; Reverend Benson, for the thoughtful invocation, and for winning the national title in the 400 IM as my college swimming teammate; Mayor Stark—Pitzer alumna and child of CMC—for your leadership in Claremont and making Carola and me feel at home; Professor Appel—exemplary teacher and scholar, and my former college dormmate—for welcoming me to the ranks of our distinguished faculty; Jimmy Doan, and our entire staff, for the spirit and skill that you bring to your work; Nick Kennedy, for representing your fellow students so well, and bringing home a national water polo championship, living out my own personal dream; Doug Peterson and our alumni, for filling us with pride and sustaining us with your support; CMC parents, for placing your trust in us; Gabi Starr and my fellow Claremont presidents, for your collegial warmth and collaboration.

History

The extraordinary Claremont consortium was founded 100 years ago. From the seeds first planted at Pomona germinated a unique and improbable experiment in American higher education. Today, there are seven member schools—five undergraduate colleges and two graduate institutions. A century of success has proved the original hypothesis: students in Claremont enjoy the great advantages of a small college experience, while also benefiting from resources typically found only at larger universities. We live and work in the best of all possible educational worlds.

It turns out my ancestors were here almost from the beginning. My great-grandparents, James Bennett and Ethelwyn Foote, met at Pomona in 1901. She was a pioneer among female science instructors—teaching biology—and athletes— introducing women’s basketball. They were married by the president of Pomona, George Gates, and raised their children in Pasadena.

One of their daughters, my great-aunt Caroline—whom I remember visiting as a child—was in the first class of women at Scripps, graduating in 1931. She went on to serve as a Scripps trustee for forty years. In the delightfully small world category, she attended the wedding of Jack and Jil Stark.

My grandmother, Caroline’s younger sister, grew up hiking Mount Baldy, which I look out on every morning from my office window. Here with us today are all five of her children, including my 86-year-old mother, Louise.

Thank you for indulging me in recounting a bit of my family history. I wanted to convey that although I am a newcomer to California, I also feel destined to have come home to my deep roots in Claremont. And I want to thank my family, especially my parents, for raising me to understand the life-changing power of liberal arts education and the importance of making it widely available.

Mission

Claremont McKenna—the third of the five undergraduate colleges given birth by the consortium—is 80 years old. We are exceptionally young for a college of our caliber.  The rapid, remarkable success of CMC is a testament to both the importance of our mission—we prepare students for “thoughtful and productive lives and responsible leadership in business, government, and the professions”—and the sustained quality of its execution. We owe special thanks to my presidential predecessors—Jack Stark, Pam Gann, and Hiram Chodosh—who collectively led the college for nearly three-quarters of its existence.

The seminal moments in CMC history have been directly responsive to the societal need for greater access to liberal arts education and for a correspondingly larger pool of future leaders.

We opened our doors in 1946, in the immediate aftermath of WWII. Reflecting on that decision in his memoirs, Donald McKenna, our namesake, wrote: “The G.I. Bill promised to pay for the education of returning veterans. It did not take a genius to figure out that now, if ever, was the time to start a college.” The first students were indeed mostly veterans, who had attended public high schools and came from families of modest means. The purpose of the college was to prepare them for success and leadership in civilian life. It did that remarkably well, and here we are thriving today.

The purpose remained unchanged 30 years later, in 1976, when CMC became a co-educational college. The young women who arrived on campus provided an instant boost to educational quality, institutional reputation, and societal impact. This year we are proudly celebrating the 50^th anniversary of that monumental decision.

These two critical moments are evidence of a board of trustees willing to be bold in the service of our mission. They also reveal an abiding commitment to the American Dream—to the idea that the conjunction of talent, opportunity, and hard work is conducive to both personal success and the public good. Fittingly, the American Dream was for many years the subject of a legendary course by Professor John Roth, who created the philosophy department at CMC.

Underlying our mission is a foundational intellectual framework. The college’s statement of purpose, published in 1946, asserts:

“There is no incompatibility between an education planned for specific types of leadership and an education designed to develop a liberally informed mind. In fact, real leadership presupposes the latter and, in turn, a liberally informed mind can find no more satisfying vocation than in such leadership.”

Claremont McKenna is built on the premise that liberal arts education and leadership go hand in hand. Why is that so? How does that work?

Leadership and the Liberal Arts

Socrates would insist that before we can answer these questions, we must confront a more fundamental one: “What are the liberal arts?”

I like to clarify their meaning by analogy. Consider the martial arts. The “martial arts,” literally, are the disciplines that prepare you for war. They are ancient, and they have never been more popular.

If the martial arts are the disciplines that prepare you for war, the liberal arts are the disciplines that set you free. The “arts” in “liberal arts” does not mean “arts.” Or “humanities.” It means “disciplines,” which include the arts and humanities, but also (since ancient times) math and science, and, by extension, any discipline that puts us in a position to be more fully self-determining, by giving us the tools to understand ourselves, the natural world, and the legal, economic, moral, political, historical, and cultural dimensions of human life.

The founders of CMC wisely paired this traditional, expansive conception of the liberal arts with their laser-focused mission to prepare responsible leaders. They rightly recognized that these are not merely compatible but mutually reinforcing.

The original course catalog made this belief explicit, proclaiming:

“The emphasis on training for leadership in public and private administration does not … imply narrow vocational training … [The college] will require its students to complete courses in the same broad fields of human knowledge as … [at] the customary liberal arts college … It is a fundamental part of the purpose of this institution that all [students] … shall experience some of the great ethical and spiritual influences which are essential in building the character and effectiveness of individuals.”

It was also manifest in the original curriculum, which included a four-year humanities sequence in literature, history, philosophy, and religion.

And it was evident in the lives of some of CMC’s most distinguished and consequential early leaders. Donald McKenna—founding trustee—majored in English at Pomona and pursued a PhD in English at Harvard, before embarking on his successful business career. Jack Stark—Class of ’57 and our longest-serving president—majored in literature and economics at CMC before serving in the U.S. Marines.

The founders of Claremont McKenna understood that liberal arts education makes us capable of leadership: by enabling us to know who we are, where we want to go, and how to get there; by enabling us to understand and empathize with others; and by enabling us to inspire, with words and deeds, the joint pursuit of worthy goals.

They also understood that those whose education prepares them for leadership will take satisfaction in exercising it. This is an Aristotelian idea—that happiness comes from developing our full potential and putting it to work in meaningful endeavors. On this view, there is no deeper pleasure, there is no higher human calling, than serving the greater good in the company of others.

While this is a noble ideal, it is admittedly not top of mind for every 17-year-old applying to college. I frequently ask students why they choose CMC, and I have yet to hear one mention Aristotle. They come to learn, make friends, have fun, find a job.  As they should, and as they do.

But at the same time, the educational experience has consequences beyond those that the students initially expect or consciously pursue. Consider the honeybee, which seeks nectar to feed itself, and in the process pollinates plants and improves the entire ecosystem, without any intention or awareness. Or Adam Smith’s invisible hand, the economic idea that individuals pursuing their own interests can collectively contribute to the public good in ways they did not imagine or intend. A version of this is embedded in Claremont McKenna’s motto—Crescit Cum Commercio Civitas—“civilization prospers with commerce,” the notion that the mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services diminishes the likelihood of conflict, and the respectful exchange of diverse perspectives, a core CMC value, catalyzes mutual understanding and growth. The educational version is that while students are doing all the things they come to CMC to do—take classes, join clubs, play sports, go to the Ath—they are also developing traits and habits conducive to success and leadership, and discovering the satisfaction that comes from putting those abilities to good use.

Claremont McKenna is an incubator for liberally educated leaders.

Jack Stark summed it up nicely thirty-five years ago in his mildly exasperated response to pesky accreditors who struggled to grasp our distinctive educational philosophy:

“CMC is not a vocational school that is in the business of preparing students for particular careers. It is a liberal arts college, with a curricular emphasis on public affairs, by which we mean educating our students to be public-spirited businessmen, public officials, and professionals and public-minded citizens who know the fundamental principles of their society and their alternatives.”

I concur with Jack. Liberal arts education is not job training, but it also happens to be the best form of preparation for professional success, civic participation, and responsible leadership. It expands our horizons, develops our capacities, and increases our flexibility. Nothing could be more valuable than that in the 21st century. The liberal arts, like the martial arts, are devastatingly powerful.

Operation Rockpile

Over the last 80 years, Claremont McKenna has demonstrated what is possible if you have a compelling vision, capable leadership, and a committed community. One of my favorite CMC stories, which demonstrates all three, has been dubbed Operation Rockpile. Today we are gathered on Parents Field, our central green, a beautiful and treasured spot for relaxation, recreation, and campus events. In 1948, this was barren, uneven ground, strewn with boulders and stones that wash down the mountains from the north. The brand-new college needed a quad, and this was the obvious place for it. But there was no money, no equipment, and many tons of rock. What CMC did possess were able-bodied students, faculty, and staff who shared a desire to improve their school. And so, they came together, in the hot sun, day after day, and invested their sweat equity, one rock at a time, until the ground was clear, level, and suitable for planting. The project was emblematic of what it took to create a college from scratch. A decade later, marveling at all that had transpired, and the spirit that made it possible, President Benson wondered: “What accounts for the enthusiasm?” He answered, simply: “We all believe in what we are doing.”

That belief is a powerful thing. It is also attractive to like-minded souls. And it accounts for how Claremont McKenna, from its very humble beginnings, quickly and steadily recruited top-flight faculty, coaches, and staff, people who brought expertise and devotion and reinforced the culture—the joyful can-do spirit—that drew them here in the first place. Their early success attracted financial support, which incrementally expanded the possibilities for the college, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We are privileged to inherit the CMC of today, which has been built, nurtured, and loved by those who preceded us. Our responsibility is to leave it even stronger for the future. We will succeed in that together by embracing the spirit of Operation Rockpile, linking arms and seizing every opportunity to improve our school.

We live in difficult times, operating in the face of economic uncertainty, political dysfunction, international conflict, and dizzying technological change. I sometimes describe the job of a college president as “keeping the circus at bay,” by which I mean that the more challenging the external environment, the more important it is to retain our focus on why we are here and what we do well. Educating our students to the best of our ability is how we can make the greatest difference.

No matter what the world brings, we will be steadfast in the service of our mission, preparing young people with extraordinary potential for responsible leadership by providing a liberal arts education that develops their intellect and character. Because talent is everywhere, we will recruit widely and ensure that every admitted student can afford to attend CMC. Here we follow Thomas Jefferson, who emphasized the public benefit that would accrue from educating “those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if not sought for and cultivated.” And we follow our founders, with their unshakeable faith in the American Dream. Donald McKenna himself rightly emphasized that investing in financial aid is the best way to strengthen the student body, which is the best way to strengthen CMC. Access and affordability are among our highest institutional priorities.

We will uphold our core educational values: intellectual freedom and fearlessness; respectful conversation across differing perspectives; collaborative problem solving. These habits, urgently needed in the world, are developed on our campus—in our classrooms and clubs, in our Open Academy and Athenaeum.          

We will prioritize teaching and research of the highest order. Our faculty are beloved by our students and recognized for their scholarly accomplishments. Our curriculum is both traditional and innovative, the most recent example being the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences. Our research centers and institutes are unique among liberal arts colleges and allow our students to work with faculty on projects that are more typically reserved for graduate school.

We will provide students with a wide range of opportunities, thoughtful support designed to help them solve their own problems, and facilities in which they can live, work, and play. Later today, we will cut the ribbon on our magnificent new Sports Bowl at the Roberts Campus, which hosts competition and practice for half a dozen of our outstanding athletic teams. En route, we will walk past the jaw-dropping Robert Day Sciences Center, in which every student takes at least one course while at Claremont McKenna.

And we will do everything in our power to sustain our culture, the je ne sais quoi that permeates our campus and has our students ranked as the friendliest in the nation.

Conclusion

When we do all this—not, “if we do all this,” but “when we do all this”—we will launch into the world from our educational incubator a host of thoughtful, productive young adults, capable of critical thinking, articulate expression, good judgment, and even wisdom. No matter how quickly the world and its technologies change—or perhaps precisely in virtue of how quickly the world and its technologies change—there will always be a need for public-minded professionals, citizens, and leaders. The world will always need the graduates of Claremont McKenna. We will enthusiastically provide them.

What accounts for the enthusiasm? We all believe in what we are doing.

We do, indeed, believe in what we are doing. And I am thrilled to be here, doing it with you.

Thank you.