Joseph E. Nyre, PhD
Presidential Inaugural Address
Optimism Rooted in Reality
October 28, 2011 

Thank you, Chairman Hynes. I accept the honor of becoming the eighth president of Iona College.

I am humbled by the opportunity to serve, in part, because I stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before – Brother presidents William B. Cornelia, Arthur A. Loftus, William B. Barnes, Richard B. Power, Joseph G. McKenna, John G. Driscoll and James A. Liguori. I ask Brother Liguori to stand and be recognized for his service and for his kindness during the transition.

I am humbled because, after Iona’s 70-year history of Christian Brother leadership, I, along with all of you, am now called upon to build the future of Iona – one of optimism rooted in reality. I am also humbled to be the first president who will have to worry about the quality of his neckties rather than the whiteness of his clerical collar.

Chairman Hynes, it is fitting that you are the one to place the medallion around my neck and call upon me to serve Iona College, for you epitomize all that is Iona. You are a man of faith from humble origins who was transformed by your Iona experience. You have enjoyed extraordinary career success and given back generously to Iona. And you live a joyful life, albeit with a golf club in one hand and an Iona basketball program in the other. When you and Anne Marie flew into Springfield, Ill., in an ice storm as part of the presidential search process, I witnessed firsthand your devotion to Iona College.

Thank you and the board of trustees for this opportunity, for your support and for welcoming us into the Iona family.

Speaking of family, allow me to introduce mine to all of you. First and foremost, I want to recognize my beautiful, intelligent and loving wife of 16 years: Kelli. I can say with great certainty that she is the best First Lady Iona College has ever had! And she is absolutely the best mother our children could have.

You have met two of our children during these events. Hadley, who is 10, thankfully embodies the grace, dignity and intellect of her mother. Henry is 7 and, as you could tell by his speech, may very well want my job. Henry’s deep passion for learning reminds me of all that is Iona. Charlie is 3. His excitement for life is paralleled only by his enthusiasm for Iona College. Incidentally, “Iona” is the first word Charlie learned to spell and he spells it proudly.

Last, but not least, allow me introduce my parents. My mother, Delores, whose unwavering belief and dedication to faith, education and hard work ensured we were rich in love even when we were short on resources. My Father, Joe, like so many fathers of Iona alums, worked hard with his hands each day to ensure his children would have the benefit of quality education and the benefit of careers driven by the mind. Like most fathers, my father likes to correct me. When I say we are fortunate, he reminds me that hard work and ethics lead to success.

Like Iona faculty and staff, my parents excelled at doing more with less and giving greatly to the less fortunate. Collectively my parents ensured me a bright future rich in mind, body and spirit. Mom and Dad, please stand and be recognized.

We as a family commit ourselves to the service of Iona College and thank you for marking the early days of that service with this ceremony.

An inauguration ceremony, though, is not a coronation. An inauguration is a time to reflect on the past and look to the future. This is not even my inauguration. It is our inauguration. This is not about banners and bagpipes, although what other ceremony have you attended with such a stirring beginning as the pipers gave us today?

This inauguration is about the Brothers … like Brother Kevin Devlin, who joined Iona College in 1986 and now directs the Office of Student Retention at Iona. His commitment to service is exemplified and evidenced further by his roles as headmaster of Iona Grammar School and member of the boards of Hope Community Services and The Abraham House; his teaching of two psychology courses each semester; and his dedication to and support of students needing assistance with books, bus fare, food and much, much more. Brother Devlin, please stand and allow us to recognize you.

This inauguration is about staff … like Rich Murray, who joined Iona College as a carpenter in 1995. He was quickly promoted to manager of Trades and Engineering, then to assistant director of Project Management, overseeing all construction projects on campus, and then to associate director of Facilities Management. Not only did Rich help build the College but his faith in Iona resulted in his daughter Paige’s enrollment last year. Rich, please stand and allow us to recognize you.

Today is about faculty … like the chair of our chemistry department, Associate Professor Sunghee Lee, PhD, who works tirelessly teaching, increasing the number of students majoring in chemistry and increasing the frequency and magnitude of student/faculty research. Since 2006, Dr. Lee has supported more than 45 joint student/faculty publications and presentations. Dr. Lee, please stand and allow us to recognize you. 

Most importantly, this day is about students … like Nousin Haque, a junior at Iona College. Nousin is a first-generation American whose parents work hard to ensure she has access to a college education. Nousin is majoring in chemistry, an Honors student and a Patrick J. Martin Scholar. Since coming to Iona College, she has shadowed a surgeon, begun lab research and presented at a national chemistry convention a paper she co-authored. Ms. Haque, please stand and allow us to recognize you.

This inauguration is for all of us … for those who have gone before … for those who are here today … and for all who we intend to serve in the future.

An inaugural address presents unique challenges. My natural tendency was to seek the comfort of the usual PowerPoint and data points. But that’s not for today. Others urged me to share a grand vision with soaring rhetoric. Even if I were capable of either (which I am not), that, too, is not for today. No, today is a day that I want to join with you in reflection, a reflection grounded in our faith and optimism rooted in reality.

I want us to reflect together on three words that you hear often on campus: “mind, body and spirit.” While these are common words, at times they seem to be expressed as common faith, formulaically and even robotically. For each of these three words, I want to offer reflections, link them to my own personal journey and promise how, together, we will build for Iona a future of “optimism rooted in reality,” the theme of my remarks today.

So first – to the “mind.” As a college, development of the mind is our business. One of my favorite definitions of higher education is “what’s left after you’ve forgotten everything you’ve been taught.” It’s the habits of the mind that remain. Or, as management guru Tom Peters put it, “Victory in the globally brain-based economy will go to the perpetually curious.” That’s why we believe so firmly in the liberal arts as the essential foundation for all that follows in college and in life.

Yet there is much upon which to reflect. Let me ask just three questions.

Question one: Why is it that young children bombard you with a stream of questions but as they grow up the questions dry up?

It’s easy to respond: “Well, they become teenagers and teenagers have all the answers!” But at Iona College, we must ensure that our teaching and learning, our curriculum and extracurricular activities, and what we model daily reawakens the perpetual curiosity and fosters the habits of lifelong learning. To this end, I have asked the Strategic Planning Committee to work with all of you to reexamine our intellectual life at Iona and to make it all that it can be. We are dedicated to excellence and recognize that excellence is in a constant state of emergence. Excellence is not a destination. Excellence is a journey.

Question two: How do we balance preparing students for meaningful careers with preparing them for useful lives?

I chose the term “meaningful careers” consciously. A recent study concluded, disturbingly, that nearly two-thirds of Americans are unhappy with their jobs. Another study concluded that a majority of Americans do not expect to have a better life than their parents. That’s simply un-American! A better life is what my parents wanted for me when they sacrificed to give me a Catholic education. Expectations of a better life are rooted in that essential American characteristic we cannot afford to lose: optimism.

We must ensure that students at Iona College pursue their passions, turn those passions into gainful employment and, like Blessed Edmund Rice, use their career success and time to serve others. New challenges will require us to focus even more on helping our students find meaningful and joyful careers.

The recent passing of Steve Jobs has provided us more cause for reflection. He and his sometimes friend and always competitor Bill Gates pursued their passions, which led them to innovate, create and become incredibly successful – all (arguably) essential parts of the American Dream. Bill Gates is using his wealth for philanthropic purposes, literally improving and changing the world. Steve Jobs, knowing his days could be numbered, called on Stanford students in a powerful commencement address to live every day as if it were their last. We should pay heed.

What else did these two men have in common? They were engaged in intellectual pursuits, yet both were college dropouts. At Iona we are dedicated to helping students innovate and constantly reach beyond their grasp … and to have even more students graduate.

All of this leads to my third question: Is college really worth it?

Only by asking this most fundamental question, encouraging the most rigorous debate and welcoming the most robust dialogue of opposing perspectives will we ever come close to truth. So I ask: Is college worth it?

Consider that recent college graduates have the lowest level of employment and the highest level of debt in modern history. Access and affordability, the hallmarks of American higher education, are at risk in large part because of worldwide economic conditions. And high school graduation rates, college participation rates and student success all are in decline.

Yet I remain optimistic. My optimism is rooted in the reality of our greatest assets: our people and our faith. From our Christian Brothers who truly live a life of service; to our faculty and staff who live the Iona mission; to our students whose energy and creativity inspire us; to our alumni and friends, many of whom have traveled to be with us today. All clearly understand the purpose of Iona College. Look to those on your left and look to your right. Now you understand my optimism.

My personal sense of optimism is rooted deeply in my own journey along the life of the mind. I graduated high school and joined the Navy, which was not necessarily part of the plan for my intellectual development. But like so many of our students, I had to work to afford college. Hour upon hour of marching, standing watch and standing at parade rest forced me to reflect on what I wanted from this life.

My time in the Navy, coupled with childhood experiences, convinced me to pursue psychology as the ultimate lay discipline of the mind and body. Human thinking, human behavior – they’re endlessly fascinating … and another reason for optimism rooted in reality.

On my journey, I found ways to combine my life of the mind with my faith and desire to serve others, which led me to the powerfully named Hope Institute. At Hope we served families affected by autism and life-threatening health conditions, crafted social policy into new laws, conducted research and taught others to do the same.

On every journey sooner or later you must face a fork in the road. The great philosopher Yogi Berra came to a fork in the road …. and took it! I prefer the wisdom of the poet Frost and the Christian Brothers, who took the less traveled road. That road brought my family and me to New Rochelle. As Kelli said, revealing her roots as we passed the Manhattan skyline en route, “Joe, we’re not in Kansas anymore.” (New York City – what a great city, what a great learning lab for our students.)

So now that we are in New Rochelle at Iona College, what is our promise to you about the life of the mind at Iona College?

Promise, by the way, is one of those perfect words with dual meaning: The promise that is part of potential, as in the promise of Iona, and the promise that is a commitment.

My promise is that Iona College will do all within its power to harness the minds of our faculty and staff to ensure that our students are challenged to the limits of their intellectual abilities, and that we unleash their creative, innovative and mind-boggling powers in ways that lead them to successful and fulfilling careers and lives.

That’s the promise of Iona.

At most colleges and universities you would be celebrating by now because the inaugural address would be over with the discussion of the mind. But we are not every college. We are an American Catholic college. We are Iona. We believe also in the “body” and in the “spirit.”

Through training, practicing, teaching and researching the field of psychology, I have come to better understand and appreciate the nexus of mind and body – the interplay and balance of mind and body resulting in emotional and physical health, a productive life and the ability to serve others. In fact, most psychological disorders are measured in part by observable behaviors of the body. The impact of trauma, stress, joy and hope in our lives without question impacts our physical health and, in turn, our physical health will unquestionably impact our emotional health.

Mind and body are two of the three tenets comprising our quality of life. So let us reflect together about how we at Iona connect mind and body.

We must ensure that life outside of the classroom becomes even richer in opportunities for physical and social development. It’s one of the reasons we transitioned into a residential college – to combine living and learning. At the same time, we do not want to lose our history of being there for commuter students. Yet it is not enough just to be there. We must continue to ensure that our commuter students have similar opportunities to learn outside the classroom, to give them a proxy of a residential experience.

We have to ensure our athletes are students first. Based on the data, we are succeeding. Iona student athletes have higher GPAs and graduation rates than their peers. Athletes at Iona become experts at time management and a disciplined approach to their studies. May that continue (and, if we win the Big Dance, well, that would be okay, too).

We also can build on the engagement of our students with our community so that those experiences become even more connected to their academic experiences. We don’t want to be just a good neighbor. We want to be of the community and help community leaders address some of the most pressing challenges of New Rochelle and Westchester County.

We must continue to be a place where the creative arts are fostered and celebrated in even more powerful ways. A place where students can continue to organize clubs or activities that have meaning to them, are consistent with our mission, vision and values, and contribute to their all-important incidental learning.

I believe in the power of place and its role in contemplative learning. New Rochelle may not be the Island of Iona, but Iona’s impeccable buildings and grounds that include some of my favorite sculptures all contribute to an environment that encourages learning.

Can we do more?

Yes. We can make incidental learning even more intentional and even more connected to our academic experience. So that when a student’s body bends to pick up garbage at a local park or high school, as many recently did on the “Walk to the Marriott” event, the mind connects the dots of the greater purpose behind the activity.

There was a time in my life when I could not connect the dots. There was a time in my life when my mind and body were not in synch, when my mind and body were not in balance and would not cooperate; a time I have come to reflect upon and better understand through formal university training and through my faith.

From age 4 to 16 I greatly struggled to communicate my thoughts. While my mind was active my body would not cooperate. I was a severe stutterer. For many of those years I was unable to speak more than two words without severely stammering. In the classroom my thoughts were occupied by fear – fear of being called upon to speak. Consequently, I fell behind because of an inability to ask clarifying questions. My curiosity was diminishing. I fell behind because my mind was occupied by fear. On the playground, social interactions were equally as difficult.

As I grew older my prayers were dominated by requests for relief, for guidance in life and for strength.

As I lay awake at night many thoughts raced through my mind. What was God’s plan for me? What will I do for a living? Are there jobs and hopefully careers that don’t require speaking and interactions with others? Conversely, will this stuttering abate and will I choose a career helping others overcome much greater obstacles? Will I find love as an adult?

Egocentric thought can be of great assistance or great harm. The line is quite thin. I fell prey to such thoughts. My obstacles paled in comparison to others, but at the time were of great importance to me.

To paraphrase the celebrated artist, poet, songwriter and musician, New Jersey’s native son Mr. Jon Bon Jovi, we all dream about movies they won’t make of us when we’re gone. Who was to know that they would make a movie titled “The King’s Speech”? By the way, that was not about me.

Before long I had fallen far behind in most all subjects in school. I was tracked by well-meaning professionals and by seventh grade I was being taught the days of the week.

My parents, with great appreciation for education and faith, quickly realized that this collection of circumstances placed me on a road to a less than desirable destination. Like many parents of Iona alums, they scraped together the resources, chose the road less traveled and sent me to Catholic school – a caring nurturing environment that would help unify and strengthen my mind, body and spirit. My parents’ selfless act provided me the opportunity, the portal and the pathway to a better life, a road leading me to become: the first in the family to attend college; a college student for over 12 years; a psychologist, a professor and ultimately a college president. Only in America.

So you see my personal optimism is indeed rooted in reality.

Our promise is that Iona College will do all that is in its power to provide those activities of the body than can be connected to the life of the mind to create the whole person. We want to be the college of choice for those who seek much more than the mere accumulation of credits from college. That is our promise. That is Iona.

At Iona College we will always operate under what Denis McLaughlin, in his book The Price of Freedom referred to as “the spiritual foundations underpinning an Edmund Rice Education: Presence leading to a respectful sense of the sacred; compassion nurturing authentic community; and, liberation underpinning the provision of education.”

Christ, as the model teacher, demonstrated and lived fully a life of presence, compassion and liberation. Christ was a teacher uniting the mind, body and spirit, the tripartite nexus of American Catholic higher education. In a faith-based college, the spirit is an essential part of the whole person.

As a Catholic and a psychologist, I recognize we often turn to God in times of great sorrow and stress and in times of great success. I witnessed this deeply in our recent recognition and celebration of the lives of Iona graduates who perished on Sept. 11.

However, life largely takes place in between these events. Our health of mind and body coupled with faith ensures our moral, legal and ethical compass is intact. It allows us to navigate life as skilled and ethical decision makers and problem solvers, a central component of the Iona mission. The compass ensures we are forever evolving in our ability to make ethical and skillful decisions supporting a greater world.

University education and faith have helped me to understand the impact of mind, body and spirit on my life. I trained, practiced and taught child psychology, helping children and their families to overcome great obstacles. This life of service results in no financial equity in a company but does result in great equity of mind, body and spirit.

While in the U.S. Navy, I became a field combat minister and a lay Eucharistic minister, helping others, in a small way, find their paths through faith.

I have come to realize, like all of you, that life is a journey impacted and most influenced by our mind, body and spirit.

We will all sin. We will all make mistakes. From time to time our selfishness will get the best of us.

The measure of our character is not the severity or the tally of the challenges we confront, but rather the road we choose, the method in which we manage and confront those challenges, and how we serve on our most difficult days. We had some of those days at Iona recently. But we have rallied, come closer together and will be a stronger College.

My prayers were answered. God had a plan. I chose a life filled with public speaking and human interaction, a life of service. I found love as an adult and I am blessed with a loving family.

My spirit calls me to dream and take action for Iona’s future of transforming lives in the classroom, in the community, in the chapel and on the field.

Our promise, though, is to ensure the foundation of Blessed Edmund Rice and the Christian Brothers remains central to our mission and to our values. To ensure that the Iona experience unifies the mind, body and spirit to help us become skilled decision makers supporting the service of others. And, if along the way, you experience great financial reward, remember, together we are Iona.

They tell a wonderful story about Adlai Stevenson when he was campaigning for the presidency. He was a great orator, so it was no surprise when a lady approached Mr. Stevenson at the end of a stirring speech and said “with more enthusiasm than semantic precision: ‘Mr. Stevenson, that was an absolutely superfluous speech. You should publish it.’ Stevenson responded with a twinkle in his eye, ‘I will ma’am, posthumously.’ Without thought she said, ‘That’s wonderful Mr. Stevenson. The sooner the better.’”

So I think the sooner I finish, the better!

But allow me one final moment of optimism rooted in reality, one final call to service and to action.

Let us, once and for all, leave here today with a renewed commitment to a life of purpose guided by the special gift to us as humans: the power of our minds, coupled with the vitality of our bodies and the generosity of our spirit – all guided by our faith.

We owe this to the legacy of Blessed Edmund Rice and the Christian Brothers. We owe this especially to every student entrusted to us as they pause on their journey of life, to enrich and to be enriched, by their time on our campus, in our midst.

Today, as I accept the medallion, I make you a final promise.

American optimism is not a thought and emotion of the past. It will be profoundly present in every corner of this College: rooted in reality; guided by our mind, bodies and spirits; building on our past, mindful of the present, reaching for a bright future; and always most dependent on our people, our humanity and our faith.

Thank you for granting me the honor and privilege of being the eighth president of Iona College.

Thank you and may God bless you.