Wake to the Dream
One hundred and fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
He hoped to end the American tragedy of white over black.
Fifty years ago this season, an uncommon alliance marched on Washington, DC. They
reviewed the rugged journey since Lincoln. They debated how to fulfill the dream of
equality.
At this moment in 1963, in the sunshine, beside the reflecting pool, many Americans knew
that the color line could be erased now. They knew that my land and your land no longer
had to be at odds.
Too soon, assassination, war, recession, greed, and backlash dimmed the light.
This year, let us thank those members of our campus and community who kept alive the
dream in the late 1960s and 1970s. They made this University as diverse as the assembly
near the reflecting pool in ’63.
The decision to change the system from within was gut-wrenching. Faculty and staff risked
their careers. Students braved arrest, expulsion, and the sacrifice of their dreams so that
that the dream might live.
People were hurt, undeservedly. But as Lincoln said about slavery when re-elected, the
great curse of such offense to God and human nature was the anguish from the lash forever
after.
Today the dream is far from fulfilled, the work not nearly finished.
At CSUN we play a small but still significant part. We know the importance of higher
education in this dream. We know that college access must be navigable. But that is not
sufficient for completion of students’ dreams. Completion also calls for ongoing support
from the University—far different from coddling—and cultivation of responsibility in
students.
Let us, at long last, wake to complete the dream.
Harry Hellenbrand
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
September 2013