Missing the Inauguration

When President-elect George W. Bush is sworn in as our nation's new chief executive tomorrow, millions of Americans will be watching the Inaugural festivities, listening to the Inaugural Address and learning where our new president intends to lead us over the next four years. Unfortunately, however, many Harvard students will not be participating in this national ritual--not because of apathy or poor citizenship, but because they will be taking their final exams. According to the Registrar's final exam schedule, 1,380 Harvard students will be busily filling out blue books during the 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. exam period. Given that the swearing-in ceremony starts at 11:30 a.m., that the Presidential Inauguration is expected to take place at noon and that Bush is expected to speak for no more than 12 minutes--and few, if any, exams begin and end on time--more than one in five undergraduates should expect to miss the address entirely. The Inaugural Parade, which begins at 2 p.m., will be missed by 1,486 students, including those 307 students in Government 1540: "The American Presidency."

The Inaugural Address is not merely one among the many speeches and addresses that are regularly delivered by important public officials. Instead, it is one of the few occasions in American public life when the entire nation's eyes are turned on a single individual--a president at the beginning of a new administration--and students should not be prohibited by their schedules from hearing their President speak.

Granted, the 12-minute oration Bush will deliver tomorrow is unlikely to compare favorably with the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy '40, a former Crimson editor, now inscribed on the pillars of the School of Government--a speech that called a generation of young Americans to public service. But perhaps it will, or perhaps some future President will deliver an Inaugural Address as inspiring as that given in 1961. In that case, how will a generation of Harvard students answer its children when they ask, "Where were you during the 2005 Inaugural?" For Harvard to make them say, "I didn't watch it--I was taking a final for Anthro 128," would be nothing less than a criminal act.

In a way, it is unsurprising that Harvard has chosen not to make an exception in its exam schedules for Inauguration Day. Few University holidays currently mar the efficient academic calendar, and Harvard has remained stalwart in its opposition to the celebration of Patriots Day--a shameful practice for a school that calls Massachusetts home. Yet no matter how busy the students, professors and administrators of Harvard may be, if the University can spare a day every February to remember the great presidents of the past, it can take time once every four years to celebrate the potential of the next administration, to listen to the vision of those serving in our nation's highest office.

Time was, Harvard sought to teach virtue as well as knowledge. During the great World Wars that marked this century, students were urged by the administration to go and fight--in 1919, classwork went ignored as Harvard students were called to the front lines and served their community valiantly as scabs in the Boston police strike. Yet the Harvard of 2001 would never call for participation on the part of students in the life of the community if such participation would interfere with academic commitments. Students today spend much of their time encased in what has been called the "Harvard Bubble": blissfully unaware of what goes on beyond the gates of the Yard, we are too busy writing our essays, finishing our problem sets or synthesizing our proteins to pay attention to affairs in the "real world." Ending the scheduling of final exams on Inauguration Day would help break this cycle, by taking time out from the most hectic period of the academic year--when the student consciousness is dominated by seemingly all-important tests--to mark the truly important changes in our national life.

The recognition of Inauguration Day as a University holiday would not only reaffirm the central importance of the political process, but would also make a statement of faith in the students against cynical arguments that apathetic youth would fail to use the day in the spirit in which it is intended. If students are to be made good citizens as well as scholars, they must be trusted to make the most of Inauguration Day--not denied the opportunity to watch and listen lest some of their classmates choose to waste their new-found freedom. A day to be written in the history books should not be spent writing in blue books instead.

Tomorrow comes too soon, and the next inauguration too late, for any current undergraduate to benefit from such a change. But that does not relieve Harvard of the responsibility to send its students the proper message about participation in the political life of the community. The purposes of education are not fulfilled by locking the door of the ivory tower and ignoring what goes on outside.