What is it that unifies our common enterprise here at Santa Clara? What makes it a common enterprise? We live in a pluralistic society and such a question is therefore hard to respond to with any assurance. Any attempt at unity is difficult: we've been struggling with it at least since Plato first tried to figure out how the many and varied aspects of reality proceeded from one source.

But I think it's a good question, and we ought always to be searching for the answer. There are, of course, various ways of answering it. We can talk about the ultimate goal of our university: service to society. We can talk about how we all participate in the means toward that goal: the struggle for understanding and the importance that love plays in our relationships with one another and with our students. We can talk about the element in that goal that is unique to a university: our common search for wisdom. And we can talk about how wisdom leads all of us toward justice - that, as a matter of fact, the educated, liberated mind is a mind that of its nature demands justice.