College Head Welcome and Tree Planting

On September 7, 2010, Dr. Mike Allcott, Champlain College Head welcomed all new students of Champlain by planting a tree in their honour. If you weren't able to attend, below is the talk he shared with the new students!

Welcome to Trent and welcome to Champlain College.

My academic background is in English Literature and my professional experience has led me to travel and live in more than 20 countries around the world. Both of these things mean that I look for and see meaning in all the different aspects of life. And I think you do, too. Meaning is the value of the things we do, of the friendships we make of the things we learn. The absence of meaning, is well, it’s simply boring. Like going through the motions of a dance that you don’t understand or don’t want to do.

So I wanted to spend this moment of meaning with you, in the hope that we can share a value, not just for this moment, but for the lifespan of this little oak tree. As many of you know, my partner and I were married 6 years ago in this little courtyard of Champlain College, so it has great meaning for me. There was a great willow tree, a love willow, with two trunks entwined in each other right at this spot. Sadly, that tree passed on a few years ago. And that’s one reason I wanted to plant this tree in your honour this week.

This tree was planted for the Trent University and Champlain College class of 2010. That’s you.

And as members of this very special community of learning, we’ll be able to watch the tree grow over the next year or two or three or four (or maybe more). It will be a way for us to measure each other’s growth, witness each other’s progress, and celebrate each other as we grow and become what we’re only brave enough to dream at this point.

Those of us who have a social and environmental consciousness know that planting a tree is an essential act of life and hope. Trees and reforestation not only help to digest the overabundance of Carbon Dioxide produced by our abuse of the earth, they also provide a natural habitat and a healthy diverse ecosystem that helps to sustain other life. Moreover, trees are beautiful: recent studies have showed that people who are able to see trees and their natural environment experience a more peaceful and stress-free life; people who study within sight of trees have higher level of concentration and the ability to focus. As you may know ancient druids found spiritual force in the very existence of trees. And whether you are a spiritual person or a scientific person, maybe there is some actuality in that belief that we have yet to discover.

What do they say about your generation? The first generation to come of age after September 11, 2001. That was a moment that changed the way Americans, but also north Americans thought about our security and being in the world. Your parents may have paid more careful attention to you, to your well-being and to your safety than previous generations.

The researchers call you “Generation Net”, because you have grown up in a world where the internet was not a new phenomenon, but as normal a part of life as milk, maple syrup and MTV.

Researchers say that you have high expectations of University:

That is will truly prepare you for the Future. You trust that university will provide you a safe and supportive environment, in which you will be able to take risks and rise to meaningful challenges. And in which you’ll be able to have a second chance when that risk does not result in success.

You expect university to provide you Mentors. People whose experience you can look up to, and people who can not only help guide you to success, but help connect you to the networks that lead to success.

But you expect those mentors to arise from authentic circumstances—from your real life, not from a competition or one-upsmanship over your peers.

You expect university to challenge you—but not in an environment of merely formulaic tests and exams, but in meaningful challenges. Projects, assignments, opportunities inside and outside the classroom that add to your sense of meaning in life.

Oh, and the researchers say that you expect to have fun. I hope that you will find that Champlain College, the friends you will make here, the mentors you will meet in the authentic day to day life of the college, will meet these lofty expectations of your generation.

There’s another thing that people believe about your generation: They call you Generation O. That’s O for Obama. Social networking, genuine belief that the institutions created by your seniors can be an effective tool for changing the world into the world that you want. That you not only have a social consciousness, but you have the will to participate and the savoir-faire to make things work for you.

We’re planting this tree tonight as a sign of our commitment to each other, to Champlain College. It’s a sign that we will guard and value each other’s expectations, and support each other’s dreams as we grow together over the next years. And we’ll look forward to the moment we can look back with your children when they come to Trent, or that this tree will look back on us from its hundreds of years of life, and appreciate the moment we were at Champlain.

Noranne has a guest book for each of you to sign either tonight, or in the Great Hall throughout the week. I’d like you to put your name there—and if you would, record some word that indicates your dreams or desires for yourself as a member of this community of learning.

Who will you be? Who will you form friendships with? What will you learn? What will you teach? And what will you give to this community? I and the fellows of Champlain look forward to watching you become whomever you will be. Thank you for coming tonight, enjoy your ISW, and welcome the class of 2010 to Champlain College.